Westports' 15-year Quest For Excellence 
September 23, 2009 10:48 AM
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HIGHLY MOTIVATED... Westports believe that the company's achievements are the result of hard work, determination and resourcefulness of the many thousands of people who have worked for the port. On its 15th anniversary, the company is proud to showcase the story of Westports, the important work done by its employees, both past and present, and the exciting prospects that lie ahead. Pic courtesy of Westports |
PULAU INDAH, Sept 23 (Bernama)-- Since it was established, Westports has lived up to the vision behind its creation by becoming Southeast Asia's multi award-winning port; one that is leading the world when it comes to productivity.
From its humble beginning in 1994, the Westports saga is a remarkable story of the hunger for excellence and the thirst for achievements and the farsightedness, courage and determination on the part of its Executive Chairman Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam, in identifying an industry niche and capitalising on core competencies in the quest to turn Westports into a state-of-the-art mega port.
Fifteen years on, Westports ranks as one of the top ten ports in the world, with ninety per cent of its clients comprising new shipping lines and lines which have never called at Port Klang directly before.
As the award-winning premier port in the country, it has not only helped save billions in terms of developing competitive advantage in the international port trade, it is also a great Malaysian success story that many would want to emulate.
That more and more top shipping lines of the world have made Westports their hub of choice has lend credence to the port's tagline "The World Moves Here".
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Back in the early 90's, when the nation's infrastructure development phase was at its peak, the country needed to have world-class facilities at Port Klang, in order to turn it into a major port of call for shipping lines in the global port industry.
A land reclamation exercise was carried out on a large swathe of swampland near a remote fishing village in Pulau Indah, located on the west coast of Selangor.
This was followed by construction work to build an extensive quay complemented by several high-rise complexes that when completed altogether, would make Wesports the nation's largest multi purpose port.
"We did a lot of research to find out what our customers want and how we could convince them that they could cut down on costs by using Westports," Gnanalingam said.
Anticipating future needs of its customers and trying to fulfill them ahead of demand, Westports turned around its entire logistics chain to serve the shipping fraternity.
The port designed its standard terminal operating procedures by incorporating its customers' wish apart from adopting 'best practices' from leading ports in the world.
It petitioned for essential services like customs, immigration to be operational round the clock and reduced physical checks of transshipment containers to zero.
Westports began its marketing efforts by engaging jointly with its first client to sell the terminal facility to other shipping lines.
Initially operating as a conventional terminal, these proactive measures have helped to transform Westports into a mega hub for both local and transshipment containers.
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
At Westports, service excellence is regarded as a standard basic benefit to be expected, wherein the motto is to always exceed the previous performance record.
The introduction of novel concepts such as 'Garden Port' and Fastport Standards' have enabled Westports to consistently create new records for turnaround times and vessel productivity (twice in 2008 and thrice in 2006), thereby raising the performance bar for the industry.
As a result of the increased efficiency, Westports container volume touched close to 5 million TEUs in 2008 and achieved a cumulative figure of 30 million TEUs in September 2009.
With a current total quay length measuring 3.2 kilometers, apart from five container terminals, and the potential to build another four that would eventually provide a capacity of 15 million TEUs; Westports is poised to become a preferred port for local boxes within the next five years.
Some of the port's notable achievements to-date are:
- Best in Productivity
- Best in Information Technology
- Best in Customer Service
- Best Employer
- Best Terminal Practices
- Best in Corporate Social Responsibility
TURNING GREENHORNS INTO EFFECTIVE TEAM PLAYERS
An organisation is only as good as the people behind it.
The secret behind Westports success despite the fact that most of its workers are greenhorns in the industry is that they are highly motivated and have the determination and dedication to be the best at what they do.
"Business can be shaped effectively if we remember that we are no more than a professional football or professional basketball team manager. To win, we assemble the best players, train very hard, formulate specific strategies, out do our opponents and continuously improve our skills and knowledge of the game," Gnanalingam said.
The port's people function like an English Premier League football team, with each one ready to serve or pass the ball for someone to score the goal. Various departments, divisions and sub-units are able to gel and cohesively perform together as a team.
To give every player the opportunity to score a 'goal', Westports workers are rotated across job functions to become multi-skilled operators.
An incentive program was put in place to drive productivity and work motivation.
Opportunities to excel in the company are omnipresent as the company practices meritocracy and transparent 360-degree performance-based appraisal that recognise and generously reward high performance.
Bumiputera workers, who account for 70 per cent of Westports' pioneer workforce, have been influential in driving the port's exponential growth.
Today, they stand tall among the world's port workers in terms of skills and productivity rate.
COVETED AWARDS
High productivity, fast turnaround and berth on arrival are key attributes of Westports services that customers value the most.
The port aspires to delight its customers with Just-in-Time practices to remove inefficiencies in the supply chain.
With 62 per cent container market share in Port Klang, Westports helped moved Port Klang a rung higher in 2008 to 15th spot in the latest world port traffic league.
Over the last 15 years, the port has won more than 20 awards - some of the recent ones include the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) Gold Award for IT (May 2007), the Human Resources Minister HR Development Award (September 2007) and the BrandLaureate Best Brands in Logistics - Ports (March 2009).
"These achievements are the result of hard work, determination and resourcefulness of the many thousands of people who have worked for the port. On our 15th anniversary, we would like to showcase the story of Westports, the important work done by our employees, both past and present, and the exciting prospects that lie ahead," Westports Executive Director Ruben Emir Gnanalingam said.
But the company is not resting on its laurels.
"I certainly believe we have done well, nevertheless the challenges of competition, of an uncertain global economy and of possible conflicts around the world loom large ahead of us and we must be prepared to face them," Ruben added.
"Ultimately, we want to be the 6-Star of the port industry and to enhance our position to the top ten ranking in the world," he concluded.
-- BERNAMA
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