Measuring Cost Savings of Applying Electronic Supply Chain Manifest in Air Cargo Terminals

Electronic Supply Chain Manifest (ESCM) is a system developed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) used for solving the problems of the low-efficient phone calls and labor intensive handling process during air cargo movements. The ESCM uses electronic files to replace human labor in creating and delivering business documents. In the experience of US, the cost of transaction can be reduced by 1.5 to 3.5 US dollars at each transaction after introducing ESCM. Traditional air cargo exporting processes in Taiwan also needed several data inputs and outputs to create necessary document of transport duties and custom clearance. However, 70% of these data was redundant hence made the process inefficient and increased the cargo processing cost. This study examines the benefit of introducing ESCM in Taiwan. The cost saving of forwarders, the airlines, the cargo terminals, and the customs are all estimated. Integrated computer-aided manufacturing definition was selected as the tool to decompose the air cargo export process in Taiwan. One typical export case was analyzed, and the cost saving after introducing ESCM in the case was calculated. It showed that the forwarder would save 546 NT Dollars at each transaction, while the airline would save 66 NT Dollars. The cargo terminal would save 6.26 NT Dollars, and the custom would save 3.94 NT Dollars.