| Air and sea terminal management |
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Lower Costs While Increasing Reactivity
The incredible complexity of port management, whether for ships or aircraft, requires highly sophisticated applications. Terminal management applications must monitor operations; implement policies and regulations; process documentation; and optimally assign and schedule resources -- assets that can range from cranes to their operators and the people who manage them. ILOG solutions supply port operators and authorities with solutions that reduce costs through better resource management.
Accurate scheduling
Efficient port planning, scheduling and allocation are essential for improving service quality and increasing reactivity, particularly when cost is a primary concern. Scheduling is more than just assigning the right resources to the right place at the right time. Feasible schedules must also achieve the lowest possible outlay while meeting security and business restrictions. Manual scheduling becomes impossible as resources multiply, regulations and operating rules increase, deadlines tighten and costs skyrocket. For both long- and short-term scheduling, planning and scheduling (P&S) software helps operators to be more reactive, slashing costs and guaranteeing schedule feasibility.
Compete resource management solutions
A flexible, business-driven P&S tool requires a combination of interactive 2D visualization and automated optimization -- primary capabilities provided by ILOG software.
- Visualization and editing
The first decision-support tool users encounter in resource scheduling and allocation should be a dynamic, interactive graphical user interface (GUI). Scheduling GUIs must provide a business-oriented view of plans and schedules. Typically, they should be based on a Gantt-type chart or space-time diagram, enabling planners to fully visualize and modify resource schedules. GUIs must also allow the planners to evaluate a schedule, and quickly see the impact of changes. This is especially critical in short-term scheduling and D-Day management.
- Automatic construction and updating
Automated scheduling can provide decision support by computing or suggesting new or updated schedules that are feasible and legal. Systems should allow operators to quickly adapt schedules, and reallocate resources to meet short-term, last-minute changes. Enforcing feasibility ensures that schedules will be executed without late tweaking to make them work. This reduces effort during implementation, and contributes to keeping actual operational costs closer to projections. For example, taxi services can update cab assignments from two hours to a few minutes in advance. Railways can do the same with timetables when an incident occurs, ensuring traffic flow. Trucking companies can also assign vehicles to orders while comparing assignments with an optimal schedule to quickly evaluate each operational decision.
- Optimization
High-performance optimization and scheduling software rapidly computes schedules that most closely match criteria like cost, quality of service, demand coverage and employee satisfaction. Common examples include minimizing airline crew costs through pairing optimization; fairly allocating check-in counters and maximizing staff productivity at airports; and reducing the number of deadhead trains or trucks.
Full range of technologies
ILOG provides a full range of software technologies for implementing P&S applications, proven in the field through more than a decade of service. ILOG optimization technology dominates the industry, offering the only software for exactly matching resources to activities. ILOG business rule management solutions simplify the capture and implementation of vast numbers of operational rules for fleet management. And ILOG visualization software gives users unequaled access to scheduling technology is, offering space-time diagrams, maps and the industry-standard Gantt charts.
Next steps
Learn more about how ILOG can contribute to your bottom line in transportation or travel.
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