Navis, a part of Cargotec Corporation, has announced that Patrick Terminals has migrated its Sydney AutoStrad terminal “to N4 3.8 from its decades old, in house TOS. As a result of a well-planned and executed strategy, the go-live was successfully completed remotely with minimal staff on site”.

Patrick’s Sydney terminal has been running as an Autostrad terminal since April 2015, when it transitioned from a manual straddle carrier facility. That transition, where Patrick built up and tested a fleet of 44 new Kalmar Autostrads at its Brisbane and Sydney terminals, then after meticulous preparation shut down the Sydney facility and deployed the automated machines in just 4.5 days, is still unmatched in the industry. The story of how Patrick and Kalmar pulled it off can be read here.

Kalmar and Patrick first developed Autostrad technology for Brisbane, where it was deployed in the early 2000s, and were originally joint owners of the Terminal Logistics System (TLS) software that functions as the Equipment Control System. By the time Sydney was converted to Autostrads this was a fully-owned Kalmar product, but Patrick Terminals kept its own in-house TOS, which consisted of an older version of Navis SPARCS with an in-house back end system.

The Sydney terminal now handles 1.2M TEU annually over its four berths, making it the largest Autostrad terminal in the world by throughput. It handles 580 vessel calls per year and over 1400 gate moves per day.

“With modernisation and automation in mind, Patrick Terminals selected N4 as its TOS for Sydney AutoStrad to optimise its performance and streamline operations at the terminal to meet the growing trade demand in the region,” Navis said.

“Replacing our 30-year-old legacy TOS system with Navis N4 has been a major milestone for Patrick’s business. We have successfully implemented N4 in our two manual terminals over the past 6 months and have now integrated that technology suite at our Automated AutoStrad Terminal in Sydney,” said Adrian Sandrin, CIO for Patrick Terminals. “Patrick’s has always emphasised the importance of information technology and real time systems and with the help of our new N4 TOS, Patrick will optimise our central vessel planning, improve processes and create efficiencies to ensure we meet the complex and changing requirements of our industry.”

“As more terminals are planning to advance their automation capabilities, we are able to help them upgrade their offerings and reach their goals with our innovative, best-in-class TOS,” said Charles Gerard, VP & General Manager, APAC at Navis. “We are proud of the work we did with Patrick Terminals over the past year and are looking forward to continuing to support their terminals and their modernisation plans, for years to come.”