Business planning

At the business level, aspects that relate to overall industry structure, status and future are being considered. These are cases such as:

  • Market and trade selection,
  • Network and transportation system design (including trans-shipment points),
  • Fleet size and fleet mix decisions (type, size, and number of vessels),
  • Port/terminal location, size, and design.
  • Ship design and choice of ship technology.

The business planning aspect of shipping is not of direct interest in this course. At the commercial levels, most of topics of interest are more relevant and includes for example aspects such as:

  • Fleet deployment (assignment of specific vessels to various trade routes),
  • Ship routing and scheduling,
  • Port and berth scheduling,
  • Cargo operation scheduling,

At the operational level, operation management is conducted to optimally achieve the commercial requirements. These include for example:

  • Voyage planning
  • Ship speed selection and adjustments
  • Ship loading operations
  • Ship environmental/weather routing

Business decisions are long-term decisions that set the stage for commercial and operational ones. In maritime transportation business, (strategic) decisions cover a wide spectrum, from the design of the transportation services to accepting long-term contracts. Most of the strategic decisions are on the supply side and these are: market selection, fleet size and mix, transportation system/service network design, maritime supply chain/maritime logistic system design and ship design. The above decisions are based on operational information and use of a variety of models.

Choice of ship size

The ship design covers a large variety of topics that are addressed by naval architects and marine engineers. They include structural and stability issues, materials, on-board mechanical and electrical systems, cargo handling equipment, and many others. Some of these issues have direct impact on the ship’s commercial viability. Obvious examples for GHG emissions reduction purposes are decision making on ship size and ship speed (MariEMS 2017).