Supply Chain in Container Transportation

What is supply chain management?

Supply chain is the logistics network of suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, distribution centres and retail outlets. Logistics, which is  an aspect of military science, evolved as a business concept in the 1950s to deal with the complexity of supplying materials and shipping out products in a globalised supply chain management system.

In other words, business logistics is the supply chain process that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of use or consumption in order to meet customer requirements.

Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all other logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third‐party service providers, and customers. In essence, Supply Chain Management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies

Effect of containerisation in Supply chain

Huge waves of changes have been taking place in shipping industry , particularly in the container shipping trade, globally and in India too.Containerisation has brought technological benefits to supply chain such as door-to-door delivery , speedy intermodal transfers, low handling costs, reduced breakage and pilferage , lower insurance cost etc.

Containerisation of goods is a key technology in making multimode transport in supply chain more effective and efficient.


Multimodal transport, which is an integral part of supply chain management,  refers to the transportation of goods using more than one mode of transport in an integrated and seamless manner from the origin to the destination.

Containerisstion–Future opportunities for supply chain management

1. Automobile Industry requirements

 Automakers in India are the key to the supply chain and are responsible for the products and innovation in the industry. As the Indian automotive sector is booming like never before, the relevance of logistics and the supply chain have become all the more important. The automotive industry in India is one of the largest in the world and one of the fastest growing industries globally.

India's passenger car and commercial vehicle manufacturing industry is the sixth largest in the world and the car plants of Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai in India have figured in World’s top 10 list. Several global auto firms like Hyundai, Nissan, Scoda , BMW etc invested in car factories in India.

The supply chain of automotive industry in India is very similar to the supply chain of the automotive industry in Europe and America. 

2. Retail Trade reforms

India’s growing domestic market is one of the major strengths for containerisation. The India Retail Industry is gradually inching its way towards becoming the next boom industry and there is great potential for the organized retail industry to prosper in india. In November 2011, India's central government announced retail reforms for both multi-brand stores and single-brand stores and these market reforms expect to pave the way for retail innovation and competition with global multi-brand retailers as well single brand majors.

3. Increasing Industrialization

India is becoming the most preferred destination for manufacturing outsourcing in the world, offering greater potential for containerisation. The growing industrialisation in India will boost containerisation in the country.Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) such as Samsung and LG Electronics and electronics manufacturing services (EMS)providers such as Solectron, Flextronics and Jabil already have well-established facilities in India

For the past couple of decades, Taiwan and China have been world leaders in the OEM sector, but gradually with the improvement in road infrastructure and better supply chain management, India also begun to gain a foothold in the sector.

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