In order to assess the efficiency of the supply chain including many transport mode, a tool is required to address the maritime services. The Weather Routing Module (WRM), available as web service for Synchro-Net stakeholders, computes the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the maritime transport from a harbour of arrival to a destination harbour depending on weather data and operational conditions.
This computation is carried out based on a ship which has been developed in the Synchro-Net project and provide ship emission and consumption depending on the weather condition encountered by the ship. The WRM uses this ship model to compute the KPI along the operational route of the ship depending on weather conditions and other constraints such as Emission Controlled Area (ECA).
Various simulation modes are available in order to address both slow and smart steaming. The ship speed can be set constant along the direct route or optimized in order to reduce emission (and consumption). A more complex mode allows for optimizing both speed and course of the ship. Finally, the fastest speed mode informs the user if the ship will have a chance to reach its destination (or harbour slot) on time and what would be the associated costs for steaming up.
The WRM can also be used to derive KPI at a strategic level by computing average KPI using actual historical weather data on a large number of calculations, typically one per week over five or ten years. This kind of study can be carried out at various ship speed in order to show the effect of slow steaming. At an operational level, the Weather Routing Module can be used in combination with the other Synchro-Net modules in order to optimize ship related cost by the use of smart steaming. This calculation can be carried out using actual position of the ship on his way to the destination harbour.
Source: Synchronet Staff
