APBA announces the 2nd edition of the “Innovation Journey” Awards

23 December, 2020

APBA awarded the prizes of the 2nd edition of the “Innovation Journey” in a live-streamed ceremony led by Gerardo Landaluce.

In his capacity as the Chairman of APBA, he welcomed the audience together with José Luis Hormaechea, General Manager, and Francisco de los Santos, Head of the Technology Development Area, and he also emphasized the importance of this type of initiatives when it comes to becoming aware and acknowledging the existing capabilities and talent in the region in particular, and in Andalucía in general.

He also insisted on these ideas and proposals being ultimately transformed and materialised into specific projects. In this sense, he made special mention of Lago Marítimo strategic project, which is not only a project for the planning of spaces in the port area, but also a key initiative to understand the objectives that the port of Algeciras seeks to achieve in the future – a next generation, technologically advanced, sustainable port in which innovation is a systematic and integrated component. The ultimate goal is to continue to be a competitive port and to add value for its users and customers.

Similarly, José Luis Hormaechea stressed the fact that APBA will increasingly prioritise one of their innovation cores, that is, environmental sustainability and energy efficiency, leading several initiatives inspired by the European Green Deal paradigm.

Next, Francisco de los Santos thanked the consistent support received from the departments lead by the afore-mentioned Chairman and General Manager, as an essential aspect to lay the foundations and taking steps ahead in the digital transformation and innovation of the port, to enhance its competitiveness and environmental sustainability. He also stated that APBA regards innovation with an attitude of self-criticism and ongoing improvement in order to
generate wealth for its customers and the region.

Later, an inspiring talk by Ander Pomposo (Head of Open Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IDOM) followed. He pointed out the need to hybridise current organisational practices with more agile and dynamic ones, with the view to increasing the quality and speed when developing new products and services, and at the same time, to promote motivation and productivity in the teams. This would make it possible to better handle priority changes for users/customers and improve their degree of satisfaction (for they are a core element). He also mentioned how relevant it is to tend to simplicity, technical excellence, self-managed teams and fast adaptation to changing times. That is to say, renew or die in the digital age.

Shortly after, members of the Technical Innovation Office screened a video-summary about the key milestones of the contest, which in this 2nd edition sought to acknowledge creativity, talent and provision of innovative ideas and initiatives, not only by employees, but also by anybody involved in the port innovation ecosystem who would like to join the initiative proposing solutions to the various challenges. These challenges were the following:

1. Improving the experience of passengers and carriers in the Port of Algeciras.
2. New models of business based on data analytics, use of connected devices (IoT) and collaboration platforms in pursuit of operational excellence.
3. Progressive de-carbonisation of the Port of Algeciras and reduction of the environmental impact in the port and the city.
4. Transforming day-to-day work in APBA.

In total, 36 proposed solutions were received from 21 members from the all the 6 APBA departments and from 8 collaborating companies and/or start-ups. 17 of the latter had successfully gone through the assessment process, by means of which the strategic adjustment of their ideas, their expected impact at a social and economic level, their technical feasibility and their degree of novelty were, among other features, taken into account.

6 proposed solutions were finally short-listed:

1. “Vision Row” (Juanjo Aguilar, APBA), proposing the implementation of a platform that allows carriers to know in real time operations occurring at the gates of terminals and the level of congestion in the entrance roads, by installing
   multiple video cameras in strategic points of the port.
2. “Excellence and competitiveness in the Strait”. (Jesús Medina, APBA), whose aim consists of using AIS data to monitor the traffic circumstances in neighbouring ports (i.e. Gibraltar and Tangier) in order to detect whether there is anything they may fall short of, in pursuit of an ongoing improvement of the Port of Algeciras.
3. “Electricity production by transit of vehicles”. (Jesús Matute, APBA), with the view to replacing the existing speed bumps by other ones that have built-in electricity piezometres.
4. “Renewable Plant within the Port” . (Carlos Rodríguez, Solum), which proposes to install 100% accessible solar ground in certain areas of the port to turn its open spaces into small renew able energy production sites.
5. “En-route boarding pass” (Francisco Pardo, AddOcean), aiming to make the most of integrating APBA and shipping companies’ systems to enable passengers to generate their boarding passes through a mobile app while they are travelling towards Algeciras.
6. “Data-based Smart Mobility” (Jaime Martel, ITelligent), proposes the development of an application for mobile devices that offers recommendations to simplify the customers and users’ movements inside the port.

Once these short-listed ideas were presented, the awards ceremony started, during which the winners were appointed.

• Firstly, and as a novelty, a prize was awarded to the idea that had been chosen through public vote on APBA’s website, for which over 200 votes were registered. For this edition, the most popular idea was Jesús Matute’s “RFID Folders”.
• Secondly, the prize to the best external idea, was awarded to Paco Pardo’s “En-route boarding pass”.
• Thirdly, the award for the best idea within APBA went to Juanjo Aguilar’s “Vision Row”.

Finally, Jesús Medina closed the event by thanking both employees and external collaborators for the participation, and by highlighting what he considered the 3 Innovation Journey key points – consistent support from management, strategic alignment of initiatives launched, and integration of innovation to anchor business success.