A unified approach for the evaluation of quay crane scheduling models and algorithms

Scheduling of quay cranes at container terminals is a field of growing interest in research and practice. In the literature, we find diverse models for quay crane scheduling that consider the service of container vessels at different levels of detail. Currently, however, there exists no basis to compare the quality of planning that is achieved from these models. There is also no platform available that allows comparing different solution procedures and investigating conditions where they perform well or poorly. This paper presents a unified approach for evaluating the performance of different model classes and solution procedures. The approach is demonstrated by investigating the suitability of three models within a comprehensive computational study. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.