Stack Management, Yard and Crane Optimizer Live at Terminal
17th September 2024
INFORM has announced that it has successfully deployed its Syncrotess Optimization Plus solution at Norfolk Southern’s Austell terminal in Atlanta, Georgia enabling the terminal to have complete transparency of their stacked operations, as well as optimized yard storage and crane movement operations.
Will Deshazor, Norfolk Southern Group Vice President Intermodal Automotive Terminal Operations, commented, “INFORM’s Syncrotess Optimization Plus solution is helping revolutionize our operations at Norfolk Southern’s Austell and Rossville terminals, providing us with unparalleled visibility and efficiency in our stacked operations, yard storage, and crane movements. Our rollout in Austell marks another step forward in our commitment to delivering exceptional service to our customers while optimizing our terminal operations.”
Matthew Wittemeier, Director of Marketing and Sales at INFORM’s Terminal & Distribution Center Logistics Division said, “No doubt, it’s been a journey to get the Austell terminal up and running, but we’re excited to be in a position now to demonstrate our world class optimization solutions working in live operations!”
Dr. Eva Savelsberg, Senior Vice President at INFORM’s Terminal & Distribution Center Logistics Division commented, “I’m tremendously proud of INFORM’s team and their commitment to the Norfolk Southern project. It is great to have the second Norfolk Southern site go-live; it is a strong demonstration of our continued partnership with NS.”
INFORM’s add-on AI and optimization solution takes a modular approach to adding advanced intelligence to a terminal’s existing TOS. This path allows them to isolate the terminal’s specific challenges and provide a bespoke solution for their specific operational challenges. As an add-on optimization solution, Norfolk Southern has built the required optimization on top of their existing Terminal Operating System (TOS) OPTCS 2.0.
Stack Management
Austell is the second Norfolk Southern site running INFORM’s Syncrotess Optimization Plus solution. Norfolk Southern took the solution live at their Rossville terminal in 2023. Norfolk Southern is using INFORM’s Yard Optimizer (YO) to intelligently manage their stacked operations. The Yard Optimizer works in conjunction with the TOS to allocate storage locations for containers within the yard, to automatically determine the next operationally efficient move, and to better allocate handover locations for external trucks in order to minimize travel distance for the container in and out of the stack.
Matthew Wittemeier added, “The future of most North American intermodal terminals is stacked; being able to demonstrate to the industry that stacking can be done effectively without sacrificing customer delivery times and with that the customer experience was a primary goal of the project from its outset.”
Additionally, Norfolk Southern is utilizing INFORM’s Crane Optimizer (CO) to optimize the movements of overhead cranes to minimize empty travel and maximize productivity of the lift equipment. Austell is using Kuenz RTG Freerider cranes.
INFORM has a suite of six industry proven optimization modules designed to improve operational efficiency and reduce operational costs which ultimately allows for improved revenues. These modules include: Crane Optimizer (CO), Yard Optimizer (YO), Vehicle Optimizer (VO), Train Load Optimizer (TLO), Rail Scheduler (RS), and Machine Learning (ML) modules.
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