A customer relationship management tool for sea-freight forwarders

Transcription

1 Title A customer relationship management tool for sea-freight forwarders Advisor(s) Wong, TN Author(s) Chow, Pui-shing.; 周 沛 誠. Citation Issued Date 2004 URL Rights The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.

2 Table Of Contents Declaration Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables i ii iii-v vi-vii viii Chapter 1 Introduction Previous Research & Research Gaps Objective Outline Of The Thesis 6 Chapter 2 Literature Review Introduction Evolution Of Logistics Activities Scenario Of Hong Kong Freight Transportation Industry Hong Kong Freight Forwarding Environment Competitiveness Of Hong Kong Freight Forwarding Industry Transportation Logistics Transportation Mode Freight Transportation Literature Customer Relationship Management In Freight Industry Cargo Consolidation Information Systems In Sea-freight Industry IT Applications In Shipping Industry E-Commerce & Information Exchange Current Shipping Information Systems In Hong Kong Conclusion 39 Chapter 3 General Overview Of The CRM Tool Introduction Operations In The Current Shipping Logistics Chain General Overview Of The CRM Tool Main Modules Of The CRM Tool E-Booking System Shipment Booking Shipment Handling 52 iii

3 Cargo Exchange Market Container Selection & Cargo Allocation Decision Support System Information Exchange Conclusion 58 Chapter 4 Container Selection & Cargo Allocation Decision Support System Introduction Existing Practice & Problem Description Of Cargo Consolidation Problem Formulation General Model Heuristic Approach Assumptions Model Validation & Discussion Example Example Testing Discussion Of The Result In Example Example Example Testing Discussion Of The Result In Example Conclusion 99 Chapter 5 E-Booking System Introduction Description Of The E-Booking System Shipment Booking System Shipment Handling System Electronic Cargo Exchange Market Conclusion 122 Chapter 6 Information Exchange Introduction Existing Practice and Problem Description Benefits Of Using XML Over EDI As Data Exchange Standard Format Limitations Of Using XML As Data Exchange Standard Format Conversion Of XML Data Into HTML Code Role Of XML In The Freight Logistics Industry Information Exchange In The CRM Tool 135 iv

4 6.3.1 Overview Of The Information Exchange Among Parties Information Exchange In The Cargo Exchange Market Information Exchange Between Forwarders & Shipping Carriers Information Exchange Between Local Freight Forwarders & Oversea Freight Forwarding Agents Conclusion 148 Chapter 7 System Implementation Introduction Implementation Of The CRM Tool Java Technology Java 2 Enterprise Edition Platform &.NET Platform RMI-JDBC-ODBC Bridge Setup Of The ODBC Data-source Architecture & Installation Of The RmiJdbc Package XML-Based Documents & Database Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) Read XML Content & Store Data To Database Read XML Content & Store Data To Database Conclusion 163 Chapter 8 Conclusion & Future Work Problem Description Contribution Of The Study Recommendation For Future Work 169 References 171 Appendix 179 v

5 List Of Figures Figure Number Description Page Figure 2.1 Hong Kong Port Container Throughput (in million TEU) vs Year 12 Figure 3.1 General workflow in the Hong Kong sea-freight forwarding industry 44 Figure 3.2 Information flow in the shipping logistics chain 45 Figure 3.3 General overview of the systems in the shipping industry 48 Figure 3.4 System architecture of the CRM tool 49 Figure 3.5 Use case diagram of the e-booking system 53 Figure 3.6 Use case diagram of the container selection & cargo allocation decision support 55 system Figure 3.7 Use Case diagram of the information exchange module 57 Figure 4.1 Illustration on cargo orientation and relative position 73 Figure 4.2 A flow chart presenting the logic of the heuristic 84 Figure 5.1 Login interface of the CRM tool 101 Figure 5.2 Operation procedure in the shipment booking system 102 Figure 5.3a Visual screen layout of the shipping order form in the shipping ordering stage 105 Figure 5.3b Visual screen layout of the shipping order form in the route selection stage 106 Figure 5.3c Visual screen layout of the example of route selection 107 Figure 5.4 Visual screen layout of the shipping order form in the shipping detailing stage 108 Figure 5.5 Visual screen layout of the shipping order form in the cargo commodity 109 declaration stage Figure 5.6 Operation procedure of the shipment handling system 113 Figure 5.7 Visual screen layout of the shipment handling system in Stage 1 and Figure 5.8 Visual screen layout of the shipment handling system in Stage Figure 5.9 Visual screen layout of the shipment handling system in Stage 6a 116 Figure 5.10 Visual screen layout of the shipment handling system in Stage 6b 117 Figure 5.11 Operation procedure of the electronic cargo exchange market 118 Figure 5.12 Visual screen layout of the electronic cargo exchange market 121 Figure 6.1a Sample shipping order (Main Part) 126 Figure 6.1b Sample shipping order (Attached List) 127 Figure 6.2a Visual screen layout of the XML code of the sample shipping order 127 (Main Part) Figure 6.2b Visual screen layout of the XML code of the sample shipping order 128 (Attached List) Figure 6.3 Logic flow of associating the XML document with XSL document 133 Figure 6.4 Communication between two parties in the logistics chain 137 Figure 6.5 Visual screen layout of the shipping order generation tool 139 Figure 6.6 Visual screen layout of the XML-based shipping schedules 141 Figure 6.7 Visual screen layout of the web page for reading shipping schedule 142 Figure 6.8 Visual screen layout of the web page for generating XML-based container order 143 Figure 6.9 Visual screen layout of the web page for generating XML-based bill of lading 145 Figure 6.10 Visual screen layout of the XML-based House bill of lading 146 Figure 6.11 Visual screen layout of the web page for generating XML-based pre-alert 147 Figure 7.1 Edition on java.policy file 152 Figure 7.2 Setup of the ODBC data-source 155 Figure 7.3 Architecture of the RmiJdbc package 156 Figure 7.4 Example code of the Java program demonstrates the use of 158 RMI-JDBC-ODBC Bridge Figure 7.5 Visual screen layout of the command to start the RmiJdbc server 158 Figure 7.6 The effect of SAX and DOM in the application development 159 Figure 7.7 Example code of the Java program demonstrates the use of DocumentBuilder 161 Figure 7.8 Example code of the Java program demonstrates the use of 161 vi

6 getelementsbytagname() Figure 7.9 Example code of the Java program demonstrates the use of SQL statement 162 and ResultSet object Figure 7.10 Example code of the Java program for storing data to the Document object 162 vii

7 List Of Tables Table Number Description Page Table 2.1 The breakdown number of the employees in the Hong Kong 11 transportation logistics industry Table 2.2 A comparison of THC from different ports 14 Table 4.1a 20 Steel Container Specification from the Hong Kong maritime major players 62 Table 4.1b 40 Steel Container Specification from the Hong Kong maritime major players 63 Table 4.1c 40 Aluminum Container Specification from the Hong Kong maritime major 63 players Table 4.1d 40 High -Cube Steel Container Specification from the Hong Kong maritime 63 major players Table 4.1e 45 High -Cube Steel Container Specification from the Hong Kong maritime 64 major players Table 4.1f 45 High-Cube Aluminum Container Specification from the Hong Kong 64 maritime major players Table 4.2 Cargo item orientation definition 71 Table 4.3 Container Specification & Ocean Freight Charge in the Example 1 87 Table 4.4 Cargo Item Specification and Load-Type in the Example 1 88 Table 4.5 Local Haulage Charges & Terminal Handling Charges of Cargo Container 89 Table 4.6 Computational Test Result of the Container Selection Plan, Cargo Allocation 90 Plan and Cargo Loading Plan (Example 1) Table 4.7 Computational Test Result of the optimal Container Selection Plan, Cargo 92 Allocation Plan and Cargo Loading Plan (Example 1) Table 4.8 Cargo Item Specification and Load-Type in the Example Table 4.9 Container Specification & Ocean Freight Charge in the Example 2 Table 4.10 Computational Test Result of the Container Selection Plan, Cargo Allocation 96 Plan and Cargo Loading Plan (Example 2) Table 4.11 Comparison of the computational test results between Chen et al. s model and the 98 proposed model Table 6.1 Library of data definition to be used in the XML-based shipping order viii