SimPlus has been awarded a research project by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, to design and build a prototype Planning and Coordination System to facilitate the Just-in-Time arrivals of vessels, where port services are automatically provided upon vessel arrivals through real-time information sharing and coordinated planning.
JIT has been successfully implemented in other industries such as manufacturing. The central requirement to JIT is to be able to forecast demand accurately, which in the maritime context translates to providing wider information visibility on vessel status to the various players in the port maritime ecosystem. We believe that the advancement in technology, the willingness to adopt technologies and the need for collaborative decision-making have created an opportunity window for the maritime industry to revisit the JIT concept.
The project will involve various stakeholders to understand their requirements, considerations, and constraints, analyze the user requirements and come up with a framework for an information sharing system to facilitate JIT services in port. Scalability, extendability as well as interoperability of the system will be carefully considered in the process. The ultimate objectives are to reduce the turnaround time of vessels in port and optimize port resources and operation efficiency of service providers, whereby the port handling capacity will be enhanced.
The project aligns with SimPlus’ vision of enabling Smart Ports and we are excited to be part of this new initiative, working towards a future-ready Next Generation Port of Singapore.