DISTSF

Type: Penalty

Category: DIS

CHE Types: RTGs and ASCs

Reference: Distribute section factors

Description: Penalty if the same section factor or segregation factor is found within the distribution range (set with DISTSL (on page 1)) of the section considered. This does not apply to rehandles.

If you have enabled the Segregation Elements field and chosen a value, Expert Decking applies this penalty when the same section factor is in a different row within DISTSL rows of the slot being considered or, if the section factor is different or you must start a new row, Expert Decking checks the Segregation Elements field. If that matches, Expert Decking applies the DISTSF penalty to slots within the DISTSL threshold. In effect, this allows you to group containers within a row by a particular attribute, like POD, but then separate those rows by a particular distance set by DISTSL. The result can look something like this, where the different colors represent different PODs.

If there are not enough unoccupied slots in the yard to separate containers by the distance you define in the DISTSL penalty, Expert Decking separates the containers by as much as possible, rather than failing to deck. This means that your distribution requirements may not be enforced if your yard is very full. For example, if DISTSL is set to five, but there are no empty slots five rows from a container with the same segregation factor, Expert Decking looks for slots four rows away. If there are no slots four rows away, three may be acceptable, and so on until there is an available slot. Because of this, you should set this to a non-zero value, so that a penalty applies when containers are too close together. When possible, set DISTSF to the maximum value of XXXXX to guarantee improved distribution (assuming there is space in the yard).

However, in yards with extremely high occupancy, setting DISTSF to the maximum value of 32767 may increase decking failures. Even though Expert Decking adjusts the value applied for this specific penalty to minimize decking failures, if all empty positions are in rows that already have a container with a certain Segregation Factor, all additional containers with that segregation factor fail to deck . If you see many containers with the same Segregation Factor failing to deck in the Fail to Deck!! list, you should reduce the value of DISTSF. Lower values will result in a less distribution, or may result in the Segregation Factor not being applied at all.

Setting the value to a value higher than DEKMAX (on page 1) will cause many containers to fail to deck. By default, DEKMAX is set to 32767.

Module: Expert Decking