Collaborative Optimization of Yard Crane Deployment and Inbound Truck Arrivals with Vessel-Dependent Time Windows

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

A Mixed-Integer Bilevel Programming model (MIBPM) to optimize the vessel-dependent time windows for trucks and yard cranes (YC) deployment simultaneously at a container terminal (CT) in port is presented. Using MIBPM, the upper level aims to minimize the total truck waiting time at the main gate and yard, whilst the lower level is formulated to minimize the total workload overflow to the next shift in the whole container yard (CY). The optimal YC deployment obtained in the lower level is transferred to the upper level problem to determine the waiting time of trucks in the CY and then affect the truck arrivals pattern.

A hybrid genetic algorithm is used to solve MIBPM.

The experiments are conducted at an anonymous CT.

 

It seems that the modelling process is done correctly with a lot of assumptions, indices and variables. The same is with solving procedures of MIBPM.

 

In any case, some things need to be improved.

1. Please explain why Delivery Truck in the Title of Manuscript; Is it an inbound truck? Delivery truck is not common for CT.

2. Please describe in detail RTGCs as Yard/Terminal Crane according to its operations.

3. Is it Terminal Yard or Container Yard? Please describe in detail operations inside CY.

4. Please tell a couple of words more about Vessel-Dependent Time Windows (VDTWs).

5. In line 321 of page 8 service time of queue write in italic, ect..

6. It would be better for ''a hybrid genetic algorithm based on collective decision optimization (HGACDO)'' write HGA-CDO.

7. Is ''Z1'' on Figure 1 correctly written?

8. Figures 11a and 11b should be much bigger, while Legends much lesser.

 

9. Some of the abbreviations in the first row of Table 2 are not correctly written according to paragraph above Table 2.

10. Please have a look on Figure 14 and check all notations, K, H and Z1. Generally H should be better explained in the whole manuscript.

11. The first sentence of page 10 (lines 349-350) should be rewritten.

According to the aforementioned, I request a minor revision of this manuscript.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is very well written. The topic is certainly interesting and timely. The methodology is sound. Results are ok.

Yet, a major revision is needed to address all bullets:

1) In the input dataset, what is the occupancy of the yard? More sensitivity analysis can be applied on alternative input parameters.

2) In the paper, there is a mathematical model. However, optimality gap, lower and upper bound performances of the model is not discussed.

3) The optimality gap performance of your heuristic is also missing. These should be reported and discussed. If model cannot be solved practically, heuristic can be compared to a lower bound.

4) Line 222, are periods hours or shifts? It can be clarified in the paper.

5) Line 232, is N in days? If so, on line 239, the use of N (24*N) does not reflect correct hours, a better explanation is needed. 

6) On line 302, an approximation is used. What kind of queuing system does it apply to? It can be explicitly mentioned.

7) Following studies plan container loading sequence planning considering vessel and truck related activities. I encourage authors to read and cite following studies:

2018. Flexible ship loading problem with transfer vehicle assignment and scheduling. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 111, pp.113-134.

2020. The stochastic container relocation problem with flexible service policies. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 141, pp.116-163.

8) Reference [7] seems irrelevant for container terminals. you can replace it with following references:

2015. Integrated berth allocation and quay crane assignment problem: Set partitioning models and computational results. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 81, pp.75-97.

2019. Recoverable robustness in weekly berth and quay crane planning. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 122, pp.365-389.

9) In the assumption section, you can acknowledge that determining vessel time windows is a function of berth allocation problem which is not considered in this paper. Interested readers can be referred to:

2017. Improved formulations and an adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for the integrated berth allocation and quay crane assignment problem. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 105, pp.123-147.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

My detailed comments are well addressed.