Container terminals are complex logistics systems. In order to achieve highly productive processes and an efficient assignment of the resources, optimization methods and simulation modeling are employed in practice. Based on a case study from the Container-Terminal Altenwerder in Hamburg, this contribution demonstrates how simulation and optimization can be applied to improve the processes related to reefer container handling. We show that optimization methods improve the efficiency of the reefer mechanic operations and how simulation models can support the development and evaluation of such methods in practice.
