Innovative maritime logistics in achieving higher integration and efficiency

• Main Author: Liu, Fangyu.
• Other Authors: Lam Siu Lee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Maritime studies::Maritime management and business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48975
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Nowadays, the focus of competition in transportation is no longer on the strength and efficiency of a single player in the industry. With the development of the concepts of logistics and supply chain management and with the increasing emphasize that the shippers put on supply chain, more and more attention is paid on how to improve the efficiency and integration of supply chain. For maritime logistics, the mentality is the same. In order to obtain or maintain competitive advantage, the efficiency and integration of the whole chain, rather than single service providers, must be improved. The aim of our Final Year Project is to come up with an innovative solution to enhance the integration and increase the efficiency of maritime logistics. Through a series of literature reviews and interviews we propose a framework of Enhanced 3PL which consists of three more feature, namely Selection and Evaluation feature, Performance-Based Pricing feature and Information Sharing feature. Selection and Evaluation feature serves the purpose of selecting the most suitable service providers for shippers and evaluating their actual performance. The selection process not only chooses service providers but also helps shippers optimize their supply chain. The evaluation results will be used as a base for the calculation of the bonus or the penalty if both parties opt to include Performance-Based Pricing, the second feature, into their service contract. Performance-Based Pricing feature gives service providers incentives to continuously improve their performances. The last feature, Information Sharing, is the foundation for the other two features. The Information Coordinator function helps transmit information among relevant parties; the Information Filter function ensures that sensitive strategic information shared will not be released to irrelevant parties; and the Solution Selector function is related to Selection and Evaluation feature and choose service providers for shippers. Four critical success factors for implementing Enhanced 3PL framework are identified – trusting belief, transparency, incentives that Enhanced 3PL provides, and bargaining power. Enhanced 3PL possesses mechanisms that ensure trusting beliefs, transparency and incentives, while the fourth factor, bargaining power, is deemed to be of not great importance during the follow-up interviews. Our research is by no means perfect. There are limitations due to restriction of time and resources. Future research can develop the topic further in ways such as verifying the framework with larger sample size, conducting cost-benefit analysis, or designing the information sharing platform from a technical perspective.