Development of a model of decision support for optimization of physical flows in a container terminal

In this paper we propose a model of decision support to optimize the physical flow of the supply chain port. The physical flow, considered here, is a group of containers. To optimize these flows, we have developed a mathematical model proposing an allocation of incoming vessels on the waterfront in a way to minimize the total distance traveled by containers loaded / unloaded in the port area. This model was solved by using a genetic algorithm. Calculation results are presented and compared with those obtained by a commercial solver (CPLEX).