Application of information technologies in port logistics management - Port of İzmir case

Coastal zone, constituting a very wide area, provides a large range of activities that involve different mutually interacted parties with a common interest in the coastal area. Among these, one of the most important enterprise groups is the port organization. Through different activities within the port and consequently directly or indirectly all working groups involved, their imminent and distant environment and particularly their commercially dependant hinterland, harboring city, region and country; ports influence all these areas economically, socially and from a cultural point of view. Therefore, an effective and successful port management is a key factor considering the benefits of all the involved parties. An equally important issue is the information flow throughout port activities. Port activities entail operations among numerous persons and organizations; the implementation and organization of these activities are carried through information flow. Consequently, like in all the activities within the supply chain, a good ordered information flow is one of the indispensables. In this study, ports as conceived in the frame of supply chain and logistics management are studied from the perspective of the information flow in the port logistics management and the information technologies and systems implemented aiming an effective information flow and for these, application examples are given in transportation and maritime sectors. Following the case study investigation of the Port of Izmir, the use of the information systems and technologies present in the port are presented. The weak, strong and lacking parts of the system and suggestions regarding the future development of the port are pointed out. Keywords: Port logistics management, information systems, information technologies, Port of Izmir.