Robust Liner Scheduling with Buffer Allocation

Since the liner shipping business is a very competitive business, with large costs, reducing the costs is one of the best ways for carriers to ensure their market position. In the current research field a lot of research has been done in Vessel Schedule Recovery Problems, but combining the recovery actions with the allocation of buffer times has not been done. In this thesis a mixed integer programming (MIP) formulation is used for the recovery problem with buffer allocation. The recovery actions considered are speed changes and in an extension a shorter port time is also an option. These shorter port times can be used to simulate a ’cut and run’ principle in ports with limited access due to tidal windows. The vessel recovery models with buffer allocation will be tested in a case study of an Asia-Europe round tour of the Maersk Line network. An optimal buffer allocation and the right recovery actions can save up to 7.2% of the costs for a carrier. When allowing a ’cut and run’ action in a port, the costs savings can become even larger.