Optimizing Container Ship Stowage Planning with Yard Clash Considerations: Enhancing Yard and Quay Crane Coordination

Container ship stowage planning is a critical task that impacts the operational efficiency of both shipping companies and container terminals. This study addresses the often-overlooked issue of yard clashes, which are caused by the performance disparity between yard and quay cranes, hindering container retrieval and loading efficiency. We present the yard clash-aware stowage planning problem that integrates stowage planning and crane scheduling to minimize idle times of quay cranes. A mixed integer programming model, a just-in-time heuristic, and a genetic algorithm are developed to solve this complex problem. Numerical experiments demonstrate that while the mixed integer programming model struggles with large-scale instances, the just-in-time heuristic and genetic algorithm deliver competitive solutions with significantly reduced computation times. These findings highlight the potential of heuristic and metaheuristic approaches in addressing real-world operational challenges in maritime logistics.