Quay Transfer Operation Analysis for a Container Terminal

A lot of studies focused on quay transfer operation efficiency. It emphasized on increasing the handling rate and improving the performance by mathematical, modeling or empirical study. Therefore, this study aimed to study delay factors of quay transfer operation in a container terminal, which affected the productivity performance. It tried to overcome the shortcoming of previous studies. Quay transfer operation is one of the operation systems in container terminal, which is affected by many factors and also affected other operations. The delays of the operation will slow down the handling performance and increase the handling time and cost. Hence, an extensive observation and survey activities were done in Malaysian container terminal. The data was obtained from relevant respondents that are involved in the operation. The initial result showed that waiting for prime mover ‘often’ occurred on quay transfer operation. Delay of quay crane and prime mover break downs ‘moderately’ delay the operations. However, waiting for game plan ‘seldom’ affected the operation. Therefore, this study concluded that the handling equipment is the main cause of delay in quay transfer operation in a container terminal.