1. What do you think is the current status of standardization in the container terminal industry, what are the points not addressed yet?

Process, operation, and information standardization are still in their earlier stages within our industry. These circumstances reveal the current port landscape of operation methods becoming complicated due to fine-tuning to meet their unique objectives. Therefore, developing a standard language to become applicable for all customers pose a challenge for equipment and software manufacturers. Furthermore, it is more difficult for customers to innovate and expand their technology capabilities in the future without encountering any potential system integration issues or incurring fees due to high system customization requirements and constantly “re-inventing” interfaces. As a result, standardization will fortify communication and collaboration between customer and solution provider by driving synchronized understanding in information data exchange, evolving the global supply chain.

With concerted efforts in establishing a common set of standards to facilitate advancements in all aspects technologically and operationally, TIC 4.0 and iTerminals have already contributed significant strides in closing the existing gap between where we want to be and where we are currently. By addressing prevalent issues within the industry and promoting high collaboration amongst all peers, establishing an agreed methodology and language to communicate develops a strong foundation that readily accepts technological advancements.

2. From your point of view, why are standards important moving forward in the 4^th industrial revolution and IoT?

In a world constant of rapid technological advancements, achieving standardization is crucial to maintaining consistency in operations and performance. Reinforcing a common language and methodology protects operational performance from information and communication discrepancies. IT infrastructures prevalent vary according to several factors that span from size to software and equipment provider, allowing boundless approaches to implement. Without standardization, these IT infrastructures vary too much that it can create incompatibility between systems, and hence, IoT or any technologies in that matter are not supported or implementation is costly and time consuming.

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The port and terminal industry is going for more integration and automation across various levels of the processes. Due to this the terminal industry is striving for more standards and does that in different initiatives such as the Terminal Industry Committee 4.0 (TIC4.0), “Port Call Optimization” or others. Often standards don’t need to be reinvented because there are some existing standards in the industry such as IMDG, BIC or ISO. But these are often too little process oriented to help with the integration and digitization. Therefore, the initiatives put these standards and new definitions in a process-oriented context. These standards are meant defining industry wide standards and therefore are required to drive forward the integration, digitization and automation on various levels more efficiently.

Benefits for small ports from port industry standards

Earlier this year I spoke at an online conference at Connect2SmallPorts project (C2SP) which is an EU funded initiative to push digitization for small ports and terminals in the Southern Baltic Sea. After discussing and being in contact with this project, the question came up: Are small ports and terminals benefiting from standards or is this only something for big ports or terminals with big automation projects?

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