Development and implementation of a port community system in emergent economies: the case of Barranquilla, Colombia

Abstract

The following research is focused on the logistical development of the port community of the Colombian Caribbean region, for which scope and objectives are set out below. The present thesis consists of the analysis of Port Communities through collaborative and noncollaborative scenarios, based on the application of a Port Community System (PCS) platform, for countries with emerging economies, particularly for the Colombian Caribbean region. This kind of system is a web application that integrates the different information systems of multiple stakeholders for foreign trade activities with a service architecture scheme. The scope of this research includes: (a) The creation of collaborative and non-collaborative scenarios for the incorporation of an added value service for a PCS in emerging port industries, based on an optimization approach that takes into account both economic and environmental objectives; (b) The design of a prototype version of a Port Community System based on process automation using a Business Process Management (BPM) language for different types of cargo and for underdeveloped countries; (c) The identification of barriers for adopting a PCS in emerging economies and the design of policies to overcome the initial socio-economic barriers when applying collaborative technologies. The main objective pursued by this initiative is to model and quantify the impact of the incorporation of a PCS in emerging economies using Barranquilla, Colombia as a case study with the development of a functional prototype. In this way, the contributions of this dissertation are: 1. Distinctions (insights-implications), gaps and future research lines of PCS related research, drew from a literature survey on the evolution of the literature, location and economy distribution of the papers, and themes distribution of PCS research, which help to bridge the gap between industry solutions and academic works (academic and practical standpoints). 2. A detailed and current inventory of PCS around the world, based on a proposed evolution framework of PCS featured in waves, which include a categorization and identification of drivers for the creation of PCS in the port industry. 3. The PCS design for emerging economies, verified in the case study of the city-port of Barranquilla, Colombia. 4. The allocation of payoff, while creating alliances between three types of stakeholder to ensure the adoption of a PCS . 5. The creation of a hinterland intermodal transport routing system, as an added value service for PCS, which takes into account the optimization of cost and environmental emissions. These contributions are motivated by various diagnoses on the logistic poor development and underperformance of the Colombian Caribbean region. Several main diagnoses are made by the World Bank [64, 65] by using the Doing Business indexes and the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), which document the lack of logistic competitiveness in terms of cost and lenghty procedures in the Colombian Caribbean region. It was found that 23% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within the Colombian economy are logistic costs [4]. Along these lines, a previous diagnosis on the foreign trade chains in Barranquilla, Colombia [1], reports that there is lack of collaboration between the stakeholders of the foreign trade chains. There are numerous manual operations required to complete a foreign trade activity, lacking of technology which only increases the time and the costs of foreign trade activities. Among several main findings, there is inadequate infrastructure to meet the needs of users, ranging from technological tools to the training of personnel which is pervasive in most logistics chain’s echelons; corruption and inefficient practices within government entities are also reported, which are hampering processes and creating delays that translate into increased costs for businesses. As a contribution to my alma mater institutions, Universidad del Norte and Hamburg University, my research and doctoral studies entail advanced high-level training in the field of port logistics and research development. Considering the topic of my study being of great interest to the region and for the country of Colombia, this work provides as well innovative contributions to the community.