As ports are experiencing heavier traffic, the pressure to improve port call processes is increasing. Port call optimization (PCO) is one of these improvement initiatives, enabling the arrival of vessels to the port just-in-time when the vessel services, like pilotage, towage, and mooring, are all readily available. Otherwise, vessels that sailed at full speed to arrive at the port may have to wait, idling at anchorage, occupying space, burning fuel, and leading to increased congestion. One of the main challenges in the implementation of PCO is determining the time at which availability of these services can be guaranteed. The paper addresses this challenge by presenting a model that jointly schedules vessels and service providers. It extends the current approaches to allow application to larger and busier ports, where repositioning times for pilots and tugboats is highly variable and vessels experience waiting times between services. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming one and is modelled in continuous time. We test alternative scheduling strategies using three different objective functions, based on the current ‘first-come-first-serve’ approach, a minimal level of service, and the best capacity utilization. The model is applied on data made available by the Port of Rotterdam, and it provides a full-service schedule for vessels and service providers. ... Read more

The emergence of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) for freight transport in recent times has created interest among practitioners and researchers to extend freight ITS to support broader logistics processes, including dynamic tour scheduling, loading and unloading, warehousing, and even production. However, connecting transport data, ITS and logistics information systems require collaboration between different organizations and new business models to create business value for logistics actors. It is critical for these stakeholders to consider how their business models connect to create meaningful new data-to-information value chains. This study develops a conceptual framework to identify opportunities for logistics value creation with freight transport data. Building on the literature we construct a framework that reconciles multi-firm and firm-level business modelling. The main component is a generalized framework for Data-to-Value (DtV) chains for applications in information and communications technology. In order to support its business validity, we extend this framework with Business Model Canvases (BMCs) of the actors in the value chain. Three real-life use cases from a freight ITS community in the Netherlands are used to evaluate and illustrate the framework. ... Read more

Cooperation between vessel service providers can improve the performance of ports. However, the potential impact of such cooperation has not yet been quantitatively addressed in the literature. We present an assessment using a port simulation model where the exchange of information has been made explicit. Cooperation is modelled as information exchange between the pilotage and towage service providers for the deployment of pilots and tugboats. A first application of the model is shown for the case of Port of Rotterdam. We find that time savings of up to 30% in waiting times can be achieved, while both service providers improve their performance. These findings provide empirical confirmation of the expected benefits of cooperation in ports as voiced in the literature. Furthermore, the results underscore the importance of moving beyond an ad-hoc synchronizations of these services towards systematic cooperation, to the benefit of ports as well as the service providers. ... Read more

Traffic congestion is uncertain and undesirable in logistics and leads to arrival uncertainty at downstream locations engendering disruptions. This paper considers a loading facility that uses Truck Appointment System (TAS) for slot management and faces incoming truck arrival uncertainty due to traffic congestion. Due to the recent advancements in cyber-physical systems, we propose an adaptive system that uses the real-time truck Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) data to make informed decisions. We develop an integer mathematical model to represent the adaptive behavior that determines the optimal reschedules by minimizing the average truck waiting time. We developed a simulation model of the adaptive system and reported the estimated benefits from our initial experiments. ... Read more

Due to the uncertain and dynamic environment around scheduling systems, timely revisions or reschedules of the master plans are essential for achieving optimal utilization. With the recent development of Industry 4.0 technologies, many researchers perceive the creation of cyber-physical systems as a solution for managing systems under uncertainty. This article focuses on a loading facility under uncertain truck arrivals due to road congestion and proposes utilizing real-time truck location information to improve performance. We do this by developing an integrated system consisting of a predictive model using machine learning (MC) classifiers and a mathematical model for real-time slot rescheduling. The ML classifier is used to predict the presence probabilities of all the incoming trucks at a particular slot based on the historical traffic data and the real-time truck location. Subsequently, a Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) model is developed to solve a Probabilistic Slot Rescheduling Problem (P-SRP), which uses the estimated truck presence probabilities and minimizes the total expected cost of rescheduling. We implemented this by first testing multiple ML classifiers and selected the ANN classifier for prediction as it outperformed others. Our limited experiments showed that the proposed method reduced the total rescheduling cost by 42%. Furthermore, our sensitivity analysis with different congestion levels, complexity, and rescheduling strategy also showed the practicality of the proposed approach. ... Read more