New TOS on the way from TBA

TBA Group, a software company owned by Konecranes Group, gave a glimpse of its new Container Handling System (CHS) TOS at its recently hosted user group conference.

The conference was held at Mercedes Benz World in Surrey, UK, drawing over 60 delegates from various sectors. Among the attendees were representatives from over 20 customer companies, including Associated British Ports (ABP), British Gypsum, Culina Group, Klaipeda Container Terminal, Peel Ports, PD Ports, Nestle, and pladis. The event also saw participation from international guests, including South African operator Bidvest, Cornelder in Mozambique, and Cargill Agricola in Brazil.

Many developments in TBA’s Autostore TOS were showcased, including automation through OCR, emulation testing, and integration with gate operating systems. Additionally, TBA provided a sneak preview of their new user interface, applied to the new Operations Dashboard Module.

The event also offered a glimpse into the future of container terminal TOS as TBA demonstrated their Container Handling System (CHS) for the first time. The system is designed for semi-automated or fully-automated terminals.

“It’s fantastic to finally be able to demonstrate some of the powerful functionality that CHS offers,” said Wim Verdonck, Head of TOS for TBA Leicester.

“The system’s speed, simplicity and operational performance is unmatched in the industry, so we’re very excited to be bringing this product to market in the coming months.”

TBA also offers the CommTrac bulk terminal operating TOS. One of its largest customers is ABP, who use TBA’s software in ten of their terminals around the UK. TBA invited ABP’s IT Solutions Port Systems CoE Lead, Rich Labib, to speak about ABP’s experiences of CommTrac, TBA’s bulk terminal operating system (TOS).

Labib outlined how ABP is committed to the platform, with more implementations planned and four currently underway.

“CommTrac will also be extended within existing ports so that there is a wider coverage of operations supported,” said Labib. “Whilst we work to extend our footprint of CommTrac we will also be looking to make changes to simplify processes and increase the value we get from technology.”

As part of the Konecranes group, TBA welcomed speakers from colleagues representing other Konecranes divisions as well as guest speakers from external companies. Gareth Roberts, Business Development Manager at Agilon UK, gave a presentation on Agilon’s warehouse automation system and how it can streamline processes and reduce internal logistics, resulting in enhanced productivity and cost savings.

AI was also the focus for another guest speaker, Karno Tenovuo, CEO of Awake.AI, with whom TBA has recently collaborated to integrate their artificial intelligence-powered vessel ETA service into CommTrac.

“Awake.AI allows up to 80% more accurate predictions using machine learning models. This can lead to up to 27% cost savings for the terminal operator,” explained Tenovuo.

Thomas Gylling, Marketing and Customer Experience Director with Konecranes Port Solutions, spoke about harnessing the power of data in material handling, looking at how artificial intelligence can be used to “lift productivity, uptime and throughput to the next level.”

“The UGC has been a big success!” said Andrew McKaig, Managing Director of TBA Leicester. “It’s been great to see so many of our users in one place, getting to meet our talented and experienced team in person, plus networking and learning from each other. I have no doubt that our products and services will be better, easier to use and more relevant to our huge user base because of events like this.”