Contribution by 1-Stop Connections
Artificial Intelligence in the Port Landside Community
The Internet of Things is now an industry catchphrase, along with the big data that it generates. But more recently AI – artificial intelligence – has also begun to capture the imagination of businesses looking to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Together, IoT and AI herald a new era in the landside port community, opening possibilities for supply chain perfectibility never before possible.
Look at the way the two concepts relate and how they are helping ports become more efficient by drawing on an increasing pool of data.
An industry platform covers all aspects of container logistics to integrate shipping, storage and redirection. Learn more from Michael Bouari, CEO, 1-Stop Connections, in his technical paper ‘The Changing Face of Container Logistics’
AI and IoT – making the connection
The relationship between the IoT and AI is analogous to the way the body works. The IoT feeds us raw data from the physical world, just as our senses feed us information. AI is the brain. It makes sense of the data and decides what actions to perform.
AI has implications for all industries and professions – including law, for example. Given enough data, conclusions can be drawn about the best way to advise a client. In the same way, given enough information about a supply chain, an AI-enabled platform can advise a shipping company how to save time and money by making smarter decisions.
1-Stop Communications' CEO Michael Bouari spoke to Port Technology at TOC Europe 2017 to discuss how the company is aiming to improve supply chain technology:
Learn more about 1-Stop Connections’ digital Preferred Partner solutions in the PTI Supplier Directory
Big data, AI and supply chain decisions
AI depends on machine learning – current data analysis sets rules for future actions. For example, a person working in a port may know from experience that 80% of deliveries are often a day late for a certain carrier coming from Hong Kong during winter. But there’s not enough time or information available to do anything, other than advise the client of the delay when it happens.
However, an AI-enabled logistics platform can predict the likelihood of a single container being late from Hong Kong on a particular date. If that figure is 89%, the platform redirects the container to avoid the delay.
How? Because the logistics platform has factored in hundreds of variables coming from the IoT and processed them. No human being could devote so much attention to one transaction and make the complicated decision in time based on huge amounts of data.
The fast, exhaustive evaluation of possibilities is thanks to AI, and makes a real difference in supply chain reliability.
Mobile technology, social media, cloud computing and advances in analytics are all contributing factors in digital transformations. Learn more from Michael Bouari, CEO, 1-Stop Connections, in his technical paper ‘Productivity Through Decision Making’
VBS meets AI – the future of supply chain platforms
With AI, a vehicle booking system (VBS) becomes more than a way of keeping track of containers. It’s a full-service capacity management system.
The system can become so sophisticated that bookings can be allocated to a specific truck and driver. This cuts back on wasted time associated with appointment systems.
By planning equipment and staff bookings to only support the incoming workload, your business is leaner, smoother and better able to respond to changing environments and regulations.
1-Stop’s VBS, an intelligent VBS, each terminal configures timeslots, work day calendars and business rules, and creates and maintain customer details. A public holiday in Singapore? A lengthy customs procedure in Taipei? These details, fed into the VBS, give it a granularity of data allowing it to calculate schedules down to the minute.
Learn more about 1-Stop Connections’ digital Preferred Partner solutions in the PTI Supplier Directory
More information = more reliability
In 2010, Dr Hokey Min from the College of Business at Bowling Green State University, predicted a number of applications of artificial intelligence in supply chain management. These included that AI could be integrated with existing legacy systems of various supply chain partners without disrupting information flow across the supply chain.
Six years later, supply chain platform developers at IBM stated:
“Most organisations lack transparency into critical links in supply chain processes – as well as the visibility needed to better predict and prevent disruptions and inventory imbalance.
“This largely stems from an inability to corral and make sense of an overwhelming amount of data scattered across different processes, sources and systems.”
By bringing AI into the supply chain, this problem of data overkill is solved – data is ‘corralled’. The truly intelligent supply chain platform can gather thousands of details and make sense of them. By doing so, it creates new opportunities for those in the port community to excel at what they do.
By Michael Bouari, CEO of 1-Stop Connections
Michael Bouari is CEO of 1-Stop Connections, an Information Communications Technology (ICT) solution provider that is connecting and automating the port community. Michael has over 19 years’ experience in B2B technology solutions for the supply chain and freight and logistics industry.
1-Stop is a globally recognised leader in innovating and delivering integrated solutions to increase productivity for the Port Community. 1-Stop is committed to working collaboratively with all members of the community to deliver efficiency gains for everyone.
