Rather than looking for part-time jobs or idling their time away during the 2 weeks term break in June, seven members from the Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society IG (LSCMS IG) were involved in a Research project initiated by Supply Chain Asia, an external organization that helps to promote the supply chain industry.
These 7 members were tasked to profile the distribution of trucks delivering to 11 shopping malls island-wide, namely Causeway Point, Suntec City, Vivocity, Plaza Singapura, Parkway Parade, Ngee Ann city, Funan Digital Mall, Northpoint, Jurong Point, Junction 8 and Tampines Mall, and also to find out about the unloading facilities at each of this mall, such as the number of loading docks, cargo lifts and staging areas.
They had to interview truck drivers to find out about their delivery profiles and to ask them about recommendations about the unloading facility and timing at those malls, but some of them were too busy to revert to them, while there were also some who could not be bothered to respond. Besides tackling the drivers, the students had to exercise caution not to incur the wrath of the security personnel at the unloading bays, who deemed the students as interfering. Some of the students were warned or chased, but most of them are able to achieve their objectives to profile the unloading area and interview the drivers, such as by tactically hiding behind or in between trucks while interviewing.
The students also had to bear the weather conditions to time the turnaround time for each truck as well as the stuffy and sometimes dirty conditions at some of the unloading areas, which had a foul smell or even cockroaches running around the place. But, it wasn’t all hard work for the students. Through this study, it really opened up the minds of the students about some of the difficulties which the products had to undergo before it could reach the retail store. None of them actually realized that the queue formed at the unloading area could sometimes take an hour to clear before this study. It helped them to understand better why they were learning certain modules such as Distribution & Transportation, where certain theories could be exercised to improve the conditions.
At the end of the study, the students produced a report that was submitted to Supply Chain Asia, consisting of the information gathered at each of the malls, as well as an analysis of the trend at the urban and suburban malls. For their hard work, they were awarded between 6 to 9 CE points each, and also received $300 each from Supply Chain Asia. It was definitely well worth the time and effort for them!
