Impact of Risk Mitigation Strategies on Delivery Reliability in European Maritime Logistics

Abstract

Maritime logistics is one of the backbones of current world economy, and it supports huge amount of long-distance cargoes transporting with a low cost and high volume. The hazards of shipping the risk landscape for the maritime logistics sector has seen a wide range of both systemic and event-based risks over the past decade. The research aimed to explore dominant risk management strategies along with attitudinal judgments toward their effectiveness, as well as how situational elements have affected these practices. A qualitative methodology was used consisting of semi-structured interviews to fifteen logistics managers working in manufacturing companies based in Europe, and the analysis is based on thematic analysis. There was found evidence that digital visibility tools, route and supplier diversification, collaborative information sharing, and buffer inventory strategies were adopted on a broad scale; however they were all subject to considerable limitations relating to the existence of coordination gaps, cost pressures, conflicting organizational interests, and constrained storage capacity.