Tideworks helps speed cargo through MIT in Panama

According to Seattle-based Tideworks Technology, this process, which utilises sizeable labor and equipment resources, all too often results in equipment operators chasing container moves up and down the terminal thereby wasting fuel, increasing emissions, causing congestion, and delaying operations.

This was once the case for Panama’s Manzanillo International Terminal (MIT), one of the largest container transhipment hubs in Latin America. Today however, the 2.2m teu capacity terminal equipped with 14 ship-to-shore gantry cranes, has transformed the resource intensive work order dispatch method into a seamless, automated process with the help of Tideworks Technology’s Traffic Control(TM) with Terminal View(TM).

Traffic Control dynamically controls the terminal’s container handling equipment by automatically dispatching container move instructions via wireless computers to the ideal container handler at the optimal time. Using zoning and pooling strategies, the system creates, sequences and dispatches work instructions that minimise equipment travel time and maximise equipment utilisation. Terminal staff run operations from a command centre that features Terminal View, a three-dimensional live rendering of terminal activity that helps manage every aspect of the operation efficiently, safely and cost effectively.