2014 Diploma Thesis Title: Scheduling and Order Selection in Liner Shipping

C.V. ( Greek Version)

Abstract

In this thesis we address the problem of scheduling a single ship operating on a liner shipping network. The scheduling process comprises two phases: (a) designating an initial time schedule considering pre-arranged contract orders, and a forecast of spot orders, and (b) defining the detailed schedule that maximizes profit, respecting the initial time schedule of part (a) and considering actual spot orders. We have proposed a novel model to formulate and solve the related scheduling problem; that is, a mixed integer linear program, suitably adapted for the business case of each phase. In this model profit maximization involves balancing: (a) the income collected from serving spot orders, and (b) the fuel consumption and CO_2 emissions by selecting the sailing speed and considering the ship’s load. We have also performed an extensive computational study that analyzes the scheduling problem under various realistic shipping conditions. The results illustrate that the proposed method is suitable for scheduling practical liner shipping problems. The results also provide insights in effective scheduling of liner shipping under various conditions.