Are you serious about the automation and intelligence of traditional container terminals?

The reason is that we are in the process of automatic and intelligent transformation of traditional cont

Are you serious about the automation and intelligence of traditional container terminals?

The reason is that we are in the process of automatic and intelligent transformation of traditional container terminals, and these tasks are not affected by the epidemic situation and container volume, but we still have to do them.

I have written something about the automation, intelligence and future intelligence of traditional container terminals. In the process of doing these projects, I have been fighting a devil-is the transformation of traditional container terminals the right way?

Automatic conversion of equipment

Intelligent transformation of process.

The top-down design scheme of fully automatic wharf is completely different from the present one, and the reconstruction cost is huge.

The current equipment is different from the automatic terminal, so the replacement also needs to face huge investment.

The operation efficiency of fully automatic wharf is open to question.

Therefore, we embarked on an unprecedented exploration road, trying to find the technology to transform the equipment and realize the automation of the working equipment.

The optimization and automation of operating equipment is a problem that all traditional terminals have been thinking about. In recent ten years, some terminals with ideas and abilities have begun to toss about automation transformation, starting with a wave of intelligent gates in 2007 and 2008, to a wave of intelligent tally in 13, and then to RTG remote control, QC remote control and automatic station lock in 16. ......

In 2008, through intelligent gates, tradition saw the hope of unlimited access to automation terminals.

When 20 16 intelligent tally landed, it was found that the automation process of intelligent traditional wharf was not much different from that of fully automatic wharf, and the intelligent tally scheme was basically the same. However, the difference between the traditional wharf automation transformation scheme and the bottom automation is beginning to be found. For example, the tally identification mode, automatic loading and unloading locking conditions and the inspection conditions for the existence or absence of lead seals in the fully automatic wharf of the double crane with transfer platform are better than those of the single trolley quayside crane with traditional coding. In order to eliminate the influence of equipment differences and achieve consistent tally function, traditional terminals need better technical solutions to achieve the same function, or adjust some processes to increase operational complexity or even sacrifice some efficiency to achieve the same function.

20 18, RTG and QC remote control transformation, it is increasingly found that it is too difficult to work hard the day after tomorrow. There are too many problems, mainly in two categories:

The current equipment is not designed for automation, and its ability is inherently insufficient, and the basic functions of automation are missing, such as noose and spreader anti-shake.

The overall infrastructure and layout are not designed automatically, and some problems that are not found in fully automatic terminals should be solved. The traditional dock yard is mostly mixed flow, so it is unlikely to be changed into a fully automatic dock yard.

1, security issues, such as? Remote control of RTG bypass

2. Positioning of external container card at site

3. Efficiency of 3.RTG space shuttle.

The hottest problem recently is unmanned aircraft transportation, which is more obvious. If the problem of mixed flow between inner and outer trucks is not well solved, then UAV transportation will only solve the unmanned problem, which may not be conducive to efficiency and safety.

Because I was forced to pounce on the unmanned ECS system this month, I saw various work scenes mixed with external acquisition cards combed by my colleagues. When I was designing ECS, I was in great pain, and I couldn't help sighing that the AGV mode of fully automated terminal was so perfect. Without changing the current situation of mixed flow in traditional docks, unmanned and intelligent networked vehicles can only solve the problem of labor shortage during the epidemic, but they may not have advantages in labor cost and comprehensive cost.

This is the pain and hardship of traditional docks for automatic immigration!

Let's face it, we are just different! In the face of fully automated terminals, the automatic transformation of traditional terminals is tinkering around the edges, and the automatic transformation of equipment is a road of no return. The so-called automation transformation schemes in the market are not product-level, and the conditions of each terminal are different, the business is different, and the degree of customization is also very high. Even if it breaks through many difficulties and goes online, the cost and difficulty of later maintenance are high, and it also faces the risk of being bound by a supplier. Therefore, the automatic transformation of traditional docks is really one. "

Under the wave of intelligent manufacturing 2025 and digital transformation, I believe there are two kinds of voices inside the traditional wharf. One voice is: wait; Another voice is: let's try.

It can be seen that half of port managers think that automation is very important, but more than half think that the most important benefit brought by automation is job safety, which is indeed the primary problem to be solved by automation at present. In addition to this benefit, almost many managers have realized the "better operation management and consistency" and "lower operation cost" brought by automation. In my opinion, whether these two benefits are obvious depends entirely on the starting point and original intention of the automation transformation project. If automation transformation is regarded as a way to digitize operating equipment and business processes, and as a process of digital transformation of traditional enterprises, then the above two benefits will be better and easier to show.

......

To solve the above problems, we must first understand the real-time state of the operation equipment, link all the production factors of the terminal and know their changes in time.

Connect all production requirements, so that the right data can be automatically transmitted to the right people and machine algorithms at the right time and in the right way.

Then, the problem of terminal execution will be solved. Through the automation transformation, the implementation process standards are unified and controllable, and the uncertainty in the implementation of a single device is eliminated:

Through automation, the problem of inconsistent human operation can be avoided.

Through the automation and standardization of the overall operation process, the process, data and operation procedures are unified.

So that the automation equipment can predict when it performs its work, so that it can? Accurately predict the business state after a period of time, and provide conditions for people or machines to adjust their decision-making schemes.

As a process of digital transformation, automation creates a parallel world based on numbers, a virtual world that can be read by machines and algorithms, and a virtual world that enhances algorithms and AI. This is the other side of traditional terminal automation.

I don't think the automatic transformation of the traditional wharf is suitable for any traditional wharf, or this river needs its own magical power.

We have summarized some experiences from intelligent tally, new generation intelligent gate, intelligent residual inspection and unmanned vehicle collection for your reference:

Automation transformation often faces a great degree of customization, and these customized components and functions will bring uncontrollable maintenance costs in the later period. Therefore, when making customization, we should also make a complete design and the ultimate user experience (including operation and maintenance) according to the idea of productization, ensure the flexible and replaceable components through architectural design, and cover all kinds of anomalies in the future as much as possible through functional design. Even if there are no application countermeasures at present, at least we should reserve processing interfaces and space.

When implementing the transformation scheme, make the scheme compatible with similar scenarios as much as possible, so that Party B can reuse the scheme as much as possible and promote it to other customers in the industry. Only when Party B continues to popularize and apply the scheme can the scheme be continuously optimized and updated, and the vitality of suppliers will be stronger. In turn, it will feed back the initial transformation of Party A and make the whole market form a virtuous circle.

Party A should also avoid binding with suppliers when carrying out automation transformation. What Party A can do is to transform the business into technical requirements through its own understanding of the business, help suppliers to lower the industry entry threshold, and reduce the dependence of supplier scheme design on the industry background, so as to allow more suppliers to enter. And Party A must be an integrator in the early stage, and Party B will think about it until the real Party B can hold up this day. Party A is also a evangelist, helping Party B to develop the application market.

When the automation transformation is over, the project is over for the Engineering Equipment Department and Party B, but for IT, everything has just begun. Does the new automation project promote the digitalization of enterprises? Are there some more dimensions to look at the production process of enterprises?

CMICT IT planning draft 2.0