This project report analyzes the performance of container terminals by analyzing numerical data and statistically processing data collected from a questionnaire distributed to major container terminals. The paper focuses on berth productivity achieved at ports and terminals worldwide, which measures the speed at which container ships are unloaded, loaded, and sent back. The evolution of container terminal productivity and efficiency is analyzed for 20 terminals in 10 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain.
Container handling productivity is directly related to the transfer functions of a container terminal, including the number and movement rate of quayside container cranes. The paper also discusses the importance of optimizing the operational frontline at terminals. Container terminal operators use quay crane productivity as a key indicator and one of the critical parts of overall terminal productivity. The number of moves per hour is the estimator in container traffic measurements.
The container shipping industry, the backbone of the global economy supply chain, continues to grow, adapt, and change. To boost productivity in container terminal operations, it is essential to focus on precision, coordination, and continuous improvement. Productivity can be measured in terms of gross moves per hour (GMPH), which focuses on a crane’s ability to move containers over the quay wall each hour.
In this comprehensive guide, strategies and solutions to improve the efficiency of container terminal equipment are explored. Quantitative productivity comparisons among terminals or ports may lead to misplaced efforts to improve productivity. Simulation can provide automation support and reduce training times, making port productivity more efficient.
📹 How Container Ports Work: Logistics of Intermodal Transport
How container ships work, and subsequently how container ports work is fascinating, so join me to find out! Acknowledgements: …
What are three major port productivity indicators?
Port performance indicators include berth throughput (BT), waiting ratio (time waiting for a berth / service time), and service time ratio (cumulated service time / total number of ships). Physical performance refers to the output of existing assets and facilities, such as berths, yards, cranes, sheds, storehouses, and labor force. Quality performance includes port reliability, flexibility, and application of rules in the quality of port services.
What is terminal efficiency?
The efficiency of container terminals is a pivotal element in the overall performance of ports. It encompasses the operational efficacy of ports and the optimization of output with constrained resources. Infrastructure plays a significant role in defining efficiency. The HubSpot Call-to-Action Code (in the event that the user is accessing the site via an Internet Explorer 8 browser) represents a crucial element in the process of enhancing efficiency at container terminals.
What does container terminal mean?
A container terminal is a facility that stores and processes shipping containers as they move from one vehicle to another. These facilities, located at ports, handle the loading and unloading of containers from ships, their storage, and their transfer to trucks or trains for inland distribution. They are crucial in the supply chain, ensuring timely delivery and distribution of products worldwide. There are thousands of container terminals worldwide, with major ports often hosting multiple facilities.
The total global container throughput was approximately 862 million TEUs in 2022, with some of the busiest ports processing tens of millions of TEUs annually. The Port of Shanghai was the busiest container port in the world in 2022, handling 47. 3 million TEUs.
What are the factors influencing container terminals efficiency?
The container terminal is a crucial supply chain station for transferring freight containers from the sea to the hinterland. Port terminal operators need to improve their strategies to compete with other marine ports. Technological advances have created numerous study options for port designers, but little attention has been paid to factors influencing port performance from both technical operation and management perspectives.
A systematic literature review of 106 published articles from Web of Sciences journal databases identified eight main themes: assignment, scheduling, optimization, strategic management, risk, performance evaluation, information system, and maintenance.
The highest performance cluster of container terminals was found to be focused on operation, facility, and equipment. The primary elements influencing container terminal performance were operation time, container handling time, and quay crane productivity.
How to calculate port productivity?
Operational performance measurements focus on productivity, relating to physical quantities of items, effort expended, scale of activities, and efficiency in transforming resources into products or services. Indicators traditionally used to measure terminal operations efficiency include berth occupancy, revenue per ton of cargo, capital equipment expenditure per ton of cargo, turnaround time, and the number of gangs employed to facilitate cargo operations. These performance measurements span a performance continuum from maritime operations to terminal and hinterland operations.
Port performance is measured at both the terminal and port level, as different terminals may diverge. The list of indicators used to measure port and port terminal efficiency is expanding, with port performance becoming multidimensional. Measurements of financial, system-wide, and production and marketing activities are benchmarked against prior year performance and against competitors to deliver efficiency objectives.
Port performance is essential for integrating ports into supply chains and facing environmental sustainability challenges. Connectivity performance, environmental performance, safety, security, and occupational health performance are also part of a comprehensive port performance measurement. Port presence is also measured in terms of market capture and socioeconomic contribution.
The port efficiency continuum includes maritime, terminal, and hinterland operations, with inefficiencies in one dimension likely to impact the others. For instance, issues in terminal operations are most likely to negatively impact maritime and hinterland operations with delays.
What is Gmph?
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Students learn directly from experts who shaped global policy and responded to major public health events like Covid-19 and Ebola. They also explore and critically evaluate vital research that improves the quality of life for millions of people worldwide. The program has been ranked 2nd globally in QS World University Rankings 2025, Times Higher Education Rankings 2023, and received the University of the Year title from the Guardian University Guide 2023.
What is the difference between Gmph and Bmph?
The Mining Act is administered by the Minister for Mines, Minister for Minerals and Energy, and the Council of Ministers, established by Article 9 of the Treaty. Gross moves per hour (GMPH) measures a crane’s ability to move containers over the quay wall each hour, berth moves per hour (BMPH) measures the total number of containers moved on/off a vessel each hour, and man hours per move (MHPM) refers to the efficient use of cranes.
How can I make my port more efficient?
A port planner must consider various boundary conditions, including space for cargo handling, transport, facilities, and vessels for bypassing and turning. Environmental factors, such as a calm harbor basin and breakwaters, should be considered. Reducing currents and ensuring the quay is positioned in a direction that pushes moored vessels into the fenders can improve terminal efficiency.
Extreme value analyses and numerical modeling can be used to predict wind conditions and waves and currents in a port, affecting berthing conditions. Long-term measurements and numerical modeling can help predict the frequency of each condition.
Dynamic mooring analyses should be conducted to incorporate vessel motions, line and fender forces, and meteorological and hydrodynamic data in a test matrix. This tool allows for the incorporation of passing vessels’ impact and considers the differences in waves and currents over the entire vessel length.
What is the definition of port productivity?
Port productivity is defined as the number of container moves completed per port call, divided by the total hours elapsed between the vessel’s arrival and departure from the berth.
What are some of the ways to improve container efficiency?
To enhance container loading and unloading efficiency, several strategies can be employed. These include optimizing the container yard layout, implementing Yard Management Systems, using Automated Container Handling Systems, adopting proper loading techniques, investing in ergonomic equipment, training workers, implementing continuous improvement initiatives, leveraging technology, optimizing container stacking and storage, and integrating with Transportation Management Systems.
Optimizing loading plans is crucial for streamlining logistics operations, reducing costs, and meeting delivery deadlines. Utilizing software tools to generate optimal loading plans based on container dimensions and cargo characteristics can help optimize loading. Investing in modern equipment with advanced features can enhance productivity.
Effective load planning should also consider factors like order type, LTL/FTL, or LCL/FCL. For LTL/LCL, load plans should be based on the sequence of arrival points, create pick lists based on route planning, separate cargo by the point of arrival sequence on the loading dock, and make signs and separations at each point of arrival to prevent miss unloading.
How to improve container terminal efficiency?
A modern TOS can enhance worker productivity by streamlining tasks and planning equipment movements. Optimizing yard layout, minimizing truck and equipment travel distance, and performing an equipment audit can save fuel and improve productivity. Real-time data and an updated data strategy can help minimize idle time. Prioritizing long-term scalability is crucial for ensuring solutions will remain relevant ten years from now.
Maximizing terminal efficiency requires considering scaling and evolving with future technology. By implementing these strategies, businesses can improve their efficiency and ensure long-term success.
📹 Container port animation – how a shipping container port works – logistics training
An animation of a simplified container port. Not to scale and illustrative only. Extracted from our short course on How Ports Work …
3:05 “Every step of the process described so far has the capacity to be fully or semi automated 3:11 “And in fact, at some of the terminals at the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, they all are, or at least partially”” That sentence construction made no sense. You were leading us to believe the terminals in that port is so advanced, ALL of it is fully automated, when in fact some are not at all.
I study x-ray, i’m not even that interested in this stuff but my adhd decided to watch this and now I’m absolutely fascinated. I’m also thinking about how cool of a article game this would be, like a mobile game, where you have to load up truck by colour coordinating the truck colour with container colour and managing multiple ships coming in and out and having to move around stacks of containers to make room for move containers moving in and having to manage the in and out of containers on ships and trucks.
SUGGEST: you ought to hire a better voice actor… plenty of talent available for $200/H… someone… anyone… whose voice is not a verbal tranquilizer… also consider a low volume bass note to encourage attentiveness by viewers… nobody loves training and lessening the dull factor increases the learning… such as applying a brightened border to each object as it is discussed… there’s a dozen moving bits… which is centerpoint at any given moment?