idoba’s clever thinking creates a ground-breaking approach to optimise port operations

Who knew your Netflix binge could help to optimise the shipping schedule for a major iron ore miner?

There’s a lot of factors affecting notoriously variable port operations – shipping schedules, port activity, rail performance, weather, and the interconnected nature of the global logistics network. It’s no wonder idoba was approached by a major iron ore miner who was keen to explore if it was possible to use data science and machine learning to optimise their port operations schedule. They were looking for a pilot solution, as part of the tender process, to ensure that shipments arrived in the right place at the right time, with minimal need for manual planning interventions.

With a love of untangling complex problems and their thinking caps firmly on, idoba’s amazing data science gurus used a combination of machine learning techniques, algorithms, and Value Driver Trees (VDTs) to create a machine learning based optimisation model. This model can read the shipping schedules to be optimised, query live port and shipping data, and leverage the trained algorithm to construct possible scenarios from the data to optimise and prioritise paths forward.

The machine learning methods the idoba team constructed are ground-breaking, and were possible in part as a result of their out of the box idea to leverage Netflix’s Visceral algorithm – a predictive tool to understand traffic movements through complex, distributed systems.

The model takes only a few minutes to run to completion, meaning that any arising issues can be solved in minutes rather than days, eliminating delays across the value stream. In our client’s eyes, idoba's approach proved the value of optimisation and automation strategies powered by machine learning.

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Ready to optimise your port operations? Chat with idoba’s experts today and streamline your shipping schedule for maximum efficiency.