Unlocking Container Utilization: How One Program Manager Transformed Haulage Efficiency

Um, give me more time, please. Um, One of the uh scenario I already told you about this, uh, expiry, uh, problem, which was quite big problem, but I will uh go with another problem which, um, it's I would say uh it was a problem for uh our company in the previous company uh in Nigeria uh that we were not able to track um the container utilization of our truck, so there was a problem.

Uh, not at dock, but, uh, as I told you that we were providing the haulage services to different clients, so we were providing them a truck, and in that truck they can put, uh, the container, or we, we will just give them a container. So that container, how to utilize it the best way possible. From their SKUs, from their different SKUs which might be in the rectangular shape or um maybe in their um pallet shape or or maybe anything so that was a 11 of the big, big problem uh we were having um so there was not a perfect solution for that um so over here um. The one of the problem, uh, over here was, uh, we were too much reliant on manual intervention or manual, uh, help. So what we used to do, we used to, um, why I'm saying we because it was the part of the traditional culture over there, uh, before, before I, I jumped into that project, um, they, uh, used to put, uh, the cartons, different different excuses carton inside the container and then check. Through their uh monitoring that how many containers we can they can put inside. So that was the that was the way to calculate the uh container relation which was very ineffective in my way because I come from a uh industrial engineering, uh, master's in industrial engineering and supply chain management background. I try to uh convert everything in the mathematical model. So, um, what I did over there, um, I jumped into this thing and, uh, I saw that there's a big problem that, uh, we are not able to do it and because of, uh, we are into haulage business we are selling the container space container volume so if we are not able to give them properly or we cannot utilize it, our cost would increase and our cost was increasing we were buying more trucks. So what I did for the first time, uh, I checked the space, uh, inside the container, and then, um, I did this, let me tell you the scope of this, this study, uh, I did, I did this study on one client, um, which was the noodle client, the Indomi brand, um, and it was on the single container, but there was 13 different SKUs. All rectangular. So that was the scope. So, first of all, I checked the space, the volume of the container, then I, uh, checked the volume of each and every um SKU uh carton size. From there, I created different kind of mathematical models and saw that how we can fit into, uh, fit all the, mm, all the cartons inside it. SKU wise and then, uh, the mix SKU wise also. So it was a, uh, like quite extensive mathematical model and once I'm done with that model, I tested. When I, uh, at the dock, I put, uh, items, um, inside, mm, inside container with that alignment. The, the, the whole game was regarding all, all, all about the alignment how you are putting that contain uh that carton in, uh, in, in, in, in, in, in the truck. So, um, so I tested on, uh, the dock. I checked it, how it is being done, um, and it was giving a very good results. So, earlier, uh, why I'm saying good result because, um, my what my mathematical model was providing and what actually is happening was having 9 98% of, uh, adherence or you can say reliability. So, which, which was a very big, uh, uh, a reliability for any model. So Uh, this project helped, uh, to increase the utilization from 83% to 93% of, uh, for our company, and, uh, from

heard? 93, 93.

yeah, so, uh, in that process I created different video, uh, tutorial also for, uh, the workers over there that how they can, they should put, uh, that particular SKU, any particular SKU inside the, uh, container and how it should be aligned, um, till the end. So that was a video tutorial so that they can understand easily and, uh, I can give them a better, um, impression on, on, on how to do that. Um, so, uh, It helped me, uh, if I go for the uncalculated mattresses, we were about to, uh, buy almost like 20 trucks that year and we, we didn't buy any, uh, truck out of, um, those 20 trucks that year because of this new utilization and, and, uh. Uh, because we were able to do more, uh, more, we were able to load more number of cartons in a single trip and that helped our customer also and that helped us also to, uh, have a better utilization and to implement the same thing in other customers, although I was not part of implementing, uh, the same thing over to the other customers but I was, uh, limited to that particular customer.

Uh, as far as I know, uh, it was rolled out to other other region for the same customer, uh, but I was not part of that, that, uh,

So first of all, I was talking to my um my line manager, um, and I, uh, and at the same time, the head of logistics that I'm gonna do such kind of thing, um, I have all my business usual, uh, responsibility also, but I just wanted to have this, this kind of thing, uh, uti on utilization. So first I. I showed them that that something like that is possible already. There are so, so many different softwares that are available, but we can do it on, on different sheets or, uh, Excel and different models, yeah. So, um, I showed him, um, like that was just a demo, um, and, uh, then. I talked to the client who was the Indommi brand, uh, logistics manager. I talked to him and I said that, um, can we work on it. Um, the factory, I was, I was living in a factory compound and that the factory compound was also, uh, accommodating the same factory, the Indomemi factory, so it was just a walking distance from me. So I used to, I, I used to live that with that guy in the same premises. So, um. I talked to that guy and uh um mm we had uh uh um I asked him permission to just do it um mm, the manual uh check-in or you can say um the testing. So we did some testing. We, I got the volume, I got the inch tape, uh, the volume and all, uh, through that, uh, visit, um, and then I started making the, uh, model. And then later on I, I involved the, uh, the factory head of that company, um, and he was very impressed because it was saving his cost also, um, there was less trip for the same item, so, um, I was trying to involve everyone and once I brought out all the, uh, all the data or you can say, uh, all the model, then I presented to everyone that this is how we did it and, uh, with your permission we can go ahead. So that's how I, I onboarded everyone in, in the boat, um, before that I was doing, uh, it voluntarily, so that's it.