scholarly journals Liner Shipping Schedule Design for Near-Sea Routes Considering Big Customers’ Preferences on Ship Arrival Time

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Jiang ◽  
Haijun Mao ◽  
Yadong Wang ◽  
Hao Zhang

There usually exist a few big customers at ports of near-sea container shipping routes who have preferences on the weekly ship arrival times due to their own production and sale schedules. Therefore, in practice, when designing ship schedules, carriers must consider such customers’ time preferences, regarded as weekly soft-time windows, to improve customer retention, thereby achieving sustainable development during a depression in the shipping industry. In this regard, this study explores how to balance the tradeoff between the ship total operating costs and penalty costs from the violation of the weekly soft-time windows. A mixed-integer nonlinear nonconvex model is proposed and is further transformed into a mixed-integer linear optimization model that can be efficiently solved by extant solvers to provide a global optimal solution. The proposed model is applied to a near-sea service route from China to Southeast Asia. The results demonstrate that the time preferences of big customers affect the total cost, optimal sailing speeds, and optimal ship arrival times. Moreover, the voyage along a near-sea route is generally short, leaving carriers little room for adjusting the fleet size.

2013 ◽  
Vol 221 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg-Tobias Kuhn ◽  
Thomas Kiefer

Several techniques have been developed in recent years to generate optimal large-scale assessments (LSAs) of student achievement. These techniques often represent a blend of procedures from such diverse fields as experimental design, combinatorial optimization, particle physics, or neural networks. However, despite the theoretical advances in the field, there still exists a surprising scarcity of well-documented test designs in which all factors that have guided design decisions are explicitly and clearly communicated. This paper therefore has two goals. First, a brief summary of relevant key terms, as well as experimental designs and automated test assembly routines in LSA, is given. Second, conceptual and methodological steps in designing the assessment of the Austrian educational standards in mathematics are described in detail. The test design was generated using a two-step procedure, starting at the item block level and continuing at the item level. Initially, a partially balanced incomplete item block design was generated using simulated annealing, whereas in a second step, items were assigned to the item blocks using mixed-integer linear optimization in combination with a shadow-test approach.


Smart Cities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-145
Author(s):  
Daniel Then ◽  
Johannes Bauer ◽  
Tanja Kneiske ◽  
Martin Braun

Considering the European Union (EU) climate targets, the heating sector should be decarbonized by 80 to 95% up to 2050. Thus, the macro-trends forecast increasing energy efficiency and focus on the use of renewable gas or the electrification of heat generation. This has implications for the business models of urban electricity and in particular natural gas distribution network operators (DNOs): When the energy demand decreases, a disproportionately long grid is operated, which can cause a rise of grid charges and thus the gas price. This creates a situation in which a self-reinforcing feedback loop starts, which increases the risk of gas grid defection. We present a mixed integer linear optimization model to analyze the interdependencies between the electricity and gas DNOs’ and the building owners’ investment decisions during the transformation path. The results of the investigation in a real grid area are used to validate the simulation setup of a sensitivity analysis of 27 types of building collectives and five grid topologies, which provides a systematic insight into the interrelated system. Therefore, it is possible to identify building and grid configurations that increase the risk of a complete gas grid shutdown and those that should be operated as a flexibility option in a future renewable energy system.


Author(s):  
Álinson S. Xavier ◽  
Ricardo Fukasawa ◽  
Laurent Poirrier

When generating multirow intersection cuts for mixed-integer linear optimization problems, an important practical question is deciding which intersection cuts to use. Even when restricted to cuts that are facet defining for the corner relaxation, the number of potential candidates is still very large, especially for instances of large size. In this paper, we introduce a subset of intersection cuts based on the infinity norm that is very small, works for relaxations having arbitrary number of rows and, unlike many subclasses studied in the literature, takes into account the entire data from the simplex tableau. We describe an algorithm for generating these inequalities and run extensive computational experiments in order to evaluate their practical effectiveness in real-world instances. We conclude that this subset of inequalities yields, in terms of gap closure, around 50% of the benefits of using all valid inequalities for the corner relaxation simultaneously, but at a small fraction of the computational cost, and with a very small number of cuts. Summary of Contribution: Cutting planes are one of the most important techniques used by modern mixed-integer linear programming solvers when solving a variety of challenging operations research problems. The paper advances the state of the art on general-purpose multirow intersection cuts by proposing a practical and computationally friendly method to generate them.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Finke ◽  
Herbert Kotzab

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to figure out in which way a hinterland-based inland depot model can help a shipping company in solving the empty container problem at a regional level. The repositioning of empty containers is a very expensive operation that does not generate profits. Consequently, it is very important to provide an efficient empty container management. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the empty container problem is discussed at a regional repositioning level. For solving this problem, a mixed-integer linear optimization model is developed and validated by using the German hinterland as a case. Findings The findings show that the hinterland-based solution is able to reduce the total system costs by 40 per cent. In addition, total of truck kilometres could be reduced by more than 30 per cent too. Research limitations/implications This research is based on German data only. Originality/value This paper closes the gap in empty container repositioning research by looking at the hinterland dimension from a single shipping company point of view.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-234
Author(s):  
Ananda Noor Sholichah ◽  
Y Yuniaristanto ◽  
I Wayan Suletra

Location and routing are the main critical problems investigated in a logistic. Location-Routing Problem (LRP) involves determining the location of facilities and vehicle routes to supply customer's demands. Determination of depots as distribution centers is one of the problems in LRP.  In LRP, carbon emissions need to be considered because these problems cause global warming and climate change. In this paper, a new mathematical model for LRP considering CO2 emissions minimization is proposed. This study developed a new  Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP)  model for LRP with time windows and considered the environmental impacts.  Finally, a case study was conducted in the province of Central Java, Indonesia. In this case study, there are three depot candidates. The study results indicated that using this method in existing conditions and constraints provides a more optimal solution than the company's actual route. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out in this case study.


Author(s):  
Robinson Sitepu ◽  
Fitri Maya Puspita ◽  
Elika Kurniadi ◽  
Yunita Yunita ◽  
Shintya Apriliyani

<span>The development of the internet in this era of globalization has increased fast. The need for internet becomes unlimited. Utility functions as one of measurements in internet usage, were usually associated with a level of satisfaction of users for the use of information services used. There are three internet pricing schemes used, that are flat fee, usage based and two-part tariff schemes by using one of the utility function which is Bandwidth Diminished with Increasing Bandwidth with monitoring cost and marginal cost. Internet pricing scheme will be solved by LINGO 13.0 in form of non-linear optimization problems to get optimal solution. The optimal solution is obtained using the either usage-based pricing scheme model or two-part tariff pricing scheme model for each services offered, if the comparison is with flat-fee pricing scheme. It is the best way for provider to offer network based on usage based scheme. The results show that by applying two part tariff scheme, the providers can maximize its revenue either for homogeneous or heterogeneous consumers.</span>


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