Optimising its systems
A hub’s terminal operating system (TOS) is seen as the heart of multimodal operations. The Samskip Group renewed its TOS in 2018 and is now reaping the benefit of its investment. ‘AI optimisation modules’ are pushing development further.
Multimodality is more than just a name for the enterprise Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal, a subsidiary of the Samskip Multimodal Group from the Netherlands. The group already banked on digital renewal from early on in its multimodal terminal in the Logport III compound of the German inland port of Duisburg, which commenced operations ten years ago.
As early as in 2018 – long before any measures to counter the outbreak of Covid-19 set in – the logistics services provider conducted an extensive market analysis and decided to introduce a new terminal operating system (TOS) supplied by the provider Inform. Samskip launched it in March 2018 and by now has gathered a sufficient quantity of empirical data from its operations there.
Improving and becoming more efficient
The software system the firm used to use only offered it limited functions, and even left crucial management elements, such as train-loading plans, open, meaning they had to be performed manually – a substantial bottleneck to further growth.
In order to make sure that it identified and purchased the right TOS, Samskip focused its market research on optimising its terminal operations, improving the return on investment of its equipment, and on integrating its systems, that is to say the various interfaces to its pan-corporate IT infrastructure. On-site analyses conducted in various terminals represented a part of the assessment. In the end Samskip opted for Inform, “on account of its comprehensive solution and its reputation for customer service,” as the logistics services provider said.
The solution’s stand-out feature is that it automatically generates orders by accessing assets and resources in the terminal and then allocating orders to reachstackers, cranes or other equipment by using so-called ‘AI optimisation modules’. The basis for this aren’t pre-defined business rules, but complex real-time decisions taken by the system. Workers in the control tower are thus relieved of their involvement in standard processes and can concentrate on special cases and customer services.
One of the system’s characteristics is its so-called train-load optimiser, which is supported by algorithms. Thus every driver receives a series of optimised pick-up and drop-off points in the terminal, every container and trailer an optimised slot and every reachstacker, terminal lorry or crane operator receives clear instructions concerning from where to where the next unit has to be moved.
The most obvious evidence of improved efficiency is an absence of lorry queues, with average transit times significantly improved. Peter Newerla, Samskip’s supervisor of rail terminal operations, reports that “we’re well below 30 minutes now and sometimes even reach 16 minutes, which possibly even breaks records.”
The technical advances are all closely intertwined with the company’s plans to expand its facility. Samskip’s 140,000 m² terminal has nine 750 m dedicated rail spurs, where the containers brought in by 81 trains a week are transhipped to lorries. Now the group is planning to almost double its annual throughput volume from 110,000 to 200,000 teu in the next few years.
