Capacity planning for container terminals (part 2)

• Main Author: Chan, Amelia Hiang Ping.
• Other Authors: Teo Chee Chong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Maritime studies::Maritime management and business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/15967
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Since the inception of containerisation in the 20th century, demand for this mode of transportation has been on the rise. This phenomenon has led to the increasing importance of the container terminal as it acts as the interface between container vessels and other modes of transportation. Being a crucial connection in container transportation, operational bottlenecks at any point in the container terminal will cause delays in overall container flow. This paper aims to carefully examine the potential areas of criticality in container terminal operations and thereafter make use of the resource view of operations strategy to determine the suitable types of container handling equipments to procure, the right quantity of equipments to purchase and the timing in which such procurements should be made to avoid excessive or lack of container handling capacity in the container terminal. However, even when careful capacity planning is made in the purchase of key equipments which drive terminal operations, there will still be short-term fluctuations in the demand for the services of the container terminal, leading to short-term over or under capacity. To counter such seasonality in demand, short-term capacity planning solutions, namely the use of inter-haulage, buffer areas and empties, the control of demand with capacity contracts and tactical pricing schemes, and the mothballing of excess equipments will be examined. Interview findings will also be included in the paper to give light on the industrial practices in capacity planning of container terminals.