In een interview met Air Cargo Week vertelt Nanne Onland hoe Schiphol in 2018 de slimste luchthaven kan worden door samenwerking, betere en snellere processen en een vernieuwd informatie platform.
Interview Air Cargo Week 18 July 2016:
Cargonaut targets full digitisation and paperless system
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s information platform, Cargonaut is reinventing itself.
In January this year it was given two million euros to modernise the system with half the money coming from a Top Sector Logistics grant, with the remainder provided by Dutch Customs, Logius, Air Cargo Netherlands, Schiphol Group and Cargonaut.
The cash will be invested in the next two years to renew the community information platform and applications. Cargonaut says large-scale information sharing is among the challenges that lie ahead.
Cargonaut chief executive officers, Nanne Onland explains: “It is challenging and exciting, which it has been for some time and we are busy with the project. We need to modernise Cargonaut and for the benefit of Schiphol. It is important for the industry we are reinventing ourselves and we reinvent processes for the industry.”
Onland says the target at Schiphol in two years’ time is to be 100 per cent paperless, fully digitised, and to have developed standardised trade lanes. He notes: “We need to prove it can be done in a number of trade lanes with a new platform and work with airport friends and work together sharing data, best practice and information. Hopefully in two ears time we have the quality and the value is there and the model is then copies by other airports”. Onland adds: “All parties at Schiphol will reap the fruits. With the help of a renewed Schiphol Community Information platform, better and faster processes will be supported with modern tools, and can also be further developed towards the creation of new ‘Green Fast Lanes’.
“Strong co-operation, well-managed processes and maximum support from the state-of-the-art IT resources are the keys to increase the competitiveness of Schiphol, and therefore of all stakeholders, including the government.”
Air cargo needs modernising across the entire supply chain, and although much is being done, many feel it is well behind where it should be. Onland feels the industry has to work together in a new way and upgrade processes: “The supply chain for the great majority is a process that we developed in the past century and to redo it again – we have to reinvent it as we would not redesign the it is now.
“The way we get to that is experimentation and there are no big bangs. Big programmes will not get us there, we need small steps. Think big, start small and innovate.”
Onland says the goal is to make Schiphol “the smartest airport by 2018” and it is working with other gateways with the aim of improving standards and processes across trade lanes.
He says: “We are working with Heathrow Airport, Frankfurt Airport and Brussels Airports – talking about cargo performance, processes and need to work together. “We can only make ourselves ‘smart’ but we have to develop standards and must share to others so they can put it into their network. It is all about making trade lanes smart with standards, sharing data and information to improve efficiency and processes. We need collaboration to reach out to other network communities, check the boxes so things are more efficient across the supply chain, with standardised processes, and so boost trade.”