Why stowage planning is harder every year
Container ship sizes keep climbing. Stowage planning is harder for every TEU added to the deck — the constraint set grows but the planner's window does not. Four questions sit at the centre of every plan a carrier produces:
- How to keep planning quality up as ship sizes keep growing
- How to improve the modelling of vessel stability
- How to create a cost-efficient stowage plan rather than just a feasible one
- How to reduce load and discharge cost at the container terminal
The 120-second target
VAP generates high-quality stowage plans in 120 seconds for a 1,200-container call. The architecture is a four-layer pyramid: data appraisal and goal setup at the base, parameter setup above it, machine learning + AI in the middle, and the auto-stow algorithm at the top.
What that produces in practice: maximum utilisation of space and minimum lost slots; reefer and DG stow optimised against forecasts of future ports; required trim and stability achieved; stack weight and lashing force kept within limits. None of that has to be chased manually after the fact.
“VAP can create a high quality plan in 120 seconds for 1,200 containers.”
What VAP actually does
The optimiser is bounded by every relevant constraint the planner would otherwise have to track manually — and corrects itself when something fails to fit.
- Honours statutory regulations from IMO, flag state, and IMDG
- Checks stability and stress conditions, then distributes cargo for best-trim fuel economy
- Makes optimal use of under-deck slots by picking the right container type to avoid space loss from mixing
- Keeps lashing forces within limits and balances stack height to reduce wind effect (currently to GL regulation; DNV and ABS in progress)
- If a planning error occurs, the system identifies it and corrects it via a correction loop
- Lets users block container slots that should not be considered for planning
- Plans by port rotation so there is no overstow
- Lets the user plan stowage to a required crane split
- Checks future-port forecasts and reserves space to avoid downstream bottlenecks
- Auto-solves optimum ballast distribution to achieve the desired trim / stability
- Automatically restows over-stowed cargo and replans into suitable slots
- Future-restow identification and reporting
Exclusive features
A handful of capabilities sit outside the core optimiser and exist because planners asked for them — they are what make VAP usable end-to-end rather than just an algorithm.
- Accepts forecast input in any form of spreadsheet
- Webservice integration to download Voyage and Schedule, and upload EDI
- Send mail directly from VAP along with reports
- Seamless transition between Auto and Manual planning in the same tool
- Analysis report in user-defined flexible format
- Utilization reports in various graphical displays
- Terminal Departure Report generated in a single click
- Integrated IMDG for segregation check and easy reference
- Integrated lashing force calculator and monitor
Reports and dashboards
The output is not just the bay plan — it is the set of views planners and terminals actually work from: Bay Plan View, Container Pool View, DG Segregation Matrix, Crane Distribution Report, POD Utilization Dashboard, Equipment Utilization Dashboard, and an Onboard Recap View. Each one is a discrete answer to a question the planner gets asked every voyage.