About the Keynote:
Traditionally, ports have been in the center of the city, as the exports and imports made their way to and from the city inhabitants in the closest possible way. With increased pressure on scarce space, and societal demands for less noise, emissions and light pollution, ports are forced to reduce their footprint, shift to less impactful operating modes, and move out of the cities. Moreover, typical port jobs are becoming increasingly less popular as they are shift-based, around the clock, and not allowing for social interaction. To remain attractive, port jobs need to change to allow for remote working, allow for social interaction, and appeal to the younger generations. Modern ports are developing in this direction, by embracing technology, robotizing the heavy duties, and implementing remote control and automation. The next step is to fully digitize, removing large amounts of manual repetitive administrative jobs, and banking on the capabilities of process automation and artificial intelligence.
About the speakers:
Dr. Yvo A. Saanen is Managing Director and Founder (1996) of Portwise (formerly called TBA), a leading terminal design and simulation company in The Netherlands. He is in charge of all port & terminal related projects all over the world in their planning and optimization process of container terminals by means of simulation and emulation. In this role, he has participated in various projects, ranging from long term development, process improvement, terminal extensions and redesign of handling systems to design of greenfield terminals. Examples are the DPWorld’s facility in Antwerp, and HPH’s Euromax facility in Rotterdam, and OOCL’s facility in Long Beach, but also recent automated terminals in Rotterdam by APMT and DP World.
Dr. Saanen holds an MSc in Systems Engineering and a PhD on the design and simulation of robotized container terminals, both from Delft University of Technology. He is a lecturer at the institute of Maritime Economics and Logistics (Erasmus University Rotterdam), teaching simulation and logistics and, in various bodies, lectures about terminal design by means of simulation, and publishes regularly about his work in scientific magazines as well as business magazines