Download PDF
Revolutionizing Global Trade: The Expansion of the Panama Canal
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Transportation Management Systems (TMS)
- Sensors - Utility Meters
Applicable Industries
- Cement
- Transportation
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Product Research & Development
Use Cases
- Construction Management
- Intelligent Urban Water Supply Management
The Challenge
The Panama Canal, a century-old marvel of engineering, was facing a significant challenge. With the advent of larger container vessels, almost half of the world's container ships were too large to pass through the canal. This limitation was a significant bottleneck for international trade, as the canal provides a crucial shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 2009, engineering firm MWH Global was tasked with redesigning the canal to accommodate these larger vessels. The project was monumental, requiring a significant increase in the canal's capacity, from 4,600 containers to 12,800. The challenge was not just in the scale of the construction but also in the complexity of the engineering required to lift and guide these supersized ships through the canal without causing damage.
About The Customer
The customer in this case is the Panama Canal Authority, the agency of the government of Panama responsible for the operation and management of the Panama Canal. The canal is a critical component of global trade infrastructure, providing a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It serves over 140 trade routes and over a million ships have crossed it since its opening. The canal collects $1.8 billion in tolls each year and takes 8-10 hours to cross. The expansion of the canal was a crucial project for the Panama Canal Authority, aimed at increasing the canal's capacity and accommodating larger container vessels.
The Solution
To address this challenge, MWH Global embarked on one of the largest and most ambitious construction projects in the world. The firm used Building Information Modeling (BIM), a process involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places. This was one of the first large-scale civil works projects to use BIM, enabling a diverse team of engineers in five design offices around the world to collaborate efficiently. The team was able to map sites and resolve design conflicts prior to construction, saving thousands of rework hours and millions of dollars. Additionally, MWH Global designed three new storage basins, the largest in the world, to recycle 60% of the water used in the locks and reduce water use by 7%, despite the new locks being 1.5 times larger than the original ones.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
![](/files/casestudy/System-800xA-at-Indian-Cement-Plants.jpg)
Case Study
System 800xA at Indian Cement Plants
Chettinad Cement recognized that further efficiencies could be achieved in its cement manufacturing process. It looked to investing in comprehensive operational and control technologies to manage and derive productivity and energy efficiency gains from the assets on Line 2, their second plant in India.
![](/files/casestudy/Airport-SCADA-Systems-Improve-Service-Levels.png)
Case Study
Airport SCADA Systems Improve Service Levels
Modern airports are one of the busiest environments on Earth and rely on process automation equipment to ensure service operators achieve their KPIs. Increasingly airport SCADA systems are being used to control all aspects of the operation and associated facilities. This is because unplanned system downtime can cost dearly, both in terms of reduced revenues and the associated loss of customer satisfaction due to inevitable travel inconvenience and disruption.
![](/files/casestudy/IoT-based-Fleet-Intelligence-Innovation.png)
Case Study
IoT-based Fleet Intelligence Innovation
Speed to market is precious for DRVR, a rapidly growing start-up company. With a business model dependent on reliable mobile data, managers were spending their lives trying to negotiate data roaming deals with mobile network operators in different countries. And, even then, service quality was a constant concern.
![](/files/casestudy/Digitize-Railway-with-Deutsche-Bahn.png)
Case Study
Digitize Railway with Deutsche Bahn
To reduce maintenance costs and delay-causing failures for Deutsche Bahn. They need manual measurements by a position measurement system based on custom-made MEMS sensor clusters, which allow autonomous and continuous monitoring with wireless data transmission and long battery. They were looking for data pre-processing solution in the sensor and machine learning algorithms in the cloud so as to detect critical wear.
![](/files/casestudy/Cold-Chain-Transportation-and-Refrigerated-Fleet-Management-System.png)
Case Study
Cold Chain Transportation and Refrigerated Fleet Management System
1) Create a digital connected transportation solution to retrofit cold chain trailers with real-time tracking and controls. 2) Prevent multi-million dollar losses due to theft or spoilage. 3) Deliver a digital chain-of-custody solution for door to door load monitoring and security. 4) Provide a trusted multi-fleet solution in a single application with granular data and access controls.
![](/files/casestudy/Vehicle-Fleet-Analytics.png)
Case Study
Vehicle Fleet Analytics
Organizations frequently implement a maintenance strategy for their fleets of vehicles using a combination of time and usage based maintenance schedules. While effective as a whole, time and usage based schedules do not take into account driving patterns, environmental factors, and sensors currently deployed within the vehicle measuring crank voltage, ignition voltage, and acceleration, all of which have a significant influence on the overall health of the vehicle.In a typical fleet, a large percentage of road calls are related to electrical failure, with battery failure being a common cause. Battery failures result in unmet service agreement levels and costly re-adjustment of scheduled to provide replacement vehicles. To reduce the impact of unplanned maintenance, the transportation logistics company was interested in a trial of C3 Vehicle Fleet Analytics.