Leveraging Technologies of Industry 4.0 for risk management in Sea Freight Forwarding Operations

Abstract: Maritime logistics dominates the goods transportation market and is continuously growing along with the growth of global trade. However, a variety of risks continuously occur and significantly affect the maritime logistics industry, and thus the sea freight forwarding operations. On the other hand, development of technologies is kept ongoing all the time. Many academics state that technologies of Industry 4.0 are applicable for mitigating/ managing risks. Yet, there is a lack of a systematic overview in science regarding which technologies of Industry 4.0 are applicable for managing the risks that sea freight forwarders encounter in the shipping industry. In terms of the knowledge of Industry 4.0, the gap between practice and science is large. Besides, studies on risk management for sea freight forwarding operations are scarce in science. Hence, this paper applies a qualitative research approach to broadly reviews types of risks recurred and applicable technologies of Industry 4.0 for mitigating/managing the corresponding risks in sea freight forwarding operations. Results show that four key internal risks and over ten critical external risks have been experienced and/or are concerned about by sea freight forwarders. However, all these risks can be mitigated by a certain technology and/or a combination of several technologies of Industry 4.0. Specifically, Big Data Analytics and Cyber Security are the most critical technologies to address both internal and external risks identified in this study. This study contributes to the existing literature by taking the perspective of both sea freight forwarders in regards with risk management and the IT expertise specialising in the technologies of Industry 40.