Customers
Asia Container Terminal
Port of Napier

Having Navis is extremely important, and builds instant credibility. When we go to a ship's master or the principal of a shipping
line and tell them that we use Navis, they know we are using a system that they can depend on, and one that is used globally.
— Steve Johansen, Chief Information Officer, Port of Napier

 

The Port of Napier wants to handle as much cargo as they can profitably, and become the major port for the lower North Island area of New Zealand. Navis helped the port move towards this goal through increased terminal utilization and productivity. "By providing our staff with the best technology tools, it allows them to do their work a lot faster and more efficiently then they were able to do in the past," says Steve Johansen, chief information officer at the Port of Napier.

Navis provides a lot of the core technology for the Port of Napier, and has become "super-critical" to the port, says Johansen, "We depend heavily on Navis technology to keep our productivity high. We simply can't afford to have our terminal operating system (TOS) off-line; going manual would be extremely difficult if not impossible." He continues, "I've talked with other ports that tell us they can afford to have their terminal system offline. That tells me that either their software is not up to scratch or something funny is going on. If our Navis system goes down, it's like having all of our
cranes out of service—our terminal stops.

Software Supports 25% Growth without New Land or Additional Staff
During the busy season, which runs from March through June, the port earns 60% of their revenue and has a three-fold increase in volume. The port had predicted a 12% increase during its 2003 busy season, but actual growth was 25% thanks to some very successful marketing initiatives.

Guy Stone, Napier's Terminal Operations Manager says, "When you have a terminal that grows the way we have, you'd expect to bring on extra labor to cope with the influx. We’ve managed to balance it and leave it as is. Navis helped us more than cope with the growth, through improved productivity." Johansen adds, "With the old system, we would have really struggled with the increase in containers. Comments back from staff at the end of the season were that they didn't think we would have survived without changing to Navis. 25% growth when you haven't predicted it would have been just too much for the previous system to manage."

The port has also been able to operate its terminal more efficiently. By optimizing the logistics flow through the terminal from the gate to the vessel, the port is able to keep the port call as short as possible. "By moving vessels through as quickly as possible, we're able to minimize berth congestion, which defers having to build alternative berths as long as possible," says Johansen. He continues, "The cost savings of delaying extra developments can be significant. If we can delay the cost of berth expansion for one year, we’ve reclaimed our IT costs. Furthermore, we can prove that we are squeezing everything out of the land that we currently have."

Industry Standard Technology Enhances Credibility
Navis has become a strategic selling point with shipping lines for the Port of Napier. "Having Navis is extremely important, and builds instant credibility. We've found that if we go to a ship's master or the principal of a shipping line and tell them that we use Navis™ SPARCS and Navis Express® they know we are using a system that they can depend on, and one that is used globally," claims Johansen.

Going with the industry standard has also helped the port meet increased emphasis on worldwide compliance. Napier management believes that partnering with Navis will give them insight into what bigger ports are doing internationally. According to Johansen, "Using Navis will help us establish ourselves as a compliance leader in New Zealand. We'll be able to say we conform to the highest security standards and cargo handling methods." Stone adds, "Navis gives us insight into what other ports are doing; we can see how they are using Navis' products, where we can increase efficiencies, and through Navis Professional Services and Navis User Groups, we can share information and see where the world is heading."

Superior Customer Service Delivered Over the Web
To improve customer service, Napier was also looking for a real-time Web portal that linked to their operating and database systems. They selected Navis WebAccess® "Because people understand it, it's in use around the world, and we anticipate it becoming the industry standard, like SPARCS and Express," says Johansen. Stone comments, "WebAccess gives us all of the features that we require like notification, pre-advice, and pre-gate. All of our customers have logins. And, since the information comes directly from Express, it is always up-to-date." Stone continues, "Every customer's needs are unique. Now customers have the ability to customize and create their own reports, and can export them in Excel or as pdf files—they're delighted. They can see that the Port is working for them.”

Re-handles Reduced 90% with Expert Decking
Prior to implementing Navis™ Expert Decking, all yard planning was paper-based with planners using basic allocations. Operationally, the Port felt it had little control of the yard area, and employees were experiencing difficulty keeping up with volume increases. As the terminal grew, employees were getting burnt out: stacks were mixed, and often containers couldn't be found in a timely manner. Due to volume, planners were forced to make stacking decisions based on time, rather than a predefined strategy, and had no time to analyze the consequences. Additionally, fork lift drivers
had to keep a paper list of what container was where. The Port wanted to automate yard planning to take pressure off of staff. Says Stone, "With the volumes going up, the only way that we were going to be able to cope in the future was to automate the control of yard decking. Expert Decking was
selected to take pressure off our workforce."

Stone explains, "With Expert Decking, we've got clear strategies in place, and are making correct decisions. Now, one type of container is stacked per section." Expert Decking enabled us to clean up our vessel bay and upped vessel productivity. We've increased yard utilization by over 100%
and maximized the use of our CHEs. By adding an extra loading zone and splitting the movement of the CHEs [container handling equipment], we've decreased yard shuffles from 30 to 5. Now, the only time we do a yard shuffle is for a specific reason, such as changing the load list to balance it
out."

Since implementing Expert Decking the Port has realized significant benefits: re-handles have been reduced 90%, truck turnarounds have been reduced from 60 minutes to anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes, depending on volume, and yard shuffles have been reduced. "Because Expert Decking is making the correct decision for us, the stacks are being set up with one type of cargo in each section. This has increased our CHE productivity, and the feeding of the cranes is a lot quicker," says Stone.

"In fact, at one point we had 1,176 reefers on port. There is no way we could have done that without Expert Decking." Stone continues, "The utilization was over 100%, it was just ideal to watch. We had no worries when the reefers came through the gate—we knew that they would go to the right slot."

Automated Vessel Planning Increases Efficiency
In the second half of 2004, the Port of Napier "perfected" their configuration of Navis AutoStow, a SPARCS module that automatically compiles optimized stowage plans based on business rules and strategies set by vessel planners. Prior to AutoStow, planners spent 100% of their time doing manual planning. During the busy season, planners barely had a moment to breathe, as the berth had vessels coming and going back-toback. Often they were still planning the vessel as the ship was coming into the port.

"With AutoStow, ship managers are able to analyze vessel exchanges a lot better. And, planners are now able to more strategically plan each vessel, and have more time to do so. In fact, we can now try different strategies or different work patterns prior to the vessel arriving, and still have all of the
paperwork ready when it does come in," says Stone, who also notes that planning time has been reduced significantly.

Rapid Implementation for a Quick ROI
With the busy season approaching, rapid implementation was essential to project success. "We knew that we needed to have the best possible conditions which we could achieve right from the start when we replaced our old system with Express, implemented WebAccess, and upgraded SPARCS shortly before the start of our 2003 busy season," says Johansen. "We knew straight out of the upgrade we would have our volumes go up. We wanted to make sure that the system was set up properly and that we were incorporating best practices from other terminals."

Johansen firmly believes that investing in Navis Professional Services for implementation and training was vital, enabling the Port to realize a much quicker return on their investment. "The staff were trained by Navis Professional Services which helped them adapt to the new system in one month, and prior to the start of our busy season under extremely difficult circumstances due to the increase in container volumes." Johansen adds, "The Navis Professional Services team is the best project team I've worked with in my 22 years in the IT industry."

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