Henry S. Marcus

Niver Lines: A System-Dynamics Approach to Tanker Freight Modeling

Managers can improve their investment decisions in a cyclical market, such as the tanker market, by using system-dynamics models. We developed and implemented a system-dynamics model for the tanker market for Niver Lines. We combine entry, exit, and lay-up decisions, and determine the flow of transportation supply. Then, we compare supply and demand and calibrate the system. We derived time-charter rates from the interaction of supply and demand using historical data from 1980 through 2002. Our results reveal the key factors that affect tanker rates and unforeseen dynamics. The model is a powerful tool for modeling the impact of changes in various factors on time-charter rates.

Are port growth and coastal management compatible

Abstract Changes in the technology of marine transportation have imposed stress on coastlines throughout the developed world. One manifestation of these changes is that cargo handling activities are concentrated in “load center”; ports with heavy infrastructure investments in those ports and on adjacent coastal lands. U.S. ports generally operate as “public enterprises,”; marshalling economic and political power as they provide support services for the marine transportation industry, however, this style of management creates tensions between them and coastal planning agencies. In the following article, we seek to build a bridge between these port and coastal managers by addressing the major issues of port development and recasting them for coastal planners. We also consider whether it is possible to conceive of regional port planning in this country and, if so, how regional port planning might be developed.

Integrating design and production: A case study of the naval submarine program

Abstract The Japanese have shown the benefits of integrating the design and manufacturing functions. The U.S. Naval shipbuilding program presents formidable challenges to implementing such ideas of integration both between the design and production organizations in a given shipyard as well as between Navy designers and personnel in the several competing shipyards. Nevertheless, this paper describes how these challenges were overcome in the introduction of advanced manufacturing concepts in the Navy submarine program.