Port of Kiel Magazine No. 7 | 2019

33 selbst programmiert. Das war dann der Prototyp un- seres ersten Infodisplays an den Ladestellen“, erzählt Lars Gummels, Leiter der IT. „Kostenpunkt: 350 bis 400 Euro. Dagegen kostet ein Industrierechner gleich mal 2.500 Euro und mehr. Multipliziert mit 20 Ladestellen an den vier Hallen würde das kostenmäßig schnell aus dem Ruder laufen. Alle haben sich totgelacht, aber nun läuft es seit guten zwei Jahren ohne Probleme.“ Doch gerade an die provisorische Testphase erinnern sich viele inzwischen mit einem Grinsen im Gesicht: Waren es doch Spinnen, die in die Testdisplays eindrangen und das Touchscreen eigenmächtig in Betrieb setzen konn- ten, indem sie durchs System wanderten. Kleine Spin- nen, große Wirkung. Inzwischen läuft alles sicher und in professionalisierter Hardwareform. What do PASIS and IKEA have in common? If you want to know the answer, you will have to read the fol- lowing article, whether you like it or not. Don’t worry, you do not have to be a computer nerd or a hex wrench master. We will keep it simple. More than 1,000 different products spread on almost 50,000 square metres of storage space in four different warehouses virtually cry out for order. However, this is only half the truth as knowing the location of individual products is not enough. It makes more sense to look at the whole traffic workflow from the get go. This is what the “Paper Shed Information System (PASIS)” does. If you are thinking now that you can just call a service provider and order a system off-the-shelf, you are almost right. But not quite. You can do just that but it will cost a fortune and always include compromises. Those of you who know the PORT OF KIEL also know: Compromises are avoided here wherever possible. So do-it-yourself, IT Department. If it’s got to be perfect, do it yourself. Once it was clear that SCA would relocate to Kiel, all the players knew that the increasing traffic in Ostuferhafen would have to be directed and soundly managed. 12 months before the terminal was taken into operation the development pro- cess began. When the IT guys declared that they did not want to draw upon an existing IT system they were called a bunch of madmen. “We taped a single-board computer the size of a cigarette pack to a consumer monitor using double-sided tape, installed a linux system and program- med the whole workflow all by ourselves. This was the prototype of our first info display at the loading loca- tions”, Lars Gummels, Head of the IT Department, says. “Cost incurred: 350 to 400 Euros. In contrast, industrial computers cost 2,500 Euros or more. Multiplied by 20 loading locations at four different warehouses, the overall costs would have got out of hand quite quickly. Everyone was laughing their heads off; however, it has been wor- king fine for two years now without any problems.” This interim test phase is remembered with a broad grin on most faces: Spiders had infiltrated the test displays and activated the touchscreen by wandering through the sys- tem. Small spiders, big effect. By now, everything runs safely and professionalized hardware is in operation. Digitale Abläufe am Papierterminal Ostuferhafen. Digital workflow at paper terminal Ostuferhafen. PORT CLOSE-UP