INTRODUCTION
The esence of Gildanet project
Time, speed and accuracy of transactions information flow and distribution processes are essencial for industries that deal with short-shelf life and product life life cycles, food and beverage and high-tech markets. The avaiable ICT systems and services attempting to support planning operational and controlling activities within the context of intermodal transport chains seems not able to support the demanding requirements transnational intermodal transport chains. The GILDANET Project defined an approach and proposed some solutions for managing all the logistics capabilities for dealing with the complexities involved in the businness processes.
Gildanet's mission is to support companies to bridge the gap in the e-logistics area. The esence of e-logistic in the Project is related to the concepts of a global business community where enterprises of any size anywhere can,
Find eachother electronically
Conduct business through the Exchange of electronic mased messages using standart message structures
According to standart business processes sequences with the clear business semantics
Accourding to standart or mutually agreed trading partner agreements
Using commercial off-the-shelf purchased business applications
GILDANET focused the interactive public services(e-government), the concept of accessible for all, and the ide of interoperability and multiple platforms.
The better regulation regulation; GILDANET tried to give technical answers to a process that need a strong effort from revieving the legislation affecting e-business both atEuropean level, as well as at international level.
The results of Gildanet
The Project has been developed involving two main perspectives: the business perspective: to enhhance the capability of the companies to model the business cooperation processes, based on the need of creating a common understanding of electronic business messages and work flow. The focus of the Project was to deal with the definition of appropriate business models and how to establish a level playing field for SME's and global players can work together using state of the art teghnology; the teghnological perspective: to adopt and enhance existing ICT solutions with capabilities to cooperatively support transnational and multimodal transport chains.
As for many Project GILDANET has tangible results:
A proven method for defining new business process collaboration agreement, based on standart approaches such as ebXML.
An ICT communication platform enabling transnational chains to adopt e-documents
An ICT application platform providing services to transnational chains.
Pilot applications: chain planning, chain monitoring, fleet management, tracking and tracing modules, e-document applications.
A validation of Gildanet approach in real transnational chains.
GILDANET ON THE GREECE-ITALY-GERMANY CHAIN
The FRESHLOG pilot deals with the movement of primarily sensitive or subject to decay goods, along a pre-selected transport Corridor. While there may be tolerance to extend the scope of this exercise to include any kind of goods, the main idea here is that the transport of fresh food has special demands. Moreover, the trends observed in the fresh food market across Europe and the Mediterranean call for a unified approach to the way information flows among the relevant parties or the tranport chain.
Problem to be adressed
Currently there is no common point of communication between wholesalers/distrubitors, producers and transport agents. Consequently the success of the neccessary transactions is solely based on interpersonal relationships while the choise of a new supplier or transport panter is largely affected byword of mouth knowledge.
Objective of the pilot
The objective of the Fresh Log pilot within GILDANET is to apply state of the art information teghnology and applicable standarts in e-commerce to the organisation of a multimodal transport chain of perishable goods. As such, the exercise will aim to achieve the following
Establish a multimodal transport chain for fresh products from Crete to Munich, using the GILDANET platform. This transport path will be allowed to operate eighter in stndart flows, with fixed transport and standart quantities and type of products or according to the demand or stocks of the respective importer.
Business model overview
The transport process starts with the importer contacting the exporters, through the platform of the port of Heraklion, where he orders a quantity or the fresh products. The exporters reply with detailed offers, containing all the necessary information about the transportation of the products as well as the pricing of the order. This can be an interatice process, untill the parties eventually agree a deal.
The one exporter that wins the deal places a transport order on the platform, fort he attention of transport agents. A similar negotation process then begins until the exporter picks a transport operator.
Logical architecture
All transactions will be carried out through the web interface of the GILDANET platform, with the exception of communicating with trucks, where inevitably wireless networking protocols will be deployed.
Implementation
In order to reach it's objectives, the Fresh Log pilot of GILDANET comprises the development of a business process model and the development of the associated necessary electronic business documents needed to support the transport of perishable goods.
Ordering
On the basis of the stock and future prospects of demand, the distrubution center in Germany is looking for a supplierof fresh products in Crete, to proceed with the negotations. The process begins with the distributor placing an order request to a number of Greek suppliers. In that request, there is spesific information about the type/volume of products needed and the delivery dates. As this is a case of an international commercial agreement, further information such as customs regulations, or stats handling may be needed. It should also be possible to require information about the transportation and destimation, delivery plan, pricing etc.
Generating a transport order
It is Standard practise for the MTO to close a deal with the exporter before the routing sequence is resolved. The purpose of this stage is therefore fort he exporter to simply attract the transport operators and get a quote from each one.
Planning a route from transport order
Transfer planning is a very important operation for any company that aims to reduce cost and improve its services. By improving the efficiency of such processes as freight grouping, choice of transport more or choice of carrier and route, transport agencies can offer more robust reliable and cost effective services to their clients
Truck slot reservation on to the ship
The project does not accommodate a ship booking function, fort he transport of trucks from Heraklion to Piraeus. The platform of Heraklion port provides a link to the individual shipping line's booking system. Through the platform, the carrier is connects up to the shipper's online booking application and enters the required information, in order to perform the booking.
Forwarding the distribution plan
Forwarding a distribution plan to truck driver's PDA is a straightforward procedure. The MTO employee who operates the platform interface simply recalls the stored distribution plan from the platform's database and forwards it to the corresponding truck. A link between the port's TCP/IP network and the partner mobile operator's GPRS network enable any MTO to communicate wirelessly with the carriers, even those who previously did not have that technology.
Connection and loading
This is the point where the physical flow of goods begins, with the trucks arriving at the exporter's premises for collection. The information that has been previously exchanged enables the exporter to Schedule the picking and loading of goods in time. From a message -flow point of view, a process of electronic updates and checks is required in order to;
Ensure the terms of the agreement regarding the order are met by all parties involved
Provide real-time or close to real-time information about the status and progress of the order.
Access control at the port
The access control platform at the port of Heraklion runs independently of the GILDANET platform. It aims to accelerate and secure the port control process, especially with regards to entry/exit per-missions. Implementation of access platform is seen as a two-stage approach, whereby Stage 1 covers.
Automatic identification of the driver
Combination of automated and manual control of access rights at the terminal
Automatic provision of information about the next available vehicle position inside the terminal
Automatic registeratiopn of access onto the system
Stage 2 cover
Automatic identification of the vehicle and container
Automatic control of access rights at the terminal
Route monitoring
During the course of transport, continuous tracking of the lorry will be possible using GPS/EGNOS technology. The on board GPS reciever will obtain the truck's geographic spot from the nearest sattelite. The coordinates are then transferred to the Heraklion platform via GPRS link and the Internet. When a user searches fort he truck's geographiv position, a Geograpgic Information System (GIS) projects the spot dynamically on an electronic map.