Wendy's reflection on the ALB field trip

The first field trip that we visited and also a very impressive one which is to the Army Logistics Base(ALB) on the 28th of November(Friday). Never did i expect that warehouse requires so much management,planning,control to make it a good environment. All along, we have been learning DCM this subject through the net, but no real-life examples for us to see and understand better. Therefore,this field trip is indeed an eye-opener.

ABL has adopts a Through flow layout. Also,each of the warehousing floor has a estimated height of 30 metres. There are different types of storage system install such as the mobile racking system, pallet/bin ASRS, vertical carousel and narrow aisle .

At the main storage area, mobile racking system is adopt. It can caters to slow moving and homogeneous items, which is very useful when they want to store bulky item too. Most importanly, the space is fully utilised in ALB, and it also minimises the time used to search for the exact item.
ALB adopte the vertical carousel system to store small item such as medical supplies and items. The environment for the item to be stored is very well controlled whereby the temperature in the air-conditioned room is maintain. There were demostration done to show us how the vertical carousel work, the units of bins are driven electronically to bring the parts to the pickers.

Lastly,besides the good planning of storage system used based on the different characteristics of goods(high throughput rate,size,weight etc.), the safety precaution taken in the warehouse is very professional too.

I would like to visit other warehouses if possible. This trip benefits me alot, which no reading beats better than it.

Yinsheng's reflection on the ALB field trip

It was an enriching experience to have the chance to visit the Army Logistics Base(ALB) on the 28th of November, because we got the chance to see how all those machineries and systems we've learned from books really look like in real-life.

Real-life exposure to ALB taught us many things that we couldn't have learned otherwise inside the four walls of our classrooms, and I have to admit that the sheer size of the warehouses impressed me deeply.

We were given a short brief when we reached ALB, and was taken on a tour showing us around the warehouse including the application of various material handling equipment and storage facilities.

They began with showing us some of their warehouses' floor layout(through-flow as the loading and unloading bays were opposite each other), the height was estimated to be around 30 metres high(approximately 10 storeys).


A demonstration was done on the various Automated Storage and Retrieval System(ASRS) for bins and pallets separately and we got the chance to see clearly how the machines are operated.
(picture of the ALB ASRS, yes the EXACT one from ALB)

Demonstrations on other storage systems such as mobile racking(used at the receiving bay), vertical carousel system(storage with air-conditioning and dehumidification system used for storing small items that are hydro-sensitive, and medical supplies in their case) and the VNA(very narrow aisles).

Their storage systems utilized their cubic capacity well as the height was made full use of, with the mobile racking(receiving bay) and other storage systems close to the ceiling.

They showed us the safety countermeasures, which included the mobile racking system stopping and a siren going off when a person stepped into a dangerous zone and the vertical carousel which stops when someone's hand moved into where the bins are while it is rotating.

Laser guided vehicles(AGV- Automated Guided Vehicles) serve as forklifts in the warehouse, and the laser guiding system make it such that they will not run into any physical obstacles.
40 feet trucks are used at ALB, and the large storage gives advantages with accordance to economies-of-scale.

It was a great field trip and we have benefited much from watching the operations of ALB, awesome! :)

Meiqi's reflection on the ALB field trip

My reflections on the trip to ABL
It was my first visit to Army Logistic Base on 28thNov (Friday) and I have felt that I have gained lots of knowledge during this educational field trip.

During this trip, I have learnt that the warehousing floor layout at ALB is through flow and in the distribution service, the drop-point is 750 and the delivery load size per day is about 200 cubic meters.
The height of each warehousing floor of ABL building is about 30m and there are different kinds of storage system that are installed at ABL such as ASRS, mobile racking etc.

Firstly we came to take a look at the mobile racking and they have showed us the safety measures whereby there is a sensor which would sound and stop the operation if anyone enters and it also helps to compress and stores slow racking products. The ASRS has provided a high storage density of 13,600 pallet locations and 29,850 bin locations. It can also be accessed and operated from different floors within ALB.

Then we moved on to have a look at the vertical carousel which contains small items and items that require to be controlled such as the medical supplies and there are 74 layers. The storage has humidity functions and it links to WMS. It has a sensor such that it would light up if ones hand is put into it and it will stop. If there is a breakdown, they got their own maintenance too.

Last but not least, they have showed us the laser guided vehicle which can be used anywhere to track the load and it is interfaced with the 4-ton cargo lifts to enable it to transport pallet loads from floor to floor automatically through the lifts.

In summary, I felt that this trip has really gave us an opportunity to see and know more about how the ABL has operated, thus giving us an idea what we have to do when we step into the logistic industry.

Opening Post

Hello there everyone, this is the DCM Blog of Wendy, Meiqi and Yinsheng from LOM Year 2 class T05.

The topic we have chosen is (c) Evaluation of private warehouse versus 3rd party logistics service provider.





We'll be posting our ALB(Army Logistics Base) Field Trip Reflection soon.
Please look forward to our coming posts! :)