CASSANDRA improves supply chain security through visibility

Rotterdam, July 2011. Business and government both need more information of higher quality about a container, its cargo, location and status during transport from origin to destination in order to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness. Higher quality information should enable more advanced risk assessment, thereby increasing security in the supply chain, according to an international research project consortium launched last month, and carried out in part by researchers and PhD students from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).

The CASSANDRA project aims to make container security more efficient and effective. The project addresses the visibility needs of both business and government in the international flow of containerised cargo by developing a data sharing concept that allows an extended assessment of risks by both business and government.

Security through visibility

The CASSANDRA concept will improve visibility through the supply chain, efficiency of trade compliance and effectiveness of border controls and supervision by combining E-Freight and E-Customs. The three-year project started on June 1st 2011, involves 27 innovative industry leaders and is part-funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework programme for Security. The consortium includes leading companies in the fields of logistics and IT, amongst them worldwide players such as DHL, GS1, IBM and Kühne+Nagel, Customs and other border inspection agencies, European research institutes as well as the port communities and trading partners of the European ports of Rotterdam, Bremer-haven, Barcelona and Setúbal. All members will utilise their specific expertise in this € 15 million project , which builds on previous EU funded projects INTEGRITY, SMART-CM and ITAIDE

Piggy-backing and a risk-based approach

CASSANDRA’s strategic goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cross-border inspections as well as to improve supply chain visibility and business execution. Government authorities currently perform risk assessments using the traditional Transaction Based Audit (TBA) approach. Each cross-border trade transaction is thus inspected individually, based on declaration data submitted to authorities (‘data push’). CASSANDRA aims to bring the Risk Based Audit (RBA) approach to the next level. RBA identifies secure and known container flows based on System Based Auditing (SBA) in which government authorities use data and risk assessment of businesses for their own risk assessment. This re-use is the concept of piggy-backing.

So with SBA, governmental organisations assess business processes and protocols with accessible business data (‘data pull’). The effectiveness of control improves when the trusted flows are dealt with cost-efficiently, thus providing more opportunity to investigate and address riskier container flows. Businesses benefit directly from improved visibility in the supply chain, leading to reduced administrative burden and errors as well as less interference from cross-border inspection agencies.

What will CASSANDRA do?

CASSANDRA will achieve interoperability of heterogeneous systems by using state-of-the-art IT innovations to form a data pipeline, so that secure and reliable data can be shared across the supply chain. Different levels of data access will be defined for different partners in the chain including cross-border inspection agencies. The data pipeline is investigated and demonstrated with Living Lab case studies for three global trade lanes: China-EU, EU-US and EU-Africa. The CASSANDRA interoperability approach will be aligned with other international eFreight and eCustoms initiatives and international standardisation and legislation bodies thus taking the first steps towards global implementation.

Role of Erasmus University Rotterdam

Erasmus University Rotterdam is involved in the Cassandra project via researchers and PhD students from Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University (RSM) (Department of Decision and Information Sciences) and Erasmus Smart Port Rotterdam. The main activities entail analysis of user requirements, development of a methodology for risk-based approach, enhanced data enhancement and business intelligence, managing a Living Lab from Asia to Europe - and consensus-building acitivities via stakeholder involvement and engagement.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University is consistently ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in Europe . It is located in the international port city of Rotterdam where core Dutch values of openness, flexibility and acceptance of diversity have attracted businesses on a global scale. Our emphasis is on groundbreaking research and practices relevant to business; our primary focus is on developing business leaders who carry their innovative ideas into a sustainable future. Our portfolio includes a broad array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA and executive education programmes. www.rsm.nl

For more information on RSM or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at <link portal pls _blank>

mschouten@rsm.nl