BUSINESS ANALYSIS

Business Analysis & Improvement

Abstract

The subject company which has been selected for the purpose of this research paper is American President Lines ( APL ). APL is a shipping company and a global giant in logistics services and shipping/freighting. The company has an average container volume of above 5000 per month in South East Asia alone. The main competitor of APL is the MEARSK Shipping Line. MEARSK Line's share in the volume pertaining to South East Asia is less than APL's share but is gradually increasing to be brought at par. APL's main customers in the South East Asian region are SUPREME, a global food solutions firm, FLUOR, a global construction company and the US Military. For this paper, APL's services to the consignees based in Afghanistan have been chosen as the subject and will be passed through strenuous scrutiny with the customer satisfaction perspective enforced.

Introduction

American President Lines ( APL ) is the fourth largest container shipping and logistics company in the world. With branch offices based in over 100 countries, APL services over 140 countries and offers value services to its distinguished customers. APL is the leading freighter to the United States government and handles an average of 5000 containers to South East Asia alone per month. These containers are destined for the assistance of US forces and the provision of supplies to the food supplying firms and global construction companies based in Afghanistan. Amongst the consignees are SUPREME, which is Dutch firm offering food solutions around the globe, FLUOR which is construction company which is undertaking the development projects in Afghanistan and the US Military which includes the Marine Corps. , US Air force and US Army. As mentioned, the main competitor is the MEARSK Line shipping which is gradually increasing its volume to come at par with that of APL. The reason why MEARSK has been able to increase its business in these areas is due to improvements in the customer driven strategies. MEARSK is focusing on customers while APL was a little too busy taking care of the rising volume. This caused MEARSK to capitalize and capture some of the market share.

The mode of operations of APL is as follows:

Loading of containers on the shipping vessel on the US ports.

Dispatch of the vessels.

Reception at the Pakistani port of Karachi.

Unloading of containers and loading on trucks.

Dispatch to the borders with Afghanistan.

Final Cross Border deliveries.

The denominations of containers include 40 feet containers, 20 feet containers, 40 feet Reefers and 20 feet Reefers. The refrigerated container units are called reefers which are used for the transportation of perishable items such as ice cream, confectionaries etc. The total transit time from the US to the final destination is averagely 18 days.

In the entire process, the consignees which are the customers have to be constantly kept on board by sharing all the relevant information concerning their shipments. In this regard, tracking services of APL's logistics provides satellite based tracking and ...