Qronoport reduces waiting time

LEARNING BY TRAINING

By Arend van Campen

GOVERNANCE BY INFORMATION

President Trump’s approval of the killing of Iranian General Soleimani in Iraq enraged many people, but also pleased some. It started the New Year 2020 in an awkward fashion, because yet again uncertainty was felt everywhere. Would there be another war? What would be the response of the Iranians? Also, the Iraqi Militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was murdered.

You may ask: what this has to do with our business in the storage and transport of hazardous cargoes? The answer to that is: everything. Destabilisation anywhere due to armed confl ict impacts business. If war between the US and Iran were to break out, shipping to or from the Middle East would become jeopardised, whilst the storage or distribution of liquid bulks would become risky.

As a columnist I’ll remain neutral, but the fact is that murder must not be forgiven, even if it is politically motivated. The world as we see it in this new decennium looks terrifyingly uncertain, which in fact it is. Watch the news, read the papers? What you and I can observe is disorder, also known as entropy, which I have written about earlier. I also proposed scientifi cally sound solutions to end disorder and create and maintain order, but politicians don’t or won’t listen to those. They plan goals, but they cannot be reached because they try to defy laws of physics. Yes, it has come to this fact.

Let me try to explain: Professor of Physics Jim Al Khallili, who happens to have been born in Baghdad, confi rms that universal energy and information obey the same laws of physics. He says that information, which is in fact energy, is used by the universe, nature and our planet to create order and structure. Information reduces uncertainty and disorder.

So, there you have it. Nature employs information to diminish entropy to build structure by feedback through which it constantly learns and adapts. This is the foundation of evolution. Nature had been building life by trial and error, through learning and information, but ended up with a species that may now destroy itself. Isn’t that ironic? Jim says - and I can agree because as a systems scientist I have done the research - that the universe is expanding and will be until it is time to shrink back into that one atom it apparently originated from.

What we now should do, is to stop and think. The universe has created the foundation for life. Our lives depend on millions of precise and unique conditions that were somehow formed by - you probably guessed it – information, which is the energy used by the universe. This is a major breakthrough because it scientifi cally confi rms the issues I have been writing about since I have started this column. Neither President Trump nor the Iranians will use all information because their pre-set goals have been determined long ago and depend on the negation of information. But what they don’t realise is that these goals will therefore be unattainable and cause more entropy. So buckle up your seatbelts, because this is going to be a rough ride for us all.

This is the latest in a series of articles by Arend van Campen, founder of TankTerminalTraining. More information on the company’s activities can be found at www.tankterminaltraining.com. Those interested in responding personally can contact him directly at arendvc@tankterminaltraining.com.

PORT OF CALL

PORTS • THERE IS A LOT OF WASTE WHEN ANY VESSEL MAKES A PORT CALL BUT DIGITAL SOLUTIONS STAND READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. PORT+ HAS DEVELOPED QRONOPORT TO DO JUST THAT

FOR MORE THAN 100 years Port+ has been active in signalling the arrival of ships by telegraphy to partner businesses serving ships and terminals in the port communities of Belgium and Zeeland and, even though 2020 is vastly different to 1905, the core principle has widely stayed the same. Port+ has now developed a 21st century solution to a logistical problem that has been causing headaches for generations: Qronoport.

“One of our core businesses has always been vessel reporting,” says Nicolas Maes, business development manager at Port+. “In this service, we provide insights on vessel arrivals and departures to the port community. Our information enables them to optimise planning of their activities and allows them to be at their vessels at the right place and the right time. This service evolved from very traditional visual spotting of the vessel to a much more advanced service through radar technology and algorithms. We are now able to predict vessel arrivals with very high accuracy through data analysis.”

Qronoport is a shared, collaborative platform that endeavours to make a port call more effi cient by combining data from various sources. The platform works by analysing open data sources, previous data collected by Port+, machine learning algorithms and data directly from participating companies to provide stakeholders with a highly accurate overview of the many different activities taking place when a vessel is in port.

To ensure users have the best experience possible there are a range of features built into Qronoport, many of which are customisable. There is a fully automated process smart engine with a chat feature to allow easy communication between stakeholders at all times in the process. The map is customisable to show vessels with relevant overlays and the overall user dashboard can be confi gured to users’ preferred settings. The information hub combines data from multiple stakeholders in the process, which can then be displayed in a Gantt chart to easily spot any confl icts and waste.

RACING FOR SUCCESS Qronoport uses the example of Formula One pit stops to highlight how drastically important communication, process optimisation and access to data truly are in the context of ports and vessels. During a Formula One pit stop, just as when a vessel enters a port, various stakeholders must each perform their own activity on a vessel, often in a specifi c sequence. “At Port+, we like comparing a port call and port stay of a vessel to a Formula One pit stop,” says Maes. “In Formula One they say races are won in the pits; In shipping, we say races are won in the port.”

The speed at which pit stops have improved since the 1950s is also a good representation of the recent increase in port effi ciency. Back in 1950 the record for the fastest pit stop was 65 seconds. In July 2019 a new record was set at 1.91 seconds, which was then cut to 1.82 seconds by the end of the year. Thanks to the advent of modern machinery and improved logistics, the time a ship spends in port for its ‘pit stop’ is a fraction of the time it used to be in 2020 when compared to 1950 and is comparable to the improvements shown in Formula One.

Of course, each and every ship is different, with certain specialisations and delicate cargoes taking far more time to load and unload when compared to other vessels, which highlights just how essential it is to determine where vessels will be and what equipment will be necessary.

There is a great need for improved effi ciency and being able to accurately plan and organise the rotation of ships on a global scale. In 2018 Houston received 4,750 liquid bulk vessels, Antwerp received 5,500 and Singapore received 24,165 – being able to predict where the ships are needed and how long they will be in port is pivotal to improving the volumes of cargo being imported and exported. When taking into account the wide variety and combination of vessels and cargoes entering and leaving these ports throughout the year, it is clear to see how forward planning to the most minute detail can improve logistics drastically.

BOUNTIFUL BENEFITS Being able to accurately monitor planned and completed activities leads to a decrease in waste and duplication and an increase in the effi ciency of planning and executing operations. One of the biggest benefi ts of Qronoport is a decrease in turnaround times for vessels in port, leading to a saving in costs for a multitude of parties.

There are three major benefi ts of the Qronoport system, Port+ says: • Increasing predictability of port calls and port operations through access to real-time and historical data • Improved planning leading to effi ciency

by having all information centralised • Reduced waste and idle times meaning an avoidance of demurrage, waiting times or scheduling confl icts. According to Port+, “25 per cent of the time a liquid bulk vessel spends at berth is waste”. This wasted time is recorded as the duration spent with no operational activities taking place. Port+ calculates that, for port calls in the Port of Antwerp alone, the potential wet time charter savings can be as much as €23.3m per year.

If effi ciency and pre-planning can be optimised, the fi nancial savings from demurrage would be a multiple of the potential wet time charter savings. On top of that, increased port call predictability due to increased visibility reduces the need for relying on buffers between shipments, port calls and berth calls. Qronoport combines operational and planning data from stakeholders directly involved in the process to give users a highly accurate overview of the different activities taking place on their vessels, thus providing increased predictability and a reduction in waste.

TEAM EFFORTS It is not just vessel operators and cargo owners that will benefi t from the effi ciency provided by Qronoport. Within the maritime chain, lock planning, pilots and tugboats will benefi t, as will sectors within the port community such as terminals, shipping agents, surveyors and barge operators. Being able to prepare each portion of the process involved at a port will save time and costs for each participant.

Port+ calculates that in 2018, on average, each vessel provided three estimated times of departure (ETD), the average delay for liquid vessels due to the unpredictability of ETDs was 9.6 hours, the total waiting time for 2018 was 73,900 hours with 25,850 of those hours specifi cally due to occupied berths, and more than one-third of all vessels experienced a delay because of occupied berths.

Ultimately, Port+ states, the average wet time charter cost of a vessel calling at the Port of Antwerp is €43,670.50, based on May 2019 rates. The costs incurred along the chain for these delays can easily be avoided with communication and planning.

Maes explains: “The Qronoport platform has been live for a couple of months now, servicing liquid bulk vessels in the port of Antwerp. Consistent waste reductions of up to 20 per cent (45 minutes to one hour) per port call have already been achieved.” portplus.be qronoport.com

THE INFORMATION COLLECTED AND PRESENTED BY

QRONOPORT CAN BE OF IMMENSE USE TO ALL TYPES

OF STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN THE SERVICING AND