Optimized equipment flow for your terminal
Traditionally voice radio is used to transmit instructions on a container terminal. Unfortunately this kind of traffic control is highly inefficient: radio communication clutter and the manual assignment of moves do not contribute to efficient container handling at all.
You will be delighted to see how the Cosmos automated equipment control system solves many of the traffic control problems on your terminal, be it a row-wise, bay-wise or mixed one.
TRAFIC, as an integrated part of the Cosmos container application suite, offers you:
-
Higher terminal efficiency
-
Reduced dispatcher workload
-
Efficient use of container handling equipment
-
Reduction of equipment idle time
-
Significant reduction of the general costs
Equipment allocation
TRAFIC optimizes the assignment of container moves for all the currently available types of equipment, such as straddle carriers, reach stackers, forklift trucks, rubber-tired or rail-mounted gantries, tugs and multitrailers.
Each transporter can either be assigned to a work area on the terminal, to job types (e.g. vessel loading or discharging, truck handling, rail or yard operations) or to specific tasks (e.g. housekeeping). Each transporter can have different assignments, each with different user-defined priorities.
Equipment can be pooled in so called Teams.
- Terminal Roadmap -
Full flexibility is the key when TRAFIC is used to assign jobs to container handling equipment.
A sharp reduction of equipment idle time is obtained by:
Task and work queue management
The concept of tasks allows users to hierarchically group container moves in the most flexible way. Every task consists of multiple work queues, e.g. one for each individual vessel bay. Work queues contain a sequence of moves to be executed by the drivers. All these work queues and move lists can be split, re-sequenced or grouped by the TRAFIC dispatchers.
Typically, we distinguish between vessel-related tasks (all moves related to loading and discharging) and housekeeping tasks (moves on the yard, truck moves, rail moves), both of which can be created with a few simple mouse clicks. When containers are moved between two positions with more than one transporter, moves are automatically split into different instructions, one for each transporter.
The automatic generation of plug and unplug instructions ensures proper handling of operational reefers.
Assignment optimization
TRAFIC allocates moves in a fully autonomous way, based on a selection of user-modifiable cost parameters, such as total driving distance, empty driving distance or age of instruction, reducing costs significantly.
Changing these parameters has an immediate impact on the operations as it defines the priorities of each job, based on the terminal operator's preferences. TRAFIC calculates the total driving distance for each move that needs to be executed.
The controller interactively defines the road maps and work areas on the terminal to enable these calculations. From the pool of moves created by TRAFIC, the program assigns instructions in a sequence to transporters in order to optimize the transporters' route.
TRAFIC dispatchers
The TRAFIC dispatcher maintains visual control over every task or work queue. He monitors the status of each individual move and has the authority to change the priority of a given move; he can even assign moves to different transporters.
- Transporter Visualization -
Equipment drivers receive driving instructions on radio data terminals (RDTs). In case some transporters are not equipped with RDTs, TRAFIC sends its instructions to a dispatcher with a hand-held device on the yard. This equipment instructor in turn informs assigned drivers by voice radio.
To ensure proper handling of reefer containers, TRAFIC automatically sends plug and un-plug instructions to the technicians on the reefer yard.
Reports
Dispatchers and operations managers can extract a multitude of reports from TRAFIC. A detailed report lists all moves for every transporter for a given time period, whereas the logging report shows all logged actions on the selected moves.
Summary reports recap the number of moves per area or per transporter on the terminal. These reports allow management to review the performance of the terminal and take the appropriate actions where necessary.
TRAFIC also exports these reports to standard Microsoft Office® applications, such as MS Word®, MS Excel® and MS Access® and to HTML.
Advanced features
Apart from the traditional container handling equipment, TRAFIC also optimizes transportation of containers over the yard.
TRAFIC has the world's most advanced housekeeping functions. The dispatcher selects an area from the yard and applies a filter to select only those containers that need to be relocated. TRAFIC then automatically creates the work queues with instructions to be sent to the right transporters. Housekeeping cleans up certain parts of the yard and automatically prepares the yard for loading or discharging a vessel or train.
A second important feature is balanced workload. RTG-operated terminals will benefit significantly from workload balancing. Instructions are assigned to the RTGs with the lowest workload and are planned as close as possible to the transporter's current position, thus minimizing RTG movements.
Conclusion
TRAFIC is the most complete equipment control software available today. It combines state-of-the-art optimization algorithms with years of experience in traffic flow automation for all kinds of container handling equipment.
With minimal user intervention, TRAFIC assigns move instructions to the optimal available transporter, based on user-defined rules and criteria.