Digitalisation in Maritime Regional and Global Supply Chains

Maritime transportation traditionally connects poorly with the end-to-end supply chain. Currently many of the stakeholders in supply chains relying on maritime transportation are reviewing their stance towards their service providers in maritime transportation. This chapter looks at who they are, what forces are transforming their industries and what additional requirements they are now placing on maritime transportation. These new requirements necessitate nothing less than a transformation of maritime transportation away from paper-based operations and siloed processes to paperless operations and integrated processes that interconnect seamlessly in an end-to-end supply chain. Should the incumbent stakeholders in the maritime industry fail to make the necessary transformation, various influential cargo owners will likely transform the maritime industry for them. So, maritime transportation must start to digitise and collaborate on a scale and level of detail much higher than maritime transportation currently offers. To achieve this transformation quickly enough, the maritime industry must adopt common global standards and building blocks already used effectively across many other supply chains. The second part of this chapter covers those global standards and building blocks. The good news is that the required standards and building blocks exist; the industry must simply be willing to collaborate to combine them.