by SimPlus | Nov 1, 2017 | News
The SMI Forum 2017, themed “Establishing a Strong Maritime Innovation Ecosystem”, gathered over 200 industry professionals, academia, researchers and government representatives to discuss the essential elements of building a strong maritime innovation ecosystem and share the efforts towards supporting the Sea Transport Industrial Transformation Map to enhance the competitiveness of the maritime industry in Singapore.
SimPlus’ Managing Director, Ms Stuti Nautiyal, was invited to be a Panelist for the Panel Discussion at the SMI Forum 2017, together with representatives from ST Electronics Limited, Kongsberg Maritime Pte Ltd, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, PSA Corporation Limited and Menon Economics AS. The Panel Discussion was moderated by Prof Annie Koh from the Singapore Management University.
As a Singapore start-up that has benefitted from the vibrant maritime innovation ecosystem, tapping on MPA’s Incubation Assistance scheme, SimPlus shared its story and perspectives.
More information about the event can be found on SMI website.
by SimPlus | Oct 6, 2017 | News
In support of Singapore’s Smart Nation vision, the Smart Port Challenge 2017 (SPC 2017) organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), shortlisted 12 start-ups from 81 proposal submissions, to pitch their maritime-related proof-of-concepts (POC) in response to industry challenge statements, on Demo Day.
One of the finalists, SimPlus is proud to have received an Honorable Mention Award at the SPC 2017 event, having been assigned the challenging task of catering to 3 different problem statement owners, for 3 different innovative applications targeted to tackle a series of challenges faced in the maritime industry.
SimPlus’ team spent the last few weeks engaging with MPA, Jurong Port, and CMA CGM, to understand their respective problem statements and operations processes, before embarking on the development of a prototype in response. The theme was aligned perfectly with SimPlus’ own vision of enabling smarter ports, and SimPlus’ broad mantra for the various solutions proposed was to Streamline, Automate, Monitor, Optimize, which was then tailored specifically for the particular challenge on hand.
For port authority MPA, a PortView system was developed, with innovative solutions to Monitor current status, Predict future situation and Avoid hotspots & collision, to smartly and efficiently manage busy port waters.
For port operator Jurong Port, a web-based Information Sharing Platform & Resource Tracking System (iRTS) was developed, to serve as a collaboration tool for lighters and trucks, targeting to reduce mutual waiting and to increase productivity, with the possibility of further extending to optimization of the related resources.
For shipping line CMA CGM, a Container Yard Reservation System (CYRSys) was developed, as a platform to streamline and automate information exchange among shipping lines, truck drivers and facility manager, so as to allow informed and coordinated decision making on arrival times, and forecasted workloads.
Says Chen Chuanyu, Director (Consulting) of SimPlus, “After the SPC event, SimPlus continues to engage with the challenge owners to discuss further development of the prototypes. The SPC event was a good opportunity for our staff to work on challenging new ideas, and quickly build working prototypes from scratch, leveraging on SimPlus’ niche in-house tools and technologies.’
More information about the event can be found here on MPA website and here on MPA YouTube Channel.
by SimPlus | Aug 7, 2017 | Analytics
Anchorage usage analytics for capacity planning
for Maritime and Port Authority, Singapore
The Challenge
Vessels call at anchorages at Singapore for different purposes, in different patterns, staying for different lengths of time. A thorough understanding of anchorage usage and the usage trend is essential for MPA to monitor and plan anchorage use. With the expected increase in port calling traffic in the future, the adequacy of anchorage space to support cargo operations is also a pressing issue to tackle.
The Solution
The thorough understanding of the current practices, rules and policies for anchorage use has enabled us to conduct a meaningful and reliable data analysis to establish the behaviors at anchorages by various types of vessels. We developed a robust theoretical framework that best tackles the complexity of anchorage operations in Singapore, to unearth the usage patterns and trends, determine utilization rates and space occupancy, understand the parameters that affect anchorage capacity, as well as ways to improve it.
We presented the results in rich graphical formats that are easy to grasp and form actionable insights.
by SimPlus | Aug 1, 2017 | Simulation
Faster security check for greater customer experience
The Challenge
Patrons visit Marina Bay Sands (MBS) from various points of entry across several floors, creating peak traffic at different locations during different periods of time every day. When the patron flows merge at its casino entrances for security check, queues will form and sometimes require extra manpower to manage the situation. MBS faces the challenge of achieving greater customer experience at all time.
The Solution
As a preparatory step, MBS engaged traffic consultants to conduct surveys and understand the distribution of patrons and handling rates at the security check counters. The survey results were used as inputs to a detailed patron flow simulation model built with our Passenger Traffic Simulation (PTS) system, for the assessment of temporal and spatio conditions at the casino entrances under different scenarios. Recommendations on physical infrastructure, staffing levels, and processes were made based on the simulation findings, which would result in improvement by 11% to 70%, through predicting peaks and proactively assigning adequate staff and facilities.
by SimPlus | Aug 1, 2017 | Simulation
Assessing future berth performance
for Jurong Port Pte. Ltd.
The Challenge
Jurong Port is a major and thriving gateway for multi-purpose cargo in Singapore and in the region. As Singapore’s only international multi-purpose port today, Jurong Port expects to see steady growth in its general and bulk cargo volumes over the near and longer term future. It is thus important for JPPL management to ascertain whether the existing and planned berth space will be enough to cater to the projected traffic volumes.
The Solution
A simulation model emulating JPPL’s berth operations was developed using our Berth Planning System (BPS), with detailed setting on berth setup, berthing guidelines and berth pro-forma. The model was validated against the past vessel traffic and operations data. For future scenarios, Berth On Arrival rate and Berth Occupancy rate were set as the key performance indicators to assess whether the required service level could be achieved.
Recommendations were given to improve performance, and quantitatively evaluated to ensure that JPPL was adequately prepared to handling the future traffic, thus avoiding heavy congestion, high vessel sweating times, and dissatisfied customers.
