Xiamen's berth model plans cranes, fairways and safety together

Xiamen Hai-Tian Container Terminal at the Port of Xiamen had to allocate berths, assign quay cranes, control fairway traffic and respect berthing safety every day. Treating these separately created plans that were hard to execute safely.

Researchers formulated daily berth planning as a 0-1 integer linear program that integrates berth allocation, quay crane assignment, fairway traffic control and a novel berthing-safety requirement. A highly efficient decomposition heuristic solves the model fast enough for daily use.

The mathematical framework became the core of a berth planning system adopted at the terminal. It transformed the planning process and contributed to increased container throughput and berth capacity.