A new simulation modelling approach to continuous berth allocation

Within the international supply chain and logistics system, ports are an important ring of the basic transport activities. Thus, any shortage in or lack of well-planned orders encountered in the port operation processes is most likely to affect the whole logistic system, which eventually will cause undesirable delays in deliveries. This study aims at developing a simulation modelling approach to continuous berth allocation in Port of Izmir Alsancak, which has continuous quayside with two main wharfs perpendicular to each other. The simulation models which serve to evaluate the proposed modelling approach have been developed in ARENA 10.0 Simulation Software. The results of the conducted computational experiments showed that the proposed modelling approach provides more accurate and realistic estimates of performance measures, such as average berth utilisation, average ship waiting time in a queue, and the average number of ships in queuing up to get container terminals.