Smart Port Framework - A study of Port of Gothenburg

Abstract

The increase in global trade have resulted in the need for more complex infrastructure to support the increased amount of freight. This combined with the advancement of digitalization in society has resulted in the need logistics hubs to adapt. This development has resulted in the 5th generation of parts, the smart port. A port integrated with advanced ICT systems and automated equipment. In this thesis we want to create a framework, fit for today's challenges in order to evaluate how far a port has come in its transformation into a smart port. This will be done by building our own framework based on other researchers previous attempts to develop such a framework. We have decided to focus on the 4 following pillars, Operation, Environment & Energy, Digitalization and Cyber-security as we found that these measurements are most fit for a smart port evaluation. This thesis will evaluate the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp. After getting a understanding of how far the market leaders have gotten in the smart port transformation, we will compare the results to the Port of Gothenburg in order to find strengths, weaknesses and hopefully how the Port of Gothenburg should continue in their transformation process. Our findings are that creating a reliable and in-depth Smart Port Framework was difficult under our short time frame. We do believe however that our chosen domains, Operations, energy & environment and digitalization are relevant when evaluating Ports. This together with our inclusion of Cybersecurity creates a starting point for future research. Port of Gothenburg (PoG) has a great potential for improvement in the Operations and Sustainability domains. Our evaluation shows that the technological leaders scored more than double compared to PoG when it comes to the operations domain. The specific weak points identified are automation and efficient use of the current infrastructure. Due to the subjective nature of the Digitalization and Cyber Security domains it’s hard to make a conclusive comparison with the other ports. We can however say that these areas shouldn’t be the focus area of improvement for PoG as our findings puts them on pace with the market leaders.