【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 in most aspects of port management and probably constitutes the major obstacle to the development of a prehensive conceptual framework of port logistics management Supply chain management extends the principle of logistics integration to all panies in the supply chain through strategic partnerships and cooperation arrangements Some regard the next challenge of supply chain management is to manage pliant flows so as to ensure that all parts of the chain oscillate together in an holistic fashion In similar vein others stress the need for agile supply chains in order to survive in a rapidly changing global environment Paixao and Marlow advocate the application of agility to the port environment proposing that ports should be proactive rather than reactive along supply chains in a modern globalized world economy Review of relevant logistics and supply chain measurements Many techniques of logistics measurement adopt ratio instruments of financial reporting and productive efficiency For instance logistics performance is assessed through productivity and utilization measurement or by applying the DEA model to international channel productivity Most of the available logistics measurements correspond to a firms internal functions and processes For example a report by the European Logistics Association arranges logistics performance measurements into eight groups but does not anize them into an integrative and prehensive framework Measurement techniques that have gained recognition from logistics professionals include activitybased costing ABC and total cost analysis TCA The former proposes an evaluation of the costs of a firms activities based on the actual resources and time consumed to perform them whereas the latter proposes a tradeoff analysis among different internal functions to minimize the total cost while at the same time maintaining customer satisfactionThe use of TCA is extended to external logistics performance by integrating various flows and processes in the supply chain In the area of supply chain management the academic literature has been less successful in providing valid tools for performance measurement and most performance measurements have been initiated by practitioners or consultants rather than through academic research Exceptions include Kaplan and Norton who bine several dimensions of performance measurement They provide a linear causeandeffect model claimed to serve both measurement and management objectives The SupplyChain Operations Reference SCOR initiative undertaken by the SupplyChain Council SCC attempts to integrate process reengineering benchmarking and process measurements into a crossfunctional framework Holmberg s model proposes a conceptual framework of performance analysis throughout a systems approach to supply chain measurement Process benchmarking is a technique that proposes the collaboration of all members in the supply chain for the purpose of process parison and performance analysis Institutions at the trade channel level can play a valuable and neutral role in benchmarking Any valid performance model within a logistics and supply chain management context should integrate different measures of internal activities and link them to measurement activities of other entities in the supply chain Towards a logistics and supply chain approach for ports From the above discussion it appears that there may be a methodological difficulty in linking supply chain performance measurements to ports Traditional port management is often typified by institutional fragmentation and conflict with other members of the logistics channel whereas the supply chain management philosophy advocates process integration and partnership A systemic approach to port performance is required The systems approach should allow a neutral and objective perception of a problem s definition and investigation and particularly helps in overing the obstacles of channel identification and conflicting standpoints However despite successive attempts to apply the systems approach to operational problems in shipping and ports very few would claim to apply the concept of systems thinking to the whole port anization Methodology Action research The methodology adopted for this study works within the action res