A Novel Truck Appointment System for Container Terminals Fatima Bouyahia, Sara Belaqziz, Youssef Meliani, Saâd Lissane Elhaq, Jaouad Boukachour Sustainability Switzerland, 2025 Due to increased container traffic, the problems of congestion at terminal gates generate serious air pollution and decrease terminal efficiency. To address this issue, many terminals are implementing a truck appointment system (TAS) based on several concepts. Our work addresses gate congestion at a container terminal. A conceptual model was developed to identify system components and interactions, analyzing container flow from both static and dynamic perspectives. A truck appointment system (TAS) was modeled to optimize waiting times using a non-stationary approach. Compared to existing methods, our TAS introduces a more adaptive scheduling mechanism that dynamically adjusts to fluctuating truck arrivals, reducing peak congestion and improving resource utilization. Unlike traditional static appointment systems, our approach helps reduce truckers’ dissatisfaction caused by the deviation between the preferred time and the assigned one, leading to smoother operations. Various genetic algorithms were tested, with a hybrid genetic–tabu search approach yielding better results by improving solution stability and reducing computational time. The model was applied and adapted to the Port of Casablanca using real-world data. The results clearly highlight a significant potential to enhance sustainability, with an annual reduction of 785 tons of CO2 emissions from a total of 1281 tons. Regarding trucker dissatisfaction, measured by the percentage of trucks rescheduled from their preferred times, only 7.8% of arrivals were affected. This improvement, coupled with a 62% decrease in the maximum queue length, further promotes efficient and sustainable operations.
Predicting Oil Temperature in Electrical Transformers Using Neural Hierarchical Interpolation Abdeltif Boujamza, Saâd Lissane Elhaq Journal of Engineering United Kingdom, 2025 Effective electricity consumption planning is critical for power distribution. Ensuring the distribution network aligns with expected demand fluctuations is a challenging task influenced by various time‐related and seasonal variables. This study focuses on improving transformer oil temperature forecasting, an indicator of transformer health, using the neural hierarchical interpolation for time series (NHITS) model. The NHITS model’s architecture is designed to handle long‐term forecasting efficiently, making it ideal for capturing extended trends in transformer oil temperature. It incorporates multirate signal sampling via MaxPool layers and hierarchical interpolation to merge predictions across different time scales. The proposed methodology involves two key phases: data preparation and model development. In the data preparation phase, the electricity transformer temperature (ETT) datasets are used, normalized with a standard scaler, and essential features such as oil temperature and external power load are selected. During the model development phase, the proposed NHITS model is trained and its hyperparameters are optimized for optimal performance. The study evaluates the model’s performance under various conditions, including the comparison of multivariate and univariate time series, the effects of short and long‐term forecasting horizons, and the impact of temporal resolution. The model was validated using the ETT dataset, and our results were benchmarked against a previous study that employed the same dataset and used the Informer model. The results indicate that the NHITS model outperforms the Informer model, showing an average decrease of 51.37% in mean squared error (MSE) and 37.83% in mean absolute error (MAE). These findings highlight the model’s ability to capture both long‐term and short‐term characteristics of time series data, making it a promising solution for forecasting transformer oil temperatures.
Applying Semi-AutoML for Vessel Traffic Flow Prediction: Case Studies of Two Ports Abdeltif Boujamza, Mohamed El Hafta, Saâd Lissane Elhaq, Ahmed Loukili Journal of Engineering United Kingdom, 2025 Accurate prediction of vessel traffic flow plays a crucial role in maritime supply chain operations, enabling efficient resource allocation and timely delivery of goods. This study contributes to the field of maritime logistics and transportation management by employing a semiautomated machine learning (semi‐AutoML) approach and presenting a comparative analysis to predict vessel traffic flow in two distinct port settings. The proposed approach involves automatically evaluating the performance of a set of preselected models to identify the best‐fitting models for the dataset. This is followed by a manual tuning phase to further optimize the performance of the selected models. The proposed methodology is implemented on limited‐scale datasets from two separate case studies: Mohammedia port and Los Angeles port, with the latter serving as a benchmark against an existing study. The performance of the models in predicting vessel traffic flow was evaluated using different metrics. The findings indicate improvements in forecast accuracy, with an RMSE of 2.22 for Mohammedia port and 11.65 for Los Angeles port. The results for Los Angeles port showcase a notable improvement of up to 70.95% in RMSE compared to the outcomes of a previous study, emphasizing the superior efficacy of the proposed methodology in predicting vessel traffic flow. The workflow presented in this study was implemented using the PyCaret framework, and the Python code implementation is publicly available on Colab (https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1Wk5Y_1uFSEYJLx49nXPaoPnGUgLGY6cT).
Nonlinear control based on a combination between sliding mode and Backstepping of grid connected photovoltaic system Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, 2017
Adaptive control of glucose concentration in diabetic subject's blood IFAC Proceedings Series, 1989
RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Artificial intelligence application in municipal and port waste management: systematic literature review A Hamraoui, H Ech-cheikh, A Douraid, A Loukili, S Lissane Elhaq, ... Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 28 (5), 123 , 2026 2026 Citations: 1
Remaining useful life predictions of aero-engines using dilated LSTM with attention mechanism A Boujamza, SL Elhaq Franklin Open, 100514 , 2026 2026 Citations: 1
A Novel Truck Appointment System for Container Terminals F Bouyahia, S Belaqziz, Y Meliani, S Lissane Elhaq, J Boukachour Sustainability 17 (13), 5740 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
A review on ship-generated oily waste management at ports: current practices, challenges and future directions B Abdellaoui, H Ech-Cheikh, M Sadik, A Rachid, S Lissane Elhaq, ... Environment, Development and Sustainability 27 (3), 5925-5980 , 2025 2025 Citations: 9
SDAPI: a systematic approach to integrating Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing for SME improvement H El-Kaime, SL Elhaq International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering 50 (3), 281-302 , 2025 2025
A Novel Truck Appointment System for Container Terminals. Sustainability 2025, 17, 5740 F Bouyahia, S Belaqziz, Y Meliani, S Lissane Elhaq, J Boukachour 2025
Applying Semi‐AutoML for Vessel Traffic Flow Prediction: Case Studies of Two Ports A Boujamza, M El Hafta, SL Elhaq, A Loukili Journal of Engineering 2025 (1), 4652508 , 2025 2025
Predicting Oil Temperature in Electrical Transformers Using Neural Hierarchical Interpolation A Boujamza, S Lissane Elhaq Journal of Engineering 2025 (1), 9714104 , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
An integrated approach based on classification and forecasting intermittent demand model for urban pick-up: a case study of Moroccan carrier L Bourrich, SL Elhaq International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management 51 (1), 1-41 , 2025 2025
Towards Smart Ports: Design and Prototyping of an IoT-Based Ship-Generated Oily Waste Collection System B Abdellaoui, SL Elhaq, M Sadik 2024 International Conference on Ubiquitous Networking (UNet) 10, 1-8 , 2024 2024 Citations: 1
Module Setting for Use in IoT-Based Maritime Petroleum Waste Recovery Prototype System B Abdellaoui, A Ennajih, SL Elhaq, A Mounadel Ubiquitous Networking: 9th International Symposium, UNet 2023, Clermont … , 2024 2024
Forecasting Delivered Ship Waste to Petroleum Ports Using RNN Models Z Boufakri, A Boujamza, S Lissane Elhaq, A Loukili International Conference on Connected Objects and Artificial Intelligence, 47-52 , 2024 2024 Citations: 1
Long-Term Vessel Arrival Forecasting at Port with Long Short-Term Memory: A Case Study A Boujamza, Z Boufakri, SL Elhaq, A Loukili International Conference on Connected Objects and Artificial Intelligence, 67-72 , 2024 2024
Optimizing remaining useful life predictions for aircraft engines: A dilated recurrent neural network approach A Boujamza, SL Elhaq IFAC-PapersOnLine 58 (13), 811-816 , 2024 2024 Citations: 19
Application of artificial intelligence techniques in municipal solid waste management: a systematic literature review A Mounadel, H Ech-Cheikh, S Lissane Elhaq, A Rachid, M Sadik, ... Environmental technology reviews 12 (1), 316-336 , 2023 2023 Citations: 29
Ensemble forecasting for predicting petroleum products traffic in oil terminal A Boujamza, SL Elhaq, A Loukili 2023 14th International Conference on Intelligent Systems: Theories and … , 2023 2023 Citations: 1
Toward Best Performance of Node's Radio Module Setting for Use in IoT-Based Maritime Petroleum Waste Recovery Prototype System B Abdellaoui, A Ennajih, SL Elhaq, A Mounadel, M Sadik International Symposium on Ubiquitous Networking, 139-148 , 2023 2023
Delivery Planning Application For An Ice Distribution Company: A Case Study Y Meliani, Y Hani, SL Elhaq, A El Mhamedi 2023 International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control (ICNSC) 1, 1-6 , 2023 2023
Digging Into Mining 4.0: Applying Systems Engineering to a Digital Spare Parts Management System H Lafquih, I Krimi, SL Elhaq IEEE Engineering Management Review 51 (4), 191-204 , 2023 2023 Citations: 3
Improvement of ship-generated oily waste collection process from ports through the use of virtual Internet of Things system B Abdellaoui, H Ech-Cheikh, M Sadik, A Rachid, S Lissane Elhaq, ... Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 195 (7), 896 , 2023 2023 Citations: 5
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Attention-based LSTM for remaining useful life estimation of aircraft engines A Boujamza, SL Elhaq IFAC-PapersOnLine 55 (12), 450-455 , 2022 2022 Citations: 58
A developed Tabu Search algorithm for heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem Y Meliani, Y Hani, SL Elhaq, A El Mhamedi IFAC-PapersOnLine 52 (13), 1051-1056 , 2019 2019 Citations: 46
Modelling, identification and control of sugar evaporation–theoretical design and experimental evaluation SL Elhaq, F Giri, H Unbehauen Control Engineering Practice 7 (8), 931-942 , 1999 1999 Citations: 44
A tabu search based approach for the heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem with three-dimensional loading constraints Y Meliani, Y Hani, SL Elhaq, A El Mhamedi Applied Soft Computing 126, 109239 , 2022 2022 Citations: 39
Application of artificial intelligence techniques in municipal solid waste management: a systematic literature review A Mounadel, H Ech-Cheikh, S Lissane Elhaq, A Rachid, M Sadik, ... Environmental technology reviews 12 (1), 316-336 , 2023 2023 Citations: 29
A model integrating a smart approach to support the national port strategy for a horizon of 2030 A LOUKILI, SL ELHAQ 2018 International Colloquium on Logistics and Supply Chain Management … , 2018 2018 Citations: 26
Modelling methodology for the simulation of the manufacturing systems R Tajini, SL Elhaq, A Rachid International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling 9 (4), 285-305 , 2014 2014 Citations: 21
Optimizing remaining useful life predictions for aircraft engines: A dilated recurrent neural network approach A Boujamza, SL Elhaq IFAC-PapersOnLine 58 (13), 811-816 , 2024 2024 Citations: 19
Intelligent transportations systems: review of current challenges and success factors: the case of developing countries Y El Mokaddem, F Jawab, LE Saad 2019 international colloquium on logistics and supply chain management … , 2019 2019 Citations: 19
Review of good practices in urban freight transportation and benchmarking city logistics schemes O Meryem, LE Saâd, K Mohamed, J Fouad 2019 International Colloquium on Logistics and Supply Chain Management … , 2019 2019 Citations: 17
Methodology for work measurement of the human factor in industry R Tajini, SL Elhaq International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering 16 (4), 472-492 , 2014 2014 Citations: 17
Methodology for implementation of industry 4.0 technologies in supply chain for SMEs H El-kaime, SL Elhaq International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Industrial … , 2020 2020 Citations: 12
A review on ship-generated oily waste management at ports: current practices, challenges and future directions B Abdellaoui, H Ech-Cheikh, M Sadik, A Rachid, S Lissane Elhaq, ... Environment, Development and Sustainability 27 (3), 5925-5980 , 2025 2025 Citations: 9
The vehicle routing problem with Time Window and Stochastic Demands (VRPTW-SD) M Boujlil, SL Elhaq 2020 IEEE 13th International Colloquium of Logistics and Supply Chain … , 2020 2020 Citations: 9
The development of controllers for a multiple-effect evaporator in sugar industry SL Elhaq, F Giri, H Unbehauen 1997 European Control Conference (ECC), 3318-3322 , 1997 1997 Citations: 9
Simulating demand uncertainty and inventory control variability of multi-echelon distribution supply chain H Ech-Cheikh, SL Elhaq, A Rachid, A Douraid 2014 International Conference on Logistics Operations Management, 27-34 , 2014 2014 Citations: 8
Optimisation conjointe des coûts de transport et de stock dans une chaîne logistique de distribution multi niveaux: Une approche basée sur la simulation. K Eddoug, SL El Haq Xème Conférence Internationale: Conception et Production Intégrées , 2015 2015 Citations: 7
A conceptual and UML models of procurement process for simulation framework A Douraid, SL Elhaq, H Ech-cheikh International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI) 9 (6), 120 , 2012 2012 Citations: 7
Tabu Search for urban freight VRP: Fundamental aspects and parameters tuning evaluation Y Meliani, SL Elhaq, Y Hani, A El Mhamedi 2019 International Colloquium on Logistics and Supply Chain Management … , 2019 2019 Citations: 6
Performance evaluation of complex multi-echelon distribution supply chain K Eddoug, SL ElHaq, H Echcheikh 2018 4th International Conference on Logistics Operations Management (GOL), 1-10 , 2018 2018 Citations: 6
