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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Case Analysis
On
Supply Chain Initiative at APR Limited


By: Group 1
13144 - Saikat Sinha
13145 - Samarpita Datta
13148- Santhosh Kumar



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Simulation exercise

Truck monitoring sheet

Considerations:
The trucks E1, E2, E3 are unloaded at the woodyard as the chipper 2 starts working from 7:00 am
only. And the trucks can be unloaded directly at the chipper site if the chipper is operational.
The truck arriving at 6:45 am has to wait for only five minutes to get directly unloaded at the chipper
site at 7:00 am. Had it been unloaded at the woodyard, it would have added in the materials handling
cost.
For trucks carrying Eucalyptus, we have considered uniform arrival rate of 4 trucks in one hour i.e.,
each truck arriving exactly after fifteen minutes.
For trucks carrying Casuarina barks, all four trucks were unloaded in the chipper site again to
minimize handling cost. The chipper starts working from 8:00 am. For this type of truck we have
considered uniform arrival rate i.e., every truck arriving on the twenty fourth minute (=120/5)
We have made this simulation exercise by considering only those trucks that arrive between 6:00 am
and 8:00 am.
Eucalyptus Truck Data Casuarina Truck Data
Truck ID Arrival Time Departure Time Truck
ID
Arrival Time Departure Time
E1 06:00 08:00 C1 06:00 08:25
E2 06:15 08:15 C2 06:24 08:45
E3 06:30 08:30 C3 06:48 09:05
E4 06:45 07:25 C4 07:12 09:25
E5 07:00 07:45 C5 07:36 09:45
E6 07:15 08:05
E7 07:30 08:25
E8 07:45 08:45







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Weighbridge monitoring sheet

10 minutes is taken at the weigh bridge while entering and 5 minutes are taken when a truck leaves.
L denotes loaded trucks whereas UL denotes unloaded trucks. Therefore, truck E1, entering the
plant at 6 am leaves the weigh bridge at 6:10 am and the same unloaded truck leaves the weigh bridge
at 8 am. The same applies to all the trucks.
Weighbridge queue Weighbridge operations
Truck
ID
Truck
status
Time of
joining
Time of
leaving
Truc
k ID
Truck
status
Start of
operations
End of
operations
E1 L 06:00 06:10 E1 UL 07:55 08:00
E2 L 06:15 06:25 E2 UL 08:10 08:15
E3 L 06:30 06:40 E3 UL 08:25 08:30
E4 L 06:45 06:55 E4 UL 07:20 07:25
E5 L 07:00 07:10 E5 UL 07:40 07:45
E6 L 07:15 07:25 E6 UL 08:00 08:05
E7 L 07:30 07:40 E7 UL 08:20 08:25
E8 L 07:45 07:55 E8 UL 08:40 08:45
C1 L 06:00 06:10 C1 UL 08:20 08:25
C2 L 06:24 06:34 C2 UL 08:40 08:45
C3 L 06:48 06:58 C3 UL 09:00 09:05
C4 L 07:12 07:22 C4 UL 09:20 09:25
C5 L 07:36 07:46 C5 UL 09:40 09:45

Chipper operations sheet

Chipper 1 starts operating from 8 am onwards. All the trucks C1 to C5 were unloaded at the chipper
site to minimize handling cost. It also ensures that considerable quantity of Casuarina barks is
available at the beginning of the operation. So the truck C1 arrives at the chipping queue at 6:10 am
after getting weighed at the weighbridge, unloads the barks from 8 am to 8:20 am. (Unloading time
given is 20 minutes and the chipper starts operating at 8 am only)





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Chipper Queue Chipper 1 operations
Truck ID Time of joining Time of leaving Truck
ID
Start of
operations
End of
operations
C1 06:10 08:00 C1 08:00 08:20
C2 06:34 08:20 C2 08:20 08:40
C3 06:58 08:40 C3 08:40 09:00
C4 07:22 09:00 C4 09:00 09:20
C5 07:46 09:20 C5 09:20 09:40

Trucks E1 to E3 were unloaded at the woodyard as the chipper does not start operation by the time of
their arrival. The trucks are not kept waiting in the chipper queue like the trucks carrying Casuarina
because the arrival of Eucalyptus trucks are more frequent. (One truck in every 15 minutes).
The trucks arriving from 6:45 am at the gate are unloaded at the chipper location directly. The truck
entering the plant premises at 6:45 am gets weighed by 6:55 am, arrives at the chipper queue and
waits for five minutes for the chipper to start. Unloading happens till 7:20 am and the next truck in
queue i.e. E2 enters at 7:20 am for unloading. And this process continues.
Chipper Queue Chipper 2 operations
Truck ID Time of joining Time of leaving Truck
ID
Start of
operations
End of
operations
E1 NOT UNLOADED AT CHIPPER LOCATION, UNLOADED AT WOODYARD
E2
E3
E4 06:55 07:00 E4 07:00 07:20
E5 07:10 07:20 E5 07:20 07:40
E6 07:25 07:40 E6 07:40 08:00
E7 07:40 08:00 E7 08:00 08:20
E8 07:50 08:20 E8 08:20 08:40

Chipper wood management sheet

In the given time slot of 8 am to 9 am for chipper 1, 2 trucks could be directly unloaded at the chipper
site i.e., 20 MT could be directly unloaded as each truck has a capacity of 10 MT. 5 MT is being
arranged from the wood yard. [ per hour chipping rate = 125/5= 25 = 20 (from direct unloading) + 5
(from wood yard) ]


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Chipper 1
Time Slot Wood received
directly
Wood received from woodyard
8:00 - 9:00 20 5


For Chipper 2, quantity of wood processed in one hour = 230/6.5= 35.4. So 5.4 MT was arranged
from wood yard.
Chipper 2
Time Slot
Wood received
directly Wood received from woodyard
7:00 - 8:00 30 5.4


Woodyard management sheet
Woodyard Queue
Truck
ID
Queue Joining Time
E1 06:10
E2 06:25
E3 06:40

Truck
ID Start of operations End of operations
E1 06:10 07:55
E2 06:25 08:10
E3 06:40 08:25







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Q) As Saloni, what would you do to address the wood logistics problem? Where would you focus
your attention and solution efforts?

Data unavailability- many things are uncertain as of now, arrival time of trucks, chipping
schedule- so try to get the data, at least the seasonal trends
Find out the uncertainties like why chipper is not running according to schedule and how it
can be tackled
The focus is given to truck timings, because unloading the truck at the woodyard will lead to
additional cost, so truck scheduling has to be done in sync with the chipper schedule and vice
versa
In future, the whole logistics setup can suffer because of the increased production level, so it
is required to find the right number of chippers.

Q) What options exist?

1. Put additional weigh bridge: to save truck loading and waiting time
2. Again there are two setup options for the weigh bridge
a. One each for casuarina and eucalyptus
b. One for arrival and one for departure
3. Integrated Information System:
To improve the communication and coordination among various departments, so that the
entire process can be synced and suitable decisions can be taken to improve the overall
efficiency and reduced the overhead cost.

4. Add a conveyer that takes materials directly from woodyard to chipper-
Needs to see if this is a viable option or not. If this is installed then most of the problems will
be solved. There will be no requirement for manual handling of materials and the usage of
tractors can be minimized. There will be lesser unrest of labour
5. Invest in one more chipper
6. Invest in one more chipper and also increase silo capacity for chips
7. Use better quality of knives so as to reduce downtime at chipper
8. Reduce the time required to replace blunt knives.

The above mentioned option has direct and indirect impact on overall efficiency of the system.




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Q) What would you recommend? Why? (Based on simulation exercise)

1. Installation of another chipper:
Another chipper needs to be installed to cope up with the increased production in the coming
months. Moreover if trucks are directly unloaded at the chipper location, manual handling
costs, waiting time of trucks and unloading time of trucks get minimized largely (as evident
from the simulation exercise).

2. Increase the operational time of the chipper:
Since trucks keep waiting early in the morning outside the plant, the chippers could be started
earlier than the prescribed hours and more trucks could be directly unloaded at the chipper
site.

3. Installing a conveyor from wood yard to chipper locations:
It needs to be seen if it is a viable option or not. This reduces the time taken by the tractors
and helps in automating the process and this option comes with additional capital investment.
The manual handling of materials is also minimized.