A Study on Improving the Efficiency of Container Operation and Functional Assessment of Oversea Container Terminals

More than 80% of the material movements, except raw materials, between Japan and its trading partners are conducted today in the containerized mode. In recent years, the marine transportation sector has been undergoing very rapid and multifarious changes, due to the alliances between shipping companies, introduction of larger ships as a cost reduction measure and the application of integrated logistics to satisfy the needs of customers. However, many shipping companies tend to avoid calling at Japan's ports due to the inadequate terminal facilities and other services, insufficient channel depth, inefficient handling and the high cost of port fees and dues. In the first report, we presented an evaluation method of the container handling efficiency of terminals conducted by a Petri net model of the container terminal operations for numerical simulations. In this paper, a high-density system for integrated container handling at a next generation terminal is proposed for solving those defective points and a practical simulation is attempted using the evaluation method presented in the first report. Further evaluation on the possibility of a high-density system for integrated container handling is attempted by the evaluation-decision model based upon multi-criteria objectives.