Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Insights into How to Enhance Container Terminal Operations with Digital Twins

Version 1 : Received: 12 April 2024 / Approved: 12 April 2024 / Online: 12 April 2024 (17:04:51 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Kastner, M.; Saporiti, N.; Lange, A.-K.; Rossi, T. Insights into How to Enhance Container Terminal Operations with Digital Twins. Computers 2024, 13, 138. Kastner, M.; Saporiti, N.; Lange, A.-K.; Rossi, T. Insights into How to Enhance Container Terminal Operations with Digital Twins. Computers 2024, 13, 138.

Abstract

The years 2021 and 2022 showed that maritime logistics are prone to interruptions. Especially the ports turned out to be bottlenecks with long queues of waiting vessels. This leads to the question of whether this can be (at least partly) mitigated by means of better and more flexible terminal operations. Digital Twins have been in use in production and logistics to increase flexibility in operations and are considered a reasonable fit. They are suitable for real-time data integration to support decision-making. However, the true potential of Digital Twins to enhance terminal operations still needs to be further investigated. A Delphi study is conducted to explore operational pain points, best practices to counter them, and how these best practices can be supported by Digital Twins. A questionnaire with 16 propositions is developed, and a panel of 17 experts is asked for their degrees of confirmation for each. The results indicate that today’s terminal operations are far from ideal and leave space for optimisation. The experts see great potential in analysing past working shifts data to identify reasons for poor terminal performance. Moreover, they agree on the proposed best practices and support the use of aiding IT solutions.

Keywords

container terminal; digital twin; emulation; simulation; terminal operations; Delphi study; questionnaire

Subject

Computer Science and Mathematics, Information Systems

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