THE EFFICIENCY OF PORTS AND STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN

The Efficiency of Ports and Strategic Supply Chain

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tablesiv

List of Figuresv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Research Aims4

Research Objectives6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW8

The Port's Role on the Modern Supply Chain8

Port Terminal and Supply Chain's Drayage Segments10

Port Terminal Organizations11

Port drayage organizations13

Organization Theory and Interorganizational Dynamics16

Lead Time Variability and the Supply Chain Processes21

Business in Tanzania23

Agriculture24

Mining25

Tourism26

Oil and Gas27

Transport and Communications27

Port Performance and Competitiveness Models28

Supply Chain Decisions for Tanzania Port Authority30

Location Decisions32

Production Decisions33

Inventory Decisions34

Transportation Decisions34

Demand Forecast36

Relevance of Logistics in Modern Supply Chain38

Supply Chain Management39

Work force and Labor40

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY46

Research Method46

Literature Search47

Rationale for a Qualitative Study48

Research Approach48

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS50

Discussion60

Logistics node simulation as supply chain enabler65

Portainer simulator67

Simulator infrastructure for the portainer simulator69

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION73

BIBLIOGRAPHY75

List of Tables

Table 1…………………………………………………………………………………………31

List of Figures

Figure 1: Map of Tanzania 3

Figure 2: Tanzania Port 4

Figure 3: Port facilities under Construction7

Figure 4: Warehousing Facilities and the Sourcing Points33

Figure 5: Shipping supply chain35

Figure 6: Basic Supply Chain Diagram39

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In present era, very important role is playde by the ports in the transportation and supply chain network of organizations. And it is also a big source of revenue generation for the economy. It portrays the global importance of the economy as well. Due to the critical situation of the effectiveness of operations of a port the competitive development of supply chain network and their role in economical development is important. Due to the increasing globalization and trade decreasing barriers the need for the ports has been increasing significantly. It has shown a great development and demand specially in last decade. In order to attract additional container traffic and improve their comparative advantages over the competition, ports serving same hinterlands explore ways to improve their operations to become more attractive to shippers.

This research explores the hypothesis that lowering the variability of the service time observed in the handling of containers, a port reduces the total logistics costs of their customers, increase its competiveness and that of their customers.

This thesis proposes a methodology that allows the quantification of the variability existing in the services of a port derived from factors like inefficient internal operations, vessel congestion or external disruptions scenarios. It focuses on assessing the impact of this variability on the user's logistic costs. The methodology also allows a port to define competitive strategies that take into account its variability and that of competing ports. These competitive strategies are also translated into specific parameters that can be used to design and adjust internal operations. The methodology includes (1) a definition of a proper economic model to measure the logistic impact of port's variability, (2) a network analysis approach to the defined problem and (3) a systematic procedure to determine competitive service time parameters for a port.

After the methodology is developed, a case study is presented where it is applied to the Dar-Es-Salaam Port and ports of Dubai and South Africa. This is done by finding service time parameters for this port that yield lower logistic costs than the observed in other competing ...