Management system

Abstract

To provide a management system which efficiently collects information about transport of a ship from a shipping company.SOLUTION: A management system sets, for each of shipping companies, an acquisition route of either a direct route in which information is directly received from a computer 4 of the shipping company or an indirect route in which information is received from an external system which collects information from the shipping company, and receives information about transport of a ship according to the set route. For example, the management system sets the indirect route for a shipping company which uses a service provided by the external system 2, and sets the direct route for a shipping company which does not use the service provided by the external system 2.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a management system. [Background technology]

[0002] When obtaining information about ship transportation from shipping companies, information is typically collected from all shipping companies in one system, and the information about ship transportation is obtained by periodically accessing that system. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-214560 [Patent Document 2] Special Publication No. 2010-503908 [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2022-178989 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, this method of obtaining information via the system places a heavy burden on shipping companies, as they must input information into a single system. This can result in delays in information input by shipping companies, and the information stored in the system may not be updated. An object of the present invention is to provide a management system that can efficiently collect information about ship transportation from shipping companies. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] One aspect of the present invention is a management system in which an acquisition route is set for each shipping company, either a route received directly from the shipping company or a route received from an external system that collects information from the shipping company, and information regarding ship transportation is received via the set route. [Effects of the Invention]

[0006] According to the present invention, information regarding ship transportation can be efficiently collected from shipping companies. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing a management system 1 according to a first embodiment and its peripheral systems. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the operation of the management system 1 according to the first embodiment and its peripheral systems. [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of ship transport information (scheduled arrival time, scheduled arrival port) for a certain ship A. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a comparative example of ship transport information (scheduled arrival time, scheduled arrival port) for a certain ship A. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the operation of the management system 1 according to the second embodiment and its peripheral systems. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] (First embodiment) Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a management system 1 according to a first embodiment and its peripheral systems. The management system 1 receives information related to ship transportation (hereinafter referred to as "ship transportation information") from an external system 2 or a computer 4. The ship transportation information is information in which ship information, movement information, and shipping company information are associated with each other. The ship information is information for identifying a ship, such as the name of the ship and a code for identifying the ship. The movement information is movement information for a ship transporting goods, and includes, for example, information on the scheduled port of arrival and scheduled time of arrival of a ship currently sailing, the goods loaded on the ship, the port where the goods were loaded and the time when the goods were loaded, the voyage time after the goods were loaded, or the voyage speed. The shipping company information is information on the shipping company that owns the ship.

[0009] The management system 1 includes a control unit 11, an interface 12, and a memory unit 13. The interface 12 receives ship transportation information from the external system 2 or the computer 4. The control unit 11 controls the interface 12 to record the ship transportation information received by the interface 12 in the memory unit 13.

[0010] The following describes receiving the ship transportation information from the external system 2. Hereinafter, in the management system 1, the route for receiving the ship transportation information from the external system 2 will be referred to as an "indirect route." The external system 2 is a system that collects ship transport information from shipping companies. The external system 2 collects ship transport information, for example, by receiving the ship transport information from a computer 3 installed on a ship owned by the shipping company. Crew members of each ship use the computer 3 to create and send regular reports including the ship transport information to the external system 2, for example, around noon every day. The external system 2 collects the ship transport information by receiving the regular reports. The external system 2 stores the ship transport information of each ship, and when it receives new ship transport information of a ship, it stores the information as new ship transport information, and when it receives already stored ship transport information of a ship, it updates the stored ship transport information of the ship. In the external system 2, a destination for the ship transport information is set for each ship. A ship that wishes to send ship transport information to the management system 1 includes the management system 1 in the destinations for the ship transport information. The destination for the ship transport information is set by the management system 1 or the computer 3. When the destination of newly added or updated ship transport information is the management system 1, the external system 2 transmits the ship transport information to the management system 1.

[0011] The following describes receiving ship transport information from the computer 4. Hereinafter, in the management system 1, the route for receiving ship transport information from the computer 4 will be referred to as the "direct route." The computer 4 is a computer used by the shipping company. In other words, the management system 1 receives ship transport information directly from the shipping company. The management system 1, for example, displays an input form for inputting ship transportation information on the computer 4. An employee of the shipping company inputs the ship transportation information according to the input form displayed on the computer 4. This enables the computer 4 to send the ship transportation information to the management system 1, and the management system 1 to receive the ship transportation information from the computer 4.

[0012] In the management system 1, either a direct route or an indirect route is set as a receiving route for each shipping company. For example, an indirect route is set for a shipping company that uses a service provided by the external system 2, and a direct route is set for a shipping company that does not use a service provided by the external system 2.

[0013] The management system 1 may receive ship transportation information via a direct route from a shipping company for which an indirect route has been set. For example, the management system 1 can receive ship transportation information via a direct route from a shipping company for which an indirect route has been set by displaying an input form on the computer 3 that is similar to the input form displayed on the computer 4, and having an employee of the shipping company enter the ship transportation information according to the input form displayed on the computer 3.

[0014] The processing in the management system 1 will be described below. The storage unit 13 stores temporary information 131 and management information 132. The control unit 11 stores the shipping information received by the interface 12 as temporary information 131.

[0015] The management information 132 is ship transport information for each ship. As will be described later, the control unit 11 adjusts ship allocation based on the management information 132. The control unit 11 updates the management information 132 based on the temporary information 131 at a preset internal update timing. The internal update timing is set at a fixed time. The storage unit 13 may store master information 133. The master information 133 is information for each ship and corresponding information for each ship. The information for each ship is, for example, information not included in the ship transport information, and may include, for example, a route for receiving the ship transport information from a shipping company, contact information for the shipping company, the ship owner, and the shipyard where the ship was built. The control unit 11 may identify information that is not included in the ship transportation information based on the received ship transportation information and the master information 133. For example, the master information 133 is information that associates shipping company information with the route for receiving ship transport information from the shipping company, and the control unit 11 identifies the route for receiving ship transport information from the shipping company based on the shipping company information contained in the received ship transport information. For example, the master information 133 is information that associates shipping company information with the shipping company's contact information. The shipping company's contact information is, for example, an email address of a person in charge at the shipping company. The control unit 11 identifies the shipping company's contact information based on the shipping company information included in the received shipping information.

[0016] The information corresponding to each ship may be information included in the ship transport information. Also, if there is missing information in the received ship transport information, the ship transport information may be supplemented based on the ship transport information and the master information 133. For example, the master information 133 is information that associates ship information with shipping company information, and if the received ship transport information does not include shipping company information, the control unit 11 can identify the shipping company information from the ship information included in the received ship transport information based on the information that associates ship information with shipping company information. After updating the management information 132, the control unit 11 may erase the temporary information 131.

[0017] After updating the management information 132, the control unit 11 adjusts the ship allocation based on the management information 132. The control unit 11 changes the ship transport information in the management information 132 by using a predetermined algorithm based on the management information 132 to optimize the number of ships berthing at each port so that it does not exceed a maximum value. In other words, the ship transport information in the management information 132 is updated by the temporary information 131, and the ship transport information in the management information 132 is further changed by the ship allocation adjustment.

[0018] After adjusting the shipping arrangement, the control unit 11 performs an information transmission process to the external system 2, the computer 3, and the computer 4 based on the management information 132. The control unit 11 performs different information transmission processes to the external system 2 and the computer 4 depending on the shipping company corresponding to the shipping information. If an indirect route is set for the shipping company corresponding to the shipping information, the control unit 11 transmits the shipping information to the external system 2 in the management information 132 via the interface 12. The control unit 11 identifies the route for receiving the shipping information from the shipping company based on the shipping company information included in the updated shipping information, for example, using information correlating the shipping company information included in the master information 133 with the route for receiving the shipping information from the shipping company. At this time, the control unit 11 may notify the shipping company corresponding to the shipping information in the management information 132 via the interface 12 that the shipping information has been sent to the external system 2. The control unit 11 identifies the shipping company's contact information based on the shipping company information included in the updated shipping information, for example, using information correlating the shipping company information with the shipping company's contact information included in the master information 133, and notifies the shipping company of the update. The external system 2 updates the stored ship transportation information based on the received ship transportation information. If a direct route is set to a shipping company corresponding to the ship transportation information, the control unit 11 controls the interface 12 and sends the corresponding ship transportation information in the management information 132 to the shipping company. The control unit 11 uses information that associates the shipping company information with the shipping company's contact information contained in the master information 133, identifies the contact information of the shipping company based on the shipping company information contained in the ship transportation information, and sends the ship transportation information to the shipping company. As a result, the ship transportation information changed by the ship allocation adjustment in the management system 1 is reflected in the ship transportation information stored in the external system 2, and the shipping company for which the direct route has been set is notified.

[0019] FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the operation of the management system 1 according to the first embodiment and its peripheral systems. The computer 4 transmits the ship transport information to the management system 1 via a direct route (step S11). When the external system 2 updates the ship transport information whose destination is set to the management system 1, it transmits the updated ship transport information to the management system 1 (step S12). The management system 1 receives the ship transport information from the computer 4 and the external system 2, and stores the received ship transport information as temporary information 131.

[0020] At the update timing, the control unit 11 reflects the temporary information 131 in the management information 132 and updates the management information 132 (step S13). At step S13, the management information 132 is overwritten with the temporary information 131. The control unit 11 adjusts the ship allocation based on the updated management information 132 (step S14). As a result, the ship allocation adjustment changes the ship transportation information in the management information 132. The management information 132 is changed only when the temporary information 131 is reflected in the management information 132 at the update timing and when the ship transportation information in the management information 132 is changed due to the ship allocation adjustment. In other words, the ship transportation information stored as the temporary information 131 is not reflected in the management information 132 until the next update timing, that is, the management information 132 is not updated by the temporary information 131 while a ship allocation adjustment is being made.

[0021] The control unit 11 transmits the shipping information in the management information 132 to the external system 2 or the computer 4 via the interface 12 according to the shipping company corresponding to the shipping information (step S15).

[0022] The ship allocation adjustment timing, which is the timing for changing the management information 132 due to ship allocation adjustment, and the information transmission timing, which is the timing for performing information transmission processing to the external system 2, the computer 3, and the computer 4, may be set at fixed times, just like the internal update timing. The internal update timing, the ship allocation adjustment timing, and the information transmission timing are set in the order of internal update timing, ship allocation adjustment timing, and information transmission timing, as shown in steps S13 to S15 in Fig. 2, and each timing may be set at a fixed time every day.

[0023] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of ship transport information (scheduled arrival time, scheduled arrival port) for a certain ship A. Before 12:00 on January 16th, management information 132 recorded information indicating that the scheduled arrival time of a certain ship A is 15:00 on January 18th and the scheduled arrival port is Ibaraki Port. At 12:00 on January 16th, a person in charge at the shipping company accesses external system 2 and changes the scheduled arrival time of ship A to 15:00 on January 19th. External system 2 transmits the updated ship transport information to management system 1. Management system 1 records the received ship transport information in the memory unit as temporary data 131. At 12:00 on January 16th, the estimated arrival time indicated by the ship transport information for Ship A in both Temporary Information 131 and External System 2 is the same, 1:19, 15:00, while the estimated arrival time indicated by the ship transport information for Ship A in Management Information 132 is 1:18, 15:00, which is different from that indicated by Temporary Information 131 and External System 2. At 12:00 on January 16th, the estimated port of arrival indicated by the ship transport information for Ship A is the same, Ibaraki. In the management system 1, the update timing is set to every six hours, at 1:00, 7:00, 13:00, and 19:00 every day. Therefore, at 13:00 on January 16th, the management system 1 reflects the temporary information 131 received up to that point in the management information 132. As a result, the ship transport information of ship A received at 12:00 on January 16th is reflected in the management information 132. Therefore, the estimated arrival time indicated by the ship transport information of ship A in the management information 132 is updated to 15:00 on January 19th, which is the same as the estimated arrival time indicated by the ship transport information of ship A in the external system 2.

[0024] In the management system 1, at 2:00 pm on January 16th, ship allocation adjustment is started based on the management information 132. By the ship allocation adjustment, the ship transportation information to be changed in the management information 132 is determined.

[0025] At 3:00 p.m. on January 16th, a shipping company representative accesses the external system 2 and changes the scheduled arrival time of ship A to midnight on January 19th. The external system 2 sends the updated ship transport information to the management system 1. The management system 1 records the received ship transport information in its storage unit as temporary information 131. However, because 3:00 p.m. on January 16th is not the timing for an update, the external system 2 does not reflect the received temporary information 131 in the management information 132. Therefore, at 3:00 p.m. on January 16th, the scheduled arrival time of ship A managed by the external system 2 differs from the scheduled arrival time of ship A in the management information 132. At 4:00 PM on January 16th, the management system 1 adjusts the ship allocation and changes the ship transport information in the management information 132. As a result, the expected arrival port indicated by the ship transport information of ship A in the management information 132 is changed to Chiba.

[0026] In the management system 1, the information transmission timing is set every six hours, at 5:00, 11:00, 17:00, and 23:00 every day. Therefore, at 17:00 on January 16th, the management system 1 transmits the ship transport information of ship A to the external system 2. The external system 2 updates the stored ship transport information of ship A based on the received ship transport information of ship A. As a result, at 17:00 on January 16th, the ship transport information of ship A in the external system 2 and the management system 1 becomes the same as the ship transport information of ship A in the management information 132. The update of external system 2 by the management system 1 at 17:00 on January 16th overwrites the update of external system 2 at 15:00 on January 16th. If the shipping company of ship A is notified of the update of external system 2 at the time when the management system 1 transmits the ship transport information of ship A to the external system 2, the shipping company will know that the update made by the shipping company has been overwritten.

[0027] At 6:00 PM on January 16th, a person in charge at the shipping company accesses the external system 2 using the computer 3 and checks the ship transport information for ship A that has been updated by the management system 1. Based on the updated ship transport information, the person in charge considers the changed arrival time at the scheduled arrival port and updates the scheduled arrival time in the external system 2. The external system 2 sends the updated ship transport information to the management system 1. The management system 1 records the received ship transport information in the memory unit 13 as temporary information 131. As a result, at 6:00 PM on January 16th, the scheduled arrival time indicated in the ship transport information for ship A in the external system 2 and the temporary information 131 is changed again to 1:00 AM on January 19th. Thereafter, at 19:00 on January 16th, which is the internal update timing, the ship transport information in the management information 132 is updated in the management system 1 based on the ship transport information of ship A in the temporary information 131. As a result, at 19:00 on January 16th, the ship transport information of ship A in the external system 2, the temporary information 131, and the management information 132 become the same.

[0028] As described above, the management system 1 can use an indirect route to more efficiently collect shipping information from shipping companies by utilizing the external system 2 that collects shipping information from shipping companies. In addition, the management system 1 is able to receive ship transport information from shipping companies that use indirect routes using direct routes, so that it can receive ship transport information from all shipping companies even when the external system 2 is unavailable.

[0029] Unlike the first embodiment, when the management system 1 updates the management information 132 based on the ship transport information received from the external system 2 and the computer 4 while making ship allocation adjustments, there is a possibility that inconsistencies will occur in the ship transport information in the management information 132 before and after updating the management information 132 based on the ship allocation adjustments. 4 is a diagram showing a comparative example of ship transport information (scheduled arrival time, expected arrival port) for a certain ship A. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the management system 1 immediately reflects the received ship transport information in the management information 132, rather than as temporary information 131.

[0030] Before 12:00 on January 16th, management information 132 records information indicating that the estimated arrival time is 15:00 on January 18th and the estimated port of arrival is Ibaraki Port, as shown in Figure 3, as ship transport information for a certain ship A. At 12:00 on January 16th, a person in charge at the shipping company accesses external system 2 and changes the estimated arrival time of ship A to 15:00 on January 19th. External system 2 sends the updated ship transport information to management system 1. Management system 1 reflects the received ship transport information in management information 132. Therefore, at 12:00 on January 16th, the estimated arrival time indicated in the ship transport information for ship A in management information 132 and external system 2 is the same, 15:00 on January 19th. At 12:00 on January 16th, the estimated port of arrival indicated in the ship transport information for ship A is the same, Ibaraki.

[0031] 4, the management system 1 reflects ship transport information in the management information 132 every time it receives it, and therefore does not perform updates at the update timing. Therefore, the estimated arrival time and estimated arrival port indicated in the ship transport information for ship A in the management information 132 at 1:00 PM on January 16th are the same as the estimated arrival time and estimated arrival port indicated in the ship transport information for ship A in the management information 132 at 12:00 PM on January 16th. As for the external system 2, no information updates were made between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM on January 16th, and therefore the estimated arrival time and estimated arrival port indicated in the ship transport information for ship A in the external system 2 at 1:00 PM on January 16th are the same as the estimated arrival time and estimated arrival port indicated in the ship transport information for ship A in the external system 2 at 12:00 PM on January 16th.

[0032] In the management system 1, at 2:00 PM on January 16th, ship allocation adjustment is started based on the management information 132. The ship allocation adjustment determines the shipping information to be changed in the management information 132. The ship allocation adjustment is performed based on a snapshot of the management information 132 at 2:00 PM on January 16th.

[0033] At 3:00 p.m. on January 16th, a shipping company employee accesses the external system 2 and changes the scheduled arrival time of ship A to midnight on January 18th. The external system 2 sends the updated ship transport information to the management system 1. The management system 1 reflects the received ship transport information in the management information 132. Therefore, at 3:00 p.m. on January 16th, the scheduled arrival time and scheduled arrival port of ship A managed by the external system 2 will be the same as the scheduled arrival time and scheduled arrival port of ship A managed by the management information 132.

[0034] At 4:00 PM on January 16th, the management system 1 adjusts the ship allocation and changes the ship transport information in the management information 132. As a result, the estimated arrival time indicated by the ship transport information for ship A in the management information 132 is changed to 3:00 PM on January 19th, and the estimated arrival port is changed to Chiba. The management information 132 at 16:00 on January 16th has been changed due to a shipping adjustment based on the management information 132 at 14:00 on January 16th. However, the management information 132 at 16:00 on January 16th also reflects the change in the shipping information in external system 2 at 15:00 on January 16th. In this case, the change in the shipping information in the shipping adjustment is not based on the change in the shipping information in external system 2, and the change in the shipping information in the shipping adjustment is independent from the change in the shipping information in external system 2. Therefore, the management information 132 at 16:00 on January 16th contains a mixture of the change in the shipping information in the shipping adjustment and the change in the shipping information in external system 2. From the above, if management information 132 is updated every time shipping information is received without setting an update timing as in the first embodiment, it can be said that the change history in management information 132 will be inconsistent and inconsistencies will occur.

[0035] The management system 1 according to the first embodiment stores the received shipping information as temporary information 131, updates the management information 132 based on the temporary information 131 at a preset timing, and adjusts the ship allocation after the update. Therefore, the change history in the management information 132 always includes updates based on the temporary information 131 and changes due to the ship allocation adjustment, in that order. Therefore, in the first embodiment, the change history in the management information 132 is consistent, and no inconsistencies occur.

[0036] Furthermore, in the comparative example shown in FIG. 4, if updated shipping information is received from the external system 2 immediately after a change in management information 132 due to a shipping adjustment is made, the management information 132 is overwritten by the received shipping information. As a result, it may be immediately assumed that the change in management information 132 due to a shipping adjustment did not occur. In the first embodiment, when updated shipping information is received from the external system 2, it is stored as temporary information 131 and does not immediately overwrite the management information 132. This allows the management system 1 to retain the changes due to the shipping adjustment and update the shipping information stored in the external system 2 based on the results of the shipping adjustment. This allows the management system 1 to reflect the results of the shipping adjustment in the external system 2.

[0037] In addition, when the management system 1 notifies the shipping company corresponding to the updated ship transport information that the ship transport information stored in the external system 2 has been updated, it can prevent the ship transport information updated in the external system 2 from remaining outdated information due to the update by the management system 1.

[0038] (Second embodiment) In the first embodiment, the management system 1 stores the received ship transportation information as temporary information 131, updates the management information 132 based on the temporary information 131 at a preset update timing, and then adjusts ship allocation based on the updated management information 132. In the second embodiment, when the received ship transportation information includes preset information, the management system 1 may record the ship transportation information in the management information 132, update the management information 132 based on the ship transportation information, and adjust ship allocation.

[0039] The preset information is, for example, ship information indicating a preset ship. The preset ship here is, for example, a ship that has a large influence on the movement of the entire ship. The preset information is, for example, movement information indicating the preset port of arrival, the loaded items, and the port of loading.

[0040] FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the operation of the management system 1 according to the second embodiment and its peripheral systems. The computer 4 transmits the ship transportation information to the management system 1 via a direct route (step S21). The ship transportation information transmitted here has characteristics that are preset in the management system 1.

[0041] When the interface 12 receives the shipping information, the control unit 11 updates the shipping information stored in the management information 132 based on the received shipping information (step S22). The control unit 11 adjusts the shipping assignment based on the updated shipping information (step S23). The shipping assignment adjustment changes the shipping information.

[0042] The control unit 11 controls the interface 12 to transmit the shipping information stored in the management information 132 to the external system 2 or the computer 4 for each shipping company corresponding to the shipping information (step S25).

[0043] When the management system 1 according to the second embodiment receives information having preset characteristics, it does not store the information as temporary information 131, but immediately uses the information to update the shipping information in the management information 132, and then adjusts the shipping assignment. This allows the management system 1 according to the second embodiment to adjust the shipping assignment immediately when, for example, it receives shipping information that will have a significant impact on the shipping assignment.

[0044] Other Embodiments One embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above with reference to the drawings, but the specific configuration is not limited to that described above, and various design changes and the like are possible within the scope that does not deviate from the gist of the present invention. The storage unit 13 may not be provided in the management system 1, but may be provided outside the management system 1. Furthermore, the temporary information 131 may be stored outside the management system 1. When the temporary information 131 is stored outside the management system 1, the management system 1 accesses the external temporary information 131 and acquires the temporary information 131.

[0045] The management system 1 in the above-described embodiment may be implemented in part or in whole by a computer. In this case, a program for implementing the functions may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program may be loaded into a computer system and executed. The term "computer system" as used herein includes an operating system (OS) and peripheral hardware. The term "computer-readable recording medium" refers to portable media such as flexible disks, optical magnetic disks, ROMs, and CD-ROMs, as well as storage devices such as hard disks built into computer systems. The term "computer-readable recording medium" may also include media that dynamically store programs for a short period of time, such as communication lines used when transmitting programs over a network such as the Internet or a telephone line, or media that store programs for a fixed period of time, such as volatile memory within a computer system serving as a server or client. The program may be designed to implement some of the functions described above, or may be capable of implementing the functions in combination with a program already stored in the computer system, or may be implemented using a programmable logic device such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). [Explanation of symbols]

[0046] 1 Management system, 11 Control unit, 12 Interface, 13 Storage unit, 131 Temporary information, 132 Management information, 133 Master information

Claims

1. For each shipping company, one of two routes is set: one for receiving information directly from the shipping company, and one for receiving information from an external system that collects information from the shipping company. receive information about the ship's transport according to the established route; Management system.

2. As a receiving route, a route for receiving from an external system that collects information from shipping companies is set, and from the shipping companies, the information can be received via a route for receiving the information directly. The management system according to claim 1 .

3. periodically receiving information from the external system; The management system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. storing the information received from the external system and the information directly received from the shipping company as temporary information; updating management information, which is information relating to the ship's transportation, based on the temporary information; Adjusting shipping arrangements based on the updated management information, At a preset timing, the content of the external system is updated or notified to the shipping company based on the result of the ship allocation adjustment. The management system according to claim 1 or 2.

5. When receiving predetermined information, the management information is updated based on the predetermined information regardless of the predetermined timing; Coordinating ship allocation based on the management information updated based on the preset information. The management system according to claim 4.

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