Optimal management of human resources in transhipment container ports

Abstract

Human resources allocation plays a key role in transhipment maritime container terminals to achieve high levels of productivity and provide high quality services to shipping companies. The deep interest of container terminals in this issue can be supported by optimization methods. In this work, an optimization model is proposed to determine the optimal daily allocation of crane operators and trailer drivers. Different requirements are taken into account for permanent staff, external workers and personnel shortfall. Since workforce undermanning is a crucial factor for both shipping companies and container terminals, we aim to show that personnel shortfalls and operation delays can be significantly reduced if the model encompasses a longer-than-1-day planning horizon in a rolling horizon fashion.

Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to CICT (Cagliari International Container Terminal, Cagliari, Italy) and MCT (Medcenter Container Terminal, Gioia Tauro, Italy) for the valuable technical support provided in this research.