Because container vessels spend a significant amount of transportation time in ports, it is essential to improve the productivity of various handling activities at port container terminals. Further, in order to modernize container terminals, automated container handling facilities have been recently developed and installed. This trend has introduced various new handling facilities and opened up new research topics for the efficient operation of these terminals. This presentation discusses the related decision-making problems that need to be explored by OR researchers.

Professor Kim is with the Department of Industrial Engineering of Pusan National University. He studied at Seoul National University (Bachelor, 1977) and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Master, 1979; Ph.D., 1987). He was a visiting scholar at Purdue University (1990- 1991) and at Montreal University (2002-2003). He is also the director of the research center of ubiquitous port logistics technology in Pusan National University. His research focus is in the design and operation problems of container terminals.