LOG207: Effective COVID-19 Vaccines are key to our ability to Control the Pandemic: Warehousing and Material Handling Assignment, SUSS, Singapore

Question 1 Effective COVID-19 vaccines are key to our ability to control the pandemic and resume travel and economic activities without the need for further lockdowns. COVID-19 vaccines require correct temperature-controlled storage and complex transport logistics. Logistics experts say these challenges are “massive” and “unprecedented”.

(a) Outline your own observations of the impact of the Covid-19 vaccine distribution on the supply chain and in particular warehouse operations in Singapore.

(b) How do you think Covid-19 has changed warehouse operations and management? How can businesses and companies with warehouse operations cope during and after this pandemic? Suggest ways to cope in the short- and long-term.

(c) What lessons can you learn from such a crisis? How will you put what you have learned into practice (to your study, work, or life)?

Question 2 You work for a third-party logistics (3PL) company that manages the warehousing needs for a large electronics retailer with several stores in Singapore. At this particular warehouse, products stored and handled are mainly communications, entertainment, and recreation devices, such as telephones, cell phones, PCs, printers, TV sets, home theatre systems, and digital cameras. Management is keen to improve its warehouse performance and is open to new ideas.

(a) Which picking strategy would you recommend? Why? State your assumptions and reasons.

(b) You observe that the amount of returned goods at the warehouse has been increasing with the increase in online sales. Apply an effective strategy to help the warehouse recover value from returned items to the best extent possible. How would your proposed plan affect existing operations? State any assumptions where needed.

(c) How would your proposed strategy in part (b) benefit society and the environment at large?