Batamindo Shipping and Warehousing Pte Ltd
Case : Improving Productivity for Import Shipping Operations
Corporate Profile
Batamindo Shipping & Warehousing
Pte Ltd (BSW) is a regional logistics
provider set up in 1990 to serve the
manufacturers of the Riau Islands
Industrial Parks of Batam and Bintan.
It is a joint venture of SembCorp Parks
Management
and
international
logistics companies.
Efficient and reliable integrated range of services has enabled the company to support the
project start up and "just in time" manufacturing demands of customers.
General Information:
The company constantly seeks new ways to improve the customer experience and support
customer growth. Batamindo conforms to the international standards of customers, while
having strong local knowledge and experience.
The o pa y s servi es i lude:

Daily feeder shipping between Singapore & Batam with door-to-door delivery

Distribution centres in Singapore and Batam (Batamindo Industrial Park)

International freight forwarding

Project cargo and factory relocation

Express services

Special handling for Dangerous Goods (DG) and Reefer
Information Provided:
Daily a shipment of 120 TEUs1 passes through the Import Department from Monday to
Saturday. The volume have being increasing.
The Import Team provides the following job functions :
a. Enter information into the PORTNET,
b. Handle shipments to connect from feeder to mother vessel,
1
TEU is Twenty Equivalent Units. This is commonly referred to as 20 footer container.
c. Arrange customs clearance and transportation for door delivery to the customer.
The Import Team are currently operating with three (3) staffs. Currently, the Import Team
faces the following challenges :
i.
High Staff Turnover
Due to the fast pace environment, long working hours and the need to multitask, the staff turnover is high. When new staff arrives, there is a steep learning
curve.
ii.
Custo ers’ Co plai ts
The staff turnover problem leads to this issue where a new staff may not be
competent to handle the orders promptly and accurately, resulting in delays of
shipments. Customers can complaint especially if the delay is substantial.
iii.
Long lead time in Invoicing
Internally, the Import Department is sometimes focused on staff and resolving
issues, which leads to a delay in sending the required job order information to
Accounts Department. This results in late invoicing and billing.
The business volume is expanding briskly. The management identifies the above problems
as constraints to growth. If not resolved immediately, this can result in loss of customers
switching to competition, or loss of sales if the company is not able to handle the jobs
properly. In su
ary, there is a high degree of a ual pro essi g a d it is perti e t to
adopt a more process-based and system solution to tackle the problem of productivity. For
instance, the company does not have a process map of the import operation which can be
useful for training. Thus, it is hard to determine what is the optimal work load and if the
process should be re-designed.
Requirements
Based on the information provided, the team is to address the following issues and include feasible
recommendations.
1. What are so e ethodologies that a e used to study the As-Is Pro ess a d dete t
bottlenecks?
2. Are there any methods that can be used to determine if a staff is overloaded?
3. Would an information system help? If so, what kind of such solution will be useful?
4. Any other ways to increase the productivity and efficiency of the Staff?