A decomposition-heuristic-rule-enabled decision-making system for dynamic quay crane allocation and scheduling

The Quay Crane Scheduling Problem (QCSP) plays an important role in the container terminal operation. In order to develop an effective QCSP model, in this study, the QCSP is decomposed into two sub-problems, i.e., the QC-allocation and QC-scheduling levels. By defining precedence constraints and heuristic rules, dynamic decisions were then made between ships and within a ship. An example of a specific container terminal was applied to validate the dynamic QC allocation and scheduling strategy. It was also revealed from the experimental results that the strategy possessed such properties as automated scheming, low memory occupation and user-friendly interfacing, viz., the operation efficiency, stability and practicality outperformed the existing mode. Therefore, this approach has been proven effective and pragmatic in automated operation and decision-making.