3. Modeling Techniques in Planning of Terminals: The Quantitative Approach

The use of models in the process of planning a container terminal, or optimizing day-to-day operations, as well as to ensure the quality and configuration of the control software at a terminal, has proven to be of great value in practice. Simulation models, as one kind of models, are particularly well applicable due to the variable and interdependent nature of processes at a container terminal. For the various stages in terminal planning and expansion, various types of models are needed. At the early stages, more abstract models are applicable, and in later stages this can lead to very detailed models, capable of answering very detailed questions, such as about ways to control the terminal and about the exact kinematic specifications of equipment. A crucial part in the process of applying models is validation – making sure the models are representing reality for the scope of the analysis, as well as accreditation – making sure that the users of the results the models provide are actually trusting, and therefore also use them. We have seen that the lifespan of simulation models, in particular, has been extended from early design-engineering questions to final commissioning of control software and day-to-day operations, where models serve as a means for answering questions in a quantitative way, as well as project memory. In the near future, we expect more advanced models to play a role in the decision-making during operation by taking the data off-line and advancing the operation in an accelerated way to see where problems might arise.