This study proposes a new approach to determine the dispatching rules of AGVs and container storage locations, considering both unloading and loading processes simultaneously. We formulate this problem as a mixed integer programming model, aiming to minimise the ship's berth time. Optimal solutions can be obtained in small sizes, however, large-sized problems are hard to solve optimally in a reasonable time. Therefore, a heuristic method, i.e. genetic algorithm is designed to solve the problem in large sizes. A series of numerical experiments are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the integration approach and algorithm.
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