Cloud
computing, mobility, Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) are converging
to create unprecedented opportunities for logistics operators to better manage
their assets and their vehicle traffic.
For
shipping ports, airports, warehouse dispatch centres, production sites, and
fleet company yards, there are scores of benefits for adopting what we refer to
as SmartHub Logistics (SHL). All of these environments have similar
constraints: limited opportunity for expansion, growing volumes of cargo and
traffic, high costs associated with downtime, and the constant drive to ‘do
more with less’.
An
intelligent SHL platform integrates information from various different
logistical functions within the yard and combines that data with external
insights like local weather patterns or traffic congestion information.
This
provides operations managers with real-time information to help them allocate
resources and create schedules in the most optimal way. A shipping port, for
example, could consolidate real-time information from truck drivers, hauliers,
parking space operators, port road management and vessel tracking systems. This
data could be used to schedule and stagger the flow of trucks entering the
port, off-loading or on-loading containers, and exiting the port.
The
result – fewer traffic jams, fewer ‘empty runs’, and shorter waiting times. In
one of the world’s best examples of SHL, Germany’s Hamburg Port manages
throughput of an astonishing 40 000 trucks and a quarter of a million shipping
containers each day. Or – as another example – an airport could coordinate the
arrivals schedule with the logistics of baggage handling services, refuelling,
and disembarking equipment. We use the adage of making sure things are ‘at the
right place at the right time’, to describe the coordination of these various
logistical elements. Essentially, SHL platforms draw on the momentous leaps in
three fields of technology:
•
Mobility – geofencing, geolocation, telematics and mobile apps
• Cloud computing – hosted information services instantly made available to
users wherever they may be
• Big Data – advanced analytics software which transforms data into actionable
insights
Using
geofenced ‘zones’, and interactive mobile apps on smart devices, the users
‘on-the-ground’ (such as a truck driver) can submit information about where
they are, and when they expect to arrive at a destination; as well as receive
instructions from operations managers. Therefore, an operations manager could
instantly divert trucks to a different route when the SHL platform indicates an
accident or a traffic jam is delaying the flow of vehicles.
By
knowing where every vehicle and asset is, at any given time, managers have the
ability to target their messages to the right individuals. In fact, SHL
platforms give logistics hub managers visibility over an entire value-chain
(seeing all the inter-related components and players), allowing them to
provision resources according to current demands. Other role-players like fleet
managers, port managers, truck drivers, or baggage handling crews can be
presented with information that is relevant to their particular role in the
broader ecosystem.
However,
the truly transformative advantages of SHL lie not in the reactive ability to
quickly make changes to logistics schedules, but in the proactive opportunities
made possible by Big Data. Sensors on vehicles and assets (telematics) record
things like speed, waiting times and journey distances. When this is combined
with productivity-based reports, such as cargo throughput in a port, and with
other data sources, patterns within the data start to emerge. By tracking various
patterns – like the movement of equipment, or the flow of trucks – the advanced
analytics competent of an SHL platform is able to advise operations managers on
more efficient scheduling and route planning in the future.
In
this way, SHL platforms breathe life into the concept of ‘The IoT’, producing
meaningful results by tracking the interconnected individuals, assets, and
vehicles that swarm around yards and ports on a daily basis.
Contributed
by: Martin Vergunst,
business solutions executive at T-Systems South Africa
Article first
appeared in Transport World Africa:
