PROFIT is a research and development project partly sponsored by The Research Council of Norway through SMARTRANS – a research program for industry transport and intelligent transport systems. The project started in 2009 and concludes by the end of 2011. It has a total budget of 24 million NOK (about € 2,2 million). By changing the terminal layout and control systems at both the Port of Oslo and the Alnabru terminal PROFIT aims to generate profits for the entire supply chain.
The project includes major actors in the Norwegian transport industry: CargoNet (rail carriers), Schenker (international logistics provider), Jernbaneverket (rail infrastructure), Bring Logistics (international logistics provider), LTL (Norwegian forwarding association), Ergo Group (IT Provider) and the Port of Oslo. In accordance with the proposal for The National Transport Plan (NTP 210-1029a) PROFIT aims to develop efficient intermodal terminals through improved collaboration between ports, carriers, terminals and forwarders. Collaboration between autonomous companies to solve collective problems is at best challenging, this because of the companies’ different aims and ranking of priorities, non compatible software, and unclear guidelines on dividing of profit and risk. The terminal is only a small part of the different companies operating range, but the whole network is depended on an efficient terminal to maximize their competitive ability.
Conceptual model
The main goal of PROFIT is to develop and implement control models for the next generation intermodal terminals by utilizing the best of modern technology. To reach this goal, the project will combine the actors’ industrial competence with the production and logistics skills of the research community, and draw knowledge from the experience of other industrial divisions. In order to reach the main goal the following secondary goals have been established (see figure1):
Develop an efficient operative terminal system
Develop a holistic performance management system for the terminal
Develop collaboration models for the actors in the logistics network.
Develop new value adding functions and extended services for intermodal terminals of the future.
The solutions generated by PROFIT should translate to other intermodal terminals in Norway.
