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This paper examines how the altering nature of planning decisions affects operational efficiency in seaport container terminals. The uncertainty and the role of the planner were investigated considering the dynamic integrated planning function of the quay to yard interface.

A system dynamics model has been built to illustrate the integrated dynamic environment. Data collection was conducted at a leading container terminal at a hub port. The model was simulated for different scenarios to derive findings.

The planner has been identified as the agent who makes alterations between the initial operational plan and the actual plan. The initial plan remains uncertain even when there is no impact from crane breakdowns, requiring a significant number of alterations to be made. The planner who had worked on the yard plan had altered (approximately 45%) the initial plan than the alterations done by the planner who had worked on the vessel plan. As a result, the feedback loop that is created by the remaining moves at each hourly operation influences the upcoming operation as much as crane breakdowns influence.

The uncertainty and the role of the planner were investigated considering the dynamic integrated planning function of the quay to yard interface. The findings of this study are significant since terminal efficiency is examined considering the quayside and landside as an integrated system.

Historically, library catalogs have been rather insular, often based on specialized hardware and/or operating systems lacking industry‐standard networking capabilities. Network access was not a major consideration in the design or selection of these specialized systems. But when library automation systems are attached to the network as an afterthought, they often display unsatisfactory functional characteristics; libraries now face the realities of the wired campus environment and the collision between library automation tradition and the new world of networks.

Five prominent consultants—James Rush, Richard Smith, Susan Baerg Epstein, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, and Rob McGee—address the issues that most effect system performance. They note that virtually every phase of planning for a system involves issues related to performance. No single topic is more essential to the successful implementation of a system. Guidelines and advise are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to identify various individual factors and combinations thereof that can contribute to truck drivers’ occupational accidents, particularly connected to work performed outside the cab in various work environments.

In total, 74 accidents were analysed through in-depth interviews with truck drivers. These interviews were conducted employing the critical incident technique, and analysed utilising a qualitative content analysis approach.

The contributing factors identified were categorised into 14 categories. In all, 13 of these were grouped into four sections reflecting the drivers’ work outside the cab: “Goods and equipment”, “Loading/unloading area”, “Loading/unloading tasks”, and “Organisation”. A single risk factor was associated with 40 accidents while the other 34 involved combinations of factors.

Although the tasks performed by truck drivers in different countries are probably similar, one limitation might be that all the accidents characterised occurred in one country: Sweden.

The findings reveal that complex combinations of risk factors often contribute to accidents. In addition to the transportation company itself, other stakeholders, such as clients, and designers and manufacturers of technology, may influence the occupational safety of truck drivers. Different stakeholders who could contribute to managerial decision making that is designed to prevent accidents are identified and discussed.

This investigation contributes to an in-depth understanding of the causes of accidents in the transportation industry. The findings are discussed from the perspective of the stakeholders and safety management in an attempt to identify key stakeholders who can improve accident prevention.

This paper evaluates an alternative queuing concept for marine container terminals that utilize a truck appointment system (TAS). Instead of having all lanes providing service to trucks with appointments, this study considers the case where walk-in lanes are provided to serve those trucks with no appointments or trucks with appointments but arrived late due to traffic congestion.

To enable the analysis of the proposed alternative queuing strategy, the queuing system is shown mathematically to be stationary. Due to the complexity of the model, a discrete event simulation (DES) model is used to obtain the average waiting number of trucks per lane for both types of service lanes: TAS-lanes and walk-in lanes.

The numerical experiment results indicated that the considered queuing strategy is most beneficial when the utilization of the TAS lanes is expected to be much higher than that of the walk-in lanes.

The novelty of this study is that it examines the scenario where trucks with appointments switch to the walk-in lanes upon arrival if the TAS-lane server is occupied and the walk-in lane server is not occupied. This queuing strategy/policy could reduce the average waiting time of trucks at marine container terminals. Approximation equations are provided to assist practitioners calculate the average truck queue length and the average truck queuing time for this type of queuing system.

Automation represents one of the greatest changes a library can undergo. An automation plan must not only produce an optimum system, but prepare the staff, institution and clientele for far‐reaching change. This change can be accommodated by a functional model consisting of three phases: 1) organization and overview, 2) project expansion, and 3) project consolidation and preparationof the system plan. An educational program is the centerpiece of the process.

State‐of‐the‐art communications are fast becoming a necessity in today′s international freighting and transportation industries. Sophisticated logistics chains, offering a fast and flexible response to customer demands, require an accurate flow of information for tracking, planning and control. From the outset, many sectors of the shipping and containerization industries saw EDI as a natural technology for the communication of much of this vital information. Describes how EDI is used in port operations and the consequent improvement in scheduling and reduction of paperwork.

Traditionally, corporate planning was, and sometimes still is, a curious blend of aspiration, perspiration, and inspiration. In this age of Future Shock these virtues are admirable but not sufficient. Nor do simple trend projections deal effectively with external conditions related to consumer behavior, federal reserve policies, energy uncertainties, stock market fluctuations, and technical innovations such as computer networks and time‐sharing. Fortunately, a relatively new tool, made possible through electronic computers, improves the planner's capability to cope with accelerated change and the increasing risks associated with planning for such change.

This paper aims to develop a novel trajectory optimization algorithm which is capable of producing high accuracy optimal solution with superior computational efficiency for the hypersonic entry problem.

A two-stage trajectory optimization framework is constructed by combining a convex-optimization-based algorithm and the pseudospectral-nonlinear programming (NLP) method. With a warm-start strategy, the initial-guess-sensitive issue of the general NLP method is significantly alleviated, and an accurate optimal solution can be obtained rapidly. Specifically, a successive convexification algorithm is developed, and it serves as an initial trajectory generator in the first stage. This algorithm is initial-guess-insensitive and efficient. However, approximation error would be brought by the convexification procedure as the hypersonic entry problem is highly nonlinear. Then, the classic pseudospectral-NLP solver is adopted in the second stage to obtain an accurate solution. Provided with high-quality initial guesses, the NLP solver would converge efficiently.

Numerical experiments show that the overall computation time of the two-stage algorithm is much less than that of the single pseudospectral-NLP algorithm; meanwhile, the solution accuracy is satisfactory.

Due to its high computational efficiency and solution accuracy, the algorithm developed in this paper provides an option for rapid trajectory designing, and it has the potential to evolve into an online algorithm.

The paper provides a novel strategy for rapid hypersonic entry trajectory optimization applications.