As Autostore TOS V5, one of TBA’s terminal operating systems, celebrates its 25th anniversary, we hear from the company’s long-standing employees who have been involved with the software from the beginning.
The originator of Autostore TOS V5 was Central Systems & Automation (CSA), a company formed in 1988. In its early days, CSA was involved in several port projects; but moving into the 90s, the business shifted its focus from ports to warehouses. “There was so much demand for warehouse management systems (WMS) at this time, that we decided to focus on this sector,” recalls Richard Fairgrieve, the original Product Owner of Autostore TOS V5. “Autostore WMS grew out of this period and quickly became a successful product, but then a long-standing contact in the ports sector asked us to develop software to manage a container terminal.”“The very first installation of what would become Autostore TOS V5 was at a port in the North East of England,” recalls Richard Arthur, the current chief product owner. “But it was very quickly also picked up by Port of Waterford and ABP Immingham, both of whom I’m pleased to say are still users of the system all these years later.” Over 25 years later, Autostore TOS V5 is a fully featured, highly scalable and widely respected TOS in the world of container ports. It has 23 installations in ports as far flung as the Cayman Islands, Malaysia, and Thailand, as well as several sites closer to home in Europe and the UK.
The original developers of TOS V5 attribute a lot of its early success to the fact that they were able to leverage their extensive knowledge and experience from automated materials handling. “We were taking advantage of the experience we had in developing these very complex and powerful optimisation algorithms,” explains Jason Bartram, one of the original developers and current Product Owner. “This experience certainly gave us a head start with developing the TOS product.”
As the list of customers got longer, so did the list of requested features. “As the system matured and was being used in the real world,” recounts Senior Architect, Richard Coulson, “users began asking for additional features that we hadn’t foreseen when defining version one.” TBA’s close relationship with its customers has always allowed for this user-guided development. “If one customer is requesting something, there’s a good chance that other customers are going to have a similar need,” explained Coulson. “It’s a great way of ensuring Autostore TOS V5 continues to meet the developing needs of container ports, regardless of size, location or how technically advanced they are.” Features such as rail operation, activity charging, vehicle booking, and more were added through the first ten years of the software’s life.
While most of TBA’s container port customers have some degree of integration and automation, some are a lot more technically advanced then others. The larger terminals make greater use of technologies such as OCR to automate gates, cranes and other systems, all of which can be easily integrated with Autostore.
“It’s been fantastic to see Autostore TOS V5 grow and develop to offer such advanced functionality,” says Andrew McKaig, TBA Leicester’s Managing Director. “It’s met the demanding needs of over 20 container ports around the world and I’m so proud of how far it’s come. But I’m equally proud of the fact that so many colleagues who started the journey, such as Jason and ‘the three Richards’, are still with us all these years later.”
Autostore TOS V5's long standing colleagues, left-right: Jason Bartram, Richard Arthur, Andrew McKaig, Richard Fairgrieve and Richard Coulson. Photo: Alan Rampton.
Looking to the future, there are still plenty of ambitions ahead for the team. “Konecranes’ ownership of TBA since 2017 was a huge vote of confidence in TOS V5 and the rest of TBA’s product lineup,” reflects McKaig. “And there are lots more exciting times ahead. We have a project underway to overhaul the whole user experience with a brand-new UI, and we’re working closer than ever with our TBA Doncaster colleagues on a large joint project for Verbrugge International, combining container and bulk operations.”
TBA’s range of products also includes CommTrac, a TOS for the bulk and general cargo sector, Autostore WMS for warehouse management and automation, as well as automation services for the industrial and warehouse sectors. “I have no doubt,” said McKaig, “that the 25 years we’ve spent developing Autostore TOS V5 – and the amazing colleagues we’ve been lucky to have – will directly contribute to the success of all our products and future developments."
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