Container Repositioning

Capgemini offers full service to the shipping companies as the world’s largest project & consulting practice in this sector! Part of this service is our service offering on Advanced Planning & Scheduling for shipping companies. This offering gives you the opportunity to optimize your container repositioning puzzle and reducing the imbalance in the demand <=> supply on empty containers.

The offered planning solution for the shipping businesses is focused on but not restricted to:

  • Tramp planning
  • Liner planning
  • Barge planning
  • Crew planning
  • Container repositioning

The Challenge

Within every transport modality there has always been an imbalance between the loaded legs and the empty legs. That is not something we can solve, but we can assist in reducing repositioning costs. Especially for container shipping the challenge of repositioning is more complex because of the quantities involved and the repositioning lead time of the empty container. In addition we face the lack of flexibility once the empty container is shipped.

So the challenge is how to get the empty containers at minimum costs to the required location in the right time. Because of the lead time the shipping quantities are based on expected demand for empty containers per zone.

To be at all able to make a reliable repositioning plan you need to know the requirements per zone and the historical shipment quantities / orders.

The Solution

APS (Advance Planning & Scheduling) offers the solution that helps you dealing with these challenges. The decision support of APS assists the planner to create a tactical plan for the repositioning of the empty container. APS has proven to offer the perfect scheduling & optimisation technology for this challenge.

With the usage of what-if scenarios the planner can see what (less expensive or quicker) alternatives might be worthwhile considering without damaging the requirements and the service levels. At the same time, management can make strategic analysis to review the quantities and locations for the repositioning of the empty containers.

The Benefits

The benefits are, the ability to create a tactical plan faster, and therefore making it possible to re-plan and re-evaluate when new information becomes available or new insights arise. Another benefit is also a better insight in costs and cost impact of planning decisions that are made. The ability to plan on a more detailed level (i.e. on ‘zone’ level instead of ‘area’ level) and a higher quality plan created with less planners. All these benefits result in a reduction of operational costs.

Overall the quick business benefits are:

  • Less time busy creating a plan
  • Improved insight in the repositioning costs
  • Higher quality plan
  • Reduced operational costs

Planning for Profit

Better planning is directly related to better performance. In order to manage the complexity and keep overview over all the details in the planning, you need to focus on the key performance indicators (KPI’s). We help you identify the KPI’s and we make sure that the KPI’s are measurable. Thus, we enable you to steer on the quality and profitability of the plans. In short: planning for profit.

An APS solution implemented by Capgemini’s GSC APS, has the following additional benefits:

  • Solve your planning puzzles in all their complexity
  • Makes your planning process transparent
  • Consistency between planning and realization
  • Fits in any IT landscape

Why Us

Realizing complex multi-resource planning solutions is one of the core capabilities of Capgemini’s Global Solution Center APS. The solution center has successfully carried out over 40 Quintiq implementations at a wide range of industries. Capgemini’s Rightshore® delivery model, involving local entities and development centers in India and Holland, ensure high quality and sufficient implementation capacity in the emerging APS market.

Capgemini has a thriving Transport & Distribution sector, and has long standing relationships in the shipping sector. Capgemini’s experience in this sector is captured in the Competence Centre Ports & Shipping in The Netherlands (50 consultants) and the Maritime Knowledge Centre Norway. Our expertise is at your disposal.

Contact Us

Wim-Paul Swanborn, Herman Bosker
Contact our Utrecht office.
e-mail: gscaps.nl@capgemini.com tel: +31 30 6898402