HARBOR MASTER TRANSFORMS PORT

Ranked as the tenth largest port in the world, Kaohsiung Harbor handles more than 39 million tons of cargo annually, with 1979 revenues totalling over $47 million. It employs over 3,000 persons and has millions of dollars invested in warehouses, cranes and vehicles. Plans are now in the works to make the harbor the largest distribution center in the Far East, surpassing Hong Kong and Singapore in volume of traffic. The new "harbor master" that has transformed this once chaotic port into an efficient operation is a real-time information management system. Manual paper-based methods of handling ship schedules, cargo destinations, warehouse locations and billing have been replaced by a network of communications terminals linked to a large computer system that stores up to 714 million characters of information. KHB officials began partial automation of harbor activities in 1974 with a Control Data 3150, which was upgraded in 1976 to the current CDC CYBER 72, explained a company spokesperson. Once a decision was made to go to full computerization, Control Data helped harbor officials develop the design and applications for a real-time system, which includes three 844 disk drives, four tape units, a card reader and printer. Linked to it is the CDC 2550 communications processor that has 25 CRT terminals and 30 printers installed in various harbor operations offices. The results of full automation were far-reaching. Cargo vessels now experience little delay in receiving berth assignments. Customer billing and payment services have greatly improved, and KHB officials have daily, weekly, monthly and "on demand" status reports on harbor traffic, projected workloads, manpower and equipment availability, and warehouse space.

• Corporate Authors:

  Indian Head, Incorporated

  P.O. Box 3618
  Washington, DC  United States  20007
• Publication Date: 1980-3

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 17
• Serial:
  • Information World
  • Volume: 2
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Information World, Incorporated

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Computer programs; Freight documents; Information management; Information processing; Information systems; Port operations; Port traffic; Ports; Productivity; Service time; Shipping
• Uncontrolled Terms: Port time
• Geographic Terms: Taiwan
• Old TRIS Terms: Computer programs (Ports); Computerized cargo data
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Marine Transportation; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00310208
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 22 1980 12:00AM