Design and implementation of a visual monitoring system to ensure safety in the water surrounding a container vessel

Container vessels navigate among the world's ports, frequently passing through narrow and congested waters. Due to the many layers of containers on a container vessel's decks, it is difficult for the crew to be aware of all fishing vessels and other obstacles in a container vessel's radar observation blind zone. This greatly increases the risk of collisions and other accidents. Given such great challenges to safe navigation and safety management with container vessels, their security risks are severe. An effective visual monitoring system can improve the safety of the water area surrounding container vessel by eliminating a vessel's observation blind zone, providing an effective safety measure for vessels navigating fishing zones and other troublesome areas. The system has other functions, such as accident recording, ship security, and monitoring of loading and unloading operations, thus ensuring the ship operates safely. Six months' trial operation showed that the system facilitates safe navigation of container vessels.     

集装箱岸边起重机吊具防过倾安全保护系统的研制

随着新的集装箱码头不断建成，大量新培养桥吊司机上岗作业。由于技术不熟练导致操作失误、安全事故频发。针对该问题，从事故的预防出发，研制了监测吊具倾斜和桥吊起升安全保护系统，保障码头关键设备处于良好安全的运行状态。     

Modelling and optimisation of online container stacking with operational constraints

Container transportation plays a critical role in the global shipping network and container terminals need to improve their operations to increase efficiency. Storage yard of a container terminal is a temporary area where the containers stay until they are shipped to their next destination. We concentrate on increasing the efficiency of the storage yard by developing online stacking policies for each incoming container. An unproductive move of a container, performed to reach another container stored underneath, is called reshuffling. The objective in container stacking problem is to minimise the number of reshuffles, thereby increasing the efficiency of terminal operations. Additional weight-related operational constraints bring additional complexity to the online stacking decisions. We propose a mathematical model for the optimal online assignment of an incoming export, transit, import or empty container. We also propose an optimal online stacking policy and compare it with a random policy through simulation. Additionally, lower bounds for the performance measures are obtained through simulation by relaxing the operational constraints of the problem in a third stacking policy. We present and discuss the computational results in terms of four main performance measures.     

International container design regulations and ISO standards: are they fit for purpose?

Increasing stack heights on container ships and growing volumes of high density cargo have increased the loads and stresses placed on containers, requiring an assessment of current container strength specifications. Growing adoption of terminal automation is also requiring greater standardisation in the codification and marking of containers. However, it is shown that there is widespread misunderstanding of the roles of the IMO and the ISO in regulating and promoting standards in the design, dimensions, ratings, coding, marking and strength of containers. In this paper the legal status of the IMO’s Convention for Safe Containers (CSC) and ISO standards is clarified, and a common container specification framework is developed to assess the extent to which international regulations and standards are aligned. The analysis identifies gaps and inconsistencies between regulations and standards and assesses the impact these have on operations and safety. The study highlights to policy makers anomalies arising from the recent inclusion in the CSC of direct references to ISO standards. Finally, in providing a comprehensive definition of container specifications the paper provides a knowledge base to promote theory building for applied researchers in the field of container technology and operations.     

Traffic impact analysis of inspection area site selection at a foreign trade container terminal

ABSTRACT

To improve the security and efficiency of terminal operations, a key issue for land area layout at a foreign trade container terminal is to plan and design an inspection area. Since it directly affects terminal traffic, while determining inspection area site selection, we should pay a great attention to operations and management of terminal traffic as well as container inspection. This paper employs a system decomposition technique to develop an integrated simulation framework, which enables us to flexibly obtain the whole picture of terminal traffic conditions and evaluate traffic impacts of inspection area site selection. A real-world terminal with typical patterns of land area layout is chosen to carry out a case study, which shows that traffic flow is unevenly distributed on the terminal road network and that the distribution is influenced by truck streams at the terminal. New findings also include: (1) traffic volume at the terminal apron is rather unbalanced in association with the non-continuous utilization of berths; (2) a proper inspection area should be located near the gate if the terminal conditions permit from the perspective of terminal traffic. This work may provide a decision-making reference for the planning and construction of foreign trade container terminals.     

天津港7号、8号泊位改造工程原挡土结构安全性评估

天津港 7号、8号泊位将由件杂货码头改造为集装箱码头 ,改造后码头工艺荷载发生了变化 ,文中对码头改造后挡土结构在新工艺载作用下的安全性进行了评估 ,并提出了适应新的集装箱工艺荷载的工程措施     

Container terminal employees’ perceptions of the effects of sustainable supply chain management on sustainability performance

ABSTRACT

Sustainability has become an important issue in container terminal operations. However, relatively little research has been conducted to assess its association with sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). In this study, SSCM consists of internal sustainability practices and external sustainability collaboration. We empirically examined the effects of internal sustainability practices and external sustainability collaboration on sustainability performance in container terminal operations at the Port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. We developed a model adopting the SSCM construct, which consisted of two dimensions: internal sustainability practices and external sustainability collaboration. Several research hypotheses were formulated from the theory and the hypotheses were tested using survey data collected from 141 employees who worked with container terminals. We found that internal sustainability practices and external sustainability collaboration positively affected sustainability performance, whereas external sustainability collaboration had a positive influence on internal sustainability practices. There is a discussion of the implications of these findings for developing sustainability and improving sustainability performance in container terminals and ports.     

基于模拟减少集装箱船待港时间的实用方法(英文)

The main challenge for container ports is the planning required for berthing container ships while docked in port.Growth of containerization is creating problems for ports and container terminals as they reach their capacity limits of various resources which increasingly leads to traffic and port congestion.Good planning and management of container terminal operations reduces waiting time for liner ships.Reducing the waiting time improves the terminal’s productivity and decreases the port difficulties.Two important keys to reducing waiting time with berth allocation are determining suitable access channel depths and increasing the number of berths which in this paper are studied and analyzed as practical solutions.Simulation based analysis is the only way to understand how various resources interact with each other and how they are affected in the berthing time of ships.We used the Enterprise Dynamics software to produce simulation models due to the complexity and nature of the problems.We further present case study for berth allocation simulation of the biggest container terminal in Iran and the optimum access channel depth and the number of berths are obtained from simulation results.The results show a significant reduction in the waiting time for container ships and can be useful for major functions in operations and development of container ship terminals.     

偏好泊位约束下的集装箱港口离散泊位分配问题*

在集装箱码头中,泊位调度系统是影响码头作业调度的重要环节,而泊位分配问题又是其首要问题。为了揭示 泊位偏好对泊位分配问题的影响,重点从集装箱码头泊位分配问题和基于船舶泊位偏好问题两方面展开研究,为对泊位分 配和泊位偏好进行协同优化配置,建立泊位偏好约束下的多目标混合整数数学模型。并且采用CPLEX进行求解。通过算例 说明模型的有效性,并通过实验分析船舶对泊位的偏好的影响。结果对港口具有的实际应用价值,拓展了对离散型靠泊计 划的研究。     

无线传感器网络的安全性分析

由于传感器网络与一些敏感数据进行交互,且有可能在敌方无法监控的环境下进行操作,所以当务之急是在系统设计的之初来考虑这些安全隐患。但是,由于其本身的资源和计算能力的限制,传感器网络安全比传统计算机网络安全更具挑战性。目前,在无线传感器网络安全领域有巨大的研究潜力。文章关注的方向是在无线传感器网络安全、当前脆弱性研究和传感器安全的需求。     

集装箱物流全程实时在线监控系统

随着集装箱运输的蓬勃发展,其运输的信息化水平以及安全性引起了各界的广泛关注。介绍上海港开展的"集装箱物流全程实时在线监控系统"及其在中美集装箱航线上的应用示范。这一阶段性的研究成果为增强集装箱运输过程中的安全性和透明性提供了一种解决方案,真正做到了实时采集、实时追踪和实时管理。     

低碳型集装箱港区港内道路规划方案优选

合理的港内道路路网结构及交通组织是集装箱港口作业效率提升以及节能减排的重要保证。提出利用集装箱港区生产作业智能体微观交通仿真模型模拟集装箱生产作业流程,并以集装箱港口服务水平和集卡日均碳排放成本作为指标,优选低碳型集装箱港区港内道路规划方案。应用实例表明,集装箱港区生产作业智能体微观交通仿真模型可有效模拟港内作业过程,通过对比分析不同道路规划方案下的评价指标,得到最优的港内道路规划方案,为港区道路规划与设计提供参考。     

Empirical studies on yard operations Part 2: Quantifying unproductive moves undertaken in quay transfer operations

The impact of higher container stacking on yard operations has been treated as one of the major factors influencing the efficiency of terminal operations. For terminal operators who have to increase their storage capacity by way of higher container stacking, the consequences must be carefully measured. This paper examines the unproductive container movements undertaken in one high throughput terminal with high land productivity, and provides an example of how terminal operator handles the yard operations and the possible impact on areas of operation.     

Empirical studies on yard operations Part 2: Quantifying unproductive moves undertaken in quay transfer operations

The impact of higher container stacking on yard operations has been treated as one of the major factors influencing the efficiency of terminal operations. For terminal operators who have to increase their storage capacity by way of higher container stacking, the consequences must be carefully measured. This paper examines the unproductive container movements undertaken in one high throughput terminal with high land productivity, and provides an example of how terminal operator handles the yard operations and the possible impact on areas of operation.     

U.S. import/export container flow modeling and disruption analysis

International containerized freight movement is a vital part of the supply chain for many companies, and a critical element of moving consumer goods to points of retail sale within the U.S. Containerized imports also present a clear security concern (e.g., terrorists attempting to ship “dirty bombs,” chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons, into the U.S. in a shipping container). The goal of the research presented here is to create a modeling tool for analyzing flows of U.S. imports and exports of containerized freight, and the potential changes in those flows under a variety of conditions (e.g., port disruptions, extensive security-related delays, etc.). Our focus is on movements through maritime container ports, and not overland movements between the U.S. and Canada or Mexico.The network model, referred to as the System for Import/Export Routing and Recovery Analysis (SIERRA), represents container movements between the U.S. and 46 other countries that account for the vast majority of U.S. imports and exports. The SIERRA model is a network equilibrium model that predicts flows between foreign countries and North American ports, the total volumes handled (import and export) by each port, the modal volumes (truck and rail) moving domestically into and out of each port, and volumes between each port and a set of transportation analysis zones within the U.S.     

Yard operations in the container terminal-a study in the 'unproductive moves'

Research that examined the land utilization of the container terminals in a global perspective revealed that the land utilization planned and achieved by Asian container terminals are much higher than the terminals in western Europe and North America. From the operational point of view, this has led to the question: 'what are the impacts of these strategies in land utilization on the yard operations?' This has subsequently led the research study to focus on the yard operations within the container terminal.     

集卡调度方式对集装箱港区碳排放的影响

集卡已成为集装箱港区内的主要碳排放源,尤其两艘大型集装箱船舶同时作业时,港区内集卡碳排放问题严重。针对该情况下集卡调度模式的特征,基于智能体仿真技术构建集装箱码头生产作业微观仿真模型,定量分析传统先卸后装、双船一装一卸、同贝同步装卸工艺下集卡调度方式与集卡配置数量对船舶在港时间、集卡碳排放量的影响。实例表明,采用同贝同步装卸作业方案可保证装卸效率,并有效减少集卡碳排放,而集卡配置数量只对集卡怠速行驶产生的碳排产生影响。     

Examining the influence of firm performance on business risk-taking and the mediation effect of scale of operations in the container terminal industry

Container shipping and its related service sectors help accelerate globalization of the world economy. This industry has been experiencing rapid growth, prompting container terminal operators to increase their handling capacity in response. Providing container terminal services requires substantial capital investment in physical assets such as cargo handling facilities and information systems. On the other hand, operating container terminals is a long-term investment that typically spans several business cycles. Hence prudent asset management using appropriate tools is critical for container terminal operators to sustain their businesses. Generally, due to risk-adverseness, investors are unwilling to take more risk in their investment unless they can reap a higher return. Contrary to this argument, this study finds no direct influence of better firm performance as a proxy of higher return on business risk-taking by container terminal operators. Instead, scale of operations is positively associated with business risk-taking, suggesting that container terminal operators with a larger scale of operations are willing to take more business risk.     

Book reviews

We show in this paper that the throughput data for the top 300 container ports reported each year by the various authorities follows a simple truncated lognormal distribution. This surprising phenomenon repeats itself every year from 1982 to 2006, despite many tumultuous changes in the container shipping world. The empirical data suggests that Gibrat's Law of proportionate growth indeed holds for the world container throughput data. Unfortunately, the classical stochastic growth model and other variants often used to explain the origin of this law appears to be too simplistic for the container terminal industry. We use instead the perspective that the container terminal throughput data are essentially an aggregate measure of the number of visitations as each container circulates on the world shipping network, and use this to propose a Markov chain based container circulation model to explain the origin of this phenomenon. Simulation results show that our network-based model is able to replicate the behavior of the empirical data to a reasonable degree of accuracy, and does not contradict the law of proportionate growth. More importantly, this model is able to replicate the relationship between the degree of connectivity of a port (i.e. number of linkages with other ports) and its association with the container throughput data, an empirical regularity which could not be explained using classical approaches.     

Labour/management relations in North American ports

Labour/management practices in North American ports are undergoing fundamental changes in their shift from confrontation to Cooperation. Cooperation is increasing to counter competitive threats from other ports arising from intermodalism and transportation deregulation. Technological advances in port operations are reducing the number of longshore forces required and changing the skills required of those which remain. A recent survey of North American container terminals provided a 'snapshot' of current approaches of improving labour/management relations. Focusing on growth and development needs of individual port workers enhances morale and motivation resulting in environment. Many ports are introducing new management techniques including improved communications and training to enhance the motivation and productivity of their longshore forces.