To support the planning and construction process of a new container terminal, the aim of the research subproject is to build a simulation suite which enables the modeling and simulation of material and information flows in a container terminal.
The research project 'planning of intermodal container terminals with simulation and operations research' takes place in cooperation with the Mindener Hafen GmbH and is a subproject of the research cluster 'harbour cluster at the Mittellandkanal' within the competition 'Logistik.NRW' founded by the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry for Economy, Energy, Building and Traffic and co-founded by the operational program 'Regionale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Beschäftigung' of the European Founds for Regional Development (EFRE).
Indicated by current growth rates in sea port container terminals, operators are forced to ship more containers faster to the hinterland to remain capable of handling and storing containers in the future. Due to this the trimodal inland port container terminal located in the industrial port of Minden in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is predicted to reach its handling capacity in the year 2013. Therefore, a new container terminal should be built in Minden. To support the planning and construction process, the aim of the research subproject is to build a simulation suite which enables the modeling and simulation of material and information flows in a container terminal. All handling and control processes of the terminal should be modeled and parameterized. Thus, it enables to improve the planning process as well as the operation of the terminal and allows a quantitative analysis of terminal performance. For this purpose, we have chosen the simulation software ED Transport and ED Logistics from INCONTROL Simulation Solutions. This simulation software provides the opportunity to adjust existing atoms to our requirements as well as building new container terminal specific atoms.
In the beginning of the project, processes, operational and control strategies as well as system load data were analyzed. According to the results, we developed a reference model and alternate operational and control strategies for the gate, loading point allocation and handling equipment. Afterwards we build the simulation suite. Furthermore, we validated the simulation suite based on different test scenarios with varying system load data sets and layout variations. In the last step we are now analyzing different test scenarios to find an optimal bundle of operational and control strategies for each of them with the help of key performance indicators.
The developed simulation suite contains all necessary components to map the handling processes of a container terminal. The system boundaries of the simulation suite are the transition to the terminal estate (e.g.: the gate-way from the street to the parking area, the loading track) on the landside and the quay on the seaside. In addition, the simulation suite provides streets, rail- and waterways to model the way of the vehicles to the terminal, but operational and controlling strategies only affect elements inside the system boundaries. It is possible to map the handling processes of every inbound and outbound container. Vehicles are created by different vehicle generators for each means of transportation. The input tables of the generators are prepared real time data or tables created by a data generator. Handlings are possible with cranes and transporters and a central control element improves control strategies regarding the layout of the yard, loading point allocations and human resource decisions.
Concluding, a container terminal specific simulation suite was developed which leads to the result that an optimal bundle of operational and control strategies for different layout scenarios of the new container terminal in Minden could be identified. This container terminal is used as a reference study and the simulation suite can be applied on every other container terminal. It enables the analysis of various system loads as well as operational and control strategies to support terminal planning and operations on the one hand and research on terminal efficiency on the other hand.
Contact
Institute of Transport Logistics, TU Dortmund University
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Partner
Mindener Hafen GmbH
