How the logistic saved a city?

In this post I’m going to talk about one of the most important and complex triumphs of logistics and how it meant the survival of a city.

The Berlin blockade was one of the most important events after the Second World War. During the Soviet occupation the Soviet army blocked Berlin’s communications as it was within its territory. In order to provide supplies, the Allies thought of creating an air bridge between the Allied zones and Berlin, but the logistics behind this were extremely complex.

To give a caliber of the figures that were shuffled in order to provide the city with resources.
The daily distribution to supply the population had to be of:

646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons of whole milk for children, 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking, 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese. In all, 1,534 tons were required each day to sustain the over two million people of Berlin. Additionally, for heat and power, 3,475 tons of coal, diesel and petrol were also required daily.

The operations starts on June 1948 and by the end of August the operation was a success, with more than 1500 daily flights providing around 4500 tons of supplies.

The operation showed that despite the difficulty was reported that almost 9,000 tons of supplies were delivered each day with a total 2 million tons delivered by the time the blockade was lifted. According to reports, there was a cargo plane landing every 30 seconds.

https://www.dw.com/en/britain-bread-and-the-berlin-blockade-70-years-on/a-48692794

Roman Army logistic

When we think about logistics everyone comes to mind companies like Amazon or the management of maritime transport. However, logistics is as old as humanity. And it has always existed. From the transport of the marble of the pyramids, the military campaigns of Alexander the Great, the fleet of the East Indies or the military quartermaster of an aircraft carrier.

In this post I will talk about such a transcendental element in the history of Western civilization as the Roman Empire and the logistics behind its campaigns.

When we think of the logistics of a military campaign in the old age we must take into account the amount of supplies that had to be transported both food and equipment to maintain the advance and secure positions.

Giving a sense of scale of this situation. Each soldier carried an approximate amount of 40 kg of weight. In addition, every eight soldiers used to carry a mule and a couple of slaves, all for transport only. If we do the calculations this supposes that for each company (4800 soldiers) there were between 600 and 1200 mules as well as around 1200 slaves. In this way we can get an idea of the magnitude of the organization of this logistics.

The calculations show us that each legion consumed 8000 kg of grain, 45000 liters of water and 18000 kg of animal feed, all this on a daily basis to give us an idea of the difficulty of management.

But how were the supplies organized?
On different levels. Firstly, as I have said, each soldier carried part of his supplies. Secondly, supplies collected during the conquest and finally supplies sent to the army.

On the first level. Each soldier carried food for a week. In addition, each battalion carried mules with food for a month. In reference to water, for example, it carried just enough because of the illogical nature of its transport.

At the second level, the army obtained supplies through three methods: foraging, requisition and pillaging. But these strategies were not always enough and this is where the logistics of the Roman Empire comes in.

The most important thing is the existence of supply lines that connect the army to a supply source. Within the supply lines we differentiate three elements. The strategic point from which the army is supplied. As a strategic point we can say the provincial capitals with their market and their suppliers. Together to this we found the operational point that would be where all the intendencia would be realized as well as the storage. From this point the transport would be done up to a point located halfway called tactical point. The idea is that as the campaign progresses, the operational centers will become in the future a strategic point there that are located next to the river beds. The tactical points are where all the supplies for the daily maintenance of the campaign are stored and are the closest element.

The functioning of the supply chain is the transport from the operational points that have been supplied by the strategic centers, to the tactical points one by one and to be supplying the following one. Securing the supply for the future in the last always

AMberes and the logistic of the diamond industry

If we talk about diamonds with Europe in mind, the first place that comes to mind is the Antwerp Diamond District. But what is behind the logistics of taking diamonds from faraway Botswana or Australia to this northern European port?

With an area of approximately 1 km2, the Antwerp diamond district is very limited in size. However, it is the perfect place to buy diamonds in Antwerp and, by extension, all over the world. This small community sees contracts between traders and the purchase and sale of lots of diamonds, which are then sorted and redistributed.

In Antwerp, the rough diamond, which eventually becomes beautiful jewelry, is sold to diamond dealers who will cut them elsewhere. Today, this cutting is often done in high-tech cutting centers in India, for example. But Antwerp is also the place where the cut diamond re-enters the international trading market. According to statistics, 80% of all polished diamonds in the world will have passed through Antwerp at some point in the negotiation process.

From delivery at Schiphol to the safe of a diamond dealer, the journey of a diamond is quite long. Every day, a highly guarded flight from Schiphol airport in the Netherlands lands at Antwerp airport, about five kilometres from the city centre. The cargo it transports is valued at $180 million and consists of packages from, among other places, Canada, South Africa, Russia and Namibia. An annual total of $36 billion.

Once the packages are unloaded under the eye of the guards, they are transported to the Antwerp diamond district in an armoured vehicle belonging to a specialised security company and accompanied by police vehicles.

Finally the `packages are delivered to Diamond Office, an AWDC department. There, all diamonds coming from outside the EU are reviewed and evaluated. And after the valuable mercancy is transported to their final distributor.

the future of logistic in decathlon. part 2

In this post I am going to talk about the future of Decathlon and how it wants to reconvert its business to adapt it to the new times and for them a reconversion of logistics is essential. As head of department I was able to attend congresses in which the future strategy of the company was defined. And the premise was clear, online commerce is the future and the business has to adapt to it.

For it they prioritize an element and it is the online purchase, they consider that the purchase by Internet is going to constitute the bulk of the business of a few years from now and they try to adapt the stores in that sense.

But to what extent is logistics affected?

Because the key element to become leaders in the purchase of sportswear online is based on providing the customer with the variety of products that the company has in the shortest possible time. For this they are based on the premise of using the large supermarkets they have as logistics centers from which the goods are distributed. This would allow them to have logistics centers in the main provinces of the country and from there make a distribution of goods in a very short space of time since they are usually framed roads near large cities. In addition, they would have points for returns and testing of products but the basic idea is the conversion of existing stores into large logistics centers.

Decathlon stores in Spain

This conversion is going to take place progressively but the trend is already palpable and the company does not want to miss the opportunity so tries to encourage customers who come to the store to increase their consumption of the web through training conducted by employees through online platforms that are in the middle of the corridors.

The result is that given the magnitude of competition in the textile sector, the company has an advantageous position by having centers strategically located. The only thing that it will have to carry out is the reconversion to warehouses of products and to carry out an effective distribution.

A Decathlon worker’s experience. Part 1

In this first post in reference to my experience working for Decathlon’s wholesale chain I will talk about the current logistics situation.

As a long-term worker I was able to see how things were done in the chain on a daily basis as well as on a large movement level due to seasonal changes or removals. So I will talk about two elements

First of all, the daily logistics management of the company. The company’s storage policy is to store those products it intends to sell in a short period of time and replace those that have been sold more abundantly. The supply of products takes place at two times a day. The first one arrives at the opening of the store through a transporter, which deposits the pallets in the warehouse so that the operators through forklifts take them to an area where other operators open them and distribute them by departments. Normally each pallet is grouped by department but even so the operators must divide the contents of the pallets into smaller groups to facilitate transport. Once the products have been placed in a kind of container, they are moved through the use of wheels towards their departments where the facing employees place them in their position facing the customer.

In conclusion, logistics is grouped into three steps. First, the truck is unloaded by the transporter, then a first group of employees opens the container and performs a first unstacking according to some codes. Next, another group of employees divides it by departments and transports them to each section where the picking group places them.

As I said this is done twice daily, at opening and at closing so that there is a constant supply. The system works in such a way that the products exhausted throughout the morning can be ordered from other shops since there is a process of transport of products between shops and within the same space, it guarantees you transport in less than 24 hours. So if a customer is looking for a particular size can come to the store the next morning and have it.

In addition, the system changes completely and the transport of goods varies according to weekly and seasonal demand. Seasonal products are gradually replenished.