Individual Reflection by Melody

LOM Juniors went to the Army Logistics Base (ALB). The purpose of the trip was to expose us to a real life warehouse that most of us have not really been to. The trip was also to help us better understand the concepts that we have learnt in DCM.

Firstly there was a video and a talk by a ST Logistics staff about the warehouse. From the video and the talk, we learnt that the warehouse has many functions and services, like materials management, receipt services, storage services and distribution services. They store items like the army’s general supplies, armaments, electronic/optics equipment, auto spares, ordinance equipment and medical supplies.

Speaking of medical supplies, during our tour of the warehouse, we were taken to an air-conditioned place where they are stored. The warehouse has adopted a vertical carousel storage system. This system brings the goods straight to the picker or operator and it helps in reducing their walking distance. Not only do they give ready access, goods kept in the vertical carousel are more secured. Also, the temperature in the system is easily controlled, which is an advantage for small goods which require a certain temperature for storage.

Another storage system that is an eye opener is the mobile racking system. Learning from the book I never understood what functions it has and how it operates. However at the warehouse, I finally realized that this racking system used to utilize capacity in a small warehouse, for in the warehouse, no matter how many racks there are only space for ONE aisle is required. Racks are compressed together and only the rack that has the location of the good needed is open. Disadvantage of this system, however, is that the warehouse is required to have a system that remembers the locations of the goods well, which I believe ALB warehouse has.

The ALB warehouse really focuses on the safety of their employees. This can be seen in various parts. Like at the vertical carousels, when the carousel is moving, it is very dangerous if a hand goes in and gets caught and injured. However, they have safety-sensors that sense any object that enters the carousel and stops immediately. Also, at the mobile racking area, racks are moving at anytime and it is very dangerous for anyone to be walking in the middle of the aisles. Thus there is also a sensor that detects any object in between aisles.

The warehouse also installed the ASRS. The ASRS basically allows the storage of both pallets and bins. There is high capital investment on the machines used for this system and I suppose that high maintenance is required too as machines looked are pretty complicated.

The ALB warehouse has adopted a through-flow layout. At first most of us thought that the layout adopted was U-flow as we though the unloading and loading bays were adjacent to one another. However we forgotten the fact that we have walked to the opposite side of the warehouse and soon realized that the loading and unloading bays were at opposite sides.

That was my first time going to a warehouse and was truly impressed by the storage systems, especially the mobile racking system as I never knew racks could move about in a warehouse, and especially when they have so many heavy things on them. All in all, the trip was really enjoyable. =)