Authors: Michael Wickert, Herbert Sonntag, Bertram Meimbresse. phone: , fax: ,

Transcription

1 Strengthening of the seaport hinterland traffic by innovative Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and business concepts the case Berlin Brandenburg Authors: Michael Wickert, Herbert Sonntag, Bertram Meimbresse phone: , fax: , Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau, Research Group Transport Logistics, Bahnhofstraße, Wildau Date of submission:

2 Abstract There are several reasons why the container transport in the hinterland of seaport container terminals has to become more efficient. A better physical infrastructure is only one step to reach this goal. Another indispensible step is the expansion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Within the project InnoSHV (Innovation Seehafen Hinterland Verkehr) a system of ICT-tools is in development for the steps (I) Inbound and Outbound processes at transhipment terminal (II) Truck pre and post haulage (III) Settlement and location (IV) Asset management terminal organisation. The tools are building together a network-based information and communication system, whose scope can be adjusted very easy through its modular structure. So it is attractive and fits best into the user s needs. The addressees of thus tools are small- to medium-sized bi- or trimodal hinterland container terminals, marshalling yards, operators / forwarders and truckers. The following article shows the methodology, the findings from the case Berlin-Brandenburg and the results for the research and describes possible next steps. Keywords InnoSHV, seaport hinterland, hinterland traffic, Berlin-Brandenburg, ICT-pilots 1. Introduction Nowadays the manufacturers have to take the growing requirements regarding availability, costs and punctuality of their customers. To reduce costs, raw materials, semi-finished and finished products are procured worldwide in a high quantity. The resulting global transport chains have to be economical, reliable, secure and sustainable at the same time. The main objective of all efforts has to be the pursuit of a compromise between these goals. In this context the maritime container transport plays a key role. No other transport mode manages the challenge to connect all continents to each other more efficient than the maritime transport. But the capability of seaport container terminals is important for the maritime transport, because without a well-organized container terminal it will be a bottleneck for the maritime transport chain. In the last decades the research and development of seaports and their physical and information technical infrastructure was done very well (e. g. Almotairi et al., 2011, Crainic et al., 2007, Notteboom et al., 2005, Roso et al., 2009, Veenstra et al., 2011). But as important as the seaport container terminals are for the maritime transport, the transhipment terminals are for the capability of the hinterland transport (see also European Commission Brussels, 2011). The International Union of Railways (UIC, 2010) published a survey concerning the capacity of intermodal rail transport. It shows that most of the intermodal service providers expect bottlenecks in the train paths, terminal handling and wagon capacities within the next few years. Wiegmans et al. (1999) already analyses the important role of the terminal operators and the regarding transhipment points in the intermodal chain. The efficiency of all transhipment terminals in the hinterland is strongly influenced by the physical and information technical infrastructure. For seaports container terminal management systems and simulation tools with numerous functions and implemented data interfaces to each other exist (Bontekoning et al., 2004). These software packages are always tailored for seaport container terminals with huge amounts of cargo handlings. The development and implementation of such container terminal systems including hardware imply very high costs (UNESCAP, 2005). For the InnoSHV 2

3 seaport terminal operators this cost levels are acceptable due to the amounts of cargo handlings and the associated revenue and profit. But in connection with the much lower quantity of handlings the operators of hinterland terminals do not have the financial possibilities like seaport terminal operators. That is the reason why in hinterland terminals the processes are often still based on simple Microsoft Excel sheets without any data interchanges with other tools or why they are even only paper-based (ECO4LOG, 2005). Thus they become more and more the informational bottlenecks of the intermodal transport chains in intercontinental and continental transports as well. There are big potentials to increase the capacity and the transhipment amount of these terminals by developing financially and operationally suitable ICT-tools, which can help to optimize e.g. processes, container slots much better and faster than before (see also Hesse, 2009). This approach was taken in the pilot project Strengthening of the seaport hinterland traffic by innovative Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and business concepts the case Berlin-Brandenburg (InnoSHV). Currently the development of such ICT-tools takes place in form of pilots. 2. Objectives The main objective of the project is the strengthening of the seaport hinterland traffic in the region Berlin-Brandenburg, but most of the solutions, which have been found in this project, may be helpful supraregional. The avoidance of media discontinuity and the usage of continuous information chains along the intermodal transport chains will be the basis for a sustainable strengthening of the region, because the digital information flow prevents of errors by multiple manual data input and reduces the office processing time. It builds also the basis for the most of the following sub-goals, which can be divided in operational and strategical goals. Operational objectives Optimization of in- and outbound processes at the transhipment terminal: Today the operators of smaller hinterland terminals are not or only less able to optimize their internal processes, when the media discontinuity at their gate. The lack of transparency of the block-wise stacking of containers without slot information is also a huge problem, which leads to a low capacity. Use of previous notifications in operative planning processes: The fact, that the operators getting orders for only one day in advance by their customers should be solved by implementation of fitting ICT-tools, which allow to process the digital received information directly into container relocation jobs for the crane drivers. Pre- and Post-haulage optimization and monitoring the loss of time due to transhipment, loading and unloading activities: Nowadays the truckers often have to wait for the shipper loading the container, for the receiver unloading the container or for the crane driver at the transshipment point. The truckers have no possibility to calculate this loss of time. In their opinion they could drive one or more additional orders per day, if they have less waiting time. Planning of terminal resources according customer orders: The processing of digital information from incoming orders into internal terminal jobs should help to get the needed resources for the correct conditions. InnoSHV 3

4 Strategical objectives Get innovative business concepts for existing companies and settlement of new companies: There is a large potential for the region Berlin-Brandenburg to become an important network node in the seaport hinterland traffic. To gain more traffic and get the interest of potential settling companies within the project concepts will be developed, e. g. innovative value added services or a regional container depot, and a special web application for potential hinterland settlers will be designed. The political and environmental goals are not addressed directly, but indirect. In the context of the national and regional economy the increase of capacity / traffic and the regarding revenue or profit are desirable objectives as well. 3. Methodology In a first step the status quo has been analysed under consideration of the scientific and technical stateof-the-art. Attention was paid especially on the relationship between container transport chains, hinterland operations and ICT-functions. Stahlbock et al. (2008) gives a very extensive survey on terminal operations. After getting a market overview regarding existing terminal ICT-tools the intermodal physical and information process chain was analysed in detail by each partner from practice. The idea was to analyse the actual terminal process situation with main processes as well as sub processes and its interfaces, documents, lanes only once in great detail to use it subsequently for the several ICT work packages. The result was one holistic process map for the internal and external processes of the terminals in the region. Interviews with professionals from DB Schenker Rail and TFG Transfracht at the transport logistic fair 2011 in Munich and later with PCC intermodal in August 2011 verified the results. In the next steps the media discontinuity were marked and solutions for a complete digital data flow were designed. As a connecting key element a central data management system was integrated in the model (see also Figure 1). The final process model and the target state were discussed with the partners from practice in the seaport hinterland transport. At the end of this first work package the resulting requirement specifications have been used for the contraction of programming the ICT-pilots. The next steps will be test and implementation of the ICT-pilots into live operation processes. Finally assessment an evaluation of the results will complete the research. InnoSHV 4

5 Figure 1 - Example for a process analysis: main target process EXPORT (hinterland terminal view) InnoSHV 5

6 4. The Case Berlin-Brandenburg Complete digital information flow along the intermodal seaport hinterland transport chain The presence of highly engineered processes and information related to transportation orders, goods and units in the seaport terminals forms the basis of the InnoSHV strategy to use this already digital information in the hinterland traffic for the efficient design of the processes of the different actors. Based on the internal process optimization of the transhipment points, more weaknesses along the chain in the hinterland were identified. By linking of actors the container information not only should pass digital, but also be processed digital. The ICT-based optimization accelerates the physical processes and increases the transport capacity as well as the occupancy rate of company resources. At the end it saves money and time by avoiding unnecessary process steps and container movements. The actors of the pre- and post-haulage, whose activities (e. g. pick up, loading, extradition or unloading of container) depend on the internal terminal processes, can profit, too. pre haulage outbound main haulage post haulage inbound sender hinterland container terminal seaport container terminal seaport container terminal hinterland container terminal receiver Figure 2 - activity area of the ICT-based optimization The joint effect of the future networked ICT-pilots along the transport and information chain of the seaport hinterland traffic is outlined in the following figure and explained separately for each ICT-pilot afterwards. InnoSHV 6

7 Figure 3 - Net effect of the ICT pilots and concepts (I) ICT-pilot transhipment and container slot optimization The processing of information and the planning of the handling operations between modes of rail and road is currently manually in several hinterland transhipment terminals. For inbound and outbound trains lists received by are printed out and given to the crane drivers for the loading and unloading. In addition, there is no or less documentation of the container slots. The crane drivers place the containers block-wise, so that at present no exact slot detection can be performed. Another weak point of transhipment and placement of containers is e. g. frequent re-stacking of containers for the removal of the lower container and associated increased time spent on the dispatch of trains or trucks. In summary, it should be noted that many operations are based on the skill and experience of staff and the support of ICT is minimal. The ICT-pilot transhipment and container slot optimization for mapping and optimization of internal processes under consideration of interaction with external information flows is the first module. It will help the smaller container terminals to organize their storage area and the weaknesses mentioned above much better by using previous information about future arrivals and departures of containers. Information can be interchanged by Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), processed digitally and in times of low handling-volume a slot optimization according to the pre-registered container in-/outputs can be conducted. InnoSHV 7

8 This function should increase the transhipment capacity depending on the size of the terminal. There are also many other positive side effects expected out of this pilot. In the context of this pilot an extension of an existing enterprise or material resource planning (ERP/MRP) software for marshalling yards was commissioned, so that the reallocation of containers and railway cars can be represented by information technology. The marshalling yard in the project commissioned a supplement to its operating software, which maps the connection of digital container numbers with railway wagon numbers. Through this implemented function and the early handover of digital information the optimization of transhipment processes will be much more efficient. The project partners expect the following beneficial effect for the work package (Delphi estimation): Primarily small to medium-sized terminals with low to medium transhipment quantity are thus receiving the inexpensive opportunity to use digital information and may increase efficiency and capacity by approximately 10 % by the introduction of these innovative technologies. At the same time the planning effort can be reduced by estimated 20 %. (II) ICT-pilot pre- and post-haulage optimization Pre- and post-haulage optimization is the second ICT-pilot, which addresses truckers and their dispatchers. The ICT-pilot will build the interface between internal terminal and external processes in the pre- and post-haulage. Information about incoming and outgoing containers should be interchanged promptly, so that on one hand internal handling orders are more effective and on the other hand, the time for the truck release is reduced. According to the interviews with forwarders, they are not able to log the time they lost during the loading / unloading due to the transhipment process at the moment. In this way the trucking companies are often the fender between the shipper, the transhipment terminal and the forwarding agent. Truck drivers are losing a lot of time and money by slow transhipment, loading and unloading. In the future they may log this time and use it for invoicing or economic evaluation. At the end the trucking-companies can do their core-business more efficient. The project partners expect the following beneficial effect for the work package (Delphi estimation): Additional trips will be generated by the resulting shorter transhipment / loading or unloading times. The efficient cooperation of the actors to each other also strengthen the long-term business relationships and creates due to purposeful marketing 2 to 5 new permanent regional customers. (III) ICT-pilot asset-management / planning and controlling of terminal resources One of the project partners is an operator of a still relatively new transhipment terminal at an inland port. The orders and the regarding management of resources currently is managed manually in a conventional manner by fax, phone and . Such a needs-based planning is necessary to ensure a basic operation at the site. There is the demand for a small ICT-solution especially for the management of internal and external transhipment resources in the context of a low level of utilization. Within the ICT-pilot asset-management / planning and controlling of terminal resources new possibilities of linking digital incoming requests and orders to the disposition of qualified personnel and necessary handling equipment. Difficulty here is the planning and execution of orders in a combination of internal and borrowed external resources. InnoSHV 8

9 Figure 4 - draft for the functions of the asset-management The project partners expect the following beneficial effect for the work package (Delphi estimation): In addition to creating synergies by the expected improved internal cost transparency a reduction of the asset-costs in the work and order planning and a increase of the efficiency by 20 % is expected. (IV) ICT-pilot strategic settlements Additionally a pilot named strategic settlements is developed. Seen from the point of view of a professional decision maker the most of the websites for location marketing are looking to simple and do not show the attractiveness of the region, e. g. shipper are less interested in the kind of cranes which are installed, the more they are interested in the transport costs, the kilometres and the time it will take to get their resources or products to their location or the other way round. For the settlement of businesses in the region Berlin-Brandenburg currently a lot of information is provided on the internet, e. g. on industrial land, on the transport infrastructure or innovative sites. Today the selection and presentation of information works through text form or static maps. Only rarely information is presented map-based on the basis of common dynamic web tools. In addition, the information are relatively general in nature and have not prepared or very little logistics-specific. InnoSHV 9

10 Figure 5 - settlement in the context of a logistics cluster (see also Raschke, 2009) Within the ICT-pilot strategic settlements the possibilities of today s technology will be used to combine state-of-the-art GIS technology (Geographical Information System) in the form of a web portal with already existing information on intermodal transport and transhipment points, so each user can generate his own view in a simple and dynamic way. Furthermore, the initial deployment of accessibility analysis by time, cost, energy and distance to the sea port hinterland traffic for possible locations will convey viable location advantages to potential settling companies. For this purpose, different optimization modes embedded in the map can be determined e. g. by way, time, cost or CO2- optimal transport chains to selected ports. Figure 6 - draft of website layout / container transport optimization InnoSHV 10

11 On behalf of the ZAB (ZukunftsAgentur Brandenburg GmbH) currently a platform for bundling and dynamic display of geo-information under the working title Landespräsentationstool (LPT) is developed. The subsequent integration of the ICT-pilot strategic settlement into the LPT is supported by preparation of XML interfaces. The project partners expect the following beneficial effect for the work package (Delphi estimation): The benefit to the regional transport and the transhipment points is the increase of the transport volume, which is generated directly by the settlements. The resulting higher utilization leads to an increase in sales, too. There may be much more other economic effects, which will not be discussed here in detail. 5. Findings and impacts The analysis of the status-quo revealed the following main weaknesses at the seaport hinterland container terminals and their solutions: Weakness: Solution: Low ICT support and low networking. High level of manual input and complicated conventional communication methods are a major error source and time devourers. Digital interface for digital incoming data. High level of automated data input leads to a predictive process optimization. Weakness: Solution: No or less documentation of movement or container slot allocations. Slot arrangement of containers is shaped by experience of crane driver, frequent restacking (digging for containers in lower rows), search drives for outbound containers, no optimized warehouse planning or re-sorting in times of low volume possible. Digital container slot visualization in conjunction with predictive messages for inbound / outbound containers allows optimized storage. More efficient use of container slots and transhipment resources instead of frequent restacking and searching of containers. Weakness: Solution: Lack of transparency regarding positions/order of inbound containers on the trains. In connection with optimized container slots the container dropping may result in much larger crane drive distances. Interface with marshalling yards allows prediction of the inbound container order on the trains. Internal optimization (e. g. reduced distances, optimized container stacking towards outgoing of containers). InnoSHV 11

12 Weakness: Solution: Lack of the possibility for billing of long loading and unloading operations by customer or terminal operator. Unproductive truck driver periods, loss of additional trips. Establishment of a pre-notification message system (e. g. per Short Message Services). Reducing the unproductive waiting time for trucker. Scale and scope of the network-based ICT-system The dependency of the internal terminal process optimization from the external processes makes a digital interface between the information systems of the actors imperative. Due to the small transhipment quantities in relation to seaport terminals and because of the different requirements for the integration of transport modes, the scale of ICT-solutions plays a prominent role in the hinterland traffic. The modular approach, which is being pursued by the ICT pilot project, allows particularly a performance-based adjustment of the system scope. Important issues here are the factors already mentioned above: transhipment quantity, traffic modes (bi-/trimodal) and networking with actors. Overall it should be better to use a simple IT system with high level business integration and less but necessary interfaces than trying to implement high level IT may be with low level business integration (Heinrich et al., 2005). Parallel to the scope the licensing model also has a modular design. From the perspective of the transhipment points in the hinterland, ICT-solutions like the ones used by seaport terminals for inland terminals today are not available or only for a very economically unattractive price on the market. The integration of ICT pilots in the daily operation requires the acceptance of their users. For this reason, the requirements of the users were taken into account in particular the handling of the software. A good software performance in terms of calculation times and a simple, practical and clear design of the input and output masks are the basis for successful use. 6. Next Steps Within the project InnoSHV the next steps will be the implementation, operative tests, conclusion and final report. Before a successful market launch, the functions have to be tested and further developed in common with other hinterland terminals of different sizes and different traffic structure. At the moment the Research Group Transport Logistics at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau is looking for interested partners for the further development. InnoSHV 12

13 7. Acknowledgements We extend our appreciation to all project participants and other experts consulted for this research project. We also thank Investition und Landesbank Brandenburg (ILB) / Zukunftsagentur Brandenburg GmbH (ZAB) / EFRE for funding this project. 8. References Almotairi, B., Flodén, J., Stefansson, G., Woxenius, J., Information flows supporting hinterland transportation by rail: Applications in Sweden, Research in Transportation Economics, Volume 33, Issue 1, 2011, Pages Bontekoning, Y.M., Macharis, C., Trip, J.J., Is a new applied transportation research field emerging? A review of intermodal rail-truck freight transport literature. Transportation Research Part A 38, p. 22. Crainic, T. G., Kim K. H., Chapter 8 Intermodal Transportation, In: Cynthia Barnhart and Gilbert Laporte, Editor(s), Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science, Elsevier, 2007, Volume 14, Pages ECO4LOG, 2005, Survey and benchmark of intermodal IT-services in all clusters, Component 2.4 Report by LUB Consulting GmbH and ECO4LOG project partners. European Commission Brussels, WHITE PAPER. Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system. Chapter 2.2 (27.), p. 7. Heinrich, C. E., Simchi-Levi, D., Do IT investments really pay off? Supply Chain Management Review, 9(4), p Hesse, M., Rodrigue, J.-P., International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Logistics, p International Union of Railways (UIC), Report on combined transport in Europe, p Notteboom, T., Rodrigue, J.-P., Port Regionalization: Towards a New Phase in Port Development, Maritime Policy and Management, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp Raschke, F. W Identifikation, Analyse und Management von Clustern, Gabler Verlag Wiesbaden. Roso, V., Woxenius, J., Lumsden, K., The dry port concept: connecting container seaports with the hinterland, Journal of Transport Geography, Volume 17, Issue 5, September 2009, Pages Stahlbock, R., Voss, S, Operations research at container terminals: a literature update, OR Spectrum 30, p UNESCAP, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Transport Division, Free Trade Zone and Port Hinterland Development, p Veenstra, A., Notteboom, T., The development of the Yangtze River container port system, Journal of Transport Geography, Volume 19, Issue 4, July 2011, Pages Wiegmans, B.W., Masurel, E., Nijkamp, P., Intermodal freight terminals: an analysis of the terminal market. Transportation Planning and Technology 23, p InnoSHV 13

14 9. Figure captions Figure 1 - Example for a process analysis: main target process EXPORT (hinterland terminal view).. 5 Figure 2 - activity area of the ICT-based optimization... 6 Figure 3 - Net effect of the ICT pilots and concepts... 7 Figure 4 - draft for the functions of the asset-management... 9 Figure 5 - settlement in the context of a logistics cluster (see also Raschke, 2009) Figure 6 - draft of website layout / container transport optimization InnoSHV 14