Dynamic recovery actions in multi-objective liner shipping service with buffer times

Abstract

This paper investigates the dynamic recovery policies for liner shipping service with the consideration of buffer time allocation and uncertainties. We aim to allocate the buffer time at the tactical level and then determine the optimal policy, including speed optimization strategy, port skipping and acceleration rate choice, for recovering from disruptions due to various uncertainties or random adverse events, which cause vessel delays. To achieve this, we attempt to obtain the optimal balance among economic, environmental and service-reliable objectives. A novel mathematical formulation is introduced to solve the robust vessel scheduling problem with short- and long-term decisions. Furthermore, we propose and test two heuristics to solve the proposed model. Experiments on the container liner shipping service show the validity of the model and some managerial insights are gained from them.