An optimization model for container inventory management

• Published in: Annals of operations research Vol. 273; no. 1-2; pp. 433 - 453
• Main Authors: Poo, Mark Ching-Pong, Yip, Tsz Leung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-02-2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Business and Management; Combinatorics; Container ships; Container transportation; Containers; Inventory control; Inventory management; Literature reviews; Management; Methods; Operations research; Operations Research/Decision Theory; Optimization; Optimization models; Optimization theory; S.I.: OR in Transportation; Services; Shipping; Shipping industry; Theory of Computation; Transportation; United Kingdom; Empty container repositioning; Artificial bee colony algorithm; Container inventory management
• ISSN: 0254-5330; 1572-9338
• DOI: 10.1007/s10479-017-2708-8

This paper formulates the empty container repositioning (ECR) problem, which is one of the most important issues in the container shipping industry, by running a model to generate the service route of feeder shipping in a dynamic environment. The objective is to reduce the disequilibrium of laden and empty containers. This paper first provides a literature review with the emphasis on the shipping scheduling and modelling of ECR. Second, a network model has been designed to find the optimum size of ship servicing a particular region. A simply ECR policy is tested to demonstrate an essential impact on the profit of a container transport system. With the aid of this heuristic shipping model, ECR is integrated with the tramp ship routing problem under dynamic condition.