Operation planning for maritime empty container repositioning

Abstract

One of the challenges that liner operators face today is to effectively operate empty containers to meet demands and to reduce inefficiency. In this study, we develop a decision support tool to help the liner operator in managing the maritime empty container repositioning efficiently. This tool considers the actual operations and constraints of the problems faced by the liner operator and uses mathematical programming approaches to solve it. We present a case study, which considers 49 ports and 44services.We also compare our proposed model with a simple rule, which attempts to mimic the actual operation of a shipping liner. The numerical results show that the proposed model is promising. Moreover, our model is able to identify potential transshipment hubs for intra-Asia empty container transportation. © International Journal of Industrial Engineering.