Paul Bourke
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802.11ac WiFi takes off - Good news for Ports!

12/5/2014

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Picture Credit - Shutterstock 

In an announcement that's sure to be please those in Ports, Transport & Logistics, 3PL verticals - the manufacturers in the wifi hardware industry are making it even easier to adopt the new Gigabit Wifi standard 802.11ac by dropping the prices of hardware to that of current existing 802.11n product. 

If we use shipping container terminals an an example, in ports where there's an ever increasing demand for vehicle telemetry and real time information for fleet scheduling and management, the ability to have a broader band "backbone" to accomodate more mobile vehicles transmitting in near real time the on board vehicle telematics, to feed back into Terminal Operating Systems and other advanced scheduling applications is a real bonus.

In the past relying on narrowband networks with at best 9.6kbps for heavy data volume telematics was not ideal. It was solved somewhat by the adaptation of wifi 802.11 into outdoors environments,  but 802.11 essentially was a consumer product taken to work outdoors in a rugged environment, later made better by specialised rugged devices specifically designed to cope in out doors industrial environments and things evolved and improved for the better from there.

A concern has always been that with too much additional telematics data also being sent on the outdoor wifi network in the container yard, that it would interfere with work instructions from the terminal operating system (TOS) to the container handling equipment jeopardising container movements.

There are still too many wasted and inefficiently planned moves in terminals and the simple adoption of fleet management systems (FMS) into container handling equipment (CHE) is a very viable solution to this problem, and it's becoming more and more cost effective to do as as the cost of the technology keeps decreasing.

A simple telematics "black-box" can be interfaced to the (newer) digital buses onboard on most modern CHE these days and then its a matter of sending back the telematics that's useful to you, or what you want to know, or KPI's you wish to track. You can collect a plethora of information much as fuel level, engine temperature, tyre pressure, speed and the enforcement of, hours in use, Oil temperature, oil level, battery voltage, etc.

With Gigabit wifi now coming on stream, this opens up huge potential for CHE telematics to be feeding back tons of information into job schedulers, Engineering programs to monitor vehicle performance and other programs that manage the efficient use of assets - this information is gold, as used and analysed correctly introduces improvements into your operation that goes straight to your bottom line - and you CEO is going to be smiling when they see the money saved.

If you're a larger operation and not using fleet management now - why not? It's becoming a no-brainer.
Revenue is leaking from your operation - and you might be very surprised just how much.......

Please Like or comment - look out for other blogs coming soon! 


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DP World welcomes the APL Phoenix vessel to Jebel Ali Terminal 3 - The worlds largest semi-automated terminal

11/11/2014

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On 22nd October DP World Dubai UAE welcomed the APL Phoenix, the first scheduled vessel to its new "state of the art" Jebel Ali Automated Terminal 3.

DP World Chairman, His Excellency Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem also commented that once fully operational "Terminal 3 will be the worlds largest and most modern semi-automated container terminal."

This is testament to DPW's astute investment and strong customer support focus in the Jebel Ali Port precinct and the UAE region and will be the automated port the rest of the world will be watching as it evolves, even more so than London Gateway.

Oh, and one more thing.... it's using our leading edge OPUS Terminal Operating System (TOS) !




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CyberLogitec Continues its Record of success at the Algeciras Terminal in Spain

10/23/2014

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The Business


Total Terminal International Algeciras S.A.U. (TTI Algeciras) is the second container terminal of the Port of Algeciras Bay, which is located on the Phase A plot of the Isla Verde Exterior expansion area. The terminal consists of a 650-meter-long berth that can accommodate up to 14,000 TEU class vessels, and 16 blocks that run perpendicular to the quay. It is equipped with 8 Quay Cranes, 32 Automated Stacking Cranes and 20 Shuttle Carriers.

The Challenge

The Port of Algeciras received attention due to its geo-political advantages in Asia/Northern Europe trade and North America/Mediterranean trade. As vessels can call additionally without deviation to transport trans-shipment cargo, the port could become the trans-shipment hub for the ports of West Africa and the Mediterranean. Despite these advantages, the terminal of the port had the extra burden to provide high productivity and competitive stevedoring charges to attract the shipping liners. Promoted by Hanjin Shipping, the selection of TTI Algeciras terminal layout and container handling equipment (CHE) was made possible thanks to vastly superior accumulated experience of Hanjin Shipping – TTI Algeciras – and CyberLogitec (CLT) for terminal automation.

Given the situation, the container handling equipment selected are Single trolley ship-to-shore (STS) with twin spreader (Optical Character Recognition (OCR) supported to remove tally operation), with Automated Stacking Crane (ASC) and Straddle Carrier for horizontal transport.

In 2008, the most difficult decision was whether to introduce shuttle carriers. Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) was excluded because this expensive equipment cannot ensure operation productivity due to its dependency on other container-lifting CHE. Unmanned Shuttle Carriers were excluded as well due to its unproven technology still in its relative infancy and low base of installed sites.

After the decision, the parties worked on the plans to automate the shuttle carrier to be deployed, preparing for future release of fully automated shuttle carriers. 

The Solution: Semi-Automated Shuttle Carrier

Because the shuttle carrier has developed as a semi-automated shuttle carrier to take advantage of the technical developments in the future, all related processes should be automated except for driving, picking-up and landing which will be automatically conducted by robotically controlled shuttle carrier. 

The OPUS Terminal terminal logistics controller (TLC) module is the core operation module which creates just-in-time job orders by integrating information from all terminal subsystems including workload of CHE. The relevant information for automated process of semi automated shuttle carrier is gathered, monitored and controlled by GCS sub-module which controls information from sensors, RTLS, PDS, and DGPS.

Straddle carrier drivers do not operate anything manually on vehicle mount terminal (VMT), and information needed for the job operation is sent automatically, preventing drivers from making mistakes. CLT managed the integration project in which it integrated TOS with other 3rd party sub systems. 

The Benefit

All the job orders for CHE within a terminal are created, monitored, and changed in TLC module provided by OPUS Terminal. Regardless of automatic/manual processing, TLC module controls jobs on the subsystems to secure the optimal performance, allowing the successful completion of one or the least possible number of jobs. Therefore the change for automated CHE operation from manual operation shall be accomplished only by changing the configuration of OPUS Terminal - vastly simplifying the process.

This approach enables the automated CHE suppliers to focus on their core competences, which is the automation, rather than worrying about various terminal operation issues, increasing the possibility of project success.

OPUS Terminal’s TLC module and its component sub-modules for each CHE are provided in open architecture, so that CLT is providing the possibilities to develop advanced functions or apply the modules developed by 3rd party vendors in the future easily, if required.
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Automation in Container Terminals Gradually Increasing

10/23/2014

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Requiring higher productivity and increased efficiencies in the always fiercely competitive operating environment, container terminals are increasingly deploying terminal automation to realize better usage of assets and lower costs. DP World Jebel Ali container Terminal #3 (4M TEU) and King Abdullah Port in Saudi Arabia (4M TEU) have both recently commenced their operations successfully. Both of these terminals have implemented CyberLogitec’s leading-edge technology OPUS Terminal Operating System (TOS) and our Eagle Eye Fleet Management System (FMS) for the automation package.

See more here: http://bit.ly/1wpCHOO



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OPUS Terminal Operating System at Kaohsiung Container Terminal

10/23/2014

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Here is the HPC-Kaohsiung terminal which is in the largest harbor in Taiwan. This is one of the most productive and comprehensive container terminals operated by our leading edge OPUS Terminal solution. The team here are achieving great results with our award winning solutions.

OPUS Terminal - always more !



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OPUS Bulk marine software increases efficiencies at H-Line Shipping

10/23/2014

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H-Line Shipping is a professional energy and raw material shipping company with more than 40-years experience in the industrial carrier space. They've implemented our leading edge OPUS Bulk marine software to support process automation and increase efficiencies and save costs especially for mega-shippers.

Learn more here: http://bit.ly/1FFeASr

OPUS - Always more !

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King Abdullah Port receives the giant MSC London ship

10/23/2014

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Congratulations to the King Abdullah Port (Saudi Arabia) for last month receiving the giant MSC London ship - arriving from Greece. The massive MSC London has a length of 399 meters and width of 54 meters, a draught of 16 meters in the water, and a capacity of more than 16,500 TEU - (twenty foot equivalent units). Weighing a total of 189,000 tons, making it one of the largest container ships in the world. The vessel and crew were welcomed by the Port, senior management and officials.

The vessel was processed quickly and efficiently using our leading edge OPUS Terminal Operating System (TOS) software.

OPUS Terminal - always more !

Further details here: http://bit.ly/1wlqWK2

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