Valencia Port
Best in Class
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VALENCIAPORT ACCREDITED GLOBAL BEST-IN-CLASS PORT COMMUNITY
The Role Of Container Ports In Global Logistics research program sought to identify a “benchmark” port community which others could emulate, a port committed to the ‘Relay’ rather than the ‘Delay’ of cargo. That benchmark was identified as Spain’s number one container port, Valenciaport which was accredited with “Best-in-Class” status.
Valenciaport comprises the ports managed by the Valencia Port Authority: Valencia, Sagunto and Gandía. This strong combination makes it Spain’s leading Mediterranean port in terms of commercial traffic, basically containerised cargo, particularly because of its dynamic area of influence and an extensive network connecting it to major ports around the world.
Valenciaport is a tightly knit Port Community due to innovative elements like the Seal of Quality Guarantee and the Community Information System (S.I.C.) and is formed by all economic agents who provide their services through the ports of Valencia, Sagunto and Gandía. Valenciaport is not only a key element in promoting the Valencian Community abroad but also the maritime gateway for production and consumer goods to and from the entire Iberian peninsula.
Globalization means that more and more goods flow between continents and subsequently the traditional role of ports in the wider supply chain context is being subject to a process of radical review. In broad terms, the traditional port system is being replaced by a model which focuses on logistics service quality which in turn has brought the performance of ports and their communities into sharp focus.
Port customers, whether they are shipping companies, importers/exporters, terminal operators or logistics service providers, judge a port not on the basis of any one port stakeholder’s individual service – but rather in a combined way, as after all logistics is a combination service. In essence, the port is only as strong as its weakest link, and therefore its reputation depends on the level of Coordination, Communication and Control amongst port stakeholders. Port logistics is delivered as a result of a combined effort by port stakeholders working in harmony supported by the Port Authority as the natural leader of the community. The Port Authority is the only agency independent and powerful enough to marshal these resources.
Across the world “First Mover” Port Authorities and their communities have devised and developed a myriad of strategies and programs designed to deliver a seamless integrated logistics product to their customers. The Institute established direct relationship with many of them as part of its “The Role of the Container Port in Global Logistics” research. The research identified the First Movers, Thought Leaders and Early Adopters of the logistics model of port development. The research considered ports at different levels of community maturity and with varied business streams – transhipment, import only, export only, and mixed.
The research sought to identify a “benchmark” port community which others could emulate, a port committed to the ‘Relay’ rather than the ‘Delay’ of cargo.That benchmark was identified as Spain’s number one container port, Valenciaport which was accredited with “Best-in-Class” status.
The criteria for the accreditation was that the port community identified demonstrated an exceptional level of maturity and a culture which indicated that stakeholders in the supply chain truly engaged in a collaborative process.
VALENCIAPORT ACCREDITED GLOBAL BEST-IN-CLASS PORT COMMUNITY
The Role Of Container Ports In Global Logistics research program sought to identify a “benchmark” port community which others could emulate, a port committed to the ‘Relay’ rather than the ‘Delay’ of cargo. That benchmark was identified as Spain’s number one container port, Valenciaport which was accredited with “Best-in-Class” status.
Valenciaport comprises the ports managed by the Valencia Port Authority: Valencia, Sagunto and Gandía. This strong combination makes it Spain’s leading Mediterranean port in terms of commercial traffic, basically containerised cargo, particularly because of its dynamic area of influence and an extensive network connecting it to major ports around the world.
Valenciaport is a tightly knit Port Community due to innovative elements like the Seal of Quality Guarantee and the Community Information System (S.I.C.) and is formed by all economic agents who provide their services through the ports of Valencia, Sagunto and Gandía. Valenciaport is not only a key element in promoting the Valencian Community abroad but also the maritime gateway for production and consumer goods to and from the entire Iberian peninsula.
Globalization means that more and more goods flow between continents and subsequently the traditional role of ports in the wider supply chain context is being subject to a process of radical review. In broad terms, the traditional port system is being replaced by a model which focuses on logistics service quality which in turn has brought the performance of ports and their communities into sharp focus.
Port customers, whether they are shipping companies, importers/exporters, terminal operators or logistics service providers, judge a port not on the basis of any one port stakeholder’s individual service – but rather in a combined way, as after all logistics is a combination service. In essence, the port is only as strong as its weakest link, and therefore its reputation depends on the level of Coordination, Communication and Control amongst port stakeholders. Port logistics is delivered as a result of a combined effort by port stakeholders working in harmony supported by the Port Authority as the natural leader of the community. The Port Authority is the only agency independent and powerful enough to marshal these resources.
Across the world “First Mover” Port Authorities and their communities have devised and developed a myriad of strategies and programs designed to deliver a seamless integrated logistics product to their customers. The Institute established direct relationship with many of them as part of its “The Role of the Container Port in Global Logistics” research. The research identified the First Movers, Thought Leaders and Early Adopters of the logistics model of port development. The research considered ports at different levels of community maturity and with varied business streams – transhipment, import only, export only, and mixed.
The research sought to identify a “benchmark” port community which others could emulate, a port committed to the ‘Relay’ rather than the ‘Delay’ of cargo.That benchmark was identified as Spain’s number one container port, Valenciaport which was accredited with “Best-in-Class” status.
The criteria for the accreditation was that the port community identified demonstrated an exceptional level of maturity and a culture which indicated that stakeholders in the supply chain truly engaged in a collaborative process.
THE SEVEN PILLARS WHICH SUPPORT THE VALENCIA PORT COMMUNITY
While changes in national legislation at key points in Valenciaport’s history opened doors for the port, the culture of inclusion instilled from the top down at Valenciaport gave these legal framework changes impetus. Testament to this is the fact that all autonomous Spanish ports were presented with the same opportunities from changes in law, but Valencia’s consistent increase in traffic at levels over and above growth levels at other Spanish ports illustrates the importance of a combination of community and opportunity.
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
As a state-owned entity, Valenciaport benefits from a strong relationship with local and regional government. As such, the port is viewed as a partner in supply chain decisions, rather than simply a conduit for government to channel transport and logistics decisions through. One such example of joined-up thinking is the Valencian regional government’s decision to define a Territorial Strategy for the Valencian region, determining a set of strategic targets for the Valenican region to become the primary logistics hub in the Mediterranean arch. This will in essence develop a sustainable logistics and transport system respecting the environment. It is likely that this will include assigning more land for logistics use and the creation of logistics areas.
Institutional Framework Presentation
COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
Valenciaport also demonstrated clear leadership, with a top to bottom emphasis on instilling a culture of integration and co-operation throughout the Port Authority and its research arm Fundación Valenciaport, and with port stakeholders. Valenciaport established the 2002-2015 Strategic Plan in consultation with the port community, as well as institutions and economic and social agents from the Valencia region. The plan was designed to boost the development of the three ports, acting as an instrument to improve the level and quality of life for the whole community.
Community Leadership Presentation
COMMUNITY WIDE QUALITY
In 1995, early visionaries of Valenciaport saw a need for a quality guarantee to act as insurance for port users who had come to expect a certain high level of quality from operations at the Port of Valencia. The vision was to create a guarantee to attract more stakeholders inside the port environs to develop best practice, instigate an auditing procedure, and enforce compensation if a system failed. To develop this guarantee, Valenciaport in cooperation with the regional government, pulled together representatives from all port stakeholders to form a quality committee, known as the Fundacion Valenciana de la Calidad.
Community Wide Quality Presentation
INTEGRATED IT SOLUTIONS
Recognizing a need for joined-up communications throughout the port stakeholder network, Valenciaport invested in a bespoke Port Community System (PCS) in 1994 to integrate the port authority, customs, cargo owners and carriers. That investment has continued through to the present day with a commitment to future funding. Described as an open ‘infostructure’ that enables a secure and efficient flow of information among all port stakeholders and public bodies, valenciaportpcs.net improved the quality of port activity and maximized resources through a tighter coordination of activities, sharing of information, control, security and safety of operations and, consequently, optimized planning and execution of operations.
Integrated IT Solutions Presentation
CORPORATE UNIVERSITY
Fundación Valenciaport: Conceived as a support to Valenciaport to expand the reach of the logistics-ports community as a research, training and cooperation centre of excellence, Fundación Valenciaport is active in numerous projects in well over twenty countries. It also works extensively with the Spanish logistics chain providing both research and training services.
INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING
Valencia Port has developed functions regarding regulation, port areas management and operation. Their functions as port areas managers are planning and, as its name points out, managing port areas, supplying infrastructures, maintenance and preservation of those infrastructures, boosting land accessibility and marketing.
Infrastructure Planning Presentation
PORT ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
The environmental strategy defined by the Port of Valencia comprises the development of a management model based on the surveillance and control of all the environmental aspects which take place within the port area. This integral model is built through a governance model based on a cycle which main engine is continuous improvement.
THE STORY OF VALENCIA’S ACCREDITATION : CARLY FIELDS RESEARCH EDITOR
Valenciaport will lead through example as it presents its best practice models on collaboration, engaging stakeholders, quality control and successful city-port integration to ports around the world over the coming two years.
With a cityscape that successfully juxtaposes the old with the new, Valencia held the gaze of GIL from an early stage in its search of collaborative port communities. Gleaming medieval church cupolas sit alongside the Gehry-esque architecture of the city’s magnificent Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, demonstrating that this is a city that is forward-looking – but not to the detriment of the past. Pair this with a vibrancy that most cities can only dream of, GIL’s first visit to Valencia was made with high expectations that the port of such a dynamic city would mirror that vitality.
We were not disappointed; GIL discovered that Valenciaport was the jewel in the city’s crown. GIL’s visit to Valenciaport was the result of five years of research on best practice relationship orientation and marked the start of a new phase of study on best practice port community governance and maturity at worldwide ports.
In 2004, at the beginning of the Institute’s research on best practice relationship orientation, GIL identified the need for greater transparency in the global terminal operating industry and began an evaluation of terminal operating standards among the world’s leading container terminals.
Preliminary findings published the following year led to an accreditation for Yantian International Container Terminal in Shenzhen Southern China, a member of the Hutchison Port Holdings group of terminals, as ‘Best-in-class’ Container Terminal. This accreditation opened up an exchange where Yantian agreed to share its best practices with the industry through GIL. This two-way channel proved profitable for Yantian with anecdotal evidence that the accreditation provided a means for Yantian to not only distinguish itself in the Pearl River, but to also attract a premium per box handled.
Crucially, in the research process, the Institute found that ports and terminals were the weakest and least transparent link in the supply chain, and that the introduction of a reliable benchmark to measure container terminal efficiency and port performance was essential to improve port/terminal-led best practice and relationship management.
To help bridge that gap, in 2006 GIL partnered classification society Germanischer Lloyd to take on the challenge of developing a standard, leading to the establishment of the Hamburg Committee. That Committee was immediately tasked with the development of the Container Terminal Quality Indicator (CTQI), and after two years of industry dialogue to establish appropriate key performance indicators, CTQI was launched in 2008. Hamburg immediately stepped up to the CTQI challenge and became the first port to receive the accreditation.
To further understand the varying levels of relationship management at global ports and terminals uncovered by a review of the primary research for CTQI, the Institute launched the Global Maritime Logistics Council (GMLC) as a platform to standardize quality and service levels. Operating under GIL’s shaping belief that relationships will carry the industry into the future, the Institute initiated a port community research program through its GMLC in 2007, which was the catalyst for GIL’s interest in Valenciaport. The port played a key role in CTQI from an early stage, with Rafael Sapiña, FV Director of Liner Shipping and Port Operators, actively involved as a committee member.
Much credit for the ensuing events has to go to Mr Sapiña – his enthusiastic positioning of Valencia with CTQI committee members around the world generated much interest in the port. Embarking on its port community research program, the GMLC clocked up in excess of 100,000 air miles in its search for a ‘Best-in-class’ port community that would form the benchmark for the next phase of the program.
That search took in ports from around the world, from large conglomerates to niche operators and much in between. While undertaking that research, the Institute discovered that where successful port communities existed these were supported by visionary and inspirational leadership, coupled with constancy of purpose. Those leaders established and communicated a clear direction for all port stakeholders, instilling a code of ethics, a culture of collaboration, and a governance structure for the port stakeholders. Further, the Institute’s research revealed that public private sector leadership in communitying offered the best springboard for successful community development and relationship management.
While so many ports encountered by GIL on its two-year journey examining port community development failed to grasp the benefits that well-led collaborative port communitying could bring, GIL found that Valenciaport truly bucked that trend. So, after two years of research, the Valenciaport port community, represented by the Port Authority of Valencia, was identified as a port community at an exceptional level of maturity with stakeholders truly engaged in the collaborative process and duly accredited with the ‘Best-in-class’ Port Community designation.
The Institute’s criteria for “best-in-class” specifies, among other points, that the community demonstrates the spirit of collaboration, strikes the right note between public and private partnership, and has developed a model that is transferable. Valenciaport has proven the transferability of its model as its quality guarantee, the Marca de Garantía, has been adopted by five countries in South America, while there is a further agreement in place with the port of Callao positioning Valenciaport in a mentoring role with the Peruvian port.
The designation of ‘Best-in-class’ port community has led Valenciaport, through the Valenciaport Foundation, to enter into a two-year cooperation with GIL to formalize the findings of the port community study with a view to producing a guide to best practice Port Community Governance in 2011. This next stage of the journey will combine theoretical and practical knowledge on best practice port community governance to ascertain best in- class community maturity.
Further, it will examine how to find the champion to lead a culture of collaboration, and how to develop an efficient port community under that champion’s leadership. The resultant maturity model and best practice findings will be globalized, allowing ports to apply the knowledge learned at the end of the program to improve community cohesion and governance and ultimately quality service levels at ports.
Valenciaport will lead through example as it presents its best practice models on collaboration, engaging stakeholders, quality control and successful city-port integration to ports around the world over the coming two years.
Impressed first by its city, and subsequently its port, GIL has no doubt that Valenciaport and its Foundation will be the perfect partners for culmination of the Institute’s global port community research program in 2011.
Press Release
VALENCIA JUNE 2009
VALENCIAPORT ACCREDITED BEST-IN-CLASS PORT COMMUNITY
Spain’s number one container port, Valenciaport has been honored with a global “best-in-class” designation following a review of operating standards within global maritime port communities undertaken by the Global Institute of Logistics.
Across the world “First Mover” Port Authorities and their communities have devised and developed a myriad of strategies and programs designed to deliver a seamless integrated logistics product to their customers. The Institute established direct relationship with many of them as part of its “The Role of the Container Port in Global Logistics” research. The research identified the First Movers, Thought Leaders and Early Adopters of the logistics model of port development. The research considered ports at different levels of community maturity and with varied business streams – transhipment, import only, export only, and mixed.
The research sought to identify a “benchmark” port community which others could emulate, a port committed to the ‘Relay’ rather than the ‘Delay’ of cargo.That benchmark was identified as Spain’s number one container port, Valenciaport which was accredited with “Best-in-Class” status. The criteria for the accreditation was that the port community identified demonstrated an exceptional level of maturity and a culture which indicated that stakeholders in the supply chain truly engaged in a collaborative process.
Valenciaport demonstrate clear leadership, with a top to bottom emphasis on instilling a culture of integration and co-operation throughout the Port Authority and its research arm Fundación Valenciaport, and with port stakeholders.It established the 2002-2015 Strategic Plan in consultation with the port community, as well as institutions and economic and social agents from the Valencia region. The plan was designed to boost the development of the three ports, acting as an instrument to improve the level and quality of life for the whole community. The plan focuses on three objectives:
1. to consolidate Valenciaport as the main deep sea entrance and exit port on the Iberian peninsular
2. to turn Valenciaport into the leading regional distributor and intermodal logistics platform in the Mediterranean
3. to have sufficient capacity to handle 68m tonnes of traffic and 4m teu by the year 2015.
The Institute asserts that the second objective detailed above confirms Valenciaport’s recognition that it is a facilitator of trade in partnership with the logistics supply chain. This cemented the foundations for port community development and governance at Valenciaport.
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT GLOBAL INSTITUTE OF LOGISTICS
The Global Institute of Logistics (GIL) was established in 2003 under the Chairmanship of renowned US logistician and author Robert V. Delaney in response to the logistics industry’s call for “joined up thinking” amongst stakeholders in the global supply chain. GIL looks to resolve the challenges facing the global logistics chain of managing single transport modes, modal systems and targets which are set on stand-alone operations to create a seamless global logistics system.
A Think Tank, GIL brings together thought-leaders and thought-followers as part of a global knowledge network committed to building up the information base, best practices and standards. This, in turn, creates a platform through which knowledge is shared, best practice is adopted and trade developed. Today the Institute is a community of organizations and professionals from across the world that share a commitment to collaborating on global logistics solutions.
The Institute’s mission is to ‘Network the Global Logistics Community’
For further information, visit www.globeinst.org
