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Abstract
The perception of maritime security in the post 9/11 era has dramatically shifted to a focus of
prevention and managing risks of terrorist attacks on the nation’s supply chains, specifically the
ports. Ports remain a vulnerable terrorist target because of high volumes passing through large
concentrated ports. Government and industry participants have played a major role in tightening
maritime security by implementing legislation, programs, and technologies that focus on
developing more secure and transparent supply chains.
The focus of this research effort was to evaluate the effects that various port security
measures or catastrophic events have on an electronic firm’s supply chain through the six major
west coast ports. A constrained transportation optimization model was developed to represent
the firm’s distribution system. Three scenarios were evaluated: the first scenario estimated the
effect of increasing the rate charged for services at the port by five, ten, and fifteen percent.
Scenarios two and three investigated the impacts of shutting down operations at the Ports of
Seattle and Long Beach.
Results indicated in all scenarios that the impacts at the ports caused an increase in perunit
costs, while the total transportation cost decreased because of loss of quantity demanded.
Overall, the key insights of this study are the adjustments a firm makes to their distribution
systems to counteract negative impacts imposed at ports, while meeting demands and
maintaining supply chain efficiency.