Systematic integration

The proposition followed throughout the thesis is that the hallmark success for port industry as a critical connecting node in supply chains is to facilitate the exchange of goods and services and the related information among various individual supply chains. With a vastly evolving globalization process, there is a need to explore interfaces between agents as well as transport and economic activities in order to integrate the sea/land interface with an inland-logistics equation. The general purpose of the thesis is “to explore the port industry in order to develop an integrated logistics platform concept...” In this thesis, systematic integration is suggested in the form of an integrated logistics platform framework (see the Figure). The capability of integrating different forms of interfaces relies on the port organization to:

• Support supply chain coordination in which all member-firms work closely as if one single domain;
• Adopt key business process integration by identifying links to logistics activities (like combined transport carrying capacity and other linking activities); and
• Enhance system optimization by bridging interfaces through the proprietary information system, allowing supply chain visibility for the entire system.

Support supply chain coordination

The perception of supporting supply chain coordination is more reliant on the firm’s network structure and how each firm perceived its potential value-creation. Network structure concerns the arrangement of the members of supply chains and their relations; this simply implies both primary and secondary member-firms are able to draw the system constituents and boundary. From the network structure perspective, the thesis identified four logistics and transport network strategies that give supply chain member-firms a great potential for competitive interaction. In this context, cooperation in the extended enterprise and cross-functional team are found to be imperative to streamline further the objectives of supply chain strategies.

Adopt key business process integration

The key business processes concern activities and flows in the supply chains. Integrating these activities and flows are of utmost importance and thereby the value-chain concept is central to inform their significance to the involved member-firms. The thesis identifies a plentiful amount of value-added attributes (physical and virtual) that makes integration between different business processes possible. In this context, value-added attributes come mainly from two research streams: literature-based and empirically driven. It’s these types of activities and flows that contribute to the overall business process integration.

Enhance system optimization

To enhance system optimization, the study emphasizes management components through two mechanisms: (1) the relationship between integrative information (communication and information flow structure) and integrative technology (IT facility structure), and (2) the nature of supply chain interfaces:
Within the first mechanism, integrative information (communication and information flow structure), captures desired/valuable information that enables supply chain integration, and integrative technology (IT facility structure) captures flexible/interconnected information systems that are able to span the supply chain boundaries. To visualize how information flows can support business processes, the focus ought to be on what information the actors exchange and by which media they do it. The second mechanism concerns exploring the nature of supply chain interfaces. Interface specifications traced back to information flow and data and information content together with information technology integration are: (1) media, (2) transfer, (3) data and information, (4) control and communication, and (5) user interface.
In short, the framework can be attained throughout the main framework’s elements: network structure, business process and management components. Only crossing all these important elements will allow for preparing the logistics platform structure and describing the process and the associated interface specifications in advance.

Notes: Transshipment flows = (1-2- t). Replenishment flows = (3-4-r).         Figure: Integrated logistics platform framework