JEMS Maritime Sci. Ahead of Print: JEMS-15428 | DOI: 10.4274/jems.2025.15428

A Hybrid Harmony Search and Rule-Based Approach for Dynamic Crane Scheduling Problem

Hizia Amani, Linda Bouyaya, Rachid Chaib
University of Constantine 01, LITE Laboratory, Department of Transport Engineering, Constantine, Algeria

The service time of container ships has become a central indicator of port productivity. In operational contexts, this time is mainly influenced by the number of quay cranes and the way they are scheduled. This study proposes a novel hybrid approach combining harmony search (HS) algorithm and rule-based dynamic simulation to solve the Quay Crane Scheduling Problem under non-crossing constraints. The problem is addressed in two consecutive stages, the first aims to identify efficient initial crane positions using HS, while the second simulates crane movements dynamically, relying on a set of predefined rules that guide real-time decisions. Additionally, three analytical features are defined to characterize the behavior of HS during the exploitation phase. Statistical tests confirmed that the proposed hybrid approach achieves significant improvement over the unidirectional heuristic while showing statistical equivalence with the genetic algorithm, thus validating its effectiveness and competitiveness.

Keywords: Maritime logistics, port productivity, Harmony search algorithm, dynamic crane scheduling

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