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One of the lessons learned from projects in general is that having an effective supply chain is key to successful project delivery. The importance of an effective Supply chain Logistics is applicable to every industry. Product designers go to great lengths to establish and leverage a constructive methodological that coordinates product design and supply chain sequentially .
At Zara, speed and responsiveness are more important than cost, as their very existence depend on it, churning out fast fashion at mind-spinningly supersonic speed. Zara’s supply chain logistics is their secret to their success, as it competes on its speed to market. Amazon with its warehouses all over the world and its ability to pick, pack, and ship would well leverage its efficient supply chain system and mutate itself to be the next big player as a third-party logistics (3PL) company shaking up the 3PL industry itself, even as Uber is setting itself to be one - Where lifestyle meets logistic.
To meet the challenges of a changing global marketplace every company has to optimize operations streamline and integrate their supply chains. Large Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Maintenance (EPCM) service providers are no exception. They have to build an effective supply chain – an competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics to synchronize flow of goods and services to deliver their project on scope; time and cost.
The scope and the magnitude of their supply chain logistics is very large where the number of products could run into several hundreds of thousands per process area – upstream; midstream or downstream . In their delivery of projects they deal with suppliers of large industrial goods, heavy and over-dimensional equipment and modules which requires a high level of expertise, special modes of transport by air, road, rail, inland waterway and sea, involving special equipment including jacking and skidding
These modules could be a trailer load size or three storeys tall and eight metres wide requiring immense planning prior to even finalizing the engineering of the modules itself. The module design require early consultation with project logistic providers to ensure the size of the modules to be transported are the right size and can be moved by ship/road and that the permits for transporting such oversize modules are easily available well in advance to enable movement of the modules in time for implementation at site.
As my friend Mike Weiner at JAS Projects will reemphasize over and over again that logistic planning needs to start at the initial stage of the project when modules are created for each process blocks. Obviously, failure to do so will lead to many issues down the line due to permitting issues due to over size modules; requiring breaking them down to smaller sizes; leading to extra cost .
In all of their projects they have to Start by begin at the End , wherein, they have to determine at the outset of each project the modules for each of the process block and further ensure these modules have to be carted to remote sites from possibly another region of the world. Some of the points to consider are:
· Investigate infrastructure and access constraints to install modules
· Determine the economical & transportable size module
· Plan at design stage the route the modules will take into the site
· Finalise the transportation method early in engineering
These early stage consultation also needs to determine the stakeholders along the route of transportation of these modules. Consulting also with stakeholders such as environmentalist; First Nation leadership in area where these modules travel through their communities as well as regulatory authorities along the route and meet customs clearance and regulations if these modules are crossing borders.
With a shrinking and connected planet we will see more projects designed; engineered to allow for modules to be fabricated/manufactured miles away; in another continent and in some case across the world. This will be further fuelled as labor cost rise in remote sites with severe weather constraints; together with limited availability of regional skilled labor in North America the supply chain logistic landscape will change dramatically in the next few years to enable EPCMs and their clients meet their shareholders expectations.
What has been your take on this? I would love to hear from you.