Transporter scheduling based on a network flow model under a dynamic block transportation environment1

This paper considers a transporter scheduling problem under dynamic block transportation environment in shipbuilding. In dynamic situations, there exist the addition, cancellation or change of block transportation requirements, sudden breakdowns, and maintenance of transporters. Some blocks are available to be picked up at a specific time during the planning horizon while some other blocks need to be delivered before a specific time. These requirements cause two penalty times: 1) delay times incurred when a block is picked up after a required start time, and 2) tardy times incurred when a block shipment is completed after a required delivery time. The blocks are located at different areas in the shipyard and transported by transporters. The objective of this paper is to propose a heuristic algorithm based on a network flow model which minimize the weighted sum of empty transporter travel times, delay times, and tardy times. Also, a rolling scheduling algorithm is proposed for dynamic block transportation environment. The performance of the proposed heuristic algorithms are evaluated through a simulation experiment.