In Container Terminals (CTs), many containers are daily delivered by a large number of External Trucks (ETs) which lead to several issues such as long waiting times at gates and yards, harmful emissions, and low productivity of the CTs. To resolve these issues, truck appointment systems are used to schedule appointments of ETs and achieve more balance in CTs’ workload. Most of the studies have focused on deterministic modelling of the ETs’ arrival process with considering yard operations or gate operations. Also, a little effort has been devoted to collaboration between trucking companies and CTs when scheduling ETs’ appointments. Unlike previous studies, this paper presents a simulation-based optimization approach to collaboratively schedule ETs’ appointments with considering yard and gate operations as well as their stochastic natures. The proposed approach integrates a simulation model with an MIP model with objective of minimizing turnaround times of ETs and inconveniences resulting from shifting the arrivals of ETs away from their preferred arrival times. The proposed approach is validated against an approach from literature. In addition, its performance is investigated by solving artificial instances inspired by real data. A framework for implementing the proposed system in the IoT-based container terminals is also developed.

In the freight transport sector, competing companies horizontally collaborate through establishing Collaborative Transport Networks (CTNs). Fruitful implementation of CTNs will leverage environmental and socio-economic goals of sustainable development in the freight transport sector. The benefits of CTNs in horizontal collaborative settings have been widely demonstrated through several modelling approaches. However, in practice, the real applications of CTNs have been challenging and most did not achieve satisfactory performances. Some studies have addressed this issue by identifying different barriers to CTN implementation. However, a conceptual framework for the barriers is not well-established. In addition, the literature lacks a decision-making framework for the CTN implementation which considers the different barriers. To address this gap, this paper conducted a literature review of the barriers to CTN implementation. In total, 31 different barriers were identified. A conceptual barrier framework is developed by grouping the 31 barriers into five categories: the business model, information sharing, the human factors, the Collaborative Decision Support Systems (CDSSs), and the market. The paper additionally proposes a stage-gate model integrating the conceptual barrier framework into the CTN implementation decision-making process. The current work contributes to the existing literature by developing both theoretical and practical understandings of the barriers to implementing CTNs and will support decision makers in CTN implementation to maximize the CTN benefits and minimize the risk of CTN failure.

Multimodal Freight Transport (MFT) has been introduced as a solution for reducing the external costs of freight transport while achieving cost improvements. Despite the MFT benefits, its share has been low in practice, and transport by trucks remains the most preferred transport mode. A few works have recently investigated this issue by discussing various barriers to MFT. However, little conceptual work comprehensively examines the barriers that organizations may face during MFT applications. To address this gap, this paper has reviewed 104 studies and identified 31 barriers and possible strategies for overcoming them. To clarify the nature of these barriers, we developed a conceptual barrier framework that positions the identified barriers within the overall MFT chain. This framework categorizes the barriers into six categories: MFT terminal, MFT network, management, regulations and subsidies, delivery characteristics, and interoperability. The findings provide decision-makers and practitioners with theoretical and practical insights into the barriers to transition toward MFT and will assist them in implementing MFT successfully.

Sustainability has become of great interest in many fields, especially in production systems due to the continual increase in the scarcity of raw materials and environmental awareness. Recent literature has given significant attention to considering the three sustainability pillars (i.e., environmental, economic, and social sustainability) in solving production planning problems. Therefore, the present study conducts a review of the literature on sustainable production planning to analyze the relationships among different production planning problems (e.g., scheduling, lot sizing, aggregate planning, etc.) and the three sustainability pillars. In addition, we analyze the identified studies based on the indicators that define each pillar. The results show that the literature most frequently addresses production scheduling problems while it lacks studies on aggregate production planning problems that consider the sustainability pillars. In addition, there is a growing trend towards obtaining integrated solutions of different planning problems, e.g., combining production planning problems with maintenance planning or energy planning. Additionally, around 45% of the identified studies considered the integration of the economic and the environmental pillars in different production planning problems. In addition, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are the most frequent sustainability indicators considered in the literature, while less attention has been given to social indicators. Another issue is the low number of studies that have considered all three sustainability pillars simultaneously. The finidings highlight the need for more future research towards holistic sustainable production planning approaches.