Terminal Automation revisited
In the last few years, corporate systems requirements have undergone revolutionary changes. Sparked by lean production, globalisation, and the internet, corporations are increasingly elements in collaborative supply chains instead of freestanding, inward-looking, autonomous entities.
Today, effective operation requires agile response to unanticipated changes. “Best of breed” application interfacing is not enough; systems must be vertically integrated from the data centre to real-time controller sensors. Concurrently, systems must be integrated across the supply chain to suppliers, distribution partners, and ultimately customers. Rapid response requires timely, accurate data, and timely, accurate data requires effective manageable integration.
Unfortunately, the infrastructure of most terminals today is a myriad web of systems, applications, databases, servers, networks, disks, protocols, user interfaces, and so on. Typically, these have evolved around “functional silos” and are built to meet the needs of these silos with very little cross-fertilization or engineering synergy. The result is multiple, heterogenous data sources scattered throughout theterminal-overlapping but totally incompatible. These existing systems and applications were based on “wooden” architectures – hard and inflexible. These were not designed with integration in mind and cannot provide access to information or the performance required to succeed in today’s environment.
