CONTAINER HANDLING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Jebel Ali Port: Container Terminal 3 (T3)
Mohammed Ali Ahmed, Chief Operating Officer, DP World, UAE
The road to transformation is paved transfer vehicles (ITV’s) for horizontal on analysing KPI data related to overall with technology, innovation and human transport for container transfer from quay productivity, the movement of containers, enterprise. Transformation is no longer to stack and stack to quay. The yard’s stack and operational efficiency at large, while the an alien word for the marine terminal capacity is 103,764 TEU – designed for TOS takes care of the automated machinery. industry, and for a global player like DP the mega-ships. With a draft of 17 metres In the vast yards T3 dozens of ITVs World it is a process that began 36 years and quay length of 1,862 meters, T3 can scurry around picking up container boxes, ago when the world’s largest man-made berth 10 ULCS simultaneously, a first for dropping them off at assigned spots harbour emerged from the sands of Jebel the region. and searching around for more. These Ali. automated machines are the foot soldiers It was a technological feat unmatched Automation of major ports in DP World’s global then and admired since, setting new Automation scripts every move in the portfolio. Preprogrammed and carefully benchmarks as a container port and a T3 facility which is equipped with 19 monitored, they collectively represent commercial gateway for a region stretching SPP (super post-Panamax) gantry cranes, artificial intelligence (AI) at work, with the from the Indian subcontinent to East 50 Automated RMG and RTGs, seven computers providing data by the billions. Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. empty box handlers, two reach stackers, The business model created by Jebel Ali 190 tractors and 178 trailers. With so Big ships, cranes and data as an integrated port and logistics hub is much automation, DP World chose In the 22 years since the world’s first being replicated today across DP World’s CyberLogitec’s OPUS Terminal as its automated container handling facility global portfolio, and emulated elsewhere TOS to run Terminal 3, a solution Jebel opened in Rotterdam in 1993, terminal by emerging economies. Ali already uses for Terminal 2, with its 29 automation has scaled great heights For Dubai’s port planners investing SSTS and 60 RMG cranes. both in terms of the technology and in the most sophisticated technology The TOS accounts for a small portion acceptability in an investment-sensitive available was never an option. In 1972, of the total investment in a terminal but industry. The shift from man to machine seven years before Jebel Ali, Port Rashid it holds the key to operational efficiency. has seen DP World’s technology launched Dubai’s ambitious ports business With the latest J2EE-based open allocations rise, but the yield is in the form as the region’s most modern container architecture, OPUS Terminal delivers of unprecedented operational efficiencies terminal facility. Before 2015 ends, Jebel high flexibility and scalability, and and economies of scale, resulting in higher Ali’s Terminal 3 (T3) will be completed enables terminals to focus their efforts on productivity and profits. and showcased as one of the most increasing efficiency in yard operation, In the near future, all the equipment sophisticated container terminals on the while integrating other terminal operation within terminals will be communicating planet. processes. through a network and therefore the As a container terminal operator, DP container flow will be optimised. Yet for A new dawn World’s biggest concerns are increasing DP World, automation is not a choice, T3, is a mammoth 4 million TEU, semi- efficiency and the visibility of operations, but we do not forget that behind every automated terminal spread over 720,000 while minimising problems. Unexpected automated operation, however extensive, square metres that towers over the port’s conditions crop up at the quayside, in the there is a human hand. Ultimately, it is landscape. It has been built on an old yards, at the gates and on the roads that humans who are in charge. general cargo and there were more than a connect its operational locations. Trivial To handle the ever-increasing number few heavy hearts when it was decided to mistakes, if not attended to immediately, of boxes arriving at Jebel Ali, DP World demolish the iconic old Control Tower as stack up to costly operational hurdles in switched to quad lift quay cranes. Today, part of the development. a terminal’s chain of commands. As the the quad lift system is standard in major T3 is an automated container terminal saying goes; a chain is only as strong as its terminals across our global portfolio. As that uses parallel stacking to the quay, fully weakest link. DP World’s flagship, Jebel Ali has led by automated ARMG’s, as well as internal OPUS enables Jebel Ali’s staff to focus example. The growing sophistication at the
82 Edition 68: November 2015 www.porttechnology.org CONTAINER HANDLING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
About the author
Mohammed Ali Ahmed is an industry leader in international marine terminal operations and development, logistics and related services. His leadership, insight, vision and operational expertise has strengthened DP World’s culture of service, excellence and innovation. With two decades of port and management experience, Mohammed Ali Ahmed is the Chief Operating Officer for DP World, UAE Region. Under his portfolio comes in addition to the leading Jebel Ali Port, Mina Rashid (port) and Mina Al Hamriya (port) in Dubai and the Fujairah Container Terminal on the United Arab Emirates Indian Ocean coast.
About the organisation
quayside is matched by initiatives like gate is monitored by highly trained support automation, RFID tracking of containers staff with a commitment to embrace new and trucks, automated stackers and now technologies that increase system integrity DP World’s flagship facility Jebel the latest semi-automatic SPP giants and productivity. Ali Port is strategically located in controlled remotely by men and women. The Dubai-based global marine Dubai. It provides the Middle East Automation has helped Jebel Ali crack terminal operator has focused on a set of region with an integrated multi- the gender ceiling in dock-side operations, fundamentals that have helped adapt the modal hub offering sea, air and alongside better safety to workers and design to existing conditions. Over the land connectivity, complemented fewer manual errors. past decade the advances made in sensor by extensive logistics facilities. Jebel T3’s remotely operated quay cranes and and navigation technology have made Ali Port plays a vital role in the simulated equipment with HD cameras it possible to transform the movement UAE economy, and is a premier and panoramic views deliver better of container handling machines at the gateway for over 90 weekly services accuracy of the data that is fed into the terminals. Today the unmanned container connecting more than 140 ports port’s sophisticated systems through high handling machines are run by computers worldwide. It has market access to bandwidth networking infrastructure. This or are remotely operated from Jebel Ali’s over 2 billion people. Expansions main operations building. currently underway at the port will bring total handling capacity to 22.1 Conclusion million TEU by 2018. Jebel Ali is T3 will be the new flagship terminal ranked the 9th largest container and the centre of excellence for terminal port worldwide, and recognised as automation in the DP World portfolio, the world’s most productive port DP World's Container Terminal 3 setting new operational automation in 2014. It has been voted “Best utilises CyberLogitec precedents once T3 is finally fully live Seaport in the Middle East” for 21 and operational. When this happens the consecutive years. DP World, UAE • OPUS-Terminal TOS system T3 container terminal, with its 19 remote- Region portfolio includes Jebel Ali • Eagle Eye Process Automation controlled quay cranes, will raise Jebel Ali Port, Mina Rashid Cruise Terminal System Port’s total annual handling capacity to 19 and Coastal Berth, Mina Al Hamriya • Systems provided by CyberLogitec million TEUs by the end of 2015. in Dubai city and Fujairah Container With every mechanised step, every box Terminal. CyberLogitec is working on an unit within the port complex tracked, Automated Container Handoff recorded and secured, Jebel Ali’s operators Enquiries implementation project between are using Big Data to good use. All our manual crane and yard truck using terminal assets such as quay cranes, yard www.dpworld.ae Eagle Eye which uses DGPS and INS cranes, yard tractors, trucks and even technologies external trucks are under the radar. The virtual terminal is a reality today.
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