Planning tools for maritime shipping
As global flows of goods continue to rise, the demand also rises for available port-related capacity and the logistics that goes along with it. This is true for new seaports in planning and existing ones, too. The biggest challenge of all: the large number of influences that have to be factored in – from roadways and dockside or gantry cranes, truck gates or rail transshipping facilities to lay times or container capacities, and from legal regulations to deadlines. Reliable decision-making calls for a capability to compare and assess different variations with preset key figures, such as space requirements, the number of ground slots needed or CO2 emissions. For these requirements, researchers at the Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services CML in Hamburg have come up with the "Toolbased Rapid Planning Environment," or ToolbaRPlannEr for short. This modular software system can efficiently work through complex planning tasks for seaports, port...