Transportation and Warehousing
Transportation
Evaluation
A major constraint in the transportation and shipping of coffee products weather conditions. It is a leading source of risk a major source of losses in the coffee supply chain. Wong et al. (2018) say coffee is hygroscopic in that the product easily absorbs and stores moisture from the environment. According to Wong et al. (2018), it is a major transportation constraint because changes in temperature and humidity a chipping container experiences can have an adverse effect on the quality of coffee being transported. It gets worse where sea transport is involved because of increased exposure to constantly changing weather conditions and longer durations in transport mode.
Another constraint is the travel time in shipping coffee products. As Wong et al. (2018) further describe, to some degree, coffee is a perishable product that does not only demand ideal weather conditions; it also requires faster delivery times. A moisture level of more than 12.5 percent facilitates the growth of fungus over a significant period. That renders coffee unfit for consumption. Theft is also a common problem in the coffee supply chain worldwide most of the time, and shippers are only concerned about getting a container of goods from point A to point B. Since coffee is a highly profitable product, malpractices involving replacing the product with bags of salts are reported.
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The coffee supply chain features a transportation network that integrates all transportation modes – land, sea, rail, and air. Bulky goods and longer distances often occur in sea transport. The land is used mostly for short distances and inland transportation. Air is a common mode of transport for faster delivery of coffee beans across the world. Thus, based on the transportation network's current nature, it is safe to say that the coffee industry uses transport modes based on time, quantity, and costs. However, costs and quantity account for the major transport practices that need players in the market adopt.
Recommendations
A majority of coffee transportation occurs in sea transport. According to the constraints described above, sea transport is also responsible for major coffee supply chain constraints. Therefore, the industry should consider exploring other modes of transport, including air transport. Coffee is perishable and thus requires faster delivery time, which can only be achieved through faster transport modes like cargo flights (Tolera & Gebermedin, 2015). Although flights are not cost-effective than sea transport, they are safer and reduce the risk of coffee going bad. Improving sea transport to ensure efficiency should be a focus area. The effort involves identifying sources of problems and addressing them effectively (Debelo, 2017). For instance, equipping cargo containers with moisture and temperature regulators to offer coffee ideal weather conditions.
Warehousing
The client is facing a major warehouse problem of capacity that meets the changing seasonality of coffee. The seasonality of coffee is influenced by the changing climatic conditions for growing particular types of coffee beans. As such, there is a significant shortage of the product at certain times of the year. That exerts pressure on the company to have a larger storage capacity to ensure it fulfills the continuous demand of coffee beverages all year round. The company's capacity cannot handle the volumes of coffee needed to meet the increasing demand due to the warehouse's limited size. Also, there is an insufficiency of equipment needed for handling such enormous volumes of coffee products.
In addition to having limited warehouse space, the facility has poor layout and space utilization. Space optimization is critical for a company that needs to store a significant volume of coffee products. Space utilization in the company's warehouse is concerning. Items are not arranged for ideal picking since the distance traveled for picking is considerably long. The poor layout is also coupled with high product damage within the warehouse. The increased damages are attributed to a lack of appropriate technologies and equipment for handling sensitive products such as coffee. For instance, temperature and moisture regulators sometimes fail, and the company lacks backup systems. Also, the process of storage and retrieval items contributes to the damage of goods.
Adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and information materials are vital for handling hazardous materials in warehousing. The purpose of PPE is to protect workers from possible injuries and illnesses caused by dangerous materials. Examples of PPEs used include gloves, helmet, full-body suits, respirators, foot, and eye protection (Wibowo, 2015). They aim to protect the skin, face/eyes, respiratory system, and others from hazardous agents such as chemicals used for preserving goods. Workers in charge of hazardous materials must wear PPE at all times. The company also features a policy that demands the labeling of all hazardous materials. Labeling materials with appropriate symbols and descriptions is important since it determines how they are handled and stored.
Another consideration is employee training and education. The rationale behind the approach is that a trained workforce increases safety. Everyone handling hazardous materials one way or another must have the appropriate knowledge and skills of doing so. That includes the storage, transportation, authorization, labeling, and inspection of such materials. Organizations dealing with dangerous materials should adopt comprehensive training programs that delve deeper beyond legal compliance and guidelines (Wibowo, 2015). The more members of organizations know about handling hazardous materials, the safer an organization is. Training should be a periodic task conducted at specific periods of the year, say, at least twice a year. New employees should also be oriented through the program for purposes of improving safety.
References
Debelo, B. K. (2017). Constraints and opportunities in the coffee supply chain: value chain analysis from coffee farmers to exporters–case of some selected districts of Ilu Aba Bor Administrative Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications , 7 (8), 626-632.
Tolera, F. G., & Gebermedin, G. A. (2015). Opportunities and constraints of coffee production in West Hararghe, Ethiopia.
Wibowo, A. (2015, May). Problems and available solutions on the stage of extract, transform and loading in near-real-time data warehousing (a literature study). In 2015 international Seminar on Intelligent Technology and Its Applications (ISITIA) (pp. 345-350). IEEE.
Wong, H., Potter, A., & Naim, M. (2011). Evaluation of postponement in the soluble coffee supply chain: A case study. International Journal of Production Economics , 131 (1), 355-364.
