Tideworks Case Study

Inside the Manzanillo International “War Room” with Terminal View

Situated near the Panama Canal’s Atlantic opening on Manzanillo Bay in Panama, Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT) is one of the largest container transshipment terminals in the region. It generates significant economic activity, serving Panama and nearby countries in Central America and the Caribbean.

It was also the first customer to integrate our Tideworks Terminal View application. From the moment they were first introduced to the product, it was clear to management that it would be a gamechanger for their operation.

They found solutions to many of their terminal’s most significant, productivity-damaging problems in this intuitive product. The fact that it integrated seamlessly with their existing Tideworks TOS made the decision simple.

Even with the knowledge that Terminal View was likely to revolutionize their “War Room,” they were still surprised by just how effective the software proved to be. In many ways, the “war” has ended. Chaos and confusion have given way to orderly planning and efficient equipment moves.

This is the story of how Terminal View tamed MIT’s traffic control beast and maintained expected productivity even as volume and operational complexity increased.

The War Room Before Terminal View

“The room where the Traffic Control (TC) team worked was indeed a ‘war zone.’ Controllers had to rely on radio communications. You're talking about 12 to 13 gangs, each one having between six to 10 UTRs plus the typical yard handling equipment,” he said. “So, it was like a Persian Rug Market. It was just screaming and yelling, and nobody could hear anybody; everybody was talking on top of each other.”- Oscar Caballero
Terminal Manager, MIT

We talked with Oscar Caballero, MIT’s Terminal Manager, to determine why they referred to their operations center as the War Room and what it was like before they purchased Terminal View. He provided a vivid picture of the mayhem the operation faced each day.

Without a centralized view of their entire terminal, TC users had to keep the positions of their entire fleet of container handling equipment (CHE) in their heads and rely on updates from operators in the yard. When these updates were accurate, moves could be plotted with reasonable accuracy. Unfortunately, the true positions of equipment operators weren’t always reliable.

And this logjam only worsened as the diversity and volume of the CHE machines increased. By the time Terminal View joined the team, MIT was tracking dozens of top-picks, side-picks, RTGs, and ASCs (Automated Stacking Cranes).

It was difficult to plan efficient moves with all of these moving parts, even with the best information. It was becoming an increasingly arduous task to avoid delays in dispatching and receiving units. These challenges were limiting the full potential of the service they provided to their vessel, yard, and gate operations.

With Terminal View, Control Returns to Traffic Control

With icons tracking the location and type of every piece of CHE deployed, seeing a 3D simulation of their yard on giant screens was stunning for MIT’s team. They’d seen similar offerings from other software providers, but Terminal View outclassed all of them.

According to Oscar:“It put everybody on the same platform because everybody’s looking at the same thing. It’s not like different people looking at different information and interpreting it differently. It gave us more empowerment as we could firmly guide and even challenge operators about their location, allowing us to ensure that our various operational strategies and contingencies could be effectively implemented.”

The team was immediately impressed by the detail available within the system and the accuracy of the information it provided. They no longer had to keep detailed equipment maps in their heads. The entire TC team could see where every piece of equipment was and what it was doing. The screen gave them a strong visual reference to use when planning moves.

Terminal View enabled a watershed shift from “forceful execution to organized strategizing,” as Oscar put it. Guesswork was removed, allowing controllers to assign moves to specific equipment with unprecedented certainty regarding its current location and its ability to complete the planned move.

TC controllers were able to distinguish between the types of CHEs in the yard, whether they were active or inactive, and determine their positions relative to each other. Systematic planning and hyper-efficient yard regulation replaced the reactionary, radio-fueled chaos that came before.

MIT was also excited by the PC functionality built into the package. Not only could they view their entire operation on a large, central screen, but individual controllers could also run a smaller view on their PCs, allowing them to drill down to track specific teams and discrete pieces of equipment. They found the search function invaluable, allowing them to instantly locate specific machines, regardless of their location or status.

Terminal View enabled a watershed shift from “forceful execution to organized strategizing.”

This all proved to be a significant boost to organization and planning across their vessel, yard, and gate operations. Moves per hour per equipment metrics became more stable, allowing for operational costs to decrease. As a side benefit, employee satisfaction among TC controllers grew as the mad scramble of old was replaced by a quieter, more orderly “Peace Room.”

MIT Enthusiastically Recommends Tideworks Terminal View

Oscar and the rest of his team are enthusiastic in their support of Terminal View. They estimate any mid to large-scale terminal will see measurable improvements by including the software in their planning process.

Large operations must balance countless stakeholders’ needs and ensure the smooth transition of cargo between vessels, rail, and gate locations. Oscar sums up the situation well.

“Having that complexity of planning strains your system. Your planning must be much more acute. You must have time to reshuffle the yard during the off periods or whenever you have extra equipment, so you can position the containers in a place where productivity can be maximized. Otherwise, you might end up with delayed vessels, which hampers the service that you want to provide the customer.”

Terminal View from Tideworks provides the “eagle in the sky” view previously unavailable to terminals of any size. It dramatically reduces the complexity of your operation by placing it in front of you, fully accessible with the click of a mouse.

Now, you may not be experiencing a “Persian Rug Market-like” scene day-in-day-out. But that doesn’t mean your terminal operators are functioning with all the information and guidance they need to work as efficiently as possible. If you’d like more information about how Terminal View can help you improve terminal performance as volume shifts, or to see a demo of Terminal View in action, contact Tideworks today.

Ready to experience Terminal View for yourself? Contact us today.


©2024 Tideworks. Partnering to optimize global logistics with integrity, efficiency, and flexibility.