Adaptable Container Terminal Simulator (ACTS)

Abstract

This tri-party collaboration aims to showcase the capability of the ACTS tool, through a real-life example. The ACTS (Adaptable Container Terminal Simulator) tool developed by NTU and MPA was used to construct ACTS-JPPL, a customized container terminal simulation model for JPPL. A simulation study was thereafter undertaken with the objective of estimating the JPPL container terminal capacity. ACTS-JPPL models JPPL's terminal layout and resources, and implements its operating policies as used in the day-to-day planning. The model was validated and confirmed to be reliable by JPPL. The constructed ACTS-JPPL model was then used to conduct the capacity estimation study. The basic requirement of the study was to estimate the terminal capacity with the current resource settings. The terminal is said to reach its capacity when the storage yard runs out of space, or the service level downgrades to an unacceptable level, with the increase in vessel traffic. The results indicated the JPPL container terminal capacity to be 1.0M TEU per year with 26 storage blocks, or 1.4M TEU per year with 32 storage blocks. The main constraining factor to the capacity was found to be the yard space available for storage. The quayside facilities and resources currently available at JPPL were found to have a higher sustainable capacity as compared to the yard. Service levels at these capacity thresholds were still within the acceptable range.