Global ports are recognized for innovation as well as concern for labor and environment

As we have noted in our news section, Navis World meets in San Francisco for its biennial user conference to provide logistics managers with market intelligence on global seaport operations reliant on new technology. 

It’s also an opportunity to recognize some of the more progressive ports and describe how they are implementing new solutions to enhance container velocity. 

The “Inspire Awards” honor terminal operators, ocean carriers and vessel owners who demonstrate distinction, a commitment to excellence and innovation at their facilities in six categories.

There are two categories new to the awards this year, the Learning and Development Award and the Individual Achievement Award.

The Learning and Development Award recognizes organizations that have gone above and beyond to develop their workforce and manage change in their organizations to stay ahead and the Individual Achievement Award is given to pioneers who have made a significant contribution in their company to drive the industry forward.

This comes at a time when many U.S. port face resistance from dockside labor unions to automate services. 

Which begs the question: Where is the collaboration?

Andy Barrons, Chief Strategy Officer at Navis told LM that ports “are constantly innovating and developing their workforce to remain competitive,” adding that scores are arrived at by a granular process of measurement. 

It’s refreshing to discover that unlike so many award rituals, this one is based on a fairly unbiased statistical formula. Winners were selected through a combination of peer voting on the Navis Collaboration Center(NCC), and final evaluation by a judging panel. The 2019 Inspire Awards winners include:

Terminal Operations Optimization

Award of Excellence: Terminal Pacifico Sur Valparaiso maintains service levels while optimizing yard planning to accommodate increasing number of containers. Year-over-year gate moves per hour increased from 81.5 to 93.8.  Award of Recognition: Tianjin Port Information Technology Development Co. completed t consolidation of six terminals to a singular TOS. With an annual throughput of 15 million TEU, it is now the among the largest single terminal complex.  

Vessel Performance and Capacity Optimization

Award of Excellence: Zeaborn Ship Management was one of the first users to focus on monitoring vessel performance, tracking emission compliance and maintaining fleet-wide data standards.  Award of Recognition:Seaspan Ship Management Limited, committed to ensuring the safety of crews, cargo and the environment through highly optimized vessels, launched its Seaspan Action on Vessel Energy Reduction (SAVER) initiative. Seaspan guided the construction of 25 SAVER 10,000 and 15 SAVER 14,000 TEU vessels, paying close attention to the quality and optimization of the vessel as a whole. 

Innovation

Award of Excellence: APM Terminals MedPort Tangier was built in 2018, and from design and planning through execution, was up and running in record time. Award of Recognition: Qingdao New Qianwan Container Terminal Co. Ltd. launched automated operations in 2018 and by the end of the year had more than 1,100 vessel calls with 100% on-schedule rate. 

Shipper and Community Impact

Award of Excellence: DP World Callao is committed to maximizing operational efficiency and providing a better customer experience with its Digital Port project, which minimizes customer participation in manual and physical processes. The project automated all of the manual processes (i.e. identification, appointments, approval, settlements and online payment, document management) through the implementation of integrated technology solutions and ultimately transformed the way of working in Callao Port. 

Award of Recognition:Haifa Port implemented pre-advised messages for general cargo and used them as the basis for general cargo automation at the gate. This turned Haifa port completely paperless but the real success was convincing custom agents and Tally companies to abandon their paperwork and physical presence in the port and exchange them with pre-advised EDI messages. This is a true digital transformation, which took time to eliminate opposition of some of these stakeholders as the new procedure changed their way of doing business.

Collaboration Across the Container Flow

Award of Excellence: Seaboard Marine  to maximize port stay operations as well as improve communication, efficiency, and transparency throughout the stowage planning and execution processes.