Customer Overview
Our customer is a prominent provider of marine services based in Singapore, specializing in
delivering advanced maritime software solutions to major ports and towage operators globally.
The customer has identified an opportunity to digitize and automate marine operations aiming to
improve operational efficiency and excellence.
Project Overview
In the realm of marine port operations, the current manual processes for job planning, resource
allocation, and billing are causing significant challenges, including inefficiencies,
complexity, and communication issues faced by the Accounting and Planner teams. To address these
problems, the business aims to implement a streamlined digitized system that will efficiently
manage pilotage or towage jobs and accurately generate invoices based on the resources used for
each job.
Challenges
Maritime operations face following challenges due to the complexities of allocating resources,
tracking time, and manual coordination, impacting efficiency and billing transparency,
- The planner team encounters significant challenges in manually allocating resources for
tasks like Pilotage and Towage. Constraints include limited human and physical resources
(e.g., tugboats, pilot boats) and factors like vessel types, sea tide levels, and depth,
complicating allocation.
- Manual time tracking for each resource in a job poses difficulties, often leading to
billing
discrepancies and reduced transparency for customers, impacting trust and satisfaction in
service delivery.
- Manual intervention and coordination among human resources, planners, and billing teams are
crucial for efficient job completion. Planners often follow up with resources to initiate
tasks,
adding manual effort and potential delays to operations.
- The lack of real-time tracking for resources and vessels hinders timely decision-making,
potentially causing inefficiencies and operational disruptions.
Solution
The proposed solution aims to automate job planning, resource allocation, and billing processes
to eliminate manual inefficiencies and complexities.
- Developed a Web Application for Account and Planner teams and an iPad application for human
resources like pilots and tug masters, enhancing mobility and control.
- Implemented an AI-powered Job Scheduling Engine to optimize resource allocation, maximizing
planning efficiency with minimal human intervention.
- Enabled manual or automatic job planning, visually represented on a Gantt Chart for easy
adjustment. Real-time job tracking and coordination available via a dedicated chat platform
and
map visualization.
- Upon allocation and deployment of resources by planners, notifications are sent to human
resources through the iPad app, facilitating real-time updates on job progress.
- The system accurately detects job completion based on shared resource statuses, calculates
resource allocation time, and generates invoices based on actual job utilization, automating
billing processes.
Benefits
- By automating job planning and resource allocation, manual errors are minimized, and
operations are
streamlined, resulting in increased efficiency throughout departments.
- The solution's scalable nature allows it to adapt to growing demands, ensuring seamless
operations
even during periods of increased workload.
- Optimal allocation of resources leads to their maximum utilization, reducing idle time and
boosting
overall productivity.
- Automated billing processes guarantee accuracy in invoicing, minimizing discrepancies and
enhancing
customer satisfaction.
- Through resource optimization and operational streamlining, the business can achieve
long-term cost
savings.
Technology and Integration
- Java
- Angular
- Flutter
- AWS Services
- ActiveMQ
