Reference no: EM132976383
Business Process Redesign at DP World
In 2005, the Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International merged to form DP World. Today, it is one of the leading port operators in the world, involved in marine and inland terminal operations while providing technology-driven solutions to clients. Headquartered in Dubai, it has 78 terminals and businesses in around 40 countries spread over 6 continents, with a market capitalization of around $14 billion and revenue of $4.7 billion.
DP World employs around 38,000 people and moves up to 174,000 containers every day. In 2015, it handled an equivalent of 61.7 million containers and aims to reach a capacity of 100 million by 2020. DP World is growing aggressively and is always looking for ways to improve how it handles cargo. To do this, it has to incorporate technology, but it believes that technology should be adopted only when there is a genuine need for it. Today, however, that encom-passes everything from middleware to the latest in blockchain application.
Several processes at DP World used to be manual and paper-based, and therefore repetitive, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Managers had to spend time and resources on operational issues and ensure that their employees remain motivated while also resolving the problems that would result from du-plicated manual tasks. For example, a customer who approached the sales department and was advised to submit certain documents to process their shipment would later find that they had to make a payment at the finance department-which would involve those same documents.
In early 2000, in its search for ways to enhance its services, DP World (then known as Dubai Port Man-agement) recognized that customer service could be vastly improved by reducing transaction time and making the process simpler. They partnered with IBM and discovered the issue of customers having to submit multiple copies of the same documents or different versions of the same documents to several departments. This not only caused delays during the process but also unnecessarily duplicated it over the course of its life cycle.
Using IBM's WebSphere MQ technology, DP World created a centralized system that sends validated versions of documents to all related departments. IBM's WebSphere technology is a middleware prod-uct, which is an interface to communicate between different applications. The idea was to implement a solution without disturbing the existing system, which would disrupt the business (thus rendering it a very expensive solution). IBM's WebSphere MQ technology is also extremely flexible, robust, and scalable, which means that means DP World does not need to worry about changing the system anytime soon-after implementing it, it connected its three existing systems seamlessly using the middleware. The whole implementation simplified the overall system and significantly reduced the time it took to finish a process.
DP World saw slower growth in the second half of 2018 because of the geopolitics, the resulting loss of lower-margin cargo, and softer volumes in the region. Despite this, DP World has announced a partnership with Oracle Cloud Applications (SaaS) to drive digital transformation across its business opera-tions. The idea is to standardize by redesigning busi-ness processes that will include human resources, procurement, finance, and operations to develop an integrated technology platform. The objective is to create value for all stakeholders through intelligent logistics, with a focus on reducing cost and improv-ing efficiency. This integrated technology platform will incorporate AI, IoT, and block chain technology.
Ports generate a huge amount of data, and the AI's job will be to use this data to transform port opera-tions and make them more efficient. Robots are becoming increasingly more "intelligent" and flexible in their learning capabilities, and AI can help plan-ners find optimal solutions for ideal stowage and to plan shipyards' layouts. Leveraging IoT for ports will involve communication between quayside cranes, yard cranes, and guided vehicles. Another use is in fleet management; IoT can monitor the conditions and location of assets through sensors and send in-formation about possible delays or damage to goods. It could also send temperature and humidity data for analysis and plan things accordingly across the process.
Use of blockchain is especially exciting for DP World. Blockchain is a distributed transaction da-tabase that uses encryption to identify participants and products as they move through the supply chain. Blockchain has enormous potential to transform port-related activities by making it possible to track petroleum products from the well all the way to the retailer throughout the world. The increasing com-plexity of port operations has led to less transparency in the whole process. Terrorism and illegal trade are prominent concerns, and this is where blockchain comes in: the highly secure and scalable system will be invaluable for tracking goods, contract exchanges, and payments.
The management at DP World strongly believes that supply chain intelligence, blockchain, and AI will make the global supply chain quicker, more cost-effective, and more productive. They see blockchain in particular as a transformative technology offering the promise of innovation in goods visibility across the supply chain. The whole idea is to add businessvalue and differentiate DP World in the market, helping it to keep growing as a digitized global trade enabler.
Sources: Matthew Southwell, "Dubai Ports and Customs Accelerates Import/Export with IBM," Arabian Business, February 25, 2002; DP World website, www.dpworld.com, accessed December 10, 2018; Ritzau Finans, "DP World Saw Lower Growth in the Second Quar-ter," Shipping Watch, July 24, 2018; "DP World Jumps on the Digiti-zation Bandwagon," World Maritime News, January 31, 2018; Louise Tegner, "DP World Extends Strategic Collaboration with Oracle to Accelerate Global Digital Transformation in the Cloud," Oracle Fu-ture State Blog, May 21, 2018; James Dartnell, "The 5 Technologies That Will Transform DP World," TahawulTech.com, March 1, 2018
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