Block Layout Design Problem for Marine Container Terminals

This study addresses the block layout problem that contributes to allocate the driving lanes (defined as the paths) within available yard space, in order to optimize the block size consisting multiple containers in a container terminal with an arbitrary configuration. This container block layout problem is positioned as one of the application study in the facility layout problem. A mixed-integer programming (MIP) model is developed to characterize this problem. From the computational results, the optimal location of paths has a tendency to be same interval in a rectangular yard configuration. The proposed model can reproduce the current situation of path positioning.