The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), representing the majority of the box carrying industry through members such as Maersk, CMA-CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, MSC and ONE, has released its first Container Shipping Industry Blueprint, dubbed ‘IBP 1.0’.
The document contains recommended standards for the processes used in container shipping, mapping a variety of widely applied container shipping workflows – from Carrier Booking to Container Return – to create a common process blueprint that can be applied across the industry.
DCSA aims to encourage global carriers outside of its own membership to alos begin using this standard to organise their own processes, to support the introduction of further digitalisation and standardisation initiatives in the industry in the future.
IBP 1.0 contains process maps covering three types of journeys – Shipment, Equipment and Vessel – and also offers a standard method for dealing with Exception Handling.
“The Industry Blueprint is the result of an iterative and collaborative project, bringing key stakeholders and subject matter experts from the five founding members of DCSA together to share their non-commercial processes in container shipping,” DCSA says.
“Common and conflicting processes across carriers could be identified and a baselined standard was built. This was validated, aligned and agreed to by all carriers. The IBP 1.0 is the first outcome of this effort presented to the public.”
The release of IBP 1.0 is supported by a Reading Guide, which explains some of the background of the project, its purpose and scope, as well as detailing the logic behind the creation of the blueprint.
DCSA has also published a supporting Glossary of Industry Terms, to try and standardise the language used in container shipping, as well as a Process Catalogue that provides descriptions for some of the processes outlined in IBP 1.0.
All of the documents can be freely downloaded from the DCSA website, by members and non-members alike.
- The Industry Blueprint can be found here: Industry Blueprint
- The Reading Guide can be found here: Reading Guide
- The Glossary of Industry Terms can be found here: Glossary of Industry Terms
- The Process Catalogue can be found here: Process Catalogue
