How new tools boost cargo stowage planning and cut through current challenges
Cargo stowage planning is one of the trickiest tasks you can think of, says Kaleris.
Before cargo can be stowed on the correct vessel in the correct order for its correct destination, the central ship planner at the liner must balance maximum cargo capacity on the vessel with a safe sailing condition, while leaving enough flexibility for the ship to sail through changing voyage conditions.
Most existing stowage planning tools focus on the items of utilisation and maximum stow by considering certain parts of automated stowage scenarios during the planning process. This is a huge help for the stowage planner, who can work more efficiently and saves time in the direct planning process.
However, there is still a lot of administrative work the planner must do in addition to the pure planning. The respective plan for the vessel is influenced by incoming data from other departments at the liner that need to be considered throughout the planning process.
Today, the planner must drop the planning work whenever requests or new information comes in and either manually integrate new data into the plan or distribute the requested information via email or telephone.
The next generation of stowage planning software prepares the planner for the liner to centrally store base data, booking data, ship data and voyage data on a server, whereby data is synchronised across the planning team. Anyone who has access to the server can store or retrieve data.
Kaleris’ new stowage planning system Stowman DS takes this new setup into account and allows the central planner to work undisturbed on the stow plan to balance capacity and safety by integrated checks on the stability and strength of the vessel combined with the actual stowage plan.
The major advantage of a distributed services solution is that more sets and sorts of data around the cargo stow can be stored and shared. This can evolve into an ecosystem around all possible cargo information during transport that supply chain stakeholders may access and use.
The first example of a new add-on application to Kaleris’ Stowman DS is the Loadlist Manager, a tool that tackles various pain points around the load lists that need to be created for the ship and terminal to load the correct cargo. These pain points are the large amount of forecast files for a single voyage, various data contexts depending on the file types, multiple parties submitting data with different codes and file revisions that require frequent reconsolidations and replanning after load list revisions. The Loadlist Manager offers an application to automatically consolidate forecasts and load lists from all parties via manual upload or API options, automatic file translation and code mappings, monitoring voyage execution, deadlines and options for automated notification and creating a live loadlist to update the planning condition in the stowage tool.
By integrating increasing sets of data into the growing cargo ecosystem over time, Kaleris and its unique stowage planning solution also strive to solve other existing pain points in terms of cargo stowage. For example, a missing single source for inhouse teams through the planning stages or lacking visibility across different external stakeholders about valid departure conditions and deviations from plans.
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