Thursday 7 April 2016

How to Choose a Terminal Operating System (TOS)

This post is a little bit off topic.

If you work in a container terminal, you should be familiar with the word TOS. 

According Wikipedia:

"A Terminal Operating System, or TOS, is a key part of the supply chain and primarily aims to control the movement and storage of various types of Cargo in and around a Container terminal or Port. The systems also enables you to make better use of your assets, labour and equipment, plan your workload, and get up to the minute information which allows for more timely and cost-effective decision making.

Terminal Operating Systems often utilize other technologies such as internet, EDI processing, mobile computers, wireless LANs and Radio-frequency identification (RFID) to efficiently monitor the flow of products in, out and around the terminal. Data is either a batch synchronization with, or a real-time wireless transmission to a central database. The database can then provide useful reports about the status of goods, locations and machines in the terminal.
The objective of a terminal operating system is to provide a set of computerized procedures to manage cargo, machines and people within the facility to enable a seamless link to efficiently and effectively manage the facility.
Terminal operating systems can be stand alone systems, managed as a service or utilize cloud technologies.
In its simplest form, the TOS can data track cargo in and out of a terminal."
I came across a very interesting post on Linkedin about what to take into the account If you are in the process of choosing a new TOS.

Here the full story!