Optimal container dispatching policy and its structure in a shuttle service with finite capacity and random demands
Optimal container dispatching policy and its structure in a shuttle service with finite capacity and random demands
复制标题
DOI：
10.1504/ijstl.2010.029896
复制
发表时间：
2010
影响因子：
1.5
通讯作者：
D. Song;Jingxin Dong;M. Roe
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D. Song;Jingxin Dong;M. Roe
本文研究了在有限运力和随机客户需求条件下的双码头穿梭运输中集装箱分配和空箱重新定位问题。基于客户的耐心有限以及集装箱运输是一个竞争激烈的行业这一假设，由于运力不足或空箱不足，在一段时间内未满足的需求将会丢失。目标是通过尽量减少集装箱库存、集装箱重新定位和销售损失所引起的总成本，寻求有效的集装箱调度政策。应用马尔可夫决策过程理论推导了最优调度策略。通过数值算例研究了最优策略的结构特征。基于这些结构特性，构造了一个四参数阈值策略。一系列数值算例表明，所提出的阈值策略的性能与最优策略非常接近或相同。更重要的是，所提出的政策具有明确的形式，从管理和操作的角度来看，易于理解和操作。
This paper considers the container-dispatching problem including laden container distributing and empty container repositioning in a two-terminal shuttle service with finite shipping capacity and random customer demands. Unmet demands within one period due to unavailable shipping capacity or insufficient empty containers will be lost based on the assumption that customers have limited patience and the fact that container shipping is a highly competitive sector. The objective is to seek effective container dispatching policies by minimising the total costs incurred by container inventory, container repositioning and lost sales. The optimal dispatching policy is derived by applying the Markov decision process theory. The structural characteristics of the optimal policy are investigated through numerical examples. Based on these structural properties, a four-parameter threshold policy is constructed. A range of numerical examples demonstrates that the proposed threshold policy performs extremely close to or indeed the same as the optimal policy. More importantly, the proposed policy has an explicit form, which is easy-to-understand and easy-to-operate from the managerial and operational perspectives.