Sensitivity analysis for identifying the critical productivity factors of container terminals

Abstract

With the rapid expansion of international trade, a distinctive feature of the contemporary container terminal industry is that competition has become more intense. If container terminal managers can gain a proper appreciation of their various productivity factors, they may be able to identify which factors have a more positive influence on productivity. The core of sensitivity analysis for evaluating terminal productivity is to remove input variables one by one, then re-estimate the correlation between productivity and investment. From this perspective, sensitivity analysis provides a more appropriate benchmark for identifying which factors are more critical for productivity improvement. This analysis has been variously studied utilizing either Data Envelopment Analysis or Regression Analysis. Given the strengths associated with these two analyses, this paper applies both approaches to the same set of data for 28 major East Asian container terminals and compares the results of the efficiency. The results of this study can provide a useful reference to port managers for developing improvement strategies. © 2013 Journal of Mechanical Engineering. All rights reserved.