TIC 4.0 was founded in 2019 and brings together leading terminal operators, equipment manufacturers and solutions providers to promote, define and adopt standards. Now, the initiative has been formally registered during a ceremony in Brussels, Belgium.

In a statement, TIC 4.0 said Boris Wenzel, Managing Director, Terminal Link, would be its president and Norbert Klettner, Managing Director, RBS-EMEA, its vice-president.

Frank Kho, who has numerous experience with terminal operators and equipment manufacturers, will become CEO. The current 20 members of TIC are a good mix of terminal operators and suppliers in the industry, who are Hyster-Yale, Kalmar, KoneCranes, Kuenz, Liebherr, NAVIS, Phoenix Lighting, RBS, SICK, TBA, TMEIC, ZPMC, APMT, Bollore, Eurogate, Port of Koper, PSA, Terminal Link, MMC Ports and Yilport, several other organizations have expressed their interest to join this unique initiative.

The goal of TIC 4.0 is to promote, define and adopt standards that will enable the cargo-handling industry to embrace the 4th Industrial Revolution. Therefore TIC 4.0 will also strive to attract more members from the terminals operators as well as industry suppliers.

Its initial objectives are as follows:

• Define and agree on a common semantics and definitions among the companies involved in the cargo handling industry, both terminal operators and port solution providers.

• Develop communication protocols and frameworks that will be adopted by the port industry players for seamless data communication regardless of the manufacturer or type of equipment/machine.

• Facilitate the inter-operability of different information sub-systems of a cargo handling facility.

• Promote the adoption of selected existing standards and those developed by TIC 4.0 by the sector.

“I really feel that both energy and commitment prevail among TIC 4.0 members to achieve the goals we have set. I believe that to achieve these goals, the cooperation between terminal operators and solution providers is a great critical success factor,” said Frank Kho.

“TIC 4.0 members all believe that the work on standardization is of utmost importance for our industry in the context of increased digitalization of the supply chain. It will also enable the adoption of innovative processes and solutions” added Boris Wenzel.

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As previously discussed, real-time architecture cannot be easily accomplished. Though, with absolute knowledge of the core components, the foundation of a TOS can strengthen and cultivate a platform open to limitless capabilities. Paralleling these notions, TOPX Expert has leveraged an accurate depiction of a real-time architecture which has made shared- and in-memory possible. It has primarily served as the underlying foundation for expanding capabilities into new horizons like Automatización in the Cloud, the Nube itself, and Artificial Intelligence. RBS has adopted an open mind to technological advancements which propel business processes but have not forgotten the essence of having a robust system built from a reliable architecture for the base of a TOS.

TOPX Expert has been able to retain its reputation for its proven solution of being true to a real-time architecture that can facilitate startups ready for operation with virtually zero wait time. This is credited by the single server infrastructure enabling shared memory, contrasting against the traditional TOS which generally requires pulling and downloading data from multiple servers then re-uploading once an action is confirmed. When more data is required for planning, the steps for retrieval will take longer. This directly proportional relationship mirrors transaction processing as it incurs a sequential queue of work instructions and can take long periods since one instruction is executed at a time. Consequently, data is also likely to become obsolete by the time CHEs receive these work instructions as vessel data or container data can change at any stage of the planning process. Therefore, decisions derived from fragmented data is not only liable to many errors but can accumulate into problems which enforce correctional strategies reprimanded for its resource-intensiveness.

However, shared memory maintains data-integrity and -interoperability while in-memory immediately loads all worked on windows in the previous workspace after initiating TOPX Expert. All steps taken for downloading and re-uploading is eliminated with in-memory, accelerating data processing to grant greater control for better decision-making. From this architecture, collaboration on tasks is made possible, dividing the total workload into smaller and manageable tasks. Flexibility in planning is also a result of TOPS real-time sustaining a combination of real-time, shared-memory, and in-memory processing. Faster task completion rates inherently evoke an enhancement in operational efficiency.

Time is a common metric used to measure performance and degree of efficiency in terminal operations. At RBS, immense efforts have been invested in developing software that addresses the complete operational spectrum, using time as the most valued factor shaping the architecture and overall infrastructure of the TOS. By accounting for time in TOPX Expert, processes are streamlined, owing to shared memory instigating faster startup times.

Subsequently, real-time processing has strengthened the infrastructure of TOPX Expert in expediting the benefits in increased workflow and data sharing. Therefore, the disparity drawn from transaction processing requiring micro-planning is incomparable with real-time processing as it enables shared memory for macro-planning, allowing terminals to increase their cost savings.

Choose RBS for a customer-centric TOS that always has your needs and prospects in hindsight.