Case Study
Höegh Autoliners develops a global integrated planning solution with AIMMS
About
Höegh Autoliners is a leading global provider of Ro/Ro vehicle transportation services. Höegh Autoliners owns and operates about 55 PCTC vessels (Pure Car and Truck Carriers) in global trade systems, making around 3,000 port calls per year. Customers include global manufacturers of new cars, heavy machinery and rolling goods.
Challenge
Höegh Autoliners’ flexible fleet is designed to cater to a variety of rolling stock for its various clients. To maintain that level of flexibility and operate in the most cost-efficient way, the company was in need of a solution that would allow them to simulate and optimize critical business decisions. The decision support solution needed to clarify key questions such as which vessels to allocate per industry and how to structure and compose their fleet to maximise profits going forward.
Solution
An AIMMS-based Business Planning System (BPS) was developed to replace physical (file-based) handovers between planning levels and offer a single planning database that provides relevant and up-to-date planning information to all stakeholders. It offers an integrated solution which combines forecasted demand data, available resources and customer and production commitments. The BPS supports the company’s planners in a controlled and cooperative manner, enabling them to evaluate different planning scenarios and react to unexpected changes in a timely way.
Results
Using a friendly user interface that facilitates collaboration across the company’s 20+ global offices, planners are able to:
- Add and remove vessels from each trade
- Add and remove ports per schedule
- Change demand forecasts
- Add and remove trades
- Restructure trades and loops
“With a market that is increasingly dynamic and cost focused, we as a transportation provider must frequently make quick decisions on where to deploy our vessels for the best service while making the most efficient use of our vessels. Such decisions require qualified analysis and this is where AIMMS computing power comes in. Their system will assist us in creating correct analyses at a fast pace, enabling us to serve the market even better.”
– Ingar Skiaker, CEO at Höegh Autoliners
