One-minute narrated stories of a flow at work. The scenarios and figures are illustrative, not customer results.
Port terminal
The challenge. Wout is a planner on the shipping desk of a large container terminal in the port of Antwerp. All day, colleagues message him the same questions. Which ships are waiting at anchor? Is the container ship from Singapore inside yet? Each answer means opening three screens. By evening he has answered sixty messages and planned almost nothing.
The flow. With xMap Flows, Wout built Comet. When someone asks a question in the team's Teams chat, Comet works out what they need, listens to the ships in and around the port right now, reads today's berth plan from the terminal's list, and answers in the same chat.
The result. On Monday a crane supervisor asks which ships are waiting. Comet answers within a minute: four at anchor in the Scheldt, the biggest due at the Deurganck dock at two. Wout now gets five questions a day, and finishes the week’s plan by Tuesday. Wout used to answer the port all day. Now he plans it.
5questions a day, down from 60
1 minto an answer
2 daysto plan the week, not 5
Blocks: Microsoft Teams event → AI agent → Ships (AIS) → My data → Reply
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Port authority
The challenge. Yannis is a duty officer at the port authority of Piraeus, the sea gate of Athens. Undersea cables carry power to the islands across a stretch where no ship may anchor. Waiting ships drift in at night anyway. One dragged anchor last winter cut an island’s power for four days, and nobody saw it happen.
The flow. With xMap Flows, Yannis built Sentry. Every five minutes, across the waters off Piraeus, Sentry listens for every ship, spots any that entered the cable zone, keeps the ones slowing down to anchor, tells the patrol boat, and marks them on the duty map.
The result. Last Thursday at two in the morning, a tanker slowed inside the zone. Sentry warned the patrol boat within five minutes, and the ship moved off before its anchor touched the seabed. Yannis cannot watch every ship. Now he does not have to.
5 minbetween checks, day and night
1tanker moved off last week
0cables cut since
Blocks: Schedule → Area of interest → Ships (AIS) → Zone alert → Filter → WhatsApp Business → Show on a map
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Electronics exports
The challenge. Lin runs exports at a big drone maker in Shenzhen. Her containers leave from Yantian, one of the world’s busiest ports. When a typhoon comes, ships wait at anchor, and her buyers in Europe hear about it a week late. Lin spends her mornings phoning forwarders to find out where the vessel is. Angry buyers call her before she can call them.
The flow. With xMap Flows, Lin built Navigator. Every hour, around Yantian port, Navigator listens for the container ships, keeps the ones carrying her containers, checks the wind for the next three days, judges whether each one will sail on time, and tells her buyers before they ask.
The result. On Monday, Navigator sees typhoon winds reaching the port on Wednesday, with her vessel still at anchor. Twelve buyers get a new date that morning, five days before they would have asked. Two thank her and move their launch. Lin still can’t stop a typhoon. Her buyers just hear about it from her first.
12buyers told on day one
5 daysearlier than before
0angry calls this week
Blocks: Schedule → Area of interest → Ships (AIS) → Match with my table → Weather forecast → xMap LLM → Email
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Container haulage
The challenge. Daan has four trucks that collect containers from the terminals at Maasvlakte, in the port of Rotterdam. His drivers are booked to collect boxes off ships that are often hours late. They queue at the gate for a ship still out at sea, and he pays them for every hour of sitting. Some days a truck waits so long it misses its next job.
The flow. With xMap Flows, Daan built Tidewatch. Every fifteen minutes, over the Maasvlakte terminals, Tidewatch listens for the container ships nearby, notices the moment one moors at the terminal, checks it is carrying his clients' boxes, waits three hours while the cranes unload, and tells the driver to set off.
The result. On Wednesday the ship his drivers need is six hours late. Tidewatch stays quiet until it moors at half past one, then sends the first driver at half past four. He is in and out in forty minutes. That week the trucks wait eleven hours less. Daan stopped paying for waiting. His trucks now arrive when the boxes do.
11 hless waiting a week
3extra jobs that week
40 minin and out of the terminal
Blocks: Schedule → Area of interest → Ships (AIS) → Zone alert → Match with my table → Wait → Telegram Bot
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Marine insurance
The challenge. Seojun underwrites cargo insurance at a big marine insurer in Busan, one of the world's busiest ports. When a typhoon swings towards the coast, his clients’ ships are out there with insured cargo. He checks ship trackers in one window, the forecast in another, his policies in a third. By the time he calls the owners, the ships are in the storm.
The flow. With xMap Flows, Seojun built Wren. Every hour, around Busan port and its approaches, Wren lists every ship at sea, keeps only those carrying cargo he insures, checks the wind ahead where each one is, picks out the ones heading into a gale, and warns their owners while there is time to shelter.
The result. When the last typhoon turned north, Wren flagged seven insured ships six hours ahead of the gales. Five sheltered in the inner harbour, two slowed down at sea. Not one container was lost, and Seojun made seven calls instead of seventy. Seojun used to watch typhoons hit. Now he watches them miss.
7insured ships flagged early
6 hof warning before the gales
0containers lost
Blocks: Schedule → Area of interest → Ships (AIS) → Match with my table → Weather forecast → Filter → Slack
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Souvenir shop
The challenge. Lucia runs a ceramics shop in Santa Cruz, the old quarter of Seville. Her best days are when a river cruise ship docks. Nobody tells her when they arrive. Some mornings two hundred passengers stream through the old town while her shop is still shut and her nephew is still asleep. Other days she opens early for nobody at all.
The flow. With xMap Flows, Lucia built Harbor. Every hour, at the river port, Harbor listens for the ships on the Guadalquivir, keeps the passenger ships, spots the moment one reaches the quay, and messages Lucia and her nephew on WhatsApp.
The result. At seven on Wednesday, Harbor tells her a cruise ship has reached the quay. Lucia opens at eight with fresh coffee and her nephew at the door. By noon, she has sold more tiles and plates than in the whole week before. Lucia no longer waits for the crowds. She is open when they step ashore.
Hourlychecks of the river port
8 amopen for the first guests
1 weekof sales by noon
Blocks: Schedule → Area of interest → Ships (AIS) → Filter → Zone alert → WhatsApp Business
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Seafood processing
The challenge. Ryan runs his family’s small seafood processing plant by the Boston Fish Pier. When the boats come in, his crew must be on the line within the hour, or the catch loses its price. But boats keep no timetable. So he pays six people to wait from dawn, some days for nothing. Other days a boat arrives and half the crew is home.
The flow. With xMap Flows, Ryan built Cedar. Every fifteen minutes, over Boston Harbor, Cedar listens for the boats out on the water, keeps the fishing boats, notices when one enters the harbour, and tells the crew to come in.
The result. Now the crew sleeps until Cedar writes. A trawler crosses into the harbour at four, and the message reaches six phones at once. By five the line is running, and the haddock is on ice within the hour. Ryan stopped paying people to wait for the sea. Now the sea calls them in.
6crew called in at once
<1 hfrom harbour to ice
0 hpaid waiting at dawn
Blocks: Schedule → Area of interest → Ships (AIS) → Filter → Zone alert → WhatsApp Business
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Tours and excursions
The challenge. Marta runs the guide teams of a big tour company in Barcelona. Cruise passengers are a third of her business. Ships come in early, late, or not at all, and the port’s list changes overnight. Marta keeps forty guides on call just in case. Some mornings, half of them wait at the terminal for nothing. Other mornings, a ship arrives early and nobody is there.
The flow. With xMap Flows, Marta built Harbor. Every half hour from four in the morning, over the sea off Barcelona, Harbor listens for the passenger ships, keeps the ones heading for Barcelona, skips the ones already counted, works out the guides from each ship’s size, and calls the guides in on WhatsApp.
The result. At five this morning, Harbor hears a three hundred metre ship coming in an hour early, off Sitges. Twelve guides are told before six and meet it at the terminal. On quiet days, the rest stay home. Marta stopped guessing which ships would come. Now she watches them arrive.
1 hearly, and still met
12guides told before six
40guides no longer on call
Blocks: Schedule → Area of interest → Ships (AIS) → Filter → Only new → Calculated field → WhatsApp Business
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