Certain managerial tools, i.e. process thinking and lean methodology could have a significant impact on warehousing operations, but they are largely neglected among the scholars. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to establish the extent to which managing processes, rather than functions and units, as technology based innovation initiatives monitored by lean approach, impacts the improvement of picking performance. In this case, a realistic experiment was conducted in a company that adopted process and lean way of thinking in replacing RF scanning with voice technology. For the purpose of the research, apart from the data collected from the company, six participants were employed for the experiment. The results suggest that process innovation monitored by lean in adopting voice technology optimized order picking performance, leading to better efficiency, productivity and accuracy.

This article reports on a study that compared coordination initiatives in the Spanish ports of Valencia and Santos. The authors fielded a questionnaire of international freight forwarders as primary data collection and also used secondary data (performance indicators) from these ports. The two types of data were used to compare the ports. Results determined that there is a more effective structure for coordination between stakeholders in the port of Valencia. The authors note that their study underscores the need for the port authority to be responsible for developing a port ecosystem that includes effective coordination, even if that coordination may appear to cost more at the outset.

This article reports on a new analysis of a fuel consumption database compiled by the BSR Clean Cargo Working Group (CCWG) with the specific purpose of benchmarking and collecting emission data. The database includes 2,300 container ship voyages (reporting year 2013, data for 2012). The authors examine the effect of technical and operational parameters on these vessels’ fuel consumption and emissions. The study was undertaken to provide information for strategies to reduce the carbon intensity of shipping operations. In 2012, carriers in the CCWG accounted for approximately 65% of total world deep-sea container traffic. The authors use an econometric model that regresses carbon emissions from container shipping on particular trade routes against a range of independent variables, such as vessel age, size and average speed. The study found that significant differences exist among carriers both in terms of energy efficiency and carbon intensity. Their analysis also suggests that while the emission profiles of some trade routes have remained relatively stable in recent years, others have witnessed an increase in emissions, mainly as a result of a concentration of container flows.

This article explores how major macroeconomic variables, such as GDP, industrial production, bilateral trade, and financial openness, and shipping variables, such as fleet development and transportation costs, affect container ports. The authors set their discussion after the economic recession of 2009, describing how the container shipping sector is integrally involved with the global economy. They start by explaining the theory of business cycle synchronicity, including the macroeconomic co-movements of the contemporary globalized economic environment. The authors then conduct a panel data analysis and use dynamic Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) techniques to support their analysis. The study covers 1995-2010 and includes 36 ports from 25 countries. The authors found that industrial production is a very powerful variable for the interpretation of container ports throughput convergence in all the tested cases. GDP convergence exercises a positive effect on ports synchronization. The authors recommend using both variables in order to generate better results. They conclude by reminding readers to also keep in mind shipping-specific variables in any study of container ports convergence.

This paper analyzed seaport efficiency and productivity growth using the Luenberger indicator and the Malmquist Index over a representative sample of 16 Middle East and East African ports. Ports in the region demonstrate a decline in technical efficiency, often in spite of positive developments in the adoption of new technology. Caution with reform, structural rigidities, institutional limitations, management practices, and education and training are all factors of production that would allow ports to move closer to their technological frontier. Ports in the region are therefore advised to look attentively to the benefits from port reform and the significance of education and training in port and maritime management.

In time series analysis, especially in non-linear time series, a school appeared after 1963. The classical school argued share price variations obey the normal distribution law and are random, in which case observations are identically distributed and independent. Although Brown (1828), Bachelier (1900), and Einstein (1905) created the background, the well-known AR(IMA) models were invented by Yule (1927). The modern school argued that time series appear to be random with a behavior under determinism, are subject to power law, and have a long run memory. Recent (nonlinear) work has not related to shipping freight derivatives, but to ship prices and freight markets. Derivatives are known as a shipping risk management means. According to the classical theory, derivative value should relate to volatility and reward, and volatility relates to standard deviation, provided the randomness of freight rates, for freight market risk management. That, to the shipping industry and its bankers, risk management is an alien concept, was written about by Stokes (1997). Stokes likened the typical shipowner to a speculator or a gambler who enjoys making large bets, and, in the hope of winning an enormous prize, risks liberal amounts of money. The authors' personal experience is that Greek shipowners, at least, are conservative. There are times when it is true, however, that in a three-year (ship) operation, more money comes from a single asset's sale than its use. Both tremendous failures and unbelievable fortunes have been created by the shipping industry, and the bankers pick up the pieces at day's end. People are attracted to the industry by massive successes, such as those seen in recent years, and repelled by failures. That risk must be managed is of no doubt, for it certainly exists. Understanding relevant market natures allow this best to be achieved. The authors demonstrate that shipping freight derivatives are persistent, while freight markets are anti-persistent, rather than random. Interaction between two opposing forces seems to occur through this phenomenon. Shipping freight market analysis must be done in a general finance context. Mandelbrot-Hudson (2004) approach applications suggests that a catastrophe's real chances of happening range between 1/10 and 1/30, or, in other words, it is much greater than what would be indicated by random walk.

The authors discuss how San Francisco Bay area automobile traffic across the Golden Gate Bridge was impacted by the toll hike in September 2002. Using a recursive estimation technique, repeatedly updated toll elasticities for each day of the week are obtained. Results suggest that researchers analyzing given fixed sample size based toll elasticity estimates should be cautious, and that two or more years are needed for bridge users to fully adjust to a toll increase, since estimates begin to stabilize after 24 to 30 months of considerable instability being exhibited.