PROJECT BRIEF

AY2022/2023 OCTOBER SEMESTER

DISTRIBUTION CENTRE MANAGEMENT (BCLO009)
ASSIGNMENT ONE (30%)
Project Information

Launch Date: 2nd November 2022

Submission Date: 30th December 2022
Individual work

Project Scope
This project aims to allow students to apply knowledge acquired through weekly
lectures and tutorials into application-based scenario.

Assignment Requirements
The assignment will focus on THREE (3) key areas, namely:

• Distribution Centre (DC) Processes

• Manpower Resources Planning
• Distribution Centre (DC) Automation

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(A) Scenario

ALPHA PTE LTD (ALPHA) is a well-known E-commerce company which runs an

online retail portal for running shoes. It is currently looking for a new 3PL to help
them set up and manage its new distribution centre (DC) in Singapore to serve its
customers in the Southeast Asia region. ALPHA has high expectations when it
comes to selection of 3PL. It expects the 3PL to be someone who understands and
manages DC requirements very well.

As such, ALPHA has approached ORIENTAL LOGISTICS to submit an operations

plan for this new DC as the latter is an internationally well-known provider of DC and
transportation services.

As part of the DC Setup Team from ORIENTAL LOGISTICS, your team has been
tasked to determine and evaluate the resources necessary to manage this DC. This
set of information is to be compiled into a proposal, and this will be submitted to the
management of ORIENTAL LOGISTICS for consideration.

You have been given the operational specifications, the expected daily volume and
ORIENTAL LOGISTICS’ business assumptions in Appendix A, Appendix B, and
Appendix C respectively. These data are to be carefully considered in the solutions
that your team will be proposing.

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(B) Contents of the Business Proposal

In your proposal, you are required to provide solutions to the following :

a. Your team wishes to do a comparison of process steps between the manual

method and usage of automation. Your colleague from the Industrial
Engineering Department has proposed the 2 sets of process steps. Refer to
APPENDIX C for the sets of INBOUND and OUTBOUND process steps.

Describe how automation has been applied to take over the manual steps.

b. ALPHA has decided to have BOTH the OUTBOUND and INBOUND

operations to be available on a “24-hour/7-day basis”. You need to derive the
new number of employees to be employed. Your answer should include the
following information :

(i) Number of shifts per day

(ii) Start and End-Time of each shift
(iii) Number of permanent handlers and supervisors to be employed per
shift
(iv) Number of temporary staff to be employed (if any)

Workings, including the usage of the Manpower Calculation Grids, should

be shown. There should be a total of 4 Grids – 1 for INBOUND and 1 for
OUTBOUND for manual method; 1 for INBOUND and 1 for OUTBOUND for
automated method.

c. Advise ALPHA about the benefits and shortfalls of using automated method
for the DC processes. What do ALPHA have to take note about its inventory
when comes to using automation?

ASSESSMENT

(1) Format of the Proposal

The proposal is to be submitted in the form of a simple write-up of not more

than 10 pages (Arial Font size 12 with 1.5 spacing). It should provide the
answers for Question (a) to (c).

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(2) Information presented in Appendices of this Project Brief

The following appendices provide the basic information needed to complete this
project.

Appendix A : Operational Requirements for Customer ALPHA

Appendix B : ORIENTAL’s business assumptions
Appendix C : Productivity Guideline (for the purpose of this project)

(3) Assessment Criteria

The project will be assessed based on the following weightage :

S/No Assessment Break-down

1. Layout, Format & Organisation of write-up 10.0

2. DC Processes (Question a) 10.0

3. Manpower Resources (Question b) 20.0

4. DC Automation (Question c) 10.0

Total Marks 50.0

For Items 2 to 4, these will be assessed based on the following criteria :

• Relevance of recommended solutions to support operational requirements

• Clarity in explaining justifications made for recommended solutions
• Thoroughness in showing the workings for the quantitative figures

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APPENDIX A

Operational Requirements

Customer ALPHA

Inbound Pallet – total 16 Five (5) pairs of shoes within One (1) Outbound Shipping
Cartons each Inbound Shipping Carton – Carton to end-Customer : each
each pair is considered a PIECE contains 1 pair of shoes.

• Annual business growth rate = 5%

Expected business • Contract duration: 3 years
forecast • Profit mark-up = 10%

• Handling profile : Pallet-In-Pair-Out

• Number of SKUs : 30 SKUs, each with equal amount of
Order / Cargo inventory
Information • Inventory should be picked on a FIFO basis
• Full Pallet dimension and weight – 1.2m (L) x 1.1m (B) x 1.8m
(H); 250 kg
• Inbound operations: 24-hour, 7-day-per-week.
• Import via 40’ FCL containers with palletised cargo – each
container can hold 20 full pallets maximum – each full pallet is
to hold 16 Inbound Shipping Cartons of single SKU. Each
Inbound Shipping Carton contains 5 pairs of shoes.
Inbound Activity
• Pallet dimension – 1.2m x 1.1m
• Arrival of containers at DC : Monday to Sunday, arriving at a
constant rate
• Expected Volume : 10 Containers per day

• Outbound function expected to open 24-hour, 7-day-per-week.

• Daily orders generated in 2 batches daily

• 1st Batch printed at 0600hr; to be completed by 1800hr of
the same day (50% of daily volume)
Outbound Activity
• 2nd Batch printed at 1800hr; to be completed by 0600hr
next morning (50% of daily volume).

• Labels for “Destination Address” to be pasted on the

Outbound Shipping Carton before handing over to the Freight
Forwarder.

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• Estimated number of Freight Forwarder’s Pick-up : 200 trucks

• Expected Volume : 16,000 pairs per day

• Inventory stored by per-pair basis – either manual or

Storage automated means
• Expected to hold 20,000 pairs of shoes at any point in time

APPENDIX B

ORIENTAL LOGISTICS’ Business Assumptions

1. Length of Business Contract with ALPHA = 3 years

2. Handlers : Supervisor = 10 : 1

3. Each Function per Shift should be led by at least 1 Supervisor.

APPENDIX C

(1) Productivity Guideline – Manual Method

INBOUND
Process Category Task Productivity per hour UOM Remarks
Receiving Unload Full Pallets from container 45 Pallet Manual
Movement Move UOM to Inbound Working Area 100 UOM Manual
Quality-Check Inspect Pallets and sign POD 120 Pallet Manual

WMS Enter Cargo receiving data for Pallet 200 Pallet WMS Keying
Breakbulk Break Shipping Cartons from Pallet 180 Carton Manual
Breakbulk Break Piece from Shipping Carton 300 Piece Manual
Movement Move UOM to Inbound Staging Area 250 UOM Manual
Putaway Put away Carton 120 Piece Manual

OUTBOUND
Process Category Task Productivity per hour UOM MHE
Picking Picking Pair 150 Pair Manual
Pick QC Check Pair 500 Pair Barcode scanner
Pick-WMS Update storage location information - Pair 200 Pair WMS Keying
Movement Move UOM to Outbound Working Area 250 UOM Manual
Pack QC Check Pair 500 Pair Barcode scanner
Packing Pack Pair into shipping carton & labelling 80 Pair Manual

Pack-WMS Enter Cargo packing data for Carton 200 Carton WMS Keying

Releasing Move UOM to Outbound Staging Area 250 UOM Manual

Releasing Hand Carton over to Freight Forwarder 360 Carton Manual

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(2) Productivity Guideline – Automated Method
INBOUND
Process Category Task Productivity per hour UOM Remarks
Receiving Unload Full Pallets from container 45 Pallet Manual
Movement Move UOM to Inbound Working Area 100 UOM Manual
Quality-Check Inspect Pallets and sign POD 120 Pallet Manual
WMS Enter Cargo receiving data for Pallet 300 Pallet RFID
Breakbulk Break Shipping Cartons from Pallet 180 Carton Manual
Breakbulk Break Pair from Shipping Carton 300 Pair Manual
Movement Move UOM to Inbound Staging Area 600 UOM Conveyor
WMS + Putaway Put away Pairs into Automated Carton Storage 250 Pair Auto System

OUTBOUND
Process Category Task Productivity per hour UOM Remarks
WMS + Picking Pick Pair from Automated Carton Storage & update storage records 250 Pair Auto System
Pick QC Check Pair 500 Pair Barcode scanner
Movement Move UOM to Outbound Working Area 450 UOM Conveyor

Pack QC Check Pair 500 Pair Barcode scanner

Packing Pack Pair into shipping package & labelling 80 Pair Manual
Pack-WMS Enter Cargo packing data for Carton 200 Carton WMS Keying

Releasing Move UOM to Outbound Staging Area 500 Carton Conveyor

Releasing Hand Carton over to Freight Forwarder 360 Carton Manual

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