Supply chain security in the United States

Résumé du document

A global supply chain links the United States and the rest of the world. Across the time, the focus has been put on reducing the costs of transport, and therefore resulted in a decrease of the ship crew, customs duty and requirements. However, Sept 11 posed a clear threat on global exchange, and required some precaution to be taken in order to ensure safe trade. In this report, we identified two major concerns in global supply chain security: theft and terrorism. Theft has been a scourge in the industry for centuries. It seems that no matter how drastic the security measures are, theft will always happen. However, the latest developments of the RFID technology are giving serious hope to carriers to reduce this issue. Most of the latest measures taken to secure the supply chain were related to the terrorist threat. The United States government has been a leader in the implementation of such measures, followed by other countries. Different initiatives are described in this report, such as Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), Operation Safe Commerce (OSC), Container Security Initiative (CSI) the Maritime Transportation Security Act, the Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS) and the Bioterrorism Act.

Extraits

[...] This program includes the role of stakeholders such as drivers and it focuses on security while reducing transaction paperwork and speeding up the process by pre approving away from the border. The Container Security Initiative (CSI)[12] This is an effort by the Customs and Border Protection Agency to extend the area of detection of threats of containerized cargo away from the US borders into the ports of origin in other countries. It focuses on the use of intelligence to identify possible threats in containers, pre-screening these containers in the ports of origin and using smarter tamper proof containers. [...]

[...] These antitamper seals are more expensive than the common bolt. Radio-Frequency Identification This initiative uses RFID technology to record container movement such as entry and exit ports and loading and unloading and transmit that information back to a computer system. Active and passive RFID devices exist with active the most preferred since it has its own power source and can transmit at a greater distance than passive devices. Radiation Pagers, Portal Sensors, and Remote Monitoring These devices are used mainly to detect weapons of mass destruction as containers enter and leave port or vessels. [...]

[...] The major driver in customs security initiatives has been the United States. Countries such as Spain, United Kingdom and Sweden to name a few have signed the CSI agreement. The same case has been present in other regions of the world such as Africa, Asia and Latin America. These countries have followed the US initiative and complying with CSI instead of creating their own programs. Efficiency of the measures implemented Some improvement in securing the global has obviously been done is the last 3 years, but this should not be confused with real capability[19]. [...]

[...] Most European countries don't view themselves as prime targets for terrorism and less developed countries have the same feeling. However, the economic benefits of advance manifest seem to be the best buy in strategy for targeting these nations. Regional Initiatives Europe[18] has 9 of the 20 megaports in the world accounting for 39% of World trade. Security initiatives intensified through the CBP's CSI program through which several European countries struck bilateral deals. The European Commission initially was against this initiative arguing that it distorted trade. Later the case was dropped and it proposed tightening of EU customs rules. [...]

[...] RFID is designed to improve efficiency: a company can figure out the real number of products available at a given time, and not the number of products supposed to be available. Processing is highly more efficient: compared to bar-codes, RFID need less labor and are more resistant to damages. It also reduces theft by showing at any time where the product is. It is especially useful to secure distribution centers. However, in no way it is reducing the threat of terrorism. [...]