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Publications

Publications by CESE

2022

Energy-Efficient Scheduling of Intraterminal Container Transport

Authors
Homayouni, SM; Fontes, DBMM;

Publication
Springer Optimization and Its Applications

Abstract
Maritime transportation has been, historically, a major factor in economic development and prosperity since it enables trade and contacts between nations. The amount of trade through maritime transport has increased drastically; for example, about 90% of the European Union’s external trade and one-third of its internal trade depend on maritime transport. Major ports, typically, incorporate multiple terminals serving containerships, railways, and other forms of hinterland transportation and require interterminal and intraterminal container transport. Many factors influence the productivity and efficiency of ports and hence their economic viability. Moreover, environmental concerns have been leading to stern regulation that requires ports to reduce, for example, greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, port authorities need to balance economic and ecological objectives in order to ensure sustainable growth and to remain competitive. Once a containership moors at a container terminal, several quay cranes are assigned to the ship to load/unload the containers to/from the ship. Loading activities require the containers to have been previously made available at the quayside, while unloading ones require the containers to be removed from the quayside. The containers are transported between the quayside and the storage yard by a set of vehicles. This chapter addresses the intraterminal container transport scheduling problem by simultaneously scheduling the loading/unloading activities of quay cranes and the transport (between the quayside and the storage yard) activities of vehicles. In addition, the problem includes vehicles with adjustable travelling speed, a characteristic never considered in this context. For this problem, we propose bi-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) models aiming at minimizing the makespan and the total energy consumption simultaneously. Computational experiments are conducted on benchmark instances that we also propose. The computational results show the effectiveness of the MILP models as well as the impact of considering vehicles with adjustable speed, which can reduce the makespan by up to 16.2% and the total energy consumption by up to 2.5%. Finally, we also show that handling unloading and loading activities simultaneously rather than sequentially (the usual practice rule) can improve the makespan by up to 34.5% and the total energy consumption by up to 18.3%. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

2022

Job-shop scheduling-joint consideration of production, transport, and storage/retrieval systems

Authors
Fontes, DBMM; Homayouni, SM; Resende, MGC;

Publication
JOURNAL OF COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION

Abstract
This paper proposes a new problem by integrating the job shop scheduling, the part feeding, and the automated storage and retrieval problems. These three problems are intertwined and the performance of each of these problems influences and is influenced by the performance of the other problems. We consider a manufacturing environment composed of a set of machines (production system) connected by a transport system and a storage/retrieval system. Jobs are retrieved from storage and delivered to a load/unload area (LU) by the automated storage retrieval system. Then they are transported to and between the machines where their operations are processed on by the transport system. Once all operations of a job are processed, the job is taken back to the LU and then returned to the storage cell. We propose a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model that can be solved to optimality for small-sized instances. We also propose a hybrid simulated annealing (HSA) algorithm to find good quality solutions for larger instances. The HSA incorporates a late acceptance hill-climbing algorithm and a multistart strategy to promote both intensification and exploration while decreasing computational requirements. To compute the optimality gap of the HSA solutions, we derive a very fast lower bounding procedure. Computational experiments are conducted on two sets of instances that we also propose. The computational results show the effectiveness of the MILP on small-sized instances as well as the effectiveness, efficiency, and robustness of the HSA on medium and large-sized instances. Furthermore, the computational experiments clearly shown that importance of optimizing the three problems simultaneous. Finally, the importance and relevance of including the storage/retrieval activities are empirically demonstrated as ignoring them leads to wrong and misleading results.

2022

A Multi-Population BRKGA for Energy-Efficient Job Shop Scheduling with Speed Adjustable Machines

Authors
Homayouni, SM; Fontes, DBMM; Fontes, FACC;

Publication
Metaheuristics - 14th International Conference, MIC 2022, Syracuse, Italy, July 11-14, 2022, Proceedings

Abstract

2022

Mitigating Biomass Supply Chain Uncertainty Through Discrete Event Simulation

Authors
Piqueiro, H; de Sousa, JP; Santos, R; Gomes, R;

Publication
Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management

Abstract

2022

Prioritizing barriers for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies

Authors
Senna, PP; Ferreira, LMDF; Barros, AC; Roca, JB; Magalhaes, V;

Publication
COMPUTERS & INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Abstract
While Industry 4.0 promises large technological improvements, firms face multiple challenges in its adoption. Current literature has made significant efforts to identify the barriers which are common to most companies but fails to identify their interrelationships and their implications for practitioners. We use interpretive structural modelling (ISM) methodology to identify these barriers and their interrelationships, combined with matrix impact of cross multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis to identify the root barriers, in the context of the Portuguese manufacturing industry. We categorize these barriers using the Technology -Organization-Environment framework. We conclude that barriers related to standardization and lack of off -the-shelf solutions are considered root barriers. Our results differ from other studies that regard barriers related to legal and contractual uncertainty with the highest driving power and lowest dependence power. Also, we find that organizational barriers have the highest dependency and lowest driving power, contradicting studies on the topic. We provide recommendations for managers and policymakers in three areas: Standardization Dissemination, Infrastructure Development, and Digital Strategy.

2022

Real-Time Detection of Vehicle-Based Logistics Operations

Authors
Ribeiro, J; Tavares, J; Fontes, T;

Publication
INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS (INTSYS 2021)

Abstract
Geolocation data is fundamental to businesses relying on vehicles such as logistics and transportation. With the advance of the technology, collecting geolocation data become increasingly accessible and affordable, which raised new opportunities for business intelligence. This paper addresses the application of geolocation data for monitoring logistics processes, namely for detecting vehicle-based operations in real time. A stream of geolocation entries is used for inferring stationary events. Data from an international logistics company is used as a case study, in which operations of loading/unloading of goods are not only identified but also quantified. The results of the case study demonstrate the effectiveness of the solution, showing that logistics operations can be inferred from geolocation data. Further meaningful information may be extracted from these inferred operations using process mining techniques.

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