Improving productivity and customer service in ports and container terminals

This event is for terminal managers, port managers, regulators and suppliers of equipment and services to ports, who want to update themselves with how ports and terminals around the world are doing the most with information technology.

Join delegates from PT Ocean Terminal Petikemas, APM Terminals Rotterdam, HHLA, DFDS, and GPANS South Korea.

Speakers will present a series of case studies from ports and terminals around the world, on the topics of terminal automation, gate technologies, security systems, wi-fi in ports and terminals, RFID and container tag systems, explaining how the technology is used, where most value was obtained and the lessons learned.

This is probably the only conference this year specifically about information technology in container terminals and ports - if you work in IT in ports and only want to attend one event this year, make it this one.

Case studies include Ceres Paragon Terminals, La Spezia Terminal, Port of New Orleans, APM Terminal in Rotterdam, Napolean Avenue Container Terminal in New Orleans, Port of Amsterdam, Port of Helsinki, and Hutchison Ports (container tracking).

Limited places - register now to reserve yours.

Chair: Karl Jeffery, editor, Digital Ship

TERMINAL OPERTOR's PERSPECTIVE

9.30 - Keynote introduction - Simon H van Wijlen, ICT director, Ceres Paragon Terminals

Ceres Paragon Terminals claims to be operate the fastest container terminals in the world. It will be the first marine terminal to integrate the systems provided by Navis with image acquisition portals, weigh-in-motion scales, closed-circuit television for security and gate control, remain-in-truck data entry by truck drivers, container/yard equipment positioning through satellite Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and advanced crane control systems.

TERMINAL MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

10.00 Guenter Schmidmeir, head of sales, EMEA, Navis - Case study - Navis software at La Spezia terminal

Navis, based in Oakland, Califonia, is the world's largest container terminal software company. It recently installed its SPARCS container terminal planning system, including the automated yard planning system, which enabled it to handle 30 per cent more containers.

10.30 Nico Berx, executive sales manager, Cosmos. Advancements in container terminal management

Nico Berx is executive sales manager with Cosmos, an ICT solutions provider for ports and terminals. Mr Berx was previously project manager and sales manager at Cosmos, and has a large amount of practical experience with port and terminal operations. His main interest is in optimisation and automation of terminal and port processes, the coding of these processes in efficient software, and to new technologies that are being developed and introduced for terminal operations.

11.00 BREAK

SESSION: TECHNOLOGY IN TERMINAL GATES

11.30 Anton Bernaerd, business development manager, CAMCO Technologies Case study - gate systems technology at APM Terminal in Rotterdam

Using gate technologies to improve the service terminals provide to shipping lines and truckers - making sure congestion relieved at the terminal using gate technologies is not moved to somewhere else in ther terminal - smooth interfacing of gate system with terminal operating system using additional software layer at gate - improving accuracy of character recognition systems - combining gate system with security system

12.00 Michel Demeyer, business development manager, Visy Oy Case study - gate systems technology at the Port of Helsinki using optical character recognition (OCR) and RFID technology

12.30 PANEL DISCUSSION - Which technologies can do the most to improve customer service and productivity in ports

1.00 LUNCH

SESSION: RADIO DATA COMMUNICATIONS

2.00 Wilfred de Raat, senior account manager, LXE Netherlands. Project with Cisco to develop radio data communications solution for ports, switching between RF-LAN, UMTS, DGPRS and Wi-MAX.

2.30 Wi-fi in ports and terminals - case study- wifi in the Port of Amsterdam and other ports - Janne Kertula, RadioNet

SESSION: RFID IN PORTS AND TERMINALS

3.00 Case study - Port of New Orleans Napolean Avenue Container Terminal. Robert Hadow, N.C, Cuthbert.

Business case for tagging trucks and chassis using a particular terminal - efficiency benefits gained - IT infrastructure necessary -

N C Cuthbert is systems integrator for Napolean Avenue Container Terminal

3.30 Susan Evans, manager EMEA, Savi. Case study: Savi Networks developments, including recent field trials with Mitsui and a major Japanese manufacturer

Growing international demand for improved visibility, efficiency and security of international container shipments led to the establishment of a global real-time information service called Savi Networks. Formed earlier this year by Savi Technology and Hutchison Port Holdings, Savi Networks leverages advances in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies and networked software to provide real-time information in a "managed services" business model.

4.00 PANEL DISCUSSION

4.30 Close

BACKGROUND

There are plenty of big themes happening in the ports IT sector - including the gradual shift from EDI to the internet / web services as a communications medium; the gradual introduction of wi-fi and handheld computers in ports; the introduction of RFID technologies to track and manage containers; better integration between ports and the terminals, truckers on one side and vessels on the other.

Many terminals and ports are implementing automated gate systems to read truck and container numbers (optical character recognition) and these systems are also finding their way onto container handling equipment. There are more sophisticated systems to track and monitor the position of containers within the terminal.

Meanwhile ports everywhere are under pressure to get containers through as fast as they can and minimise berth delays and using IT to facilitate this.

This event is a follow-up from our successful one day conference about IT in ports in Amsterdam in April 2003 (see www.thedigitalship.com/portsitconf.htm ).