A few decades ago or even a few years ago, no one would have believed that a simple rectangular steel box with 6 sides (well most of the time) would be termed “smart”.. Well, the “smart container” as it is termed now is here to stay..

Nothing displays the seriousness of this innovation better than when someone announces the setting up of the world’s first smart container innovation lab..

Well that someone is Loginno and they have just announced that they will be setting up Contopia Labs, a world-unique innovation research facility for smart containers, together with leading industry partners..

Loginno has been in the forefront of digitalisation of containers running Contopia™ Factor which was a competition launched in December 2018 open to any shipping company operating a fleet of not more than 150,000 owned or leased containers..

On the 6th of June 2019, Loginno chose Log-In Logistica, Brazil as the winner of this competition from among the many entries..

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The prize was that Loginno would be converting the entire fleet of 20,000 containers of Log-In Logsitics to smart containers making them the world’s first shipping company with a fully smart IoT-enabled shipping container fleet..

Subsequent to this, Loginno and Log-In have unveiled plans to demonstrate the value of the data gathered by smart containers and how it can benefit numerous other players in the supply chain, rather than just the shipping company..

Shachar Tal, one of Loginno’s two founders says “Contopia is a vision much larger than just making smart boxes. It is about changing the game and providing values to the entire intermodal logistics chain.

Everyone will operate much more effectively with smart containers: from the shippers themselves to ports, terminals, insurance companies, customs, and homeland security. Contopia removes the blindness and allows possibilities that have never been achieved before.”

Among these possibilities is a new technology for real-time container inventory management, smart port connectivity, smart vessel connectivity, digital container seals to allow frictionless borders, new cargo insurance products, a crypto-powered revenue-sharing model, and scale-less SOLAS VGM container weighing..

Amit Aflalo – Image from Loginno

The research arm of Contopia Labs will be headed by Dr. Rami Pugatch, from the department of Industrial engineering and management at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, while the business arm of Contopia Labs will be headed by Loginno Founder Amit Aflalo..

As per Aflalo, this is a good balance because, “On one hand we are contributing to the entire logistics chain, by opening our doors to innovative open-sourced academic research.

On the other hand, we will be able to develop new products that stem from the insights obtained by Contopia labs, offering more accessible value to more stakeholders.”

Adds Dr. Pugatch: “The value of real-time information in networks is a fascinating topic. Using innovative tools, such as mechanism design, we will demonstrate how this value, if shared properly, can benefit multiple players simultaneously.

Dr. Rami Pugatch – Image from Loginno

As a first challenge, we will tackle the problem of how to optimally employ real-time container IoT data in order to improve the operation of a shipping company.

Together with Log-In as a first use case, we are going to find the optimal way to decrease turn-around times, perform real-time triangulations, reduce maintenance costs, and use adaptive fleet size management, including the possibility of smart off-hire.

In short, we are going to learn how to use the data to do more (revenue) with less (containers).”

“We are aware that this is a win-win situation“, says Aflalo, “The same Contopia model which helps the shipping company – will also help their ecosystem, mainly shippers, but not only them.

Contopia Labs are going to make sure that it is not just the shipping company who benefits, but rather serve as the enabler to benefits for the entire industry“.

Loginno is cooperating with industry leaders such as Navis, Lloyd’s Register, Israeli Aerospace Industries, Microsoft and Marlink, with more to be announced soon along with the exact nature of each partner’s use case within Contopia Labs..

Dr. Pugatch is promising great things to come for Contopia “With the combined forces of the shipping industry’s biggest and best, together with critical thinking and advanced mathematical modeling capabilities that exist in academia, I believe we will be able to produce a unique body of knowledge on how to fully utilize Contopia’s potential“.

Ahhhh the world of shipping and freight.. Don’t you just love it..

Oh, if you are in Hamburg on the 4th of September, I will be speaking on “Avoiding the pitfalls of Digitalisation” at the Digital Container Summit along with many industry and digital experts.. Come join the summit.. 

Source Link | Shipping and Freight Resource