Vessel Planner Game
careers at Felixstowe
How well could you do as a Vessel Planner? Try your hand at the Vessel Planner Game and find out. It is a simulation based on the actual principles used in the Port of Felixstowe.
Your task is to plan the unloading and loading of the ship without causing capsizes or explosions. All the containers marked with a cross need to be on the ship; all those without a cross remain in Felixstowe.
Refrigerated and heated containers and those with dangerous goods need to be kept apart because of the risk of explosions. Loading and unloading must not make the ship unstable or it might capsize.
- CONSTRUCT YOUR PLAN using the buttons at the top of the screen to lift and lower containers.
- TRY IT OUT. Press EXECUTE and watch what happens when your plan is carried out.
Click on the image to the left to start the game. More detailed instructions are included in the game. (Make sure your computer sound is switched on.)
There are two purposes to this game. Firstly, it shows you how ICT is used at Felixstowe to help planners think through complex tasks. The planner devises the plan but the computer provides the information and shows the possible consequences.
Secondly, the game illustrates a key feature of computer programming. Computer programmes are simply long lists of very simple instructions, but they have to be exactly correct throughout to work properly - just like your vessel plan. Computers follow rules very precisely.
The simulation is based on the actual principles used at Felixstowe in that the ship must be kept stable and certain types of containers must be kept separate. Some Felixstowe principles have been simplified to make the simulation straightforward and challenging: all the containers are assumed to be of equal weight, there is less restriction on the height to which they can be stacked on the dock, and heated and refrigerated containers are treated as separate types although in reality a container with heating equipment would also have refrigeration equipment.
