South Carolina Ports (SC Ports) has replaced its existing in-house planning solution with Portchain Quay to fully digitise its berth planning at all three container terminals.
SC Ports and Portchain started their collaboration to digitise berth planning in July 2021.
Portchain Quay makes scheduling information digitally accessible at any time and provides full transparency to ultimately optimise workflow processes.
Portchain’s solution was first deployed at the newly opened Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal (HLT). Within 6 weeks it was fully operational and connected to the new Terminal Operating System (TOS).
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The implementation of Portchain Quay created buy-in from all stakeholders and allowed users to adapt to new ways of sharing scheduling information, according to the company’s recent release.
Portchain worked to optimise its solution for the US market, ensuring berth planning was available in feet and bollards. A more substantial change was to adjust the visualisation of labour shifts to represent the US shift structure.
“We aim to create transparency and efficiencies across the supply chain so that each stakeholder can optimise their own processes,” said Barbara Melvin, President & CEO of SC Ports.
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Recently, Portchain also integrated vessel position information and predictions of the Expected Time of Arrival (ETA) into Portchain Quay. All users can now see the actual position of vessels in the line-up on a map and see if the scheduled arrival time is realistic.
Portchain is further developing the ETA predictions and intelligence based on vessel position information in close collaboration with its customers in Portchain Quay.
According to the company, more realistic ETA predictions could assist SC Ports to decide on cargo opening windows, optimise vessels queues based on independent information, and monitor congestion and waiting times at neighbouring ports.
SC Ports handled a record number of containers for the month of September.
SC Ports handled 226,807 TEU at Wando Welch Terminal, North Charleston Terminal and Leatherman Terminal in September, up nearly 11 per cent year-over-year.
