MOMM701 – Maritime Operations and Management

Assessment 1 (2026): Maritime Operations Improvement Project Plan

Module and Assessment Overview

Module code: MOMM701
Module title: Maritime Operations and Management
Level: 7 (Masters)
Credit value: 20 credits
Academic year: 2025–2026
Indicative providers: Master of Maritime Operations and Management, shipping management, and port operations MSc programmes delivered by maritime academies and universities.

Assessment: Assessment 1 – Maritime Operations Improvement Project Plan
Weighting: 40–50 percent of module total (programme dependent)
Submission format: Individual project report, 3,000-word plan (plus or minus 10 percent)
Submission mode: Online via the VLE (Word or PDF, Turnitin enabled)

Assessment Context

Senior managers in shipping and port organisations are expected to diagnose operational problems, design targeted improvement projects, and deliver measurable performance gains in areas such as safety, reliability, cost control, and service quality. Modern maritime operations involve tightly coupled technical, human, and commercial systems, which means that relatively small changes in processes or decision rules can propagate quickly through fleets and terminals. This assessment requires you to design a structured operations improvement project that applies project management principles and maritime operations knowledge to a concrete organisational challenge.

Assessment Brief

Task Description

Prepare a 3,000-word Maritime Operations Improvement Project Plan for a specific shipping, offshore, or port operation of your choice. You will:

• Select a real or realistically constructed organisation, such as a liner shipping company, tanker operator, offshore support vessel company, port authority, or terminal operator.

• Identify one significant operations problem or performance gap, for example schedule reliability, turnaround time, bunker consumption, near-miss frequency, maintenance backlogs, or documentation errors.

• Propose a structured improvement project that uses recognised tools from maritime operations and project management to address this problem.

Core Requirements

Your project plan must cover at least the following elements:

• Operational context and problem definition
  Brief description of the organisation, its fleet or terminal, service profile, and stakeholders, together with a clear statement of the chosen operational problem and why it matters.

• Objectives and success criteria
  Specific and measurable objectives for the project, such as reducing average port stay by 10 percent within 12 months or cutting near-miss reports linked to cargo operations by 30 percent.

• Scope and boundaries
  Definition of what is included and excluded from the project, including key interfaces with other departments or external partners.

• Methods and tools
  Use of at least three relevant tools or frameworks, such as process mapping, root cause analysis, reliability centred maintenance concepts, KPI design, or risk registers.

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• Work breakdown and schedule
  High-level work breakdown structure, milestones, and an indicative timeline. A Gantt-style description may be presented in text or table form.

• Resources and responsibilities
  Identification of roles, skills, and teams required, including interaction between shore-based and shipboard staff.

• Risk assessment and mitigation
  Identification of key project and operational risks, together with mitigation measures and contingency planning.

• Monitoring, KPIs, and governance
  Definition of key performance indicators, reporting lines, and review mechanisms.

Suggested Structure

i. Introduction
Organisation overview, selected operation, and rationale for the chosen problem.

ii. Problem analysis
Description of the current process, evidence of performance issues, and initial cause analysis.

iii. Project objectives and scope
SMART objectives, scope definition, constraints, and assumptions.

iv. Project design and methodology
Tools, frameworks, and data to be used, with justification for their selection.

v. Implementation plan
Work breakdown structure, milestones, timeline, roles, and responsibilities.

vi. Risk and stakeholder management
Project and operational risks, stakeholder mapping, and communication approach.

vii. Monitoring, KPIs, and expected benefits
KPIs, data collection methods, and expected operational and financial impacts.

viii. Conclusion
Summary of how the project will improve maritime operations and support wider strategic goals.

ix. References
Minimum of 15 academic and industry sources in Harvard format.

Specific Requirements

• Word count: 3,000 words (plus or minus 10 percent), excluding tables, figures, and references.

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• Industry grounding: Use realistic operational parameters and, where possible, draw on published examples or benchmark data from shipping, offshore, or port operations.

• Analytical level: Work at a masters level by avoiding purely descriptive narrative and justifying choices using theory, empirical evidence, and managerial reasoning.

• Presentation: Professional report style with clear headings, logical progression, and consistent Harvard referencing.

Learning Outcomes Assessed

• Demonstrate critical understanding of how maritime operations are structured and managed in a commercial context.

• Apply project management tools and operational analysis techniques to design an improvement initiative in a maritime setting.

• Evaluate operational, human, and financial implications of alternative courses of action in maritime operations management.

• Communicate a coherent, evidence-based project plan to professional and academic audiences.

Indicative Marking Rubric

Operations improvement projects in shipping organisations are more likely to succeed when performance metrics are explicitly aligned with decision rights and accountability at both ship and shore levels. Studies of port and shipping performance show that improvements stall when KPIs are monitored centrally but lack ownership among planners, supervisors, and frontline staff who influence day-to-day outcomes. Designing the project plan so that each KPI is linked to a specific role, routine review forum, and corrective action pathway helps translate analytical insight into sustained operational change (Talley, 2019).

 References / Learning Resources (Harvard)

Talley, W.K. (2019) ‘Port performance: an economics perspective’, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 126, pp. 1–12.

MIMET (2021) Master of Maritime Operations and Management – Programme information.

Nikolaou, P. (2020) ‘Operations and shipping management’, Course outline, University of Piraeus.

Lloyd Maritime Academy (2023) Shipping Operations and Port Management – module overview.

Institute of Commercial Management (2024) Maritime Operations – subject of study.

MPM 7001 (2025) Individual Assignment Brief 2023–2024, Semester 2, Project Management Theory and Practice.