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TOC Guest Blog:
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Drive Data Visibility and Smarter Decision Making

Inadequate visibility and tracking of data and assets at terminals creates opportunities for improvements in areas such as reducing maintenance for equipment, container damage tracking, and vessel efficiency improvements. Waiting times at terminals is a huge pain point as well – these include trucks having to wait at the gate due to appointment delays, unproductive movements to uncover target containers causing delays, or vessels having to wait for pilots or for an available berth to mention a few. Solutions available today help alleviate these and collectively underscore the importance of digitalisation within the ecosystem.

Many terminals look to leverage the data they are producing at their terminals to optimize their operations. By building applications that consume streams of data, they can subscribe to event updates, and reduce the need to rebuild infrastructure for downstream applications which may consume the same data. With the integration of other data streams, such as IoT devices, financial systems, equipment maintenance, and labour management, terminals can better visualize their current state and determine where it makes sense to invest, such as when evaluating modernisation, expansion, and automation projects.

Automated decision making builds on the idea of digitalisation, providing more predictability over operations and improved asset usage. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies can be layered on top of the measurable data to make useful predictions derived from the data sets. Terminals need to work with technology providers that build solutions with adaptable architectures that can leverage the benefits of technologies like AI and ML. The AI ML toolbox is growing more powerful everyday and such architectures can enable plug and play AI/ML models, which can continuously learn and benefit from streams of data and increased data integrity.

Organisations that can harness new technologies to make data-driven decisions will realise new opportunities that would otherwise remain unseen. The vision of smart, sustainable ports and terminals are within reach for those who are willing to commit to the future by investing in innovative technology now. The maritime ecosystem is rapidly evolving to becoming more digitised and is on the path to becoming more digitally connected. 

To learn more on how to Leverage Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Drive Data Visibility and Smarter Decision making, register for our upcoming webinar here.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Meena Shah is a Sales Engineer at Navis focusing on brownfield retrofit automation and optimisation. She has over a decade of experience developing software solutions for both automated and conventional terminals. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a MS in Computer Science from the California State University East Bay.