The LeverX team implemented scenarios for effective planning of berths and resources in the port based on SAP YL.
Customer Overview
CUSTOMER
A large European port.
CHALLENGE
The customer needed to improve a range of processes to reach efficient management of the growing number of port units. Among them were load planning of berths and routes and load planning of human resources.
SOLUTION
The LeverX team customized a standard SAP Yard Logistics solution by adding a new functionality that solved the required tasks.
Project Objectives
The growth in the number of port units, resources and port capacity inevitably leads to the following questions:
- How to manage resources in the most effective way: to ensure equal work distribution among all port employees and to avoid vessel shutdown?
- How to advance arrival and departure scheduling of transport?
- How to develop a berth space booking system in order to quickly load and unload vehicles from the vessel?
The existing IT solution of our customer, a large European port, did not answer all the requirements. Our objective was to expand the standard SAP Yard Logistics product, by adding a new functionality that will help:
Improve the load planning of berths and routes
- Place vessels according to the time of their departure/arrival and the size of the berths
- Book berths
- Minimize the risks of abnormal situations (lack of space for vehicles or resources for their loading/unloading; the berth unreadiness for the arrival of the vessel, etc.)
Improve the load planning of human resources
- Automate the process of data input
- Accelerate the processing of loading and unloading operations
- Arrange the tasks for a particular period of time
The solution that the LeverX team implemented in the customer's business processes is a tool for optimal resource planning ー Planning and Control Center Tool.
Solution Description
Berth planning
- Creation of the requests in SAP YL systems for the placement of vessels in the port
- Arrangement of the berth space for loading and unloading of the vehicles
- Automatically making the best path for vessels to reach the parking area
- Route planning by the means of MRS dashboards
- Real-time reporting (that is integrated into the inner system)
Human resources planning
- Optimal distribution of work among employees according to the number of available teams, the number of people in them, and their qualification
- Reduction of the manual activity while entering data
- Integration with a berth scheduler
- Time-saving visualization of reporting
LeverX Contribution
How did our team improve the implemented standard SAP Yard Logistics solution?
- Improved the functionality of SAP YL by adding the option to choose the Berth Position
- Developed the Yard Schedule app from scratch
- Added Planning Groups to SAP YL
- Advanced existing UI components and created new ones
- Created reports for batch processing
- Developed data entry services
- Integrated CAR Center, a third-party system, with SAP Yard Logistics
- Integrated SAP Yard Logistics with MRS and Solver
Solver is a third-party application that helps with time management and resource allocation for unloading vehicles; prioritization of unloading, etc.
Integration of YL and MRS with Solver improved the visualization of planning results.
Technology Stack
- SAP YARD LOGISTICS
- WEB SERVICES FOR INTEGRATION WITH CAR CENTER
- IMDB FOR PLANNING
- HANA DB
- SQL DATABASE
Results and Benefits
Thanks to the development and implementation of a tool for planning berths and resources, our customer has managed to:
- Reduce the time of loading and unloading vehicles from the vessel (now the places of Loading and unloading vehicles are as close as possible to their parking place).
- Enable optimal planning of human resources: the work between employees is distributed equally; the implemented solution also avoids resource shutdown.
- Eliminate vessel shutdown in the port.