Simulating port logistics operations using 3 D visualization technology

Ports are one of transportation’s logistic components crucial to supporting international trade and economic growth. Increasing at an average annual rate of 16%, the Port of Savannah has been America’s fastest-growing port since 2001. Because of this rapid growth, there is a need to develop a cost-effective means to explore and evaluate new productivity improvement alternatives (e.g. a facility capacity increase) before they are implemented. This paper presents a low-level, detailed, 3D simulation model that was developed to simulate the Port of Savannah’s berth operation and evaluate the productivity. The actual layout, traffic management, and operation flow in Berth 8 of the Port of Savannah were used to evaluate the impact of the quay crane's capacity on berth productivity. One of the values of using 3D visualization in this study is to provide better visibility on the operation flow for identifying the processes to be improved. For example, the idle quay crane can be easily identified visually in a 3D simulation. It also identifies any bottlenecks that may be caused by insufficient resources, such as jockey trucks. The 3D simulation model determines the amount of resources required to minimize the quay crane idleness and maximize berth productivity. Results show that the developed 3D simulation model can effectively evaluate the impact of the quay crane on berth productivity and determine the amount of resources needed for achieving the desired berth productivity improvements.