Associated British Ports (ABP) has selected INFORM to provide a scalable terminal operating system solution. With the aim of transforming ABP into the one-stop store for the vehicle’s journey from manufacturer to destination, the collaboration kicks off at the Port of Southampton.
Among ABP’s 21 ports, Southampton stands out as the UK’s number one vehicle handling port, handling around 900,000 vehicles per year. Serving the company’s mission to ‘Keep Britain Trading’, the project’s goal is to provide a streamlined, fully integrated, terminal operating vehicle management system which covers all port side operations in a single application, including the planning and optimisation of compound, resource, work, and damage management. In addition to ensuring holistic transparency within the company, the integration of other stakeholders and optimised planning will also play an important role in reducing costs and improving efficiency in overall operations.
“ABP is investing in a range of digitalisation upgrades to enhance its automotive offer,” said Brian Steeds, ABP Head of Automotive. “The new Automotive Terminal Operating System in Southampton will bring a wealth of benefits to our customers by enabling efficient compound management, inventory linking and additional services with real-time data visibility for customers via a dedicated customer portal.”
Designed as a scalable solution which can be extended to enable the capacity to manage an increased number of vehicles, in the future, INFORM’s Vehicle Logistics system can be used as a basis for increasing ABP’s added value towards its customers who rent space for vehicle yards from ABP. “For example, many of our customers around the world deploy our system to also optimise workshop and transportation processes,” said Hartmut Haubrich, Director Vehicle Logistics at INFORM. “We look forward to working with ABP and driving the digitalisation of their terminal processes.”
“The Port of Southampton is the UK’s number one port for vehicle handling and offers excellent access to the global marketplace,” said Alastair Welch, ABP Regional Director at the Port of Southampton. “In addition, from this summer, Southampton will become Britain’s first port to implement a private 5G network, which will bring a range of benefits to ABP customers.
“Southampton is an important hub for the automotive industry and plays a key role in supporting sustainable supply chains. With this latest investment, we hope to optimise the services we provide and progress on our journey to transform Southampton into a smart port of the future.” ABP opted for INFORM after being able to conduct a virtual reference visit to National Vehicle Distribution (NVD), the Irish leader in new vehicle logistics, which has been using the system for several years.
