Challenged with developing a planning and scheduling tool that could deliver both economic and environmental improvements to the container logistics industry, the FLAGSHIP Real Time Simulation (RTS) team faced a demanding task from day one.
Despite the global economic downturn, congestion in ports worldwide has reached critical proportions as increases in container traffic puts further strain on facilities already struggling to meet demand. As the volume of containers and number of large container ships of 10,000 TEU and above is predicted to increase over the next decade all manner of solutions are being considered, from terminal expansion to the development of hub and spoke systems and also dry port options. However not all solutions necessitate massive construction projects: The intelligent application of smart software and a small change in behaviour can achieve the desired result. Julian Stephens, Technical Development Manager at MJC² describes how a part EU funded project has resulted in the first real-time optimisation system which targets congestion around container terminals. The system, known as FLAGSHIP-RTS, has demonstrated in trials that it can reduce wasted repositioning movements in and out of the terminal by up to 25% while saving 10-20% of transport costs through improved planning and faster response times.
The level of complexity of container movements in and around a terminal makes managing and optimising the operation extremely difficult. Challenged with developing a planning and scheduling tool that could deliver both economic and environmental improvements to the container logistics industry, the FLAGSHIP Real Time Simulation (RTS) team faced a demanding task from day one.
FLAGSHIP is a consortium of more than 40 European maritime organisations collaborating in a part EU-funded project which is focused on improving the safety, environmental friendliness and competitiveness of European maritime transport. The project was designed to further increase the capacity and reliability of freight and passenger services, while increasing safety levels in the industry and reducing its environmental impact. The overall FLAGSHIP project focuses on on-board systems and procedures, ship management systems on shore, the impact of new technology on present ship-, owner- and operator organisations, effective and efficient communication interfaces and the impact of standards and regulations. The FLAGSHIP–RTS sub-project was led by MJC² Limited in the UK and was supported, delivered and trialled by five Spanish organisations: Valenciaport Foundation; China Shipping (Spain Agency); Ingenieria de Sistemas para la Defensa de España SA; Spanish Depot Service , S A and Trans-Base Soler, SL.
Faced with the problem of analysing, understanding and improving the flow of containers though a terminal, the FLAGSHIP-RTS team worked closely with the Port of Valencia in order to develop a solution based on real world data that was applicable to any container terminal. Initial analysis indicated that the problem involved three key interlinking areas:
Firstly, within the terminal itself the combination of ships loading and unloading (including trans-shipments and feeder vessel movements) with trucks picking up or dropping off containers creates intense activity all centred on a limited area. Congestion is a major problem within many container terminals, and the need to minimise the turnaround time for the ship only exacerbates this. Deadlines for arrival are driven by ship docking times so there is naturally a lot of activity with many vehicles trying to get into the same area at the same time.
Secondly, the land based part of the operation involves trucks picking up containers from the terminal, taking them inland, dropping off the goods then bringing an empty container back. At the same time there are other trucks going to inland destinations with an empty container, picking up goods for export and again going back in to the terminal to drop the full container off. For a major port there are many carriers with thousands of container movements taking place in a day, so integration of landside and terminal activity presents a highly complex problem.
The third area is the management and positioning of empty containers. Limited space within the confines of the terminal means that empty containers are often stocked in a depot which may be some distance away. However at some point the containers will have to be transported back into the terminal to be loaded onto a ship. Furthermore it is clear that due consideration must be given to the movement of feeder and trans-shipment vessels which also account for a significant number of container movements.
Considering all these factors there is the potential for very large savings in terms of fuel, driver hours and other operating costs through optimisation of the operation to reduce the number of wasted or empty transport movements. From an environmental point of view, this leads to reductions in emissions and congestion on the roads which only be beneficial. However with so many movements driven by so many variables it becomes very difficult to manage the overall process safely, effectively and efficiently.
Single optimisation tool
What makes the FLAGSHIP-RTS project unusual is that it brings together all these aspects under the control of a single optimisation tool. Previous attempts to optimise container logistics operations have struggled because, while they have attempted with varying degrees of success to address one or other of the three areas independently, they have failed to bring all of them together to make a workable solution. FLAGSHIP-RTS is the first system to combine these elements in one integrated solution. The core of the solution is the real-time scheduling (RTS) system which gives the software its name. It became clear during the team’s initial analysis of the problem that for a solution to provide the level of response and feedback required to add value it must take continuous updates from other port systems in real time. The Port of Valencia already had a control system which tracks the movement of the containers in and out of the terminal. Similarly, most shipping companies, including FLAGSHIP partner CSSA (Spain), have their own order management system which contains details of movement requests and container types. By accessing and collating the available data from all the existing stakeholder systems in real time the RTS system has access to details of what is a constantly changing scenario. Using pre-programmed logic, the RTS system keeps updating the picture in terms of what the most effective and efficient movements should be. For example, if a new export movement is ordered by a customer, the RTS system analyses all the planned movements and identifies any import movements going to a similar part of the country. If all the parameters match to make it appropriate (e.g. appropriate container type, compatible commodities, time constraints), the RTS system will pair up the movements to save unladen truck mileage. The optimisation process runs continuously taking account of new data as soon as it is uploaded to the system.
Ground breaking
The solution that FLAGSHIP-RTS has delivered is ground breaking in that it overcomes many of the shortcomings found in existing scheduling systems. Scheduling problems are well known for growing very quickly in terms of how difficult they are to solve with the number of movements that you have to actually plan. Efficiently and effectively scheduling the thousands of movements that take place in and around a container terminal every day is notoriously difficult. This is because the number of permutations and combinations that must be considered increases faster than exponentially with the number of movements. In principle, it would be ideal to consider every possible solution and pick the one that’s most efficient but even with today’s powerful computers this just isn’t prac
tical due to the time it would take. The FLAGSHIP-RTS system gets round this problem by deliberately not considering every single combination, but only considering solutions that are likely to be efficient. By using an intelligent solution based on optimisation algorithms and guided by a set of rules it can come up with an optimised answer very quickly. In essence it delivers the best of both worlds with a cross between human derived common sense and the computational power of the machine. The rules have been developed using experience of the container terminal and logistics industry to mimic the decisions that would be made if the parameters surrounding each individual movement could be isolated and considered separately. Pairing movements to reduce wasted lorry mileage and smoothing movements in and out of the terminal so they don’t all happen at the same time of day are just two of the outcomes that the rules promote. MJC² has used this ‘best of both worlds’ approach combining human knowledge and common sense with computational processing power with great success in other areas of logistics management but this is the first time that it has actually been used for a container terminal operation.
Further benefits
A further spin-off benefit of the FLAGSHIP-RTS approach is that it introduces data integrity checks into the logistics planning process, encouraging all parties involved to be more vigorous and disciplined in their capture and input of information. This enhances visibility across the supply chain and facilitates the management of complex datasets from multiple (third party) sources. If data is provided that is incorrect or incomplete then the RTS will flag up the problem and guide the user to correct the error or provide further information. As well as ensuring that RTS is provided with the good quality data that will help deliver a more effective management system, this is also beneficial in ensuring that the other parties on the management process have accurate information for their own business needs. In order to make their system accessible to terminal operators, the FLAGSHIP-RTS team designed their software to run on a standard server. By developing effective and robust algorithms it was possible to reduce the amount of processing power required and ensure that the software could run on existing hardware without the need for investment in specialist computers. As with any other mission-critical software package, the FLAGSHIP-RTS system can be deployed with levels of redundancy and back-up that can easily be managed by an in-house IT department to ensure high levels of availability required to make it viable.
The FLAGSHIP-RTS sub-project has been extremely successful and in trials at the Port of Valencia it has been demonstrated that it can reduce wasted repositioning movements by up to 25% while saving 10-20% of transport costs through improved planning and faster response times. The benefits to the terminal operation include less wasted activity and less congestion, with a smoother profile of movements during the day. This facilitates increased capacity without the need to invest in major development or extensions to the terminal infrastructure. However, although already established as a commercially deployable solution, this scheduling and optimisation technology does not stand still: faster algorithms and more powerful user interface tools continue to be developed to enhance its scope and the benefits that can be achieved.