Beacon delivers major new system to Port of Felixstowe

Overview

Hutchison Ports own and operate the container port at Port of Felixstowe (PFL), the largest container port in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. Beacon has been working closely with Hutchison Ports on a major contract to scope, design, and implement a replacement for the existing Labour Management System (LMS). LMS is the planning tool used to manage the deployment of labour on a daily basis, including the definition and allocation of rosters, absence planning, time and attendance recording, and payroll build-up.

Business Requirements

One of Beacon’s major challenges was to develop a new LMS system which would allow for a 25% growth in manpower without an increase in administrative effort. The system also needed to be sufficiently flexible to cope with changes in future labour agreements. Since the LMS went live in 2003, there has been a steady stream of requests for additional functionality to accommodate changing business practices and improve usability.

Our Solution

Beacon has recently completed a major extension to the LMS involving the development of a new permit licence and training administration component which went live in early 2006. A wide range of equipment is used at the container port and all staff must be fully qualified in order to operate the equipment. There is a continuous training process in place whereby staff are awarded a permit when they have passed the appropriate training course and the permit is then valid for a few years until it is renewed. Labour planners at PFL are now able to create and manage permits, create courses and assign attendees. The permit licence information is essential to the labour planners and, whilst it previously came from a separate system, we have now fully integrated this component into the LMS.

"We have found Beacon to be a very professional and customer-focused organisation. LMS is a business-critical system and much of its’ success is down to Beacon's efforts as well as the good working relationship between both parties".

Toby Allerton, Senior Projects Manager, Port of Felixstowe

Technology used

The LMS has been developed using .NET technologies. An additional internet application to book holiday and view personal data was also required and developed using ASP.NET which links into the core LMS data and provides easy-to-use web access for port workers.