The objective of this study is to examine the container development strategies in the port of Taichung from the viewpoints of carriers, port authorities and shipping academics. The six most important strategic attributes from the all respondents perceptions are Enhancing the services of direct shipping with Mainland China, simplified customs procedures, simplified administrative procedures, de…
The purpose of this study is to examine the use of the strategic management tool, Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats or SWOT analysis, and to assess how the methodology has been used as well as changes to the methodology. The findings both for and against SWOTanalysis should lead to a balanced view of the technique as well as yield ideas for needed theory building.
This paper aims to examine the use of a qualitative data analysis technique, the documentary method, in the development of knowledge in logistics. The value of the method is illustrated through an example of its application in a study of in-store logistics processes at six leading European retail stores.
The purpose of this paper is to develop a data system to assess failure probability in small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) reorganization.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a clustering approach to segment supply chain partners in the automobile industry and prioritize services offered by third party logistics service (3PL) providers
Despite the growing amount of research into container-port operations and efficiency, much of the literature on the subject treats container ports and terminals as black box systems without examining the structure of their transformation and production processes. Research on the network and multi-stage structure of container-terminal operating systems is scarce and its applications in the conte…
The paper describes the concept and implementation details of integrating a finite element module for dike stability analysis ‘‘Virtual Dike’’ into an early warning system for flood protection. The module operates in real-time mode and includes fluid and structural sub-models for simulation of porous flow through the dike and for dike stability analysis. Real-time measurements obtained …
Despite their high economic importance, academic research has granted KG funds only marginal attention. A main reason is the lack of reliable performance data due to non-observable market prices during the lifetime of a KG fund. In order to measure the performance of KG funds, we construct an index using a database of more than 300 German one-ship companies during the sample period from Decembe…
This paper presents a meta-analysis of variations in seaports’ Mean Technical Efficiency (MTE) scores based on 40 studies published in refereed academic journals. We link the variation in estimated MTE scores to differences in the following factors: the frontier methodology used, which essentially are the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA); regions wher…
Item classification based on ABC-XYZ analysis is of high importance for strategic supply and inventory control. It is common to perform the analysis with past consumption data. In this context, the purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that an integration of demand forecasts can improve the performance of item classification, in particular the performance of ABC-XYZ analysis
The paper aims to identify both the location and severity of damage in complex framed buildings using limited noisy vibration measurements. The study aims to directly adopt incomplete measured mode shapes in structural damage identification and effectively reduce the influence of measurement errors on predictions of structural damage.
Despite an increasing number of studies on the efficiency of container terminals, their focus has mostly been on advanced and emerging markets. There are limited studies on container terminals in developing countries such as those of the Middle Eastern region, which are located in a critical geographic position in the international maritime route between the East and the West. Information on th…
This paper introduces a Malmquist CO2 emission performance index (MCPI) for measuring changes in total factor carbon emission performance over time. The MCPI is derived by solving several data envelopment analysis models. Bootstrapping MCPI is proposed to perform statistical inferences on the MCPI results. Using the index the emission performance of the world's 18 top CO2 emitters from 1997 …
International containerized freight movement is a vital part of the supply chain for many companies, anda critical element of moving consumer goods to points of retail sale within the U.S. Containerized imports also present a clear security concern (e.g., terrorists attempting to ship “dirty bombs,” chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons, into the U.S. in a shipping container). The go…
In this study, we empirically investigate the impacts of urban road congestion and road capacity expansion on the competition between major container ports in the US. We find that more delays on urban roads may cause shippers to switch to competing rival ports: a 1% increase in road congestion delays around the port is associated with a 0.90–2.48% decrease in the port’s container throughput…
This paper aims to provide a hierarchical configuration of the container port industry. It attempts to do so by determining a port hierarchy and then, utilising this, deriving the nature of the spatial interactions between sample ports in East Asia. The former is determined by assessing the relative importance of a port within the given network, and the latter is mainly based on the significanc…
This paper investigates opportunities for increased profit and reduced emissions and cost by service differentiation within container shipping. Traditionally the strategy among the container lines has been profit maximization by utilizing economies of scale through the building of larger and faster vessels. In 2008, the financial crisis in combination with higher fuel prices put an end to this …
This paper discusses the needs and possibilities of widening the traditional perspective through which shipping investment decisions are taken by embedding them in a multicriteria environment. The set off point has been the frequent observation that a shipping decision maker (DM) faced with ship investment decision-making is influenced by factors that are not clearly financial or cannot be easi…
This paper proposes to establish a long term shipping freight index for dry cargo transportation and investigates its particulars among the cyclic fluctuations. Many scholars investigated dry cargo shipping markets and some of them attempted to construct a composite index of freight rates. Although, several critiques are indicated about the method of composition, these indices depicted long ter…
This paper aims to examine the past and present research on ‘green ports and maritime logistics’ in order to identify established research streams and fertile research areas with potential for future investigations. Using rigorous bibliometric and network analysis tools, the paper completes a systemic mapping of the existing literature and identifies the key investigators, collaboration pat…
The paper examines an important player in the container industry: the container terminal. We evaluate how terminal efficiency operation is affected by the following factors: terminal type, operation type, scale efficiency and returns to scale. In so doing, we test how the typology and operation of terminals and the level of scale efficiency that a terminal can achieve, represent significant fac…
Container ports in Southeast Asia accounted for an estimated 30.0% of the world’s transhipment traffic in 2004. The share of the region’s transhipment trade was forecasted to increase to 32.5% in 2015. The potential offered by this large and expanding market encouraged major container terminal operators located in Port Klang, Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas to compete intensively for this bus…
The global freight distribution system has been impacted by convergence in terms of technology, infrastructure, modes and terminals. Still, in spite of strong converging forces, it can be argued that logistical practices are far from being uniform. This paper analyses the regionalism in freight transport systems by providing a comparative analysis of gateway logistics practices in North America…
A logistics centre is a center for all the companies which participate in activities related to transport and logistics in the broadest meaning. LCs provide collective equipment needed to develop these activities and have common services for the companies installed there. Together with the values of location and centrality a logistics centre provides quality service and effective selection of t…
This research aims to examine national logistics competence in Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia from a manufacturer’s perspective. Using survey responses from 459 manufacturing firms, this study compares the relative importance and satisfaction of national logistics competency. Results indicated that simplify the customs clearance procedure was viewed as the most important item of national logist…
Unmanned autonomous ships are seen as a key element of a competitive and sustainable European shipping industry in future. But even if the technology to further automate ships will principally be available at some point, this does not imply that autonomous vessels are also the superior choice for the ship owner. In the end the success of autonomous vessels depends on their impact on the profita…
This paper aims to provide a tool for measuring air passenger satisfaction and for identifying the critical service aspects available in the terminal in order to offer services characterised by a high level of quality.
The South African container port system is subject to a major revision of the existing port hierarchy. The aim is to move away from a set of gateway ports to a hub port configuration. Such a shift would allow the South African port system to benefit better from market dynamics. This paper deals with the application of multi-criteria analysis (MCA) to the evaluation of three alternative location…
There have been various analyses of the efficiency of container port (or terminal) production using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on cross-sectional data. When time is not considered, the efficiency results derived using this approach can be biased. In order to overcome this problem, this paper applies DEA windows analysis, utilising panel data, to a sample of the world’s major contai…
This article is concerned with an analytical summary of how the Japanese container ports have been taking place overcapacity problem in a systematic way. It focuses on institutional aspects of the overcapacity problem from the viewpoint of accounting cost and opportunity cost. The ®rst issue arises due to the port authority’s accounting system and insu cient disclosures of ®nancial statem…
Risk analysis in seaports plays an increasingly important role in ensuring port operation reliability, maritime transportation safety and supply chain distribution resilience. However, the task is not straightforward given the challenges, including that port safety is affected by multiple factors related to design, installation, operation and maintenance and that traditional risk assessment met…
Port container terminal operation requires a skill workforce who participates in performing a number major operation including container loading/unloading, task planning, scheduling of terminal resources, operating of crane systems, etc. in a highly coordinated manner. To facilitate the optimal design of terminal operation for both management and operators, and to provide a flexible environment…
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a computationally convenient way to measure efficiency that does not require an explicit functional relationship between inputs and outputs. However, because the frontier is constructed using extreme observations, DEA can be sensitive to extreme points, especially when data may be contaminated by measurement error. In such settings, the technical efficiency sc…
How can wasteful handling of such precious goods as food and pharmaceuticals be reduced between production and consumption? This was the key question at the beginning of this research project. Having witnessed vivid and frank discussions between logistics experts from all segments of the cold chain in conferences and workshops during my work for the Cool Chain Association (CCA), I became incre…
The purpose of this study is to identify crucial sustainability assessment criteria in the context of international port sector.
Maintenance management is a core process in infrastructure asset management. Infrastructure organisations must constantly strive to ensure the effectiveness of this process in order to obtain the greatest lifetime value from their infrastructure assets. This paper aims to investigate how infrastructure organisations can enhance the effectiveness of their maintenance management process.
This study aims to investigate how seaport research has been conducted from the methodological perspective. To this end, this study reviews published port literature for the last three decades (1980–2000s). The investigation primarily categorises the literature according to various methodological issues such as research paradigm, research strategy, basedisciplines,research methods and analysi…
A numberofmetricsinthepasthavebeenproposedandnumericallyimplementedtoassesstheoverall performance oflargesystemsduringnaturaldisastersandtheirrecoveryintheaftermathoftheevents. Among suchperformancemeasures,resilienceisareliablemetric.Thispaperproposesaprobabilistic frameworkforscenario-basedresilienceassessmentofinfrastructuresystems.Themethodaccountsfor uncertainties intheprocessincludingthe…
This paper undertakes two tasks: measurement of seaport infrastructure productivity growth in North America from 1984 to 1997, and exploration of several theorized causal relationships between infrastructure productivity and industry structure and conduct. A methodology is presented, data envelopment analysis (DEA), for measuring infrastructure productivity. Tobit regression is presented as a m…
experienced a notable growth, after the devastating earthquake in 1686 and has become one of the most important ports of the Eastern Mediterranean starting from the eighteenth century. There is an extensive literature on the past social and economic life of the City of Izmir, Turkey. However, the historic spatial analysis of the city is largely neglected, similar to the most studies on Asian ci…
This paper examines the system and manuals for transportation project evaluation, which are recently introduced for all transportation modes, road, railway, airport and seaport projects in Japan. The manuals aim to evaluate the social signi®cance of projects from the viewpoint of ef®ciency and equity, by applying a sort of multi-criterion analysis, although adopting the cost bene®t analysis …
It has been well acknowledged that Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) has played a growing important role to ensure the safety of navigation in the busy ports and waterways. However, the benefits produced by VTS are usually ignored by the public and private sectors. Besides, the previous evaluations generally exist following problems: (1) It is difficult to collect the data for the parameters in the…
This paper presents a conflict solving model to resolve different stakeholder demands in the port redevelopment of the Incheon Inner Port. The different interest groups involved in this current project in South Korea include the land owner of Incheon Port Authority (PA), governmental regulator of Ministry of Maritime and Fishery (MOMAF), private port interests, port labor, business interests an…
This study addresses the impact of the external environmental context of individual organizations on their internal structures and service configurations, as they attempted to adapt to a changing political economy, via an examination of a portion of the Georgia child welfare system’s response to the introduction of the principles of managed care. Based, in part, on Hasenfeld’s (1992) notion…