Recursive column generation for the Tactical Berth Allocation Problem

Seaport container terminals are source of many interesting large-scale optimization problems, that arise in the management of operations at several decision levels. In this work we study exact methods to solve the Tactical Berth Allocation Problem with Quay Crane Assignment, an integrated decision problem that occurs in the management of the quayside resources. We reformulate the problem via Dantzig-Wolfe and present an exact solution approach based on column generation that exploits the problem's structure. In particular, the computational complexity of the pricing problem is tackled by developing a recursive column generation algorithm that starts taking into account only a meaningful subset of compact formulation's variables. Computational results on instances based on real-world data are presented and discussed.