Simulation Optimization Coupling for Intermodal Barge Operations Planning

Intermodal transport constitutes a highly complex system marked by the diversity of its operations, the lack of information, and the presence of a multitude of actors often with conflicting objectives. Intermodal operators are nowadays looking for effective operational strategies to reduce the impact of uncertainties and meet established performance and service objectives. To meet these challenges, the use of Simulation Optimization approaches for decision-making under uncertainties is increasing on a large-scale and an appreciable amount of development has been done in this area of research. This paper presents a Simulation-Optimization approach to solve the barge intermodal operations planning problems in the Multimodal Terminal of Le Havre. Indeed, a Multi-agents simulation model is proposed and implemented in the Anylogic Software, this model is enriched by Simulated Annealing (SA) optimization algorithm. The solutions found by the optimization algorithm are simulated and evaluated based on several performance criteria.