The Study Of How To Implement Process Innovation In The Container Terminals Of Shenzhen Port

With the rapidly growth of Chinese economy and the development of modern logistics, it is a fact for the port business that their customers' needs are changing, that is, the customers are looking forward to better and quicker service from terminals. But the existing terminal processes could not be adapted to the changes. At the same time, ports'expanding in China is so fast that the competition situation is rather rigorous. Therefore, terminals should decide to implement process innovation in order to perform more efficiently and more economically to meet customer's needs, which could be helpful to build or improve their selves'capability of competition. This thesis covers five chapters through which it explores and demonstrates how to carry on process innovation to promote enterprise's core-competitiveness.The first chapter commences with analyzing the macroscopic background relative to the port business in China. It summarizes the characteristics of Shenzhen Port's development and its current situation of the market and competition. Then the main problems existing in the terminals of Shenzhen Port are found out. At the end of this chapter, it elaborates the focal points of this thesis and the objective of this study. The second chapter is emphasized in the analysis on the competition of Chinese ports through Game Theory. The analysis shows that under the situation of internal and regional competition which Shenzhen Port is facing, price war is not a wise strategy for the terminals. As a conclusion, they should promote core-competitiveness and enhance the profit ability with a long-sighted goal, and then innovation is the best choice for them to get there.The third, with understanding on the principle of process innovation, it tells the what Chinese enterprises need about process innovation. Then the theory of Six Sigma management is introduced, which is successfully implemented in many well-known international companies. This theory provides a rather useful way for the terminals of Shenzhen Port to carry on process innovation.The fourth chapter is the core section in this thesis. With the guidance of the theories of modern logistics and Six Sigma, it is to analyze the problems in operations and management of terminals of Shenzhen Port, and to study how to carry on process innovation. This section includes three main subjects: the characteristics of terminal's process innovation, SWOT analysis of a company with container terminals, application mode of Six Sigma in terminals.The last chapter is the conclusion of this thesis where some comments and experiences through this study are presented. At the same time, it also points out other outstanding subjects which need to be explored.The target of this study is to find out a feasible plan for terminal's process innovation in Shenzhen Port and provide proposals for the decision-makers, with the guidance of the theories of advanced logistics management and Six Sigma management. Also, it can be a meaningful and successful case for other logistic enterprises and service industry to implement process innovation.