The intelligent container concept : issues, initiatives, and implementation

Shipping containers have been under increased scrutiny in recent years for two primary reasons. Within the private sector, they are one component of a continuing process by organizations to use effective supply chain management to their competitive advantage. Within the public sector, they are the central focus of a growing concern over cargo security. Indeed, these issues involve many parties, including regulators, carriers, shippers, container solution providers, research, and academia. Many of the proposed solutions involve new strategies, systems, and technologies applied to containers that fall into what this paper calls the "intelligent container concept." As a relatively nascent field, information is currently very fragmented, standards are still being researched, and few universal goals exist. This study is focused on compiling, understanding, and organizing the universe of options available, the concerns of the parties involved, the relevant and significant initiatives underway or completed, and the issues surrounding implementation.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Bryn, Peter Christopher

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Henry S. Marcus.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38956

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38956