Ocean transport

The movement of products and services across the high seas is known as ocean transport.

The latter entails transporting produced items or materials in quantity from one continent to another. As a result, ocean shipping is crucial to ensuring the flow of commodities in the supply chain. The latter serves as the backbone of global supply chain management or the value chain, connecting otherwise complex networks of suppliers, warehouses, wholesalers, and retailers. Depending on the mileage, the shipment takes a lengthy time. Yet, the process is a well-organized operation to ensure that items are delivered to markets on time. The logistical services by providers facilitate the packaging, transportation, and delivery of the goods to the market. Ultimately, the formulation and implementation of strategic plans can improve ocean transportation. Some of the aspects the aspects that these plans can address include market research and analysis and the cost benefit of using oceans in transporting bulky goods. The oil producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and heavy manufacturers such as Japan are among the countries that have adopted ocean transportation.

Ocean Transportation

Over the years, ocean transport has been adopted by manufacturers of bulky goods that need to be transported across seas. It has, therefore, grown to be a latter that feeds the global supply chain management. Ocean transport relates to supply chain in that the latter enhances movement of goods and services from producers to customers about supply and demand terms (McDowell & Gibbs, 1999). It is among the most efficient transport means of moving goods to the market across seas compared to other transport means such as air transport because more goods can be moved at ago. Therefore, it can effectively meet more demands (Marotzke, 1999). Moreover, ocean transport is relatively cheaper rendering the transportation system operationally economical. The goods shipped to the places of demand can, therefore, feed the supply chain networks.

Pros and Cons

Pros

The advantages of ocean transport are that it facilitates the transportation of large volumes of goods to the market to quench the consumer demands. Ships have higher packaging capacity to carry more products compared to other means of shipment like air transport (Marotzke, 1999). This merit, therefore, makes ocean transport more reliable for intercontinental business. Moreover, marine transportation is considerably cheaper compared to other means of shipment like air transport. It is economical in transporting goods in bulk to the market zones hence contributing to increased profitable global business. The logistical services by the ocean transporters are well-organized ensuring an organized shipping process that promotes the efficient delivery of goods without inconveniences.

Cons

The constraints of ocean transport are minimal. However, some of the constraints can be severe and they nay demand for more caution when handling them. The shipment of goods by ocean transport may take a relatively long time. As a result, these goods may reach the market too late when they are no longer in demand (Tol, 2003). Furthermore, ships are slow, a factor that contributes to delays in the delivery of goods. Therefore, markets experience deferred profits as the goods take long to reach the consumers. Notably, the logistical services and the insurance charges for goods in ocean transit are high making the goods more expensive upon their arrival in the market. Besides, ocean transport is adversely affected by bad weather, and this can lead to delayed delivery of goods to the market (Tol, 2003). Ocean transportation plays a substantial role in feeding the supply chain of the global market. This type of transport has been found reliable and with significant economies of scale. Despite promoting easy transportation of bulky goods globally, it can be quite slow. The slow nature of ocean transport can result in market delays hence promoting losses.

Strategic Plan and Recommendations

Mission and Vision

The underlying mission in ocean transport is to keep the supply chain connected by ensuring a reliable flow of goods and services from the manufacturers or producers to the consumers (Kim & Mauborgne, 2015). Manufactures aim at ensuring their goods reach the market within the stipulated time. Moreover, the transport system is relatively cheaper. Therefore, manufacturers or producers strive to keep the ocean transport costs for greater profits and to create a successful global network. They also strive to ensure consistency in value of shipped goods which may sometimes vary from lowly priced ones to relatively expensive goods.

Market analysis

Market analysis is critical in ocean transportation to establish a reliable and ready market for the shipped goods. The manufacturers or producers of the invented goods which require shipment are required to carry out a market analysis and determine the likelihood of their commodities selling in their potential market and in what volumes (McDowell & Gibbs, 1999). The market dynamics predict the possibility of a given market buying a commodity. This aspect is, therefore, of major concern to producers before shipping goods by the ocean to a market destination. Market research is also very paramount as it is the initial stage of the analysis of the potential of a given market for goods. For instance, a manufacturer may conduct the ground determination of the likelihood of a given population purchasing a given commodity. Ultimately, thorough market research and analysis are vital and should be done before any shipment of goods by the ocean to various destinations.

Strategy and Implementation

Strategic planning is needed in ocean transportation. The plan should ensure that the whole shipping process takes place smoothly as any mistake can be very costly in terms of finances (McDowell & Gibbs, 1999). For example, storage locations should be established and be ready for the shipment of goods. The implementation of any formulated plan needs to be efficient to ensure that the supply chain is not broken. Having a timeline for the adoption of the strategic plan can promote faster implementation. For instance, over the years ocean transportation has developed tremendously because of the formulation and implementation of strategic plans within a period of some months to years. Therefore, based on whether a plan is short-term, intermediate or long-term, planners should be able to determine the timeline for implementing the strategic plans.

The cost benefit

The cost benefit of ocean transportation is in its economies of scale (Marotzke, J. et al. 1999). Large volumes of goods can be shipped to one destination in a single voyage severally saving on the cost of shipping. The goods become cheaper once they reach the market because of the low shipment costs. Therefore, a higher profit may be realized in this type of business.

Supporting analysis

The ocean transportation has been used in many parts of the world, and it has been effective over time. For example, most of the oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait among many others ship their oil to their consumers by sea. Ocean transportation of oil is very useful since oil is bulky and is demanded in large volumes. Additionally, the manufacturing countries like Japan, ship the machinery to their consumers by sea. Ocean shipping is the only convenient solution in this case because machinery is very heavy. Conclusively, ocean transport is very crucial in the global business network and the key means of moving goods in the globalized business world. This kind of transport keeps the continents connected and therefore goods flow from the producers to consumers efficiently. Evidently, the heavy and bulky products that circulate in the global markets reach their destinations by sea.

References

Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2015). Blue ocean strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant.

Marotzke, J., Giering, R., Zhang, K. Q., Stammer, D., Hill, C., & Lee, T. (1999). Construction of the adjoint MIT ocean general circulation model and application to Atlantic heat transport sensitivity. Journal of Geophysical Research, 104(29), 529-548.

McDowell, C. E., & Gibbs, H. M. (1999). Ocean transportation. Washington, D.C: BeardBooks.

Tol, R. S. (2003). Is the uncertainty about climate change too large for expected cost-benefit analysis? Climatic Change, 56(3), 265-289.