Tanjung Priok super port - WorldCargo News Online

NEWS ICT FOCUS
Auckland’s efficiency drive
Ports of Auckland is trying a new
yard planning scheme as it gears
up to transition to SPARCS N4
New Zealand’s Ports of Auckland
Limited (POAL) is charting
a new course as it prepares to
make the transition from Navis
SPARCS to SPARCS N4. The
move involves replacing several
applications including SPARCS,
the PACTS yard inventory system
developed in Australia by
Patrick Stevedores, and an inhouse
development called PIMS
(Port Information Management
Systems) that provides billing
functionality and operational reporting
with SPARCS N4.
As previously reported, in
2008 POAL contracted Korea’s
Total Soft Bank to complete a
“blueprint and detailed planning
phase” for a comprehensive system
covering all aspects of container
terminal operations, CFS,
billing and e-commerce services.
After considering several options,
Raoul Borley, POAL general
manager of port operations, said
the decision was made last year
to stay with Navis, for several
reasons.
“We believe SPARCS N4
is the best platform for an IT
structure that can support our
productivity targets and goal of
being the technology leader in
the New Zealand market,” he
explained. POAL wants to embrace
new technologies as they
become available, and it believes
Navis is a leader in this respect.
“Navis has been tried and tested
by most other large ports in
New Zealand, POAL’s customers
are familiar with it and POAL’s
Board were assured that this was
a good investment,” he added.
Borley’s own experience with
SPARCS N4 also played a role.
He worked for 15 years in a variety
of roles at Ports of Auckland
prior to leaving in 2010.
He then moved to UK-based
Best Shore Business Solutions, a
Navis SPARCS implementation
partner and process improvement
consultant, before returning to
Auckland in January 2012.
Productivity drive
With a strong directive from the
CEO and executive team, POAL
has a clearly stated objective to
raise its productivity, but it is not
looking to SPARCS N4 to deliver
a step change all by itself.
POAL is engaged in process improvement
right now, developing
new yard planning and operational
rules that it will carry over
to SPARCS N4.
Although it has made a lot of
capital investment in STS cranes
and straddle carriers, POAL in
the past has struggled to achieve
productivity over 28-29 moves
per hour. Yard planning plays
a key role in crane rates and
this was one of the main areas
where Borley saw immediate
scope for improvement. “Though
we use Navis Expert Decking,
we weren’t using it very well,”
he said.
Before testing any new strategies
an expert was brought in
to conduct a detailed analysis of
cargo types and container distribution
across the yard. This analysis
showed how better planning
of container locations could support
higher vessel productivity.
Since then the port has
changed yard allocation criteria
to better utilise the stacking area
closer to the quayside. The focus
of yard planning has gone from
minimising straddle travel distances
to staging and re-planning
the yard to support higher crane
productivity. This does mean
straddle carriers are doing more
moves, but they are performed
within existing shifts, so the additional
cost is limited to fuel and
maintenance.
Some of the planning concepts
POAL is implementing are
in fact borrowed from ASC yard
planning, where containers are
commonly moved three or more
times as they progress from the
landside to the waterside end of
the block. Other new ideas are
being developed in conjunction
with Navis.
Dwell time
POAL is also tackling shipping
practices that adversely affect its
productivity. Dwell times are 2.5
days for import containers and
3.5 for export boxes, but these
figures do not include rolled
boxes. It has made significant
progress tackling the problem of
containers arriving at the terminal
without a Customs Export
Delivery Order (CEDO). Shippers
would apply for a CEDO
when the box was in the yard,
but if it was not given, the container
would have to be removed
from the loading list and rolled.
This played havoc with yard
and vessel planning and POAL
worked out 53% of vessels were
impacted by CEDO issues. It
was particularly a problem where
one box in a pre-staged twin-lift
pair failed to obtain a CEDO.
Since February POAL has been
enforcing a policy of removing
from the load list any box without
a CEDO two hours prior
to the vessel ETA, and charging
demurrage if the box is subsequently
rolled. Financial penalties
are bringing a change in shipper
behaviour.
Through a combination of
process and yard planning
changes POAL has been able to
lift crane productivity above 32
moves per hour. Borley said it
recently hit 37 moves on several
vessels and he is confident the
terminal can get to 42 without
adding more handling equipment.
The experience has highlighted
to POAL the difference
between just using a TOS and
using more advanced features to
the full extent to unlock the potential
of its investment in equipment.
It has decided to purchase
TBA’s CONTROLS emulation
software to give it the ability to
test different scenarios and configurations
as it continues this
process.
Path to SPARCS N4
Borley acknowledges that transitioning
to SPARCS N4 is a
big challenge, particularly in the
integration and EDI areas where
other ports are still having issues.
POAL will manage as much of
the transition as possible itself,
and is now developing a plan
for testing interfaces and implementing
the software in stages.
At this stage the plan is to
make the transition in the Q2
2014. Concurrently, POAL is
running a separate tender for a
Gate Operating System, which
will be rolled out with gate and
crane OCR after the TOS implementation
is complete. Another
project undergoing evaluation
is a new GPS system for the
straddle carriers that will be used
to support real time container in-
Auckland is using yard gantry crane planning concepts to support higher crane
productivity with a straddle carrier system
ventory and yard planning.
Borley emphasised that getting
the most out of SPARCS
N4 entails a lot more challenges
than the technical, integration
aspects. POAL wants to work
with its customers to show them
how current business practices
impact port productivity, and in
some cases get them to embrace
change. The port could mandate
RFID truck tagging, for example,
but a lot more efficiencies
could be gained if the trucking
community embraced RFID in
its planning too. The port is now
engaging with the wider New
Zealand supply chain, including
other NZ ports, on addressing
some of these issues.
Maher starts roll out
Maher Terminals in New Jersey
is now rolling out SPARCS
N4, which would bring to an
end what is believed to be the
longest running SPARCS N4
implementation project to
date.
Maher made the announcement
that it would replace its
in-house TOS with SPARCS
N4 in 2008 and has been
conducting extensive on-site
testing using Aecom’s General
Marine Terminal Emulation
tool.
This couples a simulation engine
to the TOS to test how the
TOS functions with real operational
data and gives a graphical
overview of how a terminal
operates under the rules and
parameters of the TOS planning
functionality.
The cultural and operational
transition from Maher’s inhouse
system to SPARCS N4
has been a significant factor in
prolonging the project.
After it acquired Maher
Terminals, Deutsche Bank’s
RREEF Infrastructure reviewed
its business and Brad
Gordon, director of acquisitions,
said Maher’s processes
were out of step with the rest
of the industry. He described
its in-house TOS as a “huge
waste of money” with “all the
learnings of Maher and none
of the learnings of the rest of
the industry.”
Maher is taking the final implementation
in stages, starting
with the empty depot in April
before moving on to its main
container terminal this month.
Aspects of its existing
CTMS TOS will run in parallel
with SPARCS N4 for a
time before the transition is
completed in June.
This makes the implementation
period more complicated,
with customers required to
enter data into two systems at
times, but significantly lowers
the risk of operational problems.
May 2013 35