Complexica: The Port Productivity Solution
Complexica: The Port Productivity Solution
Optimising container movements to improve port productivity in Australia
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the tool of the future, that is becoming integral to the way industry operates across the world. Incorporation of AI into the supply chain sector is no different.
In Australia, ports are considered to be slower at turning ships around than the average international port, and the necessity to leverage AI to improve Australian container port performance is recognised now more than ever. According to a recent inquiry report carried out by the Australian Government Productivity Commission, inefficiencies in the country’s major container ports cost the Australian economy around AUD$600 million annually, a substantial amount of money that, through improving and automating systems, could be retained and used elsewhere.
Well-functioning container ports enable goods to enter the country more swiftly than otherwise and reduce the cost of such imports. Similarly, they enable Australian exporters to compete more effectively on global markets. Efficient ports minimise the time taken for containers to pass through and the time that ships and land transport spend within the port, while ensuring that inputs are used as effectively as possible. Ports that move containers more quickly, reliably and in a costeffective manner are better performers than those that do not.
The use of AI in container movement optimisation is a significant step towards improving Australian container port performance, and one embodied by Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal (FACT) based in South Australia. Through the optimisation of container movement within container yards, FACT is able to ultimately do more with less, limiting container handling amid other streamlined improvements. The project is a perfect example of how AI can help to solve complex problems that are beyond human capacity to solve.
When it comes to AI integration, FACT has a critical partner helping to achieve the port’s logistical productivity goals - Complexica. Employing more than 100 staff across four offices, Complexica is a leading provider of AI software applications that can optimise sales, marketing, supply chain decisions, and increase container movement optimisation capabilities in the area of ports, logistics and more.
COMPLEXICA
Complexica was founded upon the research of several world-renowned computer scientists and has commercialised a modularised software platform called Decision Cloud® that empowers staff across multiple business functions to make better decisions. Decision Cloud® is powered by its award-winning AI engine - Larry, the Digital
Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal in South Australia Photo Credit: Flinders Port HoldingsAnalyst® - and the company’s investors include MA Financial Group (ASX:MAF), Flinders Port Holdings and Microequities Asset Management (ASX: MAM).
Complexica has successfully delivered countless software projects and deployments, using project management methodologies that allow for ontime and on-budget delivery. Complexica has considerable experience working with some of the world’s largest companies and organisations on projects that involve large data sets, challenging optimisation and prediction requirements, and complex system integrations and operational workflows. Some of its customers include well-known names like Arnott’s, Asahi, Bunzl, DuluxGroup, Lion, Metcash, Pernod Ricard, and PFD Foods, among others.
Most Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software applications for managing supply and demand activities are unable to handle customer-specific requirements, such as variable and calendarised constraints, negative stock values, non-linear relationships, complex business rules set in time changing data environments, and non-standard business processes and workflows, among others. Complexica understands that the only business important to customers is their business, so the company has engineered its Decision Cloud® software platform to be flexible enough to ensure that the software fits the customer’s organisations by configuring each deployment to their unique business requirements, processes, and workflows.
MEASURABLE RESULTS
Complexica makes use of world-class science when it comes to decision optimisation. Scientific expertise runs across all levels of the company, and it maintains research partnerships with leading research institutions such as the University of Adelaide, RMIT, and the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology.
Complexica’s central mission is to help customers, such as FACT realise measurable improvements in areas such as operational costs, forecast accuracy, asset utilisation, working capital. To that end, Complexica works with each customer to provide ongoing validation of its software and the resulting benefits.
Through Complexica, a unique combination of science, software, and business process understanding coalesce to address complex business problems, because scientific approaches such as machine learning (ML) have the potential to create value through better decisions. However, to realise this business value, these science-driven recommendations must be embedded and actioned
Mission and vision
Complexica’s mission is to help companies become more effective in their sales and marketing and more competitive in the markets they serve, through optimised decision-making.
Complexica’s vision is to become a world leader in the practical application of AI software. As the company grows and expands, its goal is to achieve a global presence and trade on the ASX stock exchange as a publicly-listed company that represents a major part of the Australian business landscape.
within operational workflows. This requires deploying enterprise software that is tuned to a specific industry, company, and business process. Most companies excel in one or two of these areas – science, software, or business process understanding – but Complexica focuses on the combination of all three.
SCIENCE AT THE FORE
Leading-edge, AI-based prediction capabilities place Complexica at the forefront of business optimisation and improving port performance. Many traditional data mining and modelling methods are often less than ideal for finding non-linear relationships and counter-intuitive trends, and for analysing vast quantities of real-time data. For these reasons and others, Larry, the Digital Analyst® employs both classical and non-traditional methods, including several new branches of AI and ML. By combining different techniques, Larry, the Digital Analyst® automatically adjusts and self-validates in any timechanging environment and is especially well suited for large and fast-moving data sets.
A similar approach is used for optimisation, where multiple techniques simultaneously compete and cooperate with one another, producing superior results with respect to standard optimisation methods. Larry, the Digital Analyst® is easily linked to any objective function, can be extended to include domain-specific and user-provided algorithms and modifiers, and was named the 2018 Australian Innovation of the Year and the 2019 Australian Software Innovation of the Year.
Larry, the Digital Analyst® also hosts a range
of preconfigured AI algorithms that are tuned for specific business challenges, such as pricing, segmentation, cross-selling and up-selling, promotional planning, and demand forecasting, among others. The algorithms are constantly learning, and their performance is continuously monitored to identify and correct any unintended consequences of algorithmic bias and the timechanging environment they operate in.
SMART SOFTWARE
Complexica’s Decision Cloud® software platform is implemented through staged and scalable deployments, rather than “big bang” implementations to minimise risk for organisations and to accelerate return on investment. All of Complexica’s software projects are quoted at a fixed price and time-line deployments, with responsibility for any cost overruns.
The company’s delivery model is based on agile principles, and Complexica strives to be responsive to customers at all stages of a project. Its business model is based on the successful use and adoption of each software deployment, making customer success, Complexica’s success. Complexica has also developed a set of standard integration APIs for its Decision Cloud® software platform for common ERP systems and platforms, as well as public data sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Bureau of Meteorology, among others.
Complexica’s Decision Cloud® software platform is deployed through Amazon Web Services (AWS). Customers benefit from the data centre and network architecture built to meet the requirements of the most security-sensitive organisations. In addition, Complexica follows best-practice security standards aligned to the globally recognised standard ISO27001. Complexica has achieved ISO27001 certification, recognising its commitment to providing customers with the highest level of
information security management. Following an extensive audit process, the certification was issued by TQCSI International, an accredited, third-party certification body providing auditing and certification of international management system standards with offices in more than 30 countries.
BUSINESS PROCESS UNDERSTANDING
Complexica has significant domain-specific knowledge and expertise within a number of industry verticals, including ports and logistics, food and liquor, building materials, pharmaceuticals, wholesale and distribution, financial services, consumer goods, and retailing. The company also understands operational business challenges, processes, and workflows within these industries. Complexica’s experienced and dedicated Business and Data Analysis team brings this domain knowledge and business process understanding to every customer engagement.
Complexica is a customer-centric organisation that is focused on providing commercial outcomes by leveraging AI software. For this reason, its Business and Data Analysis team spends time with each customer to understand the operational aspects of the business and any unique elements of the challenge or business problem being addressed. From this point, a current and future state is defined, and Complexica’s Decision Cloud® software platform is configured and tuned to the future state business processes and workflows.
Many organisations have a large number of manual processes which take significant time and labour to manage. Just like Complexica’s work with FACT, these processes can be automated through approval workflows, embedded recommendations, and autonomous decision making. While streamlining processes is always a significant effort, the benefits begin accruing immediately, improving port performance into the future.
www.complexica.com
