Optimal berth allocation, time-variant quay crane assignment and scheduling with crane setups in container terminals

We focus on the integrated seaside operations in container terminals, namely the integration of berth allocation, quay crane assignment and quay crane scheduling problems. We first develope a mixed-integer linear programming formulation. Then, we propose an efficient cutting plane algorithm based on a decomposition scheme. Our approach deals with berthing positions of the vessels and their assigned number of cranes in each time period in a master problem, and seeks the corresponding optimal crane schedule by solving a subproblem. Our computational study shows that our new formulation and proposed solution method yield optimal solutions for realistic sized instances with up to sixty vessels.