Marcel Ludema

The relationship between design and economic performance of ships

Success in the shipping industry depends to large extent on the quality of the main asset: the ship. The owner or operator will ask herself: do I have the right ship for a certain job, and what performance can I achieve with a given ship. The relationship between the specifications of the ship, which are fixed in the design stage, and the economic performance of the ship has received some attention, but most of the previous work lacks in the extent to which economic performance is measured or expressed. This paper describes an attempt to operationalize the concept of design for service in the maritime industry. The paper presents a lengthy review of previous work, which shows that some attention was devoted in the past to the relationship between economic and technical aspects of shipping. However, the ‘economics’ usually turned out to be simple cost calculations, instead of clear insight in costs and benefits of certain design decisions. The main variable for the shipowner to buy a ship, or to operate a ship on a certain route is earnings potential. The relation between technical specifications and earnings potential is fairly direct: desired earnings potential influences the design specifications, and the specification of the finished ship determine the earnings potential. The analysis in this paper shows that shipowners also consider cargo carrying capacity, speed and versatility, but no other, more detailed, design factors. Subsequently, we present the design for service framework for the shipping industry. This framework points the attention to a thorough service requirements analysis that drives the design stage. Finally, some preliminary work is presented on empirical studies that are currently developed in the Netherlands.

THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE RIVER-SEA TRANSPORT SYSTEM: MARKET PERSPECTIVES ON THE UNITED KINGDOM--GERMANY CORRIDOR.

Abstract River–sea transport is an interesting intermodal transport concept by definition, because seaport transshipment is avoided. Nevertheless, the concept has not been widely developed in Europe. River conditions, draft restrictions in particular, generally form a major impediment. This restricts physical opportunities for this concept to a very limited number of transport corridors, and even then it is faced by limitations influencing the economic attractiveness of such a concept. This paper evaluates the opportunities of a river–sea transport concept, in which specially designed push barges are being used to face these limitations. The concept envisages a service on the United Kingdom–Germany corridor, and examines its competitiveness with regard to a number of alternative transport modes. To this end, a model is developed which can be used as a tool to determine the optimal choice of ports to serve. The model considers the transport qualities and available transport volume collectively in order to determine the most interesting transport service of such a river–sea push barge (RSPB) system. Based on the model results it is recommended to start transport services between Hull and a Lower Rhine inland port (i.e. Dormagen).

Air cargo transport by multi-agent based planning

Most major airlines decide to take new strategies for the competition in the air cargo industry. They are concerned with assigning cargo over flights in creative ways. The paper considers the multi-agent solution for cargo assignment. First we present cargo control principles and introduce the pipelining assignment concept, then the difficulties of traditional operations research for solving this assignment are pointed out. After explaining the motivations for an agent solution, we propose a robust solution in which the flights are represented as agents and the cargo assignment is viewed as a coalition formation process among these agents. Finally, future perspectives are summarized. The main solution idea is that the agents communicate and cooperate with each other to form the best coalitions of delivering the planned shipments, and coalitions get along with available information so that the control principles can be fully performed and air capacity can be best managed.

The growth potential of container shipping on the Yangtze River

Despite the rapid economic growth in the Yangtze River Delta area, the Yangtze River itself is lagging behind as measured by the ratio of container volume to total freight volume. According to the Ministry of Communications’ statistics, more than 70% of cargoes generated in the Yangtze Valley are suitable for containerized transport, but, at this time, only a fraction of these cargoes are actually transported in containers on the Yangtze River. This paper investigates, in a structured way, what the bottlenecks for container transport are along the Yangtze. We look at the geography of the river and physical bottlenecks, the development of port capacity, the available container ship fleet and service networks along the Yangtze. As a final element, we estimate, for the first time, container flows along the Yangtze River. The analysis shows that there is no immediate capacity shortage in either ports or the fleet. The analysis also shows that current service networks are inefficient, and could carry up to twice as much cargo with the same amount of ships. In terms of physical barriers, the Nanjing Bridge turns out to be both a physical and an economic barrier. The Three Gorges Dam is not a bottleneck yet, but with the current growth of container traffic, it will be in the next few years.

Towards a supply chain analysis framework

Coordination between supply chain organizations on strategic, tactical and operation levels leads to more effective and efficient supply chains. For a supply chain coordination process a systems approach together with broad understanding of relevant supply chain management issues is necessary. Supply chain managers must speak the same language and be able to gain mutual understanding of possible supply chain problems. As part of the development a post-academic course in supply chain management a supply chain analysis framework has been developed and used in a case situation. This framework supports the analysis for supply chains and facilitates the finding of options to make supply chains more effective and efficient.

Supply chain configuration management

Configuration management is indicated as change management. It helps speeding up necessary product changes and at the same time facilitates the indentification of these changes thoughout the life-cycle of these products. Its basic objective is to establishes life-cycle tracking and tracing options for durable products and systems from cradle to grave, that are used in different circumstances, situation and geographical areas. Keeping track of all configuration items during the operational life of all this hardware including activities like repair or replacement following maintenance or even modification is extremely difficult from an organisational and informational perspective. This paper structures the complexity of the domain of configuration management and gives guidelines for implementation of configuration management.

Urban Transport System Benchmarking

This paper elaborates on benchmarking as a means for facilitating policy makers during the decision making process aimed at improving urban transport system performances. The proposed benchmark contains five critical success factors: (1) accessibility; (2) cost of transport; (3) safety; (4) environmental pollution; and (5) congestion. The benchmark result provides policy-makers with figures that describe the position of each aspect of an urban transport system of a city or region compared with that of other cities or regions. In a case study the proposed benchmarking approach is tested by analyzing the performances of the urban transport systems of the two cities Berlin and Rotterdam. In making policies for urban transport systems, there are many aspects that should be taken into account, not only from government perspective (investment and operational cost), customer perspective (accessibility, safety, congestion and cost of transport), but also from sustainable development perspective (environment). These aspects should be added as additional criteria for the development of a sound transport policy. Aspects that have low performance should be enhanced in the future, while the “best in class” aspects, can be used by regions that perform less. The first results showed that benchmarking urban transport systems can give policy makers an improved insight in the performances in respect to that of other cities and indirect advice on future investments. In order to use the proposed approach more test benchmarks are necessary.

Life Cycle Feasibility Of A New Type Of Container Handling System

Container handling at container terminals can be done with several old and new types of container handling systems, like straddle carriers or automated guided vehicles and automatic stacking cranes. A third type is introduced, based on units with a frame and a belt that runs around this frame by two rolls. This study investigates the economic feasibility of the new system by comparing it with the other two by means of a cost effectiveness analysis over a 20 year period. It was found that the new system is a feasible alternative, so the development of this system should be continues.