Terminals are - after all - only one piece of the puzzle for the whole port. With terminal automation, the focus is often on physical automation on the terminal floor, i.e., automated movement of cargo or at the entrance and exit process. With port automation, you look at the entire port basin and super infrastructure. Process automation and integration automation at both the port and terminal level will continue to advance. Our automation options for terminals are in our TOS and CHESSCON solution. For both, the port and terminal automation, standards such as those increasingly established by TIC4.0 (Terminal Industry Committee 4.0), "Port Call Optimization" or DCSA (Digital Container Shipping Association) will become vital. Here the process and data automation play an essential role to improve efficiency of existing solutions as well as implementing new solutions. This usually becomes even more complex when the hand-over between different process owner needs to be automated – e.g., in a typical example of berthing a vessel. Here the lead changes from the vessel/liner in the approach and berthing itself to the cargo handling terminals and ports. To handle the information flow in such aa case, standards of TIC4.0 and DCSA need to go hand in hand. With such standards, "plug-and-play" solutions across different implementations will become possible. This can save time and costs in projects. General standards also make it easier for more vendors to develop solutions, allowing the best solutions to prevail. It can prevent a single market leader from imposing its own standard on the industry and could make it easier for smaller ports and terminals to use the solutions and participate in the market. Read more in my blog post: PORT LOGISTICS BLOG.

Today, no efficient terminal can do without modern IT solutions and good processes matching. These have to be selected and integrated, the employees have to be trained using the systems. The systems have to be configured and optimized during operation. All of this is not part of the daily business or the core tasks at a port or terminal. External specialists / port consultants, who bring a wide range of experience from other port and  terminal projects, can help to fulfil these additional tasks in such a way that the terminal is modernized and optimized. The employees need to able to work with systems and processes in such a way that they facilitate their own work and the terminal operation. Here it is important to find the right level and skill set of support, so it matches with the organization and tasks to be done. Don’t oversize the consultant work to still stay in control, but also don’t play down the role of external input to a modernization and digitization process.