An innovative operation-time-space network for solving different logistic problems with capacity and time constraints

This work describes an innovative operation-time-space network that can be easily adapted to model different logistic problems involving time and space decisions. In the recent literature, different time-space networks have been proposed to deal with specific requirements of problems arising in the logistic and transportation fields. The proposed network is able to deal with different types of capacity and time constraints that characterized the most part of logistic problems. The article explains how to construct the operation-time-space network, how to model time and capacity constraints of different types; moreover, it presents an application of this network to solve a logistic problem arising in the rail-sea exchange node, that is the scheduling of port rail shunting operations. Other applications are briefly introduced. Finally, the well-known quay crane scheduling problem is modeled, thanks to the operation-time-space network; the related flow model is tested by using a benchmark suite available in the literature.