Day 07: Warehouses

Today is the busiest day in our trip of Japan so far. We visited three different companies in one day and studied a lot of supply chain management in the part of warehouse. This is what I expect because the plant tours provide us opportunities to learn how supply chain operates. Even though I am still tired today, I am so excited for companies visits because we can visually and practically understand different types of warehouses by visiting DHL, KRT, and IACT.

First of all, we visited IACT in the morning after 30 minutes of driving to Narita international airport. I am impressed with the big and organized warehouse of IACT which located in Narita cargo terminal. Because Narita cargo terminal is important in Asia’s cargo transportation, it involves organized layout and efficient operation. Cargos are storage in different areas according to bar code and they were stacked on different pallets. We could find out information about certain cargo and their tracking by scanning the bar code. This really improves the efficiency of the operation because we can find the location and information of cargo by scanning the bar codes. Plenty of the labels and signs on the cargos also left deep impression on me. These label and sign allowed the workers to move and storage cargo in the right way.

After lunch we took a plant tours in DHL and KRT. Both of them had long history and rich experiences, which provide us deeper study in supply chain management. DHL provides value added services and offer inventories management for different companies such as ERICSSON and FUJITON. Warehouse of DHL is large which allowed great potential for capability of inventory management. DHL was impressive because there are only a few people who could manage such a big warehouse, reflecting their high efficiency and ability. DHL also emphasize on the flexibility of inventory capacity, which allowed them to provide various services.KRT look like a traditional Asian company. By my observation, its worker and staff really pay attention to their task because safety concentration and efficiency are required in some occupation. Furthermore, KRT focused on building good relationships and networking with the other companies such trucking companies. This will reduce some costs of their operation.


After the plants visits today, I realized that companies operated their business by using different strategies. This diversifies my perspective on supply chain management.