Analysis of Random Disruptive Events in Shipping and Port Operations

Dynamic demands of global maritime services and existing maritime infrastructure constraints imposed by a rapidly changing business environment make it increasingly necessary for service providers in the maritime industry to be aware of the interruption consequences from various factors. The main questions individual maritime companies face is whether, why, how, and with whom they should interact if one particular disruptive event takes place along their supply-chain management activities. This paper discusses various maritime disruption events based on a multi-disciplinary literature review. It also provides a qualitative method for analysing stages of disruptive events in the maritime stage of the supply-chain including the identification of direct and indirect driving factors. Costs and time analyses are presented based on supply-chain management (SCM) and logistics processes in assessing the impact of maritime disruptions. The application of this analysis in recognising maritime disruptions may provide a valuable tool for mitigating the dynamics of the shipping and port markets, as it indicates potentially effective redesign strategies when a specific source of uncertainty is encountered in a supply-chain. In this paper the authors study the events of maritime disruptions driven by factors of disruption in port and shipping operations.