icccbe

2010
NottinghamUniversityPress
ProceedingsoftheInternationalConferenceon
ComputinginCivilandBuildingEngineering
WTizani(Editor)


Abstract
Ports are one of transportations logistic components crucial to supporting international trade and
economic growth. Increasing at an average annual rate of 16%, the Port of Savannah has been
Americas fastest-growing port since 2001. Because of this rapid growth, there is a need to develop a
cost-effective means to explore and evaluate new productivity improvement alternatives (e.g. a
facility capacity increase) before they are implemented. This paper presents a low-level, detailed, 3D
simulation model that was developed to simulate the Port of Savannahs berth operation and evaluate
the productivity. The actual layout, traffic management, and operation flow in Berth 8 of the Port of
Savannah were used to evaluate the impact of the quay crane's capacity on berth productivity. One of
the values of using 3D visualization in this study is to provide better visibility on the operation flow
for identifying the processes to be improved. For example, the idle quay crane can be easily identified
visually in a 3D simulation. It also identifies any bottlenecks that may be caused by insufficient
resources, such as jockey trucks. The 3D simulation model determines the amount of resources
required to minimize the quay crane idleness and maximize berth productivity. Results show that the
developed 3D simulation model can effectively evaluate the impact of the quay crane on berth
productivity and determine the amount of resources needed for achieving the desired berth
productivity improvements.
Keywords: container-terminal operations, 3D simulation.
1 Introduction
Ports are one of transportations logistic components crucial to supporting international trade and
economic growth. In the United States (U.S.) business logistics costs were $1,305 billion in 2006.
During this same year U.S. ports handled 2.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), an 8%
increase from the previous year and 30% increase over the past three years. The Port of Savannah is a
major seaport in the U.S. It is operated by the Georgia Ports Authority. Between 2000 and 2005, the
Port of Savannah was the fastest growing seaport in the U.S. During this period, while the national
average annual growth rate was 9.7 %, the Port of Savannah grew at an average rate of 16.5%. Also
the Port of Savannah handled more than 2.3 million TEUs of container traffic in 2007, making
Savannah the fourth-busiest and fastest-growing container terminal in the U.S.
As a result of this rapid growth, there is a need to develop a cost-effective means to explore and
evaluate new alternatives for increasing productivity (e.g. facility capacity increase) before
Simulating port logistics operations using 3D visualization technology

Yichang (James) Tsai & Chengbo Ai & Yiching Wu
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Page Siplon
Center of Innovation for Logistics, USA




implementing them. Because port operations are complex, simulation technology is a good means to
evaluate the impact of different changes on the performance of the container terminal. This paper
presents a low-level, detailed, 3D, container terminal simulation model based on FlexSim CT, a
commercial container terminal simulation package. The actual layout, traffic management, and
operation flow in Berth 8 of the Port of Savannah were used to evaluate the impact of increasing
facility capacity to improve berth productivity. While other studies using container terminal
simulation are carried out by modeling with a rather high level of detail in general, our model focuses
on reproducing every detail of container-terminal equipment behavior, including the movements of
Jockey trucks and cranes.
Low-level detailed representation in container-terminal simulation has been overlooked because
the objective of simulation usually has been the evaluation of planning schemes and/or dispatching
rules for operating container terminals (Kim et al. 2004; Yang et al. 2004). When the purpose of
simulation is to assess the correlation between the productivity of container terminals and the
capability of equipment used (Legato and Mazza 2001; Yun and Choi 1999), it is critical to take the
detailed operational performance of equipment into consideration. Ha (Ha et al., 2007) has developed
a low-level simulation to model container-terminal operation. As noted in Rohrer (Rohrer, 2000),
high-quality animation can aid simulation processing in the following areas: verification and
validation, understanding of results, communication of results, securing buy-in from nonbelievers, and
achieving credibility for the simulation. This paper uses the actual port layout and traffic operation in
Berth 8 of Port of Savannah to evaluate the feasibility of developing a low-level, detailed, 3D
simulation model for evaluating the impact of quay crane capacity increases on berth productivity.
The corresponding resources, such as the number of Jockey trucks, rubber tyred gantrys (RTG),
needed to achieve the desired berth productivity are also analyzed using this model. This paper is
organized as follows: Section 1 presents the background and the need for 3D port simulation. Section
2 presents the container-terminal operation and the developed 3D port simulation model. Section 3
presents the case studies to explore alternatives to improve berth productivity. Finally, conclusions
and recommendations for future research are given in the last section.
2 Container terminal operation and modeling
This section presents the spatial components of the Port of Savannah and the container flow we have
modeled. The simulation process is then presented. The Port of Savannah is represented with four
major spatial components. They are Berth, Yard, Gate, and Rail. The following briefly describes each
component and how it relates to simulation modeling. Berth is a place in which a vessel is docked
where nearby a quay crane loads or discharges the ships containers. In our simulation process, berth
has a broader coverage. It includes the physical place a vessel docks at and leaves from, the space the
quay crane is working in to load and discharge containers, and the route Jockey trucks use to serve the
vessel. Yard is the area used for the storage and switching of containers. The yard can be described as
a large, organized buffer for containers. The yard is one of the largest components in the terminal and
the most challenging to handle. Gate is the entrance and exit for all container cargo operations. It
includes truck inspection, ticket issuing, etc. The operation of the gate determines the traffic condition
inside and outside of the terminal. This is important to the connection between the local network and
the terminal operation. Rail is another mode of transportation in the Port of Savannah. This rail
component includes the area for changing containers to different transportation modes (e.g. freight to
rail).
There are three management components in the Port of Savannah. They are traffic management,
resource management, and data management. They are used to establish the relationship among
different spatial components in the flow of containers. The resource includes equipment, such as the



quay crane, RTG, and Jockey trucks. Examples are shown in Figure 1. This equipment is crucial to
ensure the efficient flow of containers.

Quay Crane RTG Jockey Truck
Figure 1, Equipment resource in container terminal
Container terminal operation is a complicated process. After studying the container flow in the
Port of Savannah, we divided the container flow into six major processes: 1) truck-to-ship: the
containers for export are brought in by road trucks through the gate; 2) ship-to-truck: the containers
for import are discharged by a quay crane from a container ship and transported to the designated
location in the import yard by Jockey trucks; 3) ship-to-rail: the containers for import are discharged
by a quay crane from a container ship and transported to the designated location in the rail yard by
Jockey trucks; 4) rail-to-ship: the containers for export are brought in by trains and temporarily piled
in the rail yard. The Jockey trucks pick up the containers and place them in the export yard together
with other containers from the road; 5) truck-to-rail: the containers are brought in by road trucks
through the gate. With the drop-down ticket provided by the gate, the containers will be transported
directly into the rail yard; 6) rail-to-truck: the containers are brought in by the train and then
discharged to the rail yard.
The following paragraph describes the process of developing the 3D-container-terminal simulation
model. In this paper, we simulate only the container flow between two components (berth and yard)
to demonstrate the benefits of using the developed 3D-simulation model. After the simulation model
is developed, we validate the model by checking the results, such as berth productivity, to ensure they
are reasonable. The model is validated before conducting a what-if analysis. Based on the real
geographic setting of Berth 8, we have created the layout of Berth 8 and the yard using FlexSim CT
Ver 2.0.2 function of Berth Planer and Yard Planner. Using actual operating parameters, we
separately set berth, yard, and gate using the Berth Planner, Yard Planner, and Gate Planner of
FlexSim CT software to make sure all the strategies, operations are reflective of the real case. Based
on the traffic flow in Berth 8 yard, including all the trucks and facilities, the traffic route was created
using Nodes and Links in the simulation model. Figure 2 shows the actual Berth 8 traffic management.
We calibrated the input parameters, truck speed, block number, capacity, allocation strategy, etc., to
make sure the results are correct. For example, the berth performance is reasonable based on our
discussion with Port of Savannah's engineer. We then use the developed model to perform simulation
analysis.





Figure 2, Traffic flow of Berth 8 (Left: sketch drawing; Right: FlexSim drawing)
3 Case study
This section presents two cases using the developed 3D container-terminal simulation model to
evaluate different alternatives for improving berth productivity (i.e. increasing quay crane speed).
The actual data from the Port of Savannah, including yard layout, traffic management, and operation
flow in Berth 8, are used to develop the simulation model. The focus of the case studies is to evaluate
the impacts of quay crane speed and jockey trucks on the berth productivity. Therefore, a baseline
case was created using a combination of actual layout and some hypothetical data. Figure 3 shows the
developed 3D visualization model used to simulate Berth 8 operations. It includes the quay crane,
Jockey trucks, actual berth and yard layouts, traffic management, and RTG. The parameters for the
baseline case are as follows:
Two quay cranes serve Berth 8, each with a speed of 30 moves/hr;
Six RTGs for 16 blocks are arranged in the yard. The utilization of the RTG depends on the
stevedores strategy (i.e. how the containers are allocated in the blocks). In our case study, it is
assumed the RTG can be utilized efficiently and there is no bottleneck at the RTG. Therefore,
we can focus on analyzing for the optimum number of jockey trucks.
Three Jockey trucks for each quay crane with a total of 6 Jockey trucks;
The demand is 4000 TEUs throughput per week, including loading and discharge.
Figure 3, 3D low-level container terminal simulation model
The baseline case shows the crane operating at 26 moves/hr with 6% waiting time (the percentage
of time a crane is idle waiting for a Jockey truck during the working period). To analyze productivity
(i.e. container throughput) for Berth 8, two cases were explored. The first case increased quay crane
capacity and another increased the number of Jockey trucks. As expected, in the first case, increasing





quay crane speed, did increase the berth productivity. However, the quay crane was observed idling
frequently. In order to minimize the quay crane idling there is a need to increase the number of trucks.
One quay crane can cost more than $10 million dollars and is one of the most expensive assets in the
port. It should not be idle but should be utilized efficiently. Case 2 simulates the increase of
corresponding number of Jockey trucks. Different numbers of Jockey trucks are simulated to
determine their impact on berth productivity and quay crane idleness. From these simulations, the
optimum number of Jockey trucks necessary for efficient operations can be determined. These two
cases are presented below.
Case 1 Increase only quay crane capacity
With the basic settings and parameters described above, the quay crane design speed was changed
from the baseline of 30 moves/hr to 50 moves/hr. Other parameters, including the number of Jockey
trucks, remained unchanged from the baseline case. The results show the berth productivity was
increased from 26 moves/hr to 34 moves/hr. It was observed that the individual quay crane utilization
did not reach the design speed of 50 moves/hr, but instead due to an insufficient number of Jockey
trucks only had an actual speed of 34 moves/hr. In the visualization of the simulation it was observed
that the quay cranes were idle from time to time. This is shown as red shadows under quay cranes in
Figure 4. This indicates the quay cranes are under-utilized, a situation that could be improved. In
addition, the cranes waiting time increased from 6% before the quay crane speed was increased to
33% after it was increased. Therefore, in case 2 we increased the number of Jockey trucks.
Figure 4, Quay crane idle shown by red shadow. Idle due to insufficient Jockey trucks
Case 2 Increase the number of Jockey trucks
We increased the number of Jockey trucks from 3 for each quay crane to different numbers to
determine the optimum number of Jockey trucks needed. In order to focus on analyzing the number of
Jockey trucks, we assumed there was sufficient RTG capacity in the yard to handle the increased
number of Jockey trucks. Table 1 shows the simulated relationship between different numbers of
Jockey trucks and berth productivity. The optimal number of Jockey trucks, 6, under this simulation
setup can then be determined. The recommended optimum number of Jockey trucks is 7 (one for
backup). Increasing the number of Jockey trucks will not necessarily improve the quay crane speed
because a bottleneck may now be created by other resources, e.g. RTG. Although the actual operation
is a lot more complicated because of the involvement of many other interrelated activities/processes
(e.g. traffic management and RTG, etc.), the purpose of this case study is to demonstrate the
feasibility of evaluating different proposed operation settings and determining what the optimum
settings are before implementing actual costly changes.
Table 1. Impact of number of Jockey trucks on quay crane utilization
# of Jockey Trucks 3 4 5 6 7
Waiting Percentage 33.0% 23.6% 13.7% 8.9% 8.9%
Quay Crane Speed (moves/hr) 34 37 43 46 46



Using the developed 3D simulation model, these case studies demonstrate the capability and
feasibility of evaluating the impact of increasing the quay crane capacity on the berth productivity.
The quay crane idle time can be seen clearly in a 3D visualization environment. This helps to identify
additional resources needed. In addition, we have simulated different numbers of Jockey trucks and
determined the optimum number required to achieve the desired berth productivity. This study shows
that the developed simulation model can effectively evaluate different alternatives before
implementing costly changes, thereby minimizing any potential risk.
4 Conclusions
Ports are one of transportations logistic components crucial to supporting international trade and
economic growth. In order to sustain a port's continuous growth; it is important to explore alternatives
to improve their productivity. There is a need to develop an effective means to evaluate these
alternatives before their costly implementation. This paper explores the feasibility of developing and
using a 3D simulation model to evaluate different operational changes. The actual layout, traffic
management, and operation flow in Berth 8 of the Port of Savannah, are used to evaluate the impact
of quay crane capacity increases on the berth productivity. Case studies have demonstrated that it is
feasible and promising to use the developed 3D simulation model to perform the analysis. One of the
values of using 3D visualization in this study is to provide better visibility on the operation flow for
identifying the processes to be improved. For example, the idle quay crane can be easily identified
visually in a 3D simulation. The optimum number of Jockey trucks can also be determined using the
simulation model. It is recommended that the simulation test use the actual berth schedule, truck data,
etc. It is also recommended to perform validation on the baseline comparison in the future although it
is a costly process. In addition to evaluating the performance of new equipment, we can evaluate a)
the gate operation and policy/incentives, b) the rapid dispatch yard operations (a unique operation in
the Port of Savannah, designed to increase customer service and to maximize the asset utilization, and
d) traffic management. Finally, besides normal operation, it is recommended to use this 3D simulation
for modeling the exceptions, such as foggy weather prioritization and resource management.
Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper was supported by the Georgias Intellectual Capital Partnership
Program and Georgia Port Authority. The authors would like to thank the assistance provided by the
Port of Savannah.
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