JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR HICKAM, Hawaii -- Imagine your job involves solving three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles with giant, weighted pieces.
The 599th Transportation Brigade is sponsoring an Integrated Computerized Deployment System (ICODES) course here April 11-29, in which students effectively solve those types of puzzles in order to create plans to stow cargo on ships.
John Kelly has taught ICODES for 10 years. His regular classroom is at the Army Transportation School in Fort Eustis, Virginia, but he travels all over the world to teach. Since January he has taught at Papa Air Base, Hungary; Siauliai, Lithuania; and Fort Lee, Virginia.
"ICODES is a single load planning system used by all services for vessel, rail and air," said Kelly. "It's a planning tool to ensure that we use the conveyances safely and most economically. It uses smart technology to make sure that we follow the rules of hazmat and other rules.
Carlos Tibbetts, 599th terminal management chief first studied stow planning in 1987. He also took the ICODES course in 2005 and 2007.
"The course teaches how to use the automated program and the philosophy of stow planning," Tibbetts said. "It is not enough to load cargo on a ship, it has to be done in such a manner that once loaded, the ship will be safe and stable to sail at the same time that cargo is protected."
When students pass the three-week course, they will be certified in both ICODES and ICODES Maritime, which are usually two two-week courses.
"Because four days of both courses are co-equal, we are to offer both certifications in fifteen days total," Kelly said.
Outside factors play into successful vessel stowage.
"The ideal ICODES user will have the ability to think outside the box," Kelly said. "Most of my students are so ingrained in the Army mentality of 'make it happen,' that they have a hard time telling the boss 'no' when something is not possible.
"We need someone who can think about abstractly large numbers and abstractly small numbers at the same time," Kelly said. "They have to be able to develop a plan that will put thousands of pieces of cargo on a ship.
"What the stow-planner has to keep in mind is communications at all points along the way," Kelly continued. "They have to communicate with the vessel, the port, the customer, everyone who will be involved in the move. If you make a plan that doesn't take shortfalls or excesses into consideration, you'll be at the pier with a useless plan when the ship comes in. And believe me; that has happened."
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"We're holding the class because a lot of our people and Fleet Logistics Center Pearl Harbor Hickam personnel needed iCODES," said Scott Matthews, 599th Transportation Brigade deputy operations officer.
"In this case it made sense to bring in a mobile training team instead of sending our people TDY for the training," Matthews added.
Frank Viray, 599th traffic management specialist set up the training.
"One of our main goals was to assist FLC-Pearl Harbor," Viray said. ""Nobody there has any ICODES training. This was a joint effort request to the Transportation School.
"Once it was approved, I contacted all of our battalions, the 302nd (U.S. Army Reserve Transportation Battalion,) and FLC to find out how many slots they had per unit. The transportation school says we have to have more than 10 people per course. We have 12 in this class," he added.
Even though some class members had taken ICODES training during their original transportation training, software updates make the class necessary.
"Usually every three or four year there's a major version update. Those who use it a lot will stay current and are able to keep up with it. Those who just use it once in a while need a refresher," Kelly said.
Although ICODES is a big innovation in stowage, stow planning is not totally automated.
"There is an automatic load plan feature in ICODES, but we use that mainly as a feasibility tool, to tell if the amount of cargo will actually fit on the ship," Kelly said. You cannot just pull the information on the load, put it into ICODES, and get a plan. The stowage plan is always manually created.
"Most plans take eight to 10 hours to build for a full vessel load," he added.
Students in the course will be able to integrate an upcoming real-world vessel load into the class work for a practical exercise.
"That won't be the final, though. In order to pass the course, they still have to pass a six-hour, practical exam. They will have six hours to build an entire load plan from start to finish," Kelly said.
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