Asian Journal of Shipping and Logistics最新文献

Efficiency management is increasing its importance in the improvement of the chain sustainability. As such, this study aims to assess the performance efficiency of retail stores in fashion industry. The integrated approach of Delphi and DEA techniques was employed to address the performance efficiency assessment problem. The Delphi method was used to define the input and output variables, whereas the DEA was applied to evaluate the performance efficiency. The proposed approach was then applied into a fashion company in Hochiminh city of Vietnam to assess its retail chain performance. The results showed that labour, operational costs, size of store, number of customers, and sales revenue are considered as input and output variables in the retailing performance efficiency evaluation. Besides, it is also concluded in the study that most of efficiency retail stores are located in the dynamic districts and the efficient stores can be at any size. The proposed approach verifies its usefulness in the retailing sector. Therefore, it can be applied to the performance efficiency of retail stores in all industries. In terms of theoretical contribution, the input and output variables proposed in this study may devote to the literature in the concept and assessment of the performance efficiency. Moreover, comprehensive and multi-variable assessment of retailing sector may bring lots of benefits not only to the decision-making units but also the authorities or association with constraint funds.

Unlike commercial vessels, training ships have the unique purpose of providing students attempting to become ships’ officers with the onboard training education referred to in the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW code). More than 100 people, including students, are usually aboard these internationally seagoing vessels. Despite training ships requiring strict safety management to prevent maritime accidents and protect lives, they are excluded from the application of key international rules and regulations concerning the safety of these ships due to an ambiguous legal status. Furthermore, there is no comprehensive safety management system at the central governmental level over training ships as they are operated by individual maritime institutions despite them being national property. Against these backgrounds, this research analyses current regulatory issues of training ships at the IMO level and the domestic level by referring to South Korean case. This research conducts a doctrinal legal study to understand the current legal status of training ships the application limits of the IMO regulatory instruments. The research concludes by referring to the necessity of the development of training ships Code to enhance he safety of training ships in the future.

The inventory routing problem arises when inventory management and vehicle routing decisions are integrated instead of treated as separate problems. The technique of combining such decisions could lead to solutions that are better than merging the optimal solutions of the smaller subproblems. Hence, the problem is prominent and has been the focus of extensive research in recent years. When the products considered in such a problem are perishable, the importance is intensified; the current paper presents a literature review of the inventory routing problem for perishable products. This review classifies papers according to five attributes, namely, the number of products, the type of product (including the types of product perishability and types of perishable products), the type of demand, the number of objective functions, and the solution approach. A comprehensive analysis is performed based on these five attributes. Finally, based on 89 relevant reviewed papers, directions for future research on the perishable inventory routing problem are presented.

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) will lead to future changes in the structure and supply chain operation of businesses. While prevailing studies focus on qualitative assessments, this study quantitatively estimates 3DP impact on the maritime shipping volume and fleet type by (i) estimating the shipping volume reduction due to the mainstreaming of 3DP, and (ii) identifying the shipping fleet types that might be impacted by the change in the supply chain. The supply chain of the automotive industry in the Middle Eastern (ME) region was considered, and different statistical forecasting tools and linear programming models were applied to predict the demand for vehicles and quantify shipping volume reduction. Using a range of 3D printers (1–10), a 26–39% reduction in ton-miles of shipping by 2040 was predicted. Additionally, a 29–45% possible change in the volume of shipping from car carrier (roll-on/roll-off) fleets to bulk cargo fleet types was also predicted. This study also identified potential 3DP plant locations in the ME region ascertaining the potential loss and benefit that can be gained by the maritime shipping industry. It helps shipping manufacturers, operators, and owners consider future demand in terms of the quantity and types of fleets.

The purpose of this work is to explore the international humanitarian relief organizations in Taiwan, and find the most crucial performance indicators of humanitarian logistics, according to the experience and opinion of those large NGOs in Taiwan. The research gathered detailed information on situations from literature and collected the data by questionnaire. Based on the information gathered from questionnaires, quantitative weight was calculated through the participation of experts by using AHP in this research. According to the humanitarian relief organizations' experiences and opinion in this research, the most critical performance indicators in humanitarian relief logistics is responsiveness, and the following is agility, reliability, cost, and dialog with authorities. Although the AHP method has been applied in many research of performance indicators chosen, there is no research using AHP to prioritize the performance indicators in the humanitarian logistics field, especially in Taiwan. Future research could include the smaller or reputable organizations in Taiwan to get more comprehensive opinions. Besides, the chosen indicators could be utilized in the actual case of humanitarian rescue action.

This research aims to quantitatively evaluate the impact that future logistics development projects may have on Southeast Asia’s trade values (import and export) under the Belt-Road Initiative (BRI) scheme with Logistic Performance Indicators (LPIs) as the medium of evaluation. We investigate the multicollinearity effect, which are typically common for logistics performance indicators. The research adopts a model development technique from the Principal Component Regression (PCR) and integrates it to the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to cope with industry and freight logistics practitioner opinions on various logistics infrastructure developments under the BRI scheme. The predictive model to trade activities of South East Asia under the China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor will be proposed. Our predicting model will be weighed under the 8 different scenarios existing BRI logistic projects. This research significantly contributes to solution methodology for building a predictive model of logistic indices to trade activities under the multicollinearity effect.

Supply chain and logistics management for spare parts is of key importance in the maritime industry, in order to ensure high availability and reliability of assets, while keeping operating costs in acceptable levels. Supply chain and logistics operations for spare parts incorporate high complexity, uncertainty and costs, due to special characteristics of the maritime sector, as for instance moving assets, globally scattered points of supply and demand, strict time windows and multi-actor setting. Typically, the asset owner purchases spare parts for their vessel from a foreign supplier, and consolidates them in a regional warehouse. Subsequently, these spare parts are shipped to a port using various means of transport such as air freight, sea freight or road freight. Finally, once the vessel calls at subject port, the spare parts are delivered and used on board for maintenance activities. For repairable items, the reverse logistics process also does exist; a spare part is offloaded from a vessel, repaired and then re-delivered on board. Efficiently handling such a logistics network constitutes a great challenge, nevertheless, this topic has received little attention in the literature and a systematic review is currently missing. In this paper, the authors attempt to address this research gap by performing a systematic literature review on spare parts supply chain and logistics management in the maritime sector. To achieve this objective, after applying the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria on the initial search results, a set of (30) eligible papers, participating in the review, has been identified. These selected papers are illustrated and discussed in detail, with the purpose of addressing the research questions initially set by the authors. Fundamentally, this study aims to describe the current state of the art in the subject area, identify existing challenges and trends, and finally provide suggestions on future research. We aspire that the results of this review can be used as the foundation for future research on spare parts supply chain management in the maritime sector.

We employ a cointegration setup to explore route-specific off-equilibrium deviations related to Covid-19 that have affected clean (petroleum products) and dirty (crude oil) tanker freight rates, over and above the expected macroeconomic reactions. We find that the additional deviation caused by Covid-19 is route-specific. In particular, deviation caused by Covid-19 is found to be more significant for clean tankers, with an average impact of 0.15, an expected outcome given that these products are more reliant on economic developments because of their uses. The clean tanker impact is more evident in Japan-related routes, while no specific pattern can be extracted with regards to the additional off-equilibrium Covid-19 deviation for dirty tanker routes. Results suggest that time-charters and hedging against the stock markets can help ship-owners ameliorate demand-driven shocks.

This study aims to evaluate the extent of collaboration between shippers and shipping companies in South Korea. Bespoke cooperative and collaborative spirit indices (CCSIs) reflect the conceptual differentiation between cooperation and collaboration, as well as a more comprehensive conceptualisation. Shipping companies registered in South Korea returned 167 usable responses. CCSIs were developed through exploratory factor analysis weighting methods, and differences among CCSIs by vessel type and contract period were examined using multivariate analysis of variance. CCSIs indicate that powerful supply chain members resist two-way communication, mutuality, distributive fairness, and long-term relationships. This is one of the first studies to operationalise the key concepts of cooperation and collaboration in terms of the maritime industry, providing the basis for future research in other supply chains despite a single informant attribute. Based on the CCSI scores, managerial and political initiatives are discussed to reduce barriers to interaction and ameliorate the CCSI level between supply chain members. The research provides insights into the extent of cooperation and collaboration by initially establishing CCSIs in the maritime industry, which will support strategic approaches to supply chain members.

Ports and container terminals today are interchanges for maritime and land transport as well as important facilities that serve as communication channels for nations, regional economies, and forelands. They also act as suppliers providing cargo handling and international logistics services at the national level. Traditionally, the port industry was less competitive than other industries. However, competition among terminals is intensifying due to recent environmental changes, and the excessive competition between Korean container terminals has produced negative effects. Therefore, it is necessary to establish terminal rationalization plans to resolve excessive competition among container terminals at the national level. This study examined the direction for terminal rationalization at the national level to alleviate excessive competition among container terminals based on the theory of supply base rationalization. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) cross-efficiency and cluster analysis were combined to provide rationalization plans based on efficiency measurement. This study is significant as it presents a strategic analytical tool to establish terminal rationalization plans at the national level and also proves its applicability.