Tag Archives: ports

Bigger box ships calling at fewer ports puts serious pressure on hinterland connections – The Loadstar

Good article on the effects of larger box ships (which are calling at fewer ports). The hinterland infrastructure is going to have to adjust. I don’t think the ocean carriers are going back to smaller ships. The big ones are just too efficient to give up.

Source: Bigger box ships calling at fewer ports puts serious pressure on hinterland connections – The Loadstar

Shanghai port, world’s busiest, grapples with traffic congestion

Fog is causing massive congestion at the Port of Shanghai.  Over 100 ships are waiting to berth.  Not fun.  Will shippers stop using Shanghai?

Source: Shanghai port, world’s busiest, grapples with traffic congestion

Customer experience & next-generation operations 

This McKinsey piece makes some of the best points I’ve heard about improving the customer experience.  These thoughts resonate with me concerning the import-export logistics experience for customers.

Especially useful are:

  • Exhibit 2, which makes the supply-chain point that you can locally optimize the individual steps, but flunk out on the whole process experience.

image exhibit 2

The journey stinks though the legs perform well. Put in the context of ocean logistics, If the ocean carrying segment has only 70% reliability, it really doesn’t matter how reliable the other steps are; you’re limited to 70% satisfaction overall.

  • Exhibit 3, which reports on a study of some real examples (it happens, in banking) that shows how firms can miss the point and concentrate on improving the experience for the wrong things.

image from article

Some touchpoints have high importance but give low customer satisfaction.

 

Here’s the link to the article:

  The benefits of improved customer experience can be fleeting unless changes to supporting back-end operations are made, as well.

Source: Putting customer experience at the heart of next-generation operating models | McKinsey & Company

Another article form the same source, cited above as reference 2:

 New research reveals that focus, simplicity, “digital first,” and perceptions matter most.

Source: The four pillars of distinctive customer journeys | McKinsey & Company