Project Description

Founded in 1825, the Ben Line Group is a leading privately-owned maritime logistics and agency company headquartered in Singapore. The company operates in 18 countries with over 130 offices worldwide, providing liner agency services, marine solutions, and integrated logistics for global shipping and offshore clients. As Ben Line celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2025, it remains committed to modernizing its operations through digitalization and sustainability, ensuring resilience and competitiveness in the ever-evolving maritime and logistics landscape.

The SMU-XL Capstone Project addressed the challenge of transforming Ben Line’s procurement function from a largely transactional operation into a strategic capability that supports operational excellence. Key challenges included navigating the fragmented nature of procurement practices within the maritime industry, limited standardisation across procurement categories, and the need to align commercial objectives with stringent IMO and ILO regulatory requirements.

The project required benchmarking against global maritime and logistics leaders while overcoming data availability gaps and contextual differences across organisations. Two complex procurement categories—Crew Movement and Ocean Freight—presented additional challenges due to their cost volatility, regulatory sensitivity, and multi-stakeholder dependencies.

Project Outcomes

Prior to the project, Ben Line’s procurement is decentralised, predominantly manual processes, resulting in restricted oversight of limited supplier spend and performance. The lack of digital solutions and ESG-focused policies limited both efficiency and opportunities to generate strategic impact. The SMU-XL team undertook extensive research - leveraging CIPS, IMO, and ILO frameworks, along with competitor benchmarking and best practices from maritime industry procurement related literatures, to develop a customized transformation roadmap that addresses Ben Line’s specific readiness and needs. 

The team proposed a three-phase roadmap to elevate Ben Line’s procurement maturity from foundation to integration and Leadership. Key recommendations include: 

• Establishing a centralized Procurement Centre of Excellence (CoE) for governance and compliance, Supplier segmentation, and SRM framework.
• Implementing an Enterprise Procurement Platform (EPP) integrated with ERP for end-to-end automation.
• Introducing ESG Dashboard reporting aligned with IMO decarbonisation targets and ILO labour standards. 

Strategic Roadmap Overview 

• Phase 1 (0–12 months): Procurement readiness assessment, Supplier Code of Conduct, SRM setup.
• Phase 2 (6–12 months): Implement ERP/e-procurement, Digital governance dashboards. 

Phase 3 (12–18 months): Analytics hub, sustainability partnerships, ESG procurement framework. 

Implementation and Immediate Benefits 

During the initial phase of transformation, Ben Line to undertake thorough evaluation of its procurement capabilities, introduce a robust Supplier Code of Conduct (CoC), and formalize Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) processes. These steps promote consistent adherence to IMO regulation frameworks and ILO standards for fair labour. Early advantages include increased transparency, lower compliance risks, and improved oversight of supplier practices. By embedding sustainability requirements into contracts and leveraging digital audit mechanisms, Ben Line elevates its integrity and leadership in responsible, ethical procurement.  

Competitor Benchmarking Insights 

Global leaders based on competitors’ research, achieved procurement excellence through centralised governance, ERP integration, and ESG-linked sourcing. Benchmarking revealed that Ben Line is at foundation maturity, with strong compliance but limited digitalisation and sustainability integration. Competitors leverage AI for RFQ automation, blockchain for audit trails, and advanced data analytics for spend optimisation. These insights provided the roadmap for Ben Line’s required procurement transformation needs. 

Technology Driven Transformation 

Digitalisation is central to Benline’s procurement transformation. The proposed Enterprise Procurement Platform unifies key activities such as sourcing, tendering, contract management, and spend analytics. AI-driven tools would automate RFQ drafting and supplier assessment, while RPA streamlines invoicing and PO creation processing. Incorporating blockchain ensures tamper-proof audit trails, while leveraging ESG platforms to enable data-driven supplier sustainability assessments. 

ESG Integration Details 

The transformation plan integrates sustainability into Ben Line’s procurement activities, harmonizing practices with IMO’s greenhouse gas mitigation framework and the UN SDGs. Supplier assessments will incorporate ESG Scorecards To measure climate impact, adherence to labour regulations and responsible sourcing. Sustainability provisions are systematically included in contracts, while supplier onboarding will feature rigorous sustainability evaluations.  This strategy strengthens Ben Line’s reputation and ensures compliance with global environmental and social standards. 

Ongoing Improvements 

Ben Line’s commitment to continuous improvement in maturing its procurement will hinge on Digitalization, Governance and Sustainability. Key performance indicators including procurement cycle time reduction, limiting non-compliant spend, supplier ESG adoption rate and performance scoring to ensure transparency and driving progress.  

Advanced dashboards and data analytics to empower leadership team to monitor activities in real time, swiftly address emerging risks and make strategic decisions.  

Building on global benchmarks, such as those set by competitors being researched, the roadmap integrates sustainability at all stages, in line with IMO greenhouse gas reduction goals and UN SDGs. Supplier ESG scorecards measure environment impacts, workforce ethics, responsible sourcing, while digital platforms track improvements in efficiency, compliance and cost management both before and after transformation. As Governance structures mature and digital tools evolve, Ben Line will further strengthen its reputation, maintain compliance with global standards, and achieve operational excellence on par with industry peers.  

Ben Line’s procurement core transformation will demonstrate the impact of forward-looking strategy, robust governance, and digital technologies implementation in elevating procurement as a source of business values. Through deployment of integrated ERP solutions, incorporating ESG standards and utilization of data analytics, Ben Line will be a benchmark for sustainable procurement practices in the maritime industry. This not only closes operational gaps but also establishes a strong platform for ongoing process improvement, increasing resiliency and distinct competitive edged in the digital economy.  

« Go back to Project Showcase