Optimization of container stowage in a yard block using a genetic algorithm

Abstract

One indicator for efficient management in a port is the time spent by a ship in the port quays. The time allowed for loading-unloading into a specialized quay is mentioned in the management contract. Because the cost of the overtime is very high, it is very important to have a special plan to unload the container ship in a short time. Given the number of containers to be unloaded from a vessel and the initial state (in regards of number of slots) of a block, the genetic algorithm that we propose in this paper finds the plan of container stacking in the block, whilst the objective function is to minimize summation of handling time of yard crane in placing the containers in the available storage cells of the stacking area. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through several sets of tests on control parameters of the algorithm.