May 24, 2024
About the Customer
Engineering Industries eXcellence is enabling data democratization at the largest container terminal in South America, which handles over 150 million tons of cargo each year. Our customer is a Smart Transportation industry leader that specializes in port operations and integrated logistics. Their container terminals across the continent manage loading and unloading of commercial and industrial ships, warehousing and ancillary services. Our customer is responsible for 18% of all container and cargo movements in Brazil and offers complete solutions from port to e-commerce. The Industries eXcellence team from Engineering Brasil was chosen by the customer to lead the deployment of a software solution that will enable key insights and enterprise data management for their largest port’s complex operating systems.
- Port and container terminal industry
- Port operations and integrated logistics
- Cargo movement, warehousing and ancillary services
- Cross-continental port management
- Ship-to-shore portainer management
The Customer’s Need
To move containerized cargo from ships to ports, the customer uses portainers, a specific type of crane for handling container loading and unloading from large ships. At their largest container terminal, the customer has 13 portainers in simultaneous operation. Due to their large-scale flow, a failure or breakdown of any of these cranes can cause major losses and delays. To anticipate and avoid this outcome, our customer wanted to leverage the power of data for greater operational insights. Key objectives included integrating diverse data sources, democratizing access to field information, reducing operational costs, enhancing energy efficiency, mitigating risks and maximizing uptime. Access to real-time information for equipment performance, productivity and predictive maintenance was vital to their operational strategy.
- Anticipate and avoid portainer crane breakdowns
- Integrate diverse sources in data collection process
- Utilize siloed data for greater operational insights
- Reduce operational costs and enhance energy efficiency
- Enable access to real-time information for equipment performance, productivity and maintenance
About the Project
The customer chose Google Cloud as their preferred platform to manage their data more effectively, but fully configuring, implementing and integrating the software with their complex portainer systems required the guidance of a digital transformation consultant. Google recommended Engineering Brasil’s Industries eXcellence team because our specialists have expertise in process automation that enables us to extract more valuable data from the port leader’s systems and identify the best ways to leverage that data for enhanced performance. Because this was our team’s first-ever project related to ship-to-shore crane operations, we worked closely with maintenance managers to understand how the portainers work and what data would be most critical to creating effective Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
In the development stage of the innovative solution, our experts, who are certified in Google’s Manufacturing Data Engine, first implemented this foundational cloud module to process, contextualize and store production data. This digital ecosystem leverages Google products such as Manufacturing Connect, Pub/Sub, DataFlow, BigQuery and Looker to produce real-time insights on a clear and comprehensive performance dashboard. This solution was next securely connected to the Operational Technology (OT) systems at the customer’s port through Manufacturing Connect, an edge-to-cloud Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) application. After a successful initial deployment, our Brazil-based Industries eXcellence is in the process of connecting more of the customer’s portainers across their South American container terminals.
- Configured, implemented and integrated a custom Google Cloud solution
- Collaborated with maintenance managers to understand complexities of portainer crane systems
- Extracted more valuable data from OT systems for enhanced performance
- Enabled access to data and KPIs across the enterprise through a clear and comprehensive performance dashboard
- Planned deployment of IIoT application for more of customer’s portainers across South America
Engineering’s Expertise
Engineering Industries eXcellence is a global software developer and system integration leader. Our deep technical expertise across industrial sectors enables us to tackle the toughest challenges with a unique perspective and a portfolio of innovative solutions. Leveraging our proficiency in Google’s product suite and our extensive experience in process automation, we are empowering our customer to enhance efficiency, reduce costs and achieve operational excellence at their South American port. Engineering Brasil will continue to bring meaningful transformation to the port leader through the rollout of this project and for many years to come.
- Software development and system integration leader with global capabilities
- Extensive experience solving industrial challenges across sectors
- Certified Google Cloud partner with proficiency across expansive offering
- Deep technical expertise in industrial processes and automation
- Ability to leverage the power of data for greater operational insights
