Time for the container to box clever?


16


A new Danish-Chinese part- nership is offering a range of products, including ‘smart containers’ to the shipping industry. The deal between CIMC Internet


of Mobile Things International Operation and Service Co (CIMC IOMT, part of the CIMC Intelligent Technology Company, itself part of China International Marine Container Company) and Denmark-headquartered Globe Tracker International (GT) dates to late last year, but in August this year CIMC IOMT and GT confirmed the manufacturing launch of a range of smart containers for CIMC customers. Initially available through CIMC’s Yangzhou Tonglee Special Container, Qingdao CIMC Special Reefer Co and Nantong CIMC Transportation and Storage Co, “the goal is to have all CIMC divisions supplying the container shipping, trucking, railway and logistics industries with global tracking, monitoring and remote asset management services and equipment,” says CIMC’s chief, Shouqin Zhou. Smart products will be available


on all types of containers, trucks, railway cars, land-based and marine terminal infrastructure that can benefit from global tracking, monitoring and remote asset management services. While the system is supplied


under the CIMC brand, GT will add its own knowledge and experience in remote asset management. “We are pleased to take the next big step in the relationship between our companies. We will begin to ramp up our volumes to meet CIMC’s


Issue 7 2015 - Freight Business Journal


///IT WIPRO sets the standard


Containers are getting clever, says Globe Tracker’s director sales and marketing, Don Miller


demand and the proliferation of the technology on the Silk Road,” enthuses GT chief executive, Jim Davis. The first priority for the CIMC


collaboration and the smart containers is China’s One Belt One Road initiative, part of the wider Chinese Government programme known as the New Silk Road. This is intended to develop trade overland into Europe (as well as into areas en route) and also incorporates a maritime Silk Road planned to link China with Europe. Director of sales and marketing


at GT, Don Miller, notes: “We do have purchasers of the systems already for the Silk Road, and many more are in trials. We are targeting the rail operators, marine and inland terminal operators, logistics providers and ocean carriers that wish to provide end- to-end visibility and monitoring of cargo for their customers. “The extra benefits the


technology offers to the asset owners are the efficiency, fuel savings, reduced dwell times,


faster transit times and increased asset utilisation that can be derived from automating an entire trade lane with devices that are connected and communicating in an ecosystem that allows cargo to flow smoothly and efficiently across multiple countries.” GT offers a wide range of


products for end-to-end supply chain visibility. The company’s Communications Unit is involved in supporting a variety of mobile assets across the supply chain, including rail cars, container handling equipment, chassis as well as containers, while its GT Infrastructure Units create GT I-Networks provide workflow, asset and cargo visibility for warehouses, rail terminals, ports and vessels. Within this construct, it also supplies wireless peripherals. Its systems involve a mix of


GPS, cellular, Wi-Fi and GT Sub GHz technologies (the GT Sub GHz is an open communications platform for near field wireless sensors) – and even satellite-based technologies as required.


All change at Kewill


Bob Farrell is to transfer his role as chief executive of logistics software firm Kewill to Doug


Braun and will


support the transition through to December. Doug Braun was previously chief executive of


distribution software specialist International Business Sys- tems. Jim Hoefflin has also been


appointed president and chief operating officer. He previously served as chief executive of


Empower Software Solutions, a workforce management and human capital management solution provider. Braun and Hoefflin spent over a decade together at RedPrairie, a supply chain execution company.


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Air France KLM Martinair Cargo’s Let’s Get Digital programme is offering optional automatic notifications when shipments are affected by


an irregularity. Customers will be automatically notified about the situation, its cause and any solution.


In the last issue of this column, we noted that Qatar Airways Cargo recently rolled out a new cargo management system – CROAMIS, or Qatar Airways’ Cargo Reservations, Operations, Accounting and Management Information System. It is designed to meet the varied needs of the Doha-based carrier’s global freight network across a range of operations management functions, including sales, pricing, cargo ground handling and ULD management. CROAMIS also provides an integrated revenue management module for inventory management, cargo load and revenue optimisation, as well as a cargo revenue accounting suite. CROAMIS was developed


by Qatar Airways and the IT services provider Wipro. Sritharan Jagannathan, program director and delivery head at Wipro Infotech, explains the background to the project:


“In 2012, Wipro


and Qatar Airways entered into an innovative long- term strategic partnership to


leverage competencies


of both organisations and to create greater value and efficiency for the airline. The strategic relationship brought together Wipro’s technology, application development and project management expertise with Qatar Airways’ aviation


systems’ domain expertise to develop cutting-edge solutions that have created competitive advantages for both organisations.” Wipro has, Jagannathan


adds, ‘owned’ the responsibility for marketing the solution and implementing and supporting the product for other airlines. As a start, detailed


requirements were gathered from Qatar Airways’ cargo operators and product managers. Wipro’s testing team was involved from this very early phase in order that they understand and prepare the test scenarios for the system appropriately. The development phases saw the development of a robust ‘technology framework’ to reduce development efforts and to ensure standardisation, while senior software architects from Wipro conducted periodic technical reviews. Moreover, daily builds and continuous integration of the system’s components were undertaken to quickly identify and remedy any defects. The project was formally


divided into three phases, which were completed between 2012 and 2014: requirement gathering, software construction and testing. All in all, Jagannathan enthuses: “We are very pleased with the end result, as we have successfully


delivered a very large and complex product, built with emerging technologies on an open source platform. The team has acquired significant knowledge not only in the technology used but also in the airline’s cargo domain.”


Innovation


CROAMIS was built on the latest available technology using open source options to minimise the total cost of ownership (TCO). Moreover, its development incorporated various differentiators and value propositions that were vital to the programme and that set the system apart from some of the other cargo management systems that have been developed over the years. CROAMIS is, for example,


highly scalable and is easily customisable, while being both International Air Transport Association (IATA) e-Freight and Cargo 2000 compliant. It is also barcode, radio frequency identification (RFID) and mobile ready, and it incorporates flexible pricing and deployment models that can be customised according to an airline’s size and particular requirements. “We work with large airlines but this was the first time in which we developed such an end-to-end product in the cargo domain,” Jagannathan concludes.


New chief executive for air cargo tech group


IATA Interest Group Cargo 2000 (C2K) has appointed Ariaen Zimmerman as executive director. He will lead the change programme at C2K, which has been set up to improve standards in the air cargo industry. Under his guidance, C2K


will adopt a new auditing system, neutral benchmarks, and embrace a smarter, wider approach to data analysis using smart data. Zimmerman has over a


decade of experience in the air cargo industry


in senior


management roles, including at Polar Air Cargo and, most recently, Saudi Airlines Cargo. His team includes assistant


The Geneva-based team members, pictured leſt to right, Sebastian Schirmers, Laura Rodriguez, Ariaen Zimmerman


manager, Laura Rodriguez, who has been working with IATA’s cargo division for two years, operations manager Sebastian


Schirmers, who joined C2K as in August from DB Schenker, and secretary to the board, Phil Sims.


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