draft final

System analysis and performance assessment of the Royal Jordanian Air Cargo Warehouse

An undergraduate project in Industrial Engineering Presented to

The Faculty of Engineering Applied Science University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the DegreeBachelor of Industrial Engineering

ByOmar Hussein “Ibrahim Ayesh”

Hamzeh Walid Nazzal

Supervised by:Dr. Lina Al-Qatawneh

Amman-JordanJanuary 2011

Abstract

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As Industrial engineers our main scope is to analyze any system

and assess it for any malfunctions or improvements. The RJ air

cargo warehouse was available for us, and it was a golden chance

to do our thing, to analyze and assess. And to do that, first we

started to read and increase our knowledge about warehouses and

specially air cargo warehouse systems. So we can comprehend the

system and get some key indicators to measure the performance in

the system. Then we started to analyze the system in the RJ air

cargo warehouse. Illustrating the systems’ operations and the flow

of goods and information’s in a simple way, with a profound

analysis in the export area.

Their main concern was whether their labor power is enough or

not, so we choose a couple of key performance indicators and

started collecting data for each operator and interviewing their

supervisors. And that led us to provide a better assessment about

their operators. Eventually, most of them were well utilized and

productive except for “other carriers’ preparations” operator.

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Acknowledgement

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“The teacher if he is indeed wise does not teach you to enter the

house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your

own mind.”Gobran Khalil Gobran.

To all the wise people that have helped us thank you. We are very

thankful to everyone who supported us, and enabled us to complete

our project effectively and moreover on time.

Mr. Mohannad Awwad, Mr. Ammar Obeidat, Mr. Yousef Al-

Massri, Mr. Tareq Sndeed, Mr. Omar Hmaid, Mr. Samer Jehad,

Fadi Ahmad and all the staff of the Royal Jordanian cargo

warehouse, thank you for your incredible support it has been a

pleasure working with you.

Special thanks to our supervisor Dr. Lina Al-Qatawneh for her

patience and support, she gave us moral support and guided us in

different matters regarding the topic. To all the teaching staff and

engineers in Applied Science University especially at Mechanical

and Industrial Department, thank you for your overall supports.

Last but not the least, we would like to thank our parents who

supported us in the hard time and guided us during difficulties and

Thank you much more, Than a greeting can say, Because you were

thoughtful, In such a nice way, I delicate this project in the

memory of my father and my brother, I wished you were here

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Table of contents

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Contents Page

Abstract..............................................................................................................2

Acknowledgement..............................................................................................4

Table of contents................................................................................................6

List of Figures......................................................................................................9

List of Tables.....................................................................................................13

1 Chapter one: Introduction.........................................................................................15

1.1 General Introduction................................................................................................16

1.2 Problem statement...................................................................................................18

1.3 Objective..................................................................................................................18

1.4 Methodology............................................................................................................19

1.5 Project report overview...........................................................................................20

2 Chapter two: Literature Review.................................................................................21

2.1 Air-Cargo supply chain...........................................................................................22

2.2 Warehouse System..................................................................................................24

2.3 Warehouse operations..............................................................................................25

2.4 Air cargo Warehouse Operations.............................................................................26

2.4.1 Export area...........................................................................................27

2.4.2 Import area...........................................................................................27

2.4.3 Unit load device (ULD).......................................................................28

2.5 Performance measurement.......................................................................................29

2.6 Warehouse Key Performance Indicators.................................................................30

2.7 Determine KPI.........................................................................................................31

2.7.1 Receiving.............................................................................................31

2.7.2 Put-away..............................................................................................32

2.7.3 Storage.................................................................................................32

2.7.4 Pick-n-Pack..........................................................................................32

2.7.5 Shipping...............................................................................................33

2.8 Labor productivity...................................................................................................34

3 Chapter Three: System Analysis of Royal Jordanian air cargo warehouse.................35

3.1 Royal Jordanian Warehouse....................................................................................36

3.2 Overview of the Royal Jordanian’s cargo terminal operations...............................36

3.3 Types of goods stored in RJ warehouse..................................................................50

3.4 Cargo Terminal capacity Analysis...........................................................................52

3.5 Cargo terminal handling system..............................................................................55

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3.6 Warehouse human resources and operating times...................................................56

3.7 Profound RJ export area analysis............................................................................57

3.7.1 Sources of goods..................................................................................57

3.7.1.1 Transit shipments.........................................................................57

3.7.1.2 New shipments.............................................................................58

3.8 Operations at the export area...................................................................................59

3.8.1 Acceptance:.................................................................................................59

3.8.2 Put-Away and Inspection:..........................................................................60

3.8.3 Storage........................................................................................................60

3.8.4 Pick and Pack..............................................................................................61

3.8.5 Shipping......................................................................................................62

4 Chapter Four: Performance Assessment....................................................................63

4.1 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)........................................................................64

4.2 Operators at export area...........................................................................................65

4.3 Types of collected data............................................................................................65

4.4 Period of data collected...........................................................................................66

4.5 Considerations and limitations................................................................................66

4.6 Performance assessment for the “Reception and Accounting” operator.................67

4.7 Performance assessment for the “Unloading and Weighting” operator..................73

4.8 Performance assessment for the “Put-away” operator.............................................77

4.9 Performance assessment for the “Storage (Yard)” operator....................................82

4.10........................................Performance assessment for the “Collect (Yard)” operator.................................................................................................................................87

4.11............................Performance assessment for the “Preparation RJ flights” operator.................................................................................................................................92

4.12..........Performance assessment for the “Preparation other carriers’ flights” operator.................................................................................................................................97

4.13...........................................Performance assessment for the “ETV system” operator...............................................................................................................................102

Discussion and Conclusions................................................................................104

Recommendations..............................................................................................107

References..........................................................................................................111

Appendix A.........................................................................................................113

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List of Figures

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Figure 2.1:The traditional air cargo system..................................23Figure 2.2: ULD types and their respective tag positions.............29Figure 3.1: RJ cargo warehouse layout.........................................37Figure 3.2 Flow diagram: The path taken by a good as it flows through import in warehouse........................................................41Figure 3.3: RJ import area specify operational area.....................42Figure 3.4 Flow diagram: The path taken by a good as it flows through export in warehouse.........................................................43Figure 3.5: RJ export area specify operational area......................44Figure 3.6: Land access Truck Transfer doors.............................53Figure 3.7: Elevating vehicle and ULD storage racks..................53Figure 3.8: Storage Racks.............................................................54Figure 3.9: Workstation................................................................54Figure 3.10: Cold room and freezer Room...................................54Figure 4.1: Reception and accounting operators utilization for week one.......................................................................................69Figure 4.2: Reception and accounting operators productivity for week one.......................................................................................69Figure 4.3: Reception and accounting operators utilization for week two.......................................................................................70Figure 4.4: Reception and accounting operators productivity for week two.......................................................................................71Figure 4.5: Utilization comparison for two weeks for the Reception and Accounting operator/s...........................................71Figure 4.6: Productivity comparison for two weeks for the Reception and Accounting operators............................................72Figure 4.7: Unloading and weighting operator’s utilization for week one.......................................................................................74Figure 4.8: Unloading and weighting operator’s productivity for week one.......................................................................................74Figure 4.9: Unloading and weighting operator’s utilization for week two.......................................................................................75Figure 4.10: Unloading and weighting operator’s productivity for week two.......................................................................................76Figure 4.11: Utilization comparison for two weeks for Unloading & weighing operators....................................................................76Figure 4.12: Productivity comparison for two weeks for Unloading & weighing operators..................................................77Figure 4.13: Put-away operator’s utilization for week one..........79Figure 4.14: Put-away operator’s productivity for week one.......79Figure 4.15: Put-away operator’s utilization for week two..........80

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Figure 4.16: Put-away operator’s productivity for week two.......81Figure 4.17: Utilization comparison for two weeks for Put-away operators........................................................................................81Figure 4.18: Productivity comparison for two weeks for Put-away operators........................................................................................82Figure 4.19: Storage (Yard) operator’s utilization for week one..84Figure 4.20: Storage (Yard) operator’s productivity for week one......................................................................................................84Figure 4.21: Storage (Yard) operator’s utilization for week two. 85Figure 4.22: Storage (Yard) operator’s productivity for week two......................................................................................................86Figure 4.23: Utilization comparison for two weeks for Storage (Yard) operators............................................................................86Figure 4.24: Productivity comparison for two weeks for Storage (Yard) operators............................................................................87Figure 4.25: Collect (Yard) operator’s utilization for week one. .89Figure 4.26: Collect (Yard) operator’s productivity for week one......................................................................................................89Figure 4.27: Collect (Yard) operator’s utilization for week two. .90Figure 4.28: Collect (Yard) operator’s productivity for week two......................................................................................................90Figure 4.29: Utilization comparison for two weeks for Collect (Yard) operators............................................................................91Figure 4.30: Productivity comparison for two weeks for Collect (Yard) operators............................................................................91Figure 4.31: Preparation RJ flights operator’s utilization for week one.................................................................................................93Figure 4.32: Preparation RJ flights operator’s productivity for week one.......................................................................................94Figure 4.33: Preparation RJ flights operator’s utilization for week two................................................................................................95Figure 4.34: Preparation RJ flights operator’s productivity for week two.......................................................................................95Figure 4.35: Utilization comparison for two weeks for RJ Preparations operators...................................................................96Figure 4.36: Productivity comparison for two weeks for RJ Preparations operators...................................................................96Figure 4.37: Preparation other carriers’ flights operator’s utilization for week one................................................................98Figure 4.38: Preparation other carriers’ flights operator’s productivity for week one.............................................................99

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Figure 4.39: Preparation other carriers’ flights operator’s utilization for week two..............................................................100Figure 4.40: Preparation other carriers’ flights operator’s productivity for week two...........................................................100Figure 4.41: Comparing the utilization for two weeks for other carriers Preparations operator/s..................................................101Figure 4.42: Productivity comparison for two weeks for other carriers Preparations operator/s..................................................101

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List of Tables

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Table 3.1: Export & Import Clearance Procedure at Royal Jordanian air cargo warehouse......................................................46Table 3.2: Special load codes.......................................................50Table 4.1: Operators’ classification according to operation’s type......................................................................................................65Table 4.2: Data collected and performance assessment for reception and accounting operator/s for week one.......................68Table 4.3: Data collected and performance assessment for reception and accounting operator/s in week two.........................70Table 4.4: Data collected and performance assessment for unloading and weighting operator in week one............................74Table 4.5: Data collected and performance assessment for unloading and weighting operator week two................................75Table 4.6: Data collected and performance assessment for Put-away operator in week one...........................................................78Table 4.7: Data collected and performance assessment for Put-away operator in week two...........................................................80Table 4.8: Data collected and performance assessment for Put-away operator/s in week one.........................................................83Table 4.9: Data collected and performance assessment for Storage (Yard) operator/s in week two......................................................85Table 4.10: Data collected and performance assessment for collect (Yard) operators in week one........................................................88Table 4.11: Data collected and performance assessment for collect (Yard) operator/s in week two......................................................90Table 4.12: Data collected and performance assessment for Preparation RJ flights operator/s in week one..............................93Table 4.13: Data collected and performance assessment for Preparation RJ flights operator/s in week two..............................94Table 4.14: Data collected and performance assessment for Preparation other carriers’ flights operators in week one.............98Table 4.15: Data collected and performance assessment for Preparation other carriers’ flights operator/s in week two............99Table 4.16: The operators’ average utilization and productivity for two weeks...................................................................................103

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1 Chapter one: Introduction

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1.1 General Introduction

Today’s modern society demands an advanced transportation

system to overcome distances, preferably in a fast, safe,

comfortable and reliable way (European Commission, 2003).

Distances might be a roadblock for people wanting to

socialize out of home, enjoy education, doing business and so

on. But not only individuals are daily on the road overcoming

the distance between the place they are and the place they want

to be; also raw materials, spare parts and finished goods are every

day on the move from one place to another enabling companies to

produce, assemble or sell their goods. These movements are

facilitated by companies offering transportation services. As

passengers and particularly goods rarely do move for the sake

of travelling, transportation services generally have a diverted

character because the demand for transport depends on underlying

reasons or final activities that makes transport necessary (De Wit,

Van Gent, 2001). Furthermore, the transportation industry consists

of two subsystems, one for passengers transport and one for cargo

transport.

Although these two subsystems are sometimes interrelated,

this thesis excludes the subsystem of passenger transport and

focuses on cargo transport, particularly on air cargo. Within the

transportation domain, several modes of transport can be

identified: road, rail, sea and air being important ones. In many

cases a combination of these modes is used to effectively

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relocate. In air transport for instance, surface transport is needed

to reach the airport of origin and after arrival at the destination

airport surface transport is needed again to reach the final

destination. Therefore, air cargo is much more than just the

‘air’ component; isolation from other transport modes does not

make sense as interdepencies with other modes of transport

exists. Air cargo transport has an intermodal nature by

definition.

Compared to other transport modalities, air cargo has some

overall advantages and disadvantages. The overall advantages of

air cargo are the velocity of air cargo transport on medium and

long distances, high standards of safety, high reliability in cargo

transport and dense international flight networks. Overall

disadvantages are the expensiveness of air cargo, its lack of

applicability on short distances and the difficulty to obtain

economies of scale by cost digression due to the restraint

capacities of cargo vehicles (Uniconsult, 2005).

Royal Jordanian (RJ) air cargo warehouse is the only company in

Amman, Jordan that delivers and receives cargo in and out through

its airport. RJ cargo warehouse was built serving all air flight

companies and a lot of distributors through their offices which

located either within the cargo warehouse or the office in the

Second Circle in heart of Amman. Royal Jordanian Cargo flies to

over 60 destinations and 40 countries committed to providing the

best possible of most comprehensive and most convenient logistics

services to their customers. Their investments in the right

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professional and administrative teams, as well as warehouse

technology allow them to best serve Jordan vision of logistics

services as their beacon to leading the way through best

performance, productivity, reliability and excellence.

As known, storage and movement of goods need controlling the

various warehouse operations. The benefits are significant if done

efficiently to provide the required level of customer service at the

lowest total cost.

In our work we mainly focus on the warehouse considering it as a

system. For the RJ air cargo, the warehouse is the main income

source that varies hugely with the degree of the utilization of its

operations/performance.

1.2 Problem statement

After interviewing the supervisors at the RJ cargo warehouse, their

main concern is the lack of man power. They need to check if the

number of operators is adequate to conduct different operations at

the cargo warehouse.

1.3 Objective

The fundamental objective of this study is to do system analysis

and performance assessment of the RJ Cargo Warehouse. This

objective is meant to be satisfied through a collection of mean

objectives which are:

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1. The analysis of the role of a warehouse system and the

identification of the requirements that it should meet.

2. Knowing the key performance measurements that are used for

quantifying the utilization or efficiency of a manpower.

3. To assess if the number of operators is enough to achieve the

desired work.

1.4 Methodology

To achieve the main objective, the following methodology is used,

which consists of two parts:

System analysis of the RJ cargo warehouse.

Tools that are used in this part include:

o Interviewing the supervisors at the warehouse.

o Flowcharts.

o Data collection from record files.

o Direct observation.

Performance assessment of operators at RJ cargo warehouse.

Tools that are used in this part include:

o Actual data collection.

o Data collection from record files.

o Interviews with the supervisors at the warehouse.

o Key performance indicators for labor assessment.

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o Graphs development using computer software.

1.5 Project report overview

The project report comprises the following chapters:

Chapter two: This chapter provides a brief literature review of

the following topics: air-cargo supply chain, air-cargo

warehouse operations, and performance assessment of air-cargo

warehouse operations.

Chapter three: This chapter provides a detail system analysis of

RJ air cargo warehouse and its main operations.

Chapter four: This chapter provides a detail assessment of labor

performance at the export area of the RJ cargo warehouse.

Chapter five: This chapter provides the main points of

discussion, conclusions and recommendations.

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2 Chapter two: Literature Review

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2.1 Air-Cargo supply chain

Moving large amounts of freight over great distances, as the air

cargo industry does on a daily basis, is a complex business that

involves many firms and requires ongoing coordination between

them, both with respect to the physical movement of goods and the

management and exchange of information. International air cargo,

by its very nature, involves companies that are located in different

time zones, languages, economic systems and cultures,

necessitating both in-depth local knowledge and the ability to

bridge these gaps on a global level. This complexity has resulting

in an industry with actors ranging from the very small and local to

the fully integrated and global in reach.

Traditionally, transporting a shipment from its origin at the origin

at the shipper’s factory or warehouse to its destination at the

consignee’s facility overseas involves at least five different air

cargo intermediaries as shown in figure 2.1. The exporting shipper

contracts with a freight forwarder, who manages most aspects of

the transportation process. Freight forwarder then book cargo space

on air carriers for their shipments, in some cases on as ad-hoc basis

(makeshift solutions) depending on current demand for freight

capacity, in other cases through longer-term contracts with specific

carriers for certain cargo allotments. Once at the departure airport,

ground handling service providers, usually appointed by the

airlines, physically handle the cargo right up to loading it into the

aircraft. Most freight is transported in the cargo hold of regularly

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scheduled passenger aircraft operated by the world’s large airlines,

but some airlines like Royal Jordanian operate a fleet of freighter

aircraft. At the destination airport, the reverse procedure takes

place, and after customs import formalities have been completed,

the importing freight forwarder is responsible for organizing the

transportation of the shipment to the consignees.

Figure 2.1:The traditional air cargo system

The air cargo system consists of a large, complex distribution

network linking manufacturers and shippers to freight forwarders

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to airport sorting and cargo handling facilities where shipments are

loaded and unloaded from aircraft (Elias, 2007).

The airport forms an essential part of the air cargo supply chain,

because it is the physical site at which a modal transfer of transport

is made from the air mode to land mode. It is the point of

interaction between the airline and the user (Ashford et al., 1983).

Airports are divided into landside (parking lot, access roads, etc.)

and airside (all areas accessible to aircraft, including runways,

taxiways and ramps) areas.

2.2 Warehouse System

Warehouse is an essential component in the supply chain as it

provides material buffering along the chain, consolidation of

goods, and value added processing for customers (GU Et Al.,

2007). Hence, the performance of warehouse operations

significantly affects the productivity of the whole supply chain.

Warehouse resources, such as space, labor, and forklifts, need to be

allocated among different warehouse functions, and each function

needs to be carefully implemented, operated, and coordinated in

order to achieve desirable operations performance requirements in

terms of capacity, throughput, and service at the minimum resource

cost [1]. In doing this, decision-making processes in warehouse

operations need to be taken into account.

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2.3 Warehouse operations

In classical research studies, logistics operations policies in

warehouse operations cover four key domains: storage, routing,

batching and zoning (Goetschalckx and Ashayeri, 1989).

(a) Storage: storage is an important warehouse function. Storage

assignment policy is about the rules and procedures for setting

and assigning Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) to storage locations.

There are five frequently used types of storage assignment

policies: random storage, closest open location storage,

dedicated storage, full turnover storage, and class based storage.

Each policy has its own special characteristics, advantages and

disadvantages. For example, a random storage assignment

policy enables high space utilization (or low space

requirement), but the travelling distance for order pick-up is

increased (Choe and Sharp, 1991). The selection of a storage

policy is based on the objectives (either to reduce material

handling cost or improve space utilization).

(b)Routing: the objective of a routing policy is to determine the

best sequence for picking up goods that have been ordered so as

to minimize the total material handling cost. The problem of

routing order pickers is actually a special case of the Traveling

Salesman Problem (TSP) (Lawer et al., 1995). The TSP in a

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warehouse is special because of the aisle structure of the

possible travel paths.

(c) Batching: The essence of batching policy is to partition a set of

orders into a number of sub-sets, where the sub-sets orders will

be picked, packed and shipped by pickers in a specific time

window.

(d)Zoning: The concept of zoning entails partitioning the order

picking area into a number of zones. Each zone has a policy

involves determination of zone number, sizes and shape as well

as the allocation of SKUs within a warehouse system.

Therefore, decision criteria include the specification of SKUs

(such as weight, size, similarity and properties), layout of the

warehouse and the order pick-up policy. The advantages of

zoning are that it minimizes the problem of traffic congestion

and helps order pickers to become familiar with the location of

the items. Two methods are proposed are, progressive and

parallel zoning.

2.4 Air cargo Warehouse Operations

Air cargo is the “space-shrinking technology” par excellence,

enabling rapid global trade on a large scale. Most cargo facilities

are divided into an import area and an export area. The flow of

goods through the terminal is either from the airside to the landside

(terminating freights or connecting freights requiring the road feed

27

service), from the landside to the airside (originating freights or

connecting freights arriving from a road feeder service), or from

the airside to the airside via the terminal (connecting freights).

2.4.1 Export area

The export area is dedicated to receiving, processing and preparing

outbound freights, which refers to all shipment moving from an

outside customer, and going onto a flight. All freight arrives at the

cargo facility from the “landside export” area, either as bulk or as

shipper loaded unit device. The freight gets weighed and

dimensioned by the acceptance agent and stored at the appropriate

location depending on its flying time and destination. If items are

bulk, they ultimately go to the build-up area to be put in a Unit

Load Device (ULD) or are transported in a tub cart directly to the

airplane if this airplane is bulk loaded. ULDs are transported onto

roller system through the cargo facility and onto trailers to the

airside. All export shipments leave the warehouse via the “airside

export” doors.

2.4.2 Import area

The import area is dedicated to receiving, processing and releasing

inbound freights which refer to all shipments coming from a flight,

going to an outside customer. ULDs are transported the same way

between the airside and cargo facility (trailers). Bulk is unloaded

from the aircraft directly into tub carts. Everything brought back to

28

the cargo warehouse via the “airside import” area, is broken-down

when needed and stored until customer pick-up.

The movement of transiting goods (from one flight to another

flight) also goes through the warehouse. It is considered “import”

as it enters via the import airside, and becomes “export” as is it

processed in the cargo facility and moves to the export side before

exiting the warehouse through the “airside export” doors to reach

its next flight. The Export and Import clearance procedures are

summarized as shown in Table (3.1).

2.4.3 Unit load device (ULD)

Unit Load Devices (ULDs) play a vital part in ensuring that, as air-

cargo volumes increase, they are moved safely, quickly and cost-

effectively (IATA, 2002). ULD is the correct terminology used by

the air transport industry for containers and loading units that are

used for the carriage of cargo by air. It allows large quantities of

cargo to be bundled into large units. Pallets and nettings as well as

rigid containers are commonly used for freight transport by air.

Each ULD is required to have a marking that identify its type code,

maximum gross weight and actual tare weight (IATA, 2002).

Currently, technical specifications for unit load devices are set by

the International Air Transport Association (IATA).Figure 2.2

shows two types of ULDs.

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Figure 2.2: ULD types and their respective tag positions

2.5 Performance measurement

Performance refers to the way in which work is done. There can be

a good performance or a poor one. But what is performance

measurement? Neely et al. (1995:86-146) defined it as the process

quantifying the efficiency (“doing the thing right“) and

effectiveness (“doing the right thing“) of an action or activity.

The purpose of performance measurement is to find out whether

things are going the right way, if not, to find what the cause that

generated a poor performance was. After this step, solutions for

improving performance have to be found. There are several reasons

for measuring performance (Ackerman, 2003:1):

1. Improving performance;

2. Avoiding inconveniences before it is too late;

3. Monitoring customer relations;

4. Process and cost control;

5. Maintaining quality.

The main instruments for assessing performance are performance

indicators, also named Key Performance Indicator (KPI). They are

30

specific characteristics of the process which are measured in order

to describe if the process is realized according to pre-established

standards. The best way to use indicators is to compare process

values with normal, standard values. If there are poor results, poor

performance, in reality, improvements for the process have to be

made. Indicators are used basically for comparison with expected

values; they are the control system of the studied process.

The purpose of warehouse performance measurements is,

discovering the problems of the warehouse and solves them before

it is too late. It is a way to reduce costs by improving operations

that take place in a warehouse, and having low costs in an essential

feature of differentiating logistics firms.

2.6 Warehouse Key Performance Indicators

The performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a

measure of performance of the business in order to benchmark

(“comparing one’s business processes and performance metrics to

industry best practices from other industries.”) against the

competition and explore the possibility to improve in order to gain

competitive advantage (Vijay Sangam, 2010:8). Warehousing

function is a very critical within any supply chain. If the products

do not move seamlessly within supply chain business would face

serious service related challenges. Hence, it is necessary to drive

the performance of the warehouse through key performance

indicators.

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2.7 Determine KPI

People, cost, space and systems drive the performance inside the

warehouse. Hence, generally warehouse KPIs are based on many

drivers and focused on activity in order micromanage the

performance. The following activities are common in any

warehouse:

1. Receiving;

2. Put-away;

3. Storage;

4. Pick-n-pack;

5. Shipping.

2.7.1 Receiving

Receiving process could include goods physically received at the

warehouse and inspection or cross-docked, to assure that quantity

and quality areas ordered, and to distribute the materials to storage

or to the organizational function requiring them.

The relevant KPIs for receiving function should include the

following:

4 Productivity - Volume received per man-hour;

5 Cycle time - Time taken to process a receipt

6 Utilization - Receiving dock door utilization %.

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2.7.2 Put-away

Once receiving activity is completed, the accepted merchandize has

to be stored in a location that is convenient to retrieve for further

action (just reverse of order pick function).

The KPIs for put-away activity should include the following:

1. Productivity- Put-away per man- hour;

2. Utilization- utilization % of labor and equipment;

3. Cycle time- Time taken for each put-away.

2.7.3 Storage

It is the physical containment of merchandise while it is awaiting a

demand. Broadly there are two types of storage systems and they

are manual storage and the second one is automated and retrieval

system (AS/RS).

The KPIs for storage activity would include:

1. Productivity- Inventory per sq.foot;

2. Utilization- %Location and cube occupied;

3. Cycle time- Inventory days on hand.

2.7.4 Pick-n-Pack

It is the process of removing items from storage while it is awaiting

a demand. This activity is divided into two parts. First one deal

with case picking and the second one deal with small item picking.

Further case picking can be classified into three categories. The

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first one is known as Pick-face palletizing where warehouse

operator palletizes at the pick-face as he/she traverses the picking

tour. The second one is downstream palletizing where case are

picked onto conveyors and sorted at the staging area. The third one

is direct loading where the cases were conveyed directly into the

truck.

Further, the small item picking can be classified into three

categories. The first one is known as picker-to-stock, where the

picker moves around to pick the cases. The second one is stock-to-

picker. In this case stock was sent to the stationed picker through

AS/RS machine. The third one is known as automated item

picking. In this process items are automatically dispensed into

shipping cartons or tote pans.

The KPIs for Pick-n-Pack activity would include:

1. Productivity- Order lines picked per hour;

2. Utilization- Picking labor and equipment utilization %;

3. Cycle time- Order Pick cycle time per order.

2.7.5 Shipping

Shipping is the last step in warehouse activity in handling shipping

goods to the customer or handling stock transfers.

The KPIs for shipping activity could include:

1. Productivity- Order process for shipping per man hour;

2. Utilization- Utilization of shipping docks in %;

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3. Cycle time- shipping time (from the time order picking to

physically movement of the truck) per order.

2.8 Labor productivity

Productivity is commonly defined as a ratio of a volume measure

of output to a volume of input use. Labor productivity describes the

amount of output that is generated per worker each hour. The more

output produced per hour of work, the greater the level of

productivity. Productivity increases are generally accepted as a

sign that the economy is expanding. Technological advances and

increased worker efficiency are the two primary sources of

productivity improvements.

Calculating labor productivity is as follows:

1. Determine the total worker output within a given period of time.

The total output can be expressed in terms of monetary value, or

it can be expressed in terms of units produced.

2. Determine the total number of man hours that were dedicated to

production within the same period of time. The total number of

man hours should include not only the hours dedicated to the

manufacturing process but the management and oversight

process as well.

3. Divide the total output by the total number of man hours. The

result of the division will be an expression of labor productivity.

35

3 Chapter Three: System Analysis of Royal Jordanian air cargo warehouse

36

3.1 Royal Jordanian Warehouse

The warehouse building is built in 1983, and covers an area of

17,000m² of floor space, of which 4,500 m² is office space. The

building is 215m long and 79m wide. There is sufficient space to

expand the facilities by about 40%. The cargo facility is operated

by a subsidiary of Royal Jordanian Airlines. Figure 3.1 presents the

layout of Royal Jordanian cargo facility, including most activity

areas (export, import, storage, build-up, break down, airside and

landside). Interference reading points are circled on the layout and

correspond to the following areas:

1. Export area;

2. Import area;

3. Office area.

3.2 Overview of the Royal Jordanian’s cargo terminal

operations

The terminal is divided into an import area and an export area. The

import area is dedicated to receiving, processing and releasing

inbound freights. The export area is dedicated to receiving,

processing and preparing outbound freights. The flow of goods

through the terminal is either from the airside to the landside

(terminating freights or connecting freights requiring the road feed

service) or from the landside to the airside (originating freights or

connecting freights arriving from a road feeder service), or from

the airside to the airside via the terminal (connecting freights).

37

1

2

3

Figure 3.3: RJ cargo warehouse layout

38

At the import level, freights on dollies or carts are transferred with

a tractor–trailer from the aircraft to the airside level of the cargo

terminal. Shipments on carts are transferred to the import bulk cart

break-down station where they are sorted, scanned, placed into a

roll box, conveyed and stored either in an AS/RS or in other

dedicated storage areas upon their retrieval (terminating goods) or

their preparation for transfer to build-up areas (connecting goods).

Shipments on containers or pallets (referred to as ULDs) are

introduced into the terminal throughout a manned operated and

computer-assisted airside transfer vehicle (ATV). From this point,

the ULDs may be transferred either to:

1. The road feeder service (RFS) dock area,

2. To the import ULDs storage area,

3. To the import ULDs breakdown area or to the export ULDs

storage.

A fully automated ULD handling system is used for this purpose. It

is equipped with such components as powered ULD conveyors for

moving ULDs to different transfer points, turntables for ensuring

that ULDs can be rotated or reoriented when changes in direction

are required, unmanned operated elevating transfer vehicles (ETV)

for ensuring ULDs storage, retrieval or transfer on multiple levels,

lowerable workstations for enabling safe build-up and break-down

processing, scissor lifts for ensuring transfer interface between

conveyors and road trucks with various heights at the RFS area,

forklifts for transporting goods between various transfer points,

transfer vehicles (TV) for enabling the interface in both ways

between either non-rollarized vehicles and the first conveyor

39

system set at the RFS area, between this last and the second

conveyor system set at the RFS area, or between the import area

and the export area.

After being stored in the import ULDs storage area, a ULD is

retrieved and transferred without breakdown processing either to a

customer, if terminating shipments (via the RFS dock or truck dock

pick area), or to the airside if connecting (via an ETV and an

ATV). A ULD may also be transferred to the ULD break-down

area where its contents are sorted by airway bill, scanned, placed

into a roll box, conveyed and stored into the AS/RS or other

storage areas upon their retrieval for releasing to a customer

(terminating goods), or transfer for preparation to the carts or

ULDs build-up areas (connecting goods). Receiving cargo from

other air-cargo warehouse company to the RJ warehouse and

unloading it to the breaking-area, the procedure of recognize the

goods is done manually by supervisor in getting goods type,

amount, size and writing it to papers. That procedure cannot do

automated as using Radio Frequency (RF) apparatus to avoid

receiving goods without receiving its information from outer air-

stations to the computer system of RJ which result that RF cannot

define the cargo. Figure 3.2 presents an overview of the movement

of goods at the import level with a tractor-trailer. Interference

reading points are circled on the layout and correspond to the

following areas in Figure 3.3:

1. Import Goods Entrances.2. Dangerous Goods Storage Room.3. ETV System.

40

4. Break-down Area.5. Transit Office.6. Refrigerators.7. Safe.8. Maintenance Area.9. Customs Inspection Area.10.Racking System.11. Customs Offices.12.Export Office.13.Import Goods Exit.14.Import Office.

Similarly, shipments on carts are transferred, according to a pre-

established schedule, to the aircraft cargo loading area. Figure 3.4

presents an overview of the movement of goods at the export level.

Interference reading points are circled on the layout and correspond

to the following areas in Figure 3.5:

1. Truck Park2. Unloading & Weighing.3. X-ray Inspection.4. Customs Inspection Area.5. Racks.6. Preparation Area.7. Build up Area.8. ETV System9. Cargo Control Office10.Mail Office.11.Cold Storages.12. Goods Exit to Airplanes.

41

Figure 3.4 Flow diagram: The path taken by a good as it flows through import in warehouse

42

Air

side

(im

port

)

Lan

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Dan

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oods

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

3

4

Figure 3.5: RJ import area specify operational area

43

Figure 3.6 Flow diagram: The path taken by a good as it flows through export in warehouse

44

Air

side

(exp

ort)

Lan

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)

Rec

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-Ray

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Figure 3.7: RJ export area specify operational area

45

At the export level, shipments are received either loose or in

ULD’s. Shipments in ULD’s may then be transferred from the RFS

area or the export truck acceptance area to the airside area either

directly or through the export storage area. A ULD handling

system is used for this purpose and is equipped with the same

components as described previously.

At the export level, shipments are received either loose or in

ULD’s. Shipments in ULD’s may then be transferred from the RFS

area or the export truck acceptance area to the airside area either

directly or through the export storage area. A ULD handling

system is used for this purpose and is equipped with the same

components as described previously.

Shipments tendered loose are sent to the cart or to the ULD build-

up area either directly or after being stored and retrieved from the

AS/RS or from any other storage areas. In the first case, a small

package conveyor system is used and in the second case the same

system previously described is used. After completing the ULDs or

the cart break-down processing the shipments on ULDs are sent to

the airside area, either directly or after being stored and retrieved

from the export ULD storage. The ETVs are generally used for this

purpose. At the airside level, ULDs are placed on dollies

throughout an ATV and delivered to the aircraft staging area.

Table 3.1 summarizes the export and import clearance procedure at RJ cargo, this table style was taken from reference [12], and changed to suit the RJ warehouse system.

46

Table 3.1: Export & Import Clearance Procedure at Royal Jordanian air cargo warehouse

Steps. Description.

Export.

At the entrance there is ‘Truck Docks’ where the trucks are filled with cargo to be exported are brought by the Clearing Agents.The area where they are stored till approved is called the ‘Examination area’. The cargo needs to be approved by the Customs agents before it passes through. The freight to be paid by the exporting party is decided on the basis of the weight of the containers and the materials in it.Most of the airlines (through which the cargo is to be sent) have their offices located on the first floor of the warehouse. They should be informed and booked in advance for the sending of the cargo.

Clearance Procedure of Export.

After the cargo is received at the entrance of the warehouse, it is sent to the Custom’s for approval. They have to examine a minimum 10% of the cargo and can even call back the cargo form the bonded area to the examination area, in case they are suspicious.

It should adhere to the necessary packaging and labeling compliances. Packaging standards are different in case of dangerous goods such as explosives, chemicals, oxidizers, corrosives, etc.

It is necessary since certain items can be carried only in cargo aircraft and not otherwise.However, there are no separate charges that are levied for carrying such goods; just an indication of their nature.

These are decided on the basis of the IATA norms and mentioned on the entrance. Only after it is approved, it is send forward. From here, first it is passed through the X-Ray testing machines to check for any hazardous goods or materials present in it.

47

Table 3.1 (Continued);

Steps. Description.

Let Export Order.

After the Custom officers clear it, they give it the ‘Let Export’ order and hence the cargo is moved from the Examination area to the ‘Bonded area’.There also exists an ‘Export Storage Room’ which is used to store the valuable items such as currency, jewelers, etc.The export ship duty officer is responsible for the overall supervision of the shipment and export loading.

Loading Procedure.

The loading base for the cargo is of the standard size 125 X 85 inches. It can take up to 4.5 tons of cargo on an average. The maximum height of the cargo can be of 5 feet. The cargo is covered with a polythene sheet and the process of doing this is called ‘Lashing’. No loose movement of cargo is allowed. After the unit load Device (ULD) is loaded and passes on, it is stacked mechanically on to the racks and hence given a unique location number.

The location ticket is collected by the Elevated Transfer Vehicle (ETV) operator.

The ULD number as well as the destination needs to be noted down by the respective airlines.

Moreover, the airlines pay for all the loading, stacking, etc. and are also liable to may demurrage charges in case the process takes more than 48hrs.

Also, in case the cargo is lying in the warehouse for more than six weeks and there is no one to claim it, it is automatically transferred to the Special Disposal Cell.

48


Steps. Description.

Off-Loading through Common Terminal.

All the cargo is off loaded through a common terminal.The most important fact to be noticed here is that if the cargo is not claimed by any airline within 48 hours, it is charged extra on per hour basis and the cost has to be borne by the Clearing Agent.The air cargo terminal exports up to 400-450 tones on a daily average and imports close to 350 tones. The usual Export items are readymade garments, carpets, leather, generic medicines, etc.

ULD

All the pallets and containers are known as ULDs. Each one of them is given a unique serial number, where the first two/three letters identify the series of the ULD; the center series is their serial number and the last few alphabets is the airline code. For e.g.: AKE62313DHL signifies that AKE is the series of the cargo, 62313 is its unique serial number and the last three signify DHL logistics

Freighter.Freighters: RJ is the common freighter and uses an Airbus 310 with a capacity of 45-50 tons. Whereas, a Boeing can take up to 100 tons in one go.

Cold Storage Facility.

Cold Storage Facility: There is also a cold storage facility at the exit of the warehouse for perishable goods.

The cargo within the aircraft is also maintained at a suitable temperature.

There were five cold storage cells here: Two of them were at 2degree Celsius and the other on -6degrees Celsius.


49

Steps. Description.

Out of Charge.

Each of the shipment arriving at the import warehouse is given a Cargo manifest and an Airway Bill (AWB). After giving them these documents the shipment is inspected by the custom’s officers here however, no X -ray check is done for the import cargo as against the export cargo. After the customs’ approve the cargo, they issue an ‘Out of Charge’ slip for the same.

Segregation.

After checking the cargo, a Segregation sheet is prepared where we get a list of perishable/nonperishable, damaged/not damaged cargo. It is then cross checked with the manifest. Special office known as the ‘Ship Duty officer’ is responsible for feed all the data about the cargo according the manifest system.

Unloading.

The airlines, on the other hand, would simultaneously issue the delivery order to the consignee and inform him/her that the cargo has arrived. The freight charges can either be prepaid or paid later.

The unloading of the cargo has been outsourced to customer Cargo.

Export Storage Room

Similar to the Export Strong Room, there exists an Import storage Room where all valuable cargo is kept. Moreover, similar cold storage facilities exist here as well. At the exit, a location slip is issued and the good is tracked for the convenience of the consignee.Most of the cargo that arrives is from Europe, Gulf region, Hong Kong and Singapore. The major items for import are telecom equipments, machinery parts, chemicals, and electronic items.

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3.3 Types of goods stored in RJ warehouse

The shipper is responsible for identifying and classifying all goods

intended for being transported by air, that’s why those goods must

properly classified, documented, certificated, described, packaged,

marked, labeled and in the condition for shipment required by

International Air Transport Association (IATA) Regulations. The

following Table (3.2) shows different types of goods usually stored

inside the warehouse and their special load codes.

Table 3.2: Special load codesGoods type Code

Aircraft spare parts required for aircraft

on ground

AOG

Live animals AVI

Foodstuffs for human or animal

consumption

EAT

Human remains in coffins HUM

Live human organ or fresh human blood LHO

Magnetized material MAG

Valuable cargo VAL

Miscellaneous dangerous goods RMD

Radioactive materials category RRW

Cryogenic Liquid RCL

Flammable Compressed Gas RFG

Non-Flammable Compressed Gas RNG

Oxidizer ROX

Corrosive RCM

Table 3. (Continued);

Goods type Code

51

Flammable Liquid RFL

Organic Peroxide ROP

Toxic RPB

Flammable Solid RFS

Infectious Substance RIS

Toxic Gas RPG

Oxidizer ROX

Dangerous When Wet RFW

Explosive 1.4S RXS

Spontaneously Combustible RSC

Company mail COM

Diplomatic mail DIP

Perishable cargo

a. flowers and plants)b. (meat and meat products)c. (fruits and vegetables)d. (fish and seafood)e. Other Perishable cargo

PEF/M/P/S/R

52

3.4 Cargo Terminal capacity Analysis

Warehouse capacity is defined as maximum number of goods that

can be produced during a certain period. The existing cargo

terminal is located some distance from the passenger terminals,

between the two taxiways connecting the parallel runways and an

aircraft maintenance facility. It is accessible by a separate road that

ties into the general airport access road at the first roundabout and

leads around the southern runway. Landside delivery and pickup

takes place through four truck ramps Figure 3.6 equally, four doors

connect it with the airside.

Material handling is defined as: “Providing the right amount of the

right material, in the right condition, at the right place, at the right

time, in the right position, in the right sequence, and for the right

cost, by using the right methods”. (Tompkins et al 2003)

The building infrastructure for cargo handling consists of:

• A manually operated Elevating Transfer Vehicle (ETV) which

runs along the airside wall of the building and services two pallet

staging racks with a capacity of 730 Pallet storage positions (see

Figure 3.7;

• Racks for in-bound and customs cleared storage Figure 3.8;

• Six build-up and breakdown workstations Figure 3.9;

•A bypass facility;

• Cold rooms and freezer rooms (448m²) Figure 3.10;

• Explosives storage (110m², outside the building) and:

• Radioactive goods storage (80m²).

53

Furthermore, the cargo building accommodates a total of 4,500m²

of office spaces which are included in the total floor space of

17,000m². Of these 4,500m², there are 1,500m² reserved for the

administration and facilitation of the cargo operation; the

remaining 3,000m² are occupied by cargo brokers and clearance

agents.

Figure 3.8: Land access Truck Transfer doors

Figure 3.9: Elevating vehicle and ULD storage racks

54

Figure 3.10: Storage Racks

Figure 3.11: Workstation

Figure 3.12: Cold room and freezer Room

55

The entire cargo facility is operated by RJ’s Cargo Division. Goods

exported consist mostly of textiles destined for Europe and Middle

East, agricultural products (to Europe) and pharmaceuticals (to

Middle East). Imports are dominated by industrial products.

Ground handling is also provided through RJ exclusively.

3.5 Cargo terminal handling system

Materials handling improves efficiency by making the logistics

system respond quickly and effectively to plant and customer

requirements. Material handling plays a key role in getting goods

to customer on time and in the proper quantities. General

objectives of material handling:

Increase effective capacity of warehouse.

Minimize aisle space.

Reduce number of times product is handling.

Develop effective working conditions.

Reduce movements involving manual labor.

Improve logistics service.

Reduce cost.

Queen Alia International Airport/Amman hosts state-of-the-art air

freight terminal where cargo is quickly and efficiently handled and

sped on its way, usually with same-day arrival to final destinations,

no matter where the point of origin.

56

The material handling system includes:

1.Capability for 360 aircraft pallet positions.

2.Two ETVs and 16 electric forklifts operating 24 hours, in

addition to five ultra-modern forklifts capable of operating in

narrow aisle racking systems.

3.Four pallet transporters.

4.A racking system with 7400 Pallet positions covering the Cargo

Export and Import areas.

5. Two converted Airbus 310-300 freighters and one leased

Boeing 737-200F form the basis of its cargo-only division,

which operates a number of scheduled flights.

3.6 Warehouse human resources and operating times

The terminal is currently run on three shifts with a total manpower

of some 160-170 operators.

Shifts are staffed as follows:

Shift A - 7 hours - (08:00 – 15:00): 29% of total time

Shift B - 8 hours - (15:00 – 23:00): 33% of total time

Shift C - 9 hours - (23:00 – 08:00): 38% of total time

Customs, on the other hand, has thus far been working one shift on

five days per week only. This has constituted a severe capacity

bottleneck. As a consequence, terminal operation has been

suffering under a severe backlog on the import side. For example,

57

cargo arriving on Cargolux flights at 3:00hrs is not processed until

the start of the customs shift in the morning. However, the morning

hours are also the time during which RJ’s all-cargo and long-

distance passenger flights arrive.

3.7 Profound RJ export area analysis

This section details the operations in export area, for the whole

process of goods and information’s. And describes the sources of

goods dealt with. This section is enhanced to provide deeper

information’s about the export area to make it easier to understand

the work done by each operator and be more familiar with it.

3.7.1 Sources of goods

There are two sources of goods that come to this area, as follow:

1. Transit shipments.

2. New shipments.

3.7.1.1 Transit shipments

Sometimes there are no direct flights from one country to another,

and has Jordan as a common spot, they send their shipments via

Jordan to their desired destinations. Or sometimes it happens that

some carriers (whether it is RJ or other carriers) give a better rate

for shipping some goods.

58

These shipments do not go through the whole process. They do not

have to go through the gate to unload, document, or inspect.

When the shipment arrives to the warehouse from the import area,

and the Air Waybill does not say that the final destination is

Amman-Jordan, this shipment is sent to the export area, via the

break-down operators from the import area by a forklift. The

operator allocates it in a proper place (fridge if it needs safe,

racks… etc.). Or it can stay on the ETV storage if it is ready to go

(especially if it is a big shipment), so there is no other work to be

done on it. Then the supervisor or the forklift operator from the

import area gives the shipment Air Waybill (from Appendix A

Figure A-5) to the cargo control. So it will be prepared with other

shipments with that flight.

These sources of goods will need the “preparation of the flight

operator/s” and “Yard collect operator” only.

3.7.1.2 New shipments

Three types of this source:

1. Maintenance (Spare parts for RJ airplanes);

2. Direct costumer on spot Agent on RJ flights;

3. Other carriers.

These types go through the whole process and starts new papers.

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3.8 Operations at the export area

Various operations done in this area, starting when the shipment

arrives until it is shipped out. The operations are divided into 5

main types:

1. Acceptance.

2. Put-away and inspection.

3. Storage.

4. Pick and pack.

5. Shipping.

3.8.1 Acceptance:

This operation actually has two activities in RJ cargo warehouse; the first one is reception and accounting activity in export office, and the second one is weighing and unloading activity. These are connected together because the shipment will not be unloaded unless there is an approval from the export office by taking the “Shipment Discharge Form” (from Appendix A Figure A-4).

After the costumer gets “Shipment Discharge Form” from export

office and fills it with the number of bills, the weight and number

of pieces he has, the unloading operator starts unloading the truck

and weighs the shipment. Then the warehouse security and

unloading operator must sign on it approving that the numbers

written match the actual.

Then the costumer takes it to the export office and fills

“Instructions For Dispatch Of Goods Form” (from Appendix A

Figure A-3) manually (which contains of three pages, the white one

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for export office, the yellow one for customs and the blue one for

transit office). Meanwhile, the unloading operator starts putting the

shipment on the X-Ray machines.

3.8.2 Put-Away and Inspection:

Put away operators starts putting the shipments on pallets and wait

until the specialized Jordanian army officers finish inspecting these

goods if it is acceptable to get on board according to IATA and

Jordanian Civil Aviation standards. Then after they sign the

“Instructions For Dispatch Of Goods Form” that it is approved to

go, put away operators move the shipment to examination zone.

Customs officers start examining the goods at least 10% of it. If it

is approved, they sign and take the yellow page of the form.

Inspection is not considered as a main operation because it is not

done by any of RJ operators, Inspection is done by specialized

Jordanian army officers, and Jordanian Customs officers.

3.8.3 Storage

The costumer takes the “Instructions for Dispatch of Goods Form”

and gives it to the export office. Who in turn give him the printed

Air Waybill (which contains four pages, one for Export office, one

for costumer, the other two goes with the shipment for the carrier

airlines and the consignee),The costumer use this paper to the

61

transit supervisor who in turn sends it to cargo control office with

other bills for the same flight.

The yard forklift operator weighs the shipment with and without

the pallet. And then he allocates the shipment and writes the

position on “Instructions For Dispatch Of Goods” (the Blue one)

Then he hand it to the transit supervisor.

He also fills the number of Air Waybills, number of pieces and the

weights with and without the pallets on “Export Goods

Weightings’ Form” (from Appendix A Figure A-1).

3.8.4 Pick and Pack

In this operation, they start to prepare for flights before 8 hours of

their departure.

The Yard Collect operator is mutual between RJ flights and

other carrier’s flights. He retrieves the goods from their places

and put them near the operator who prepares the flight.

The RJ flights supervisor prints out the “Flight Booking List”

(from Appendix A Figure A-2) at the beginning of his shift, and

tells the Yard collect operator of the position of the goods he

wants. The Preparation operators start preparing the flight

according to the sequence of the flight time.

62

The other carrier’s flights supervisor. Also does the same work

as the RJ supervisor. But with their own operator/s.

After picking all the shipments for the flight, the supervisor packs

it by covering the pallet with a net, or closes the ULD. The

supervisor then gives the clearance for the operator/s to put it on

the ETV storage racks by the automated transfer vehicle (ATV),

and then he acknowledges the cargo control that the shipment is

good to go.

3.8.5 Shipping

Before two to three hours of the flight departure, the cargo control

sends these papers to the ETV operator to prepare the shipment

near the gate so the terminal ground handling operators will load it

into the aircraft

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4 Chapter Four: Performance Assessment

64

4.1 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

To measure the performance of labor in this system we used two

KPIs and they are utilization and productivity. Utilization is the

actual time that the operator actually works over the available time;

meanwhile productivity is the output (whether it is the number of

bills, total weights or the total pieces) over the actual time.

Choosing the output to calculate productivity for each operation is

determined based on the operators managers knowledge and our

observations.

According to the interview with the Quality Control Manager “Mr.

Mohannad Awwad” they desire to have 70% to 80% for their

operators’ Utilization. If the utilization is less than 65% this will

indicates that the distribution of their operators should be

reconsidered. Otherwise, if the utilization exceeds 85%, this will be

not preferable because that will cause operator fatigue, which also

indicates that they have shortage in that operation that might create

a bottle-nick in the process flow.

As the export manager Yosef Al-Masri informed us that the

acceptable productivity for “Reception & Accounting” operator/s is

around six to seven bills per hour. And the acceptable productivity

for the other six operators is 200 pieces per hour.

Labor performance assessment will be done for the following four

identified operations of the export area which are: reception and

65

accounting, unloading and weighing, put-away, pick and pack, and

storage.

4.2 Operators at export area

Operators at export area are classified according to the operations

done as shown in the following Table 4.1.

Table 4.3: Operators’ classification according to operation’s type

Operation Operators classifications

Acceptance

1. Reception and accounting

operator/s.

2. Unloading and weighing

operator/s

Put-away Put-away operator/s

Storage Storage (Yard) operator.

Pick and pack

1. Collect (yard) operator.

2. RJ flights preparations

operator/s

3. Other carriers flights

preparation operator/s

Shipping ETV systems operator/s.

4.3 Types of collected data

1. Number of operators per operation;

2. Available time;

3. Actual time;

4. Number of bills;

66

5. Total pieces;

6. Total weight.

4.4 Period of data collected

The period of the collected data is two weeks, starting from the 17 th

of December 2011 until the 30th of December 2011.

4.5 Considerations and limitations

Data for the number of bills, total pieces and total weights are

collected from the “Weighing export reports” which has been

filled by operators during the data collecting period. This data

will be used in the assessment of the seven type of operators

mentioned I Table 4.1.

Friday’s data for these four operations are not collected,

because they are not documented in the “Weighing export

reports”.

RJ preparation data are collected separately. Other carriers’

preparation data are also collected separately.

“Collect (Yard)” operator data is summed from the RJ and other

carriers’ preparations flights operators.

The data for the “ETV system” operator are not collected since

this operator is used by both import and export operations,

67

which make this data not useful for labor performance

assessment for export operations.

Data were collected only for shift A (8:00 – 15:00).

The available time and actual time for each operator was

collected from the “Study of Actual Time for Operators Form”

shown in Appendix A (Figure A-7). These forms were filled by

each operator for different operations for two weeks.

4.6 Performance assessment for the “Reception and Accounting” operator

Available time is the amount of time that the operator is available

whether he is working or not, he is being paid for these hours.

Available time is 7 hours for this shift multiplied by the number of

operators working in that shift for that operation. Ex: if there are 2

operators working on Sunday, the available time is 14 hours.

Actual time is the time that the operator/s is actually working and it

is calculated from the forms they filled. This is the time they were

actually working.

To measure the utilization we divided the actual time over the

available time for operator/s.

Utilization= actual timeavailable time

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The Reception and Accounting department operators are mainly

doing paper works, so their productivity is not concerned with the

weight or the number of pieces that each bill contains. The main

factor that’s affecting the reception operators is how many bills

they cover through their shift. This is why we used the output of

their productivity as the total number of bills over the actual time

operating.

Productivity= totalbillsactual time

Table 4.2 shows number of operators, the time available, time

actual, number of bills, total weight, total number of pieces they

covered, utilization and productivity for “Reception and

Accounting” operator/s between the 17th of Dec 2011 until the 23rd

of Dec 2011.

Figure 4.1 shows the utilization for “Reception and Accounting”

operator/s between the 17th of Dec 2011 until the 23rd of Dec 2011.

Figure 4.2 shows the productivity for “Reception and Accounting”


Table 4.4: Data collected and performance assessment for reception and accounting operator/s for week one.

Saturday 17-Dec

Sunday 18-Dec

Monday 19-Dec

Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

Friday 23-Dec

Number of operators 1 2 2 2 2 2 1Time Available (Hrs) 7 14 14 14 14 14 7

69

Time Actual (Hrs) 5.92 8.32 9.84 9.66 10.82 8.2 -No. of Bills 40 38 55 55 63 39 -Total Weight (Kgs) 1634

820056

20196

12031

14995 22191

-

Total Pcs. 929 937 1959 563 314 1174 -Utilization (%) 84.57 59.4

370.2

969.0

077.29 58.57 -

Productivity (Bills/Hr)

6.76 4.57 5.59 5.69 5.82 4.76 -

Saturday 17-Dec

Sunday 18-Dec Monday 19-Dec

Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.13: Reception and accounting operators utilization for week one

Saturday 17-Dec


Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00


Figure 4.14: Reception and accounting operators productivity for week one



70



of Dec 2011.

Figure 4.3 shows the utilization for “Reception and Accounting”


Figure 4.4 shows the productivity for “Reception and Accounting”


Table 4.5: Data collected and performance assessment for reception and accounting operator/s in week two

Saturday24-Dec

Sunday25-Dec

Monday26-Dec

Tuesday27-Dec

Wednesday28-Dec

Thursday29-Dec

Friday30-Dec

Number of operators 1 2 2 2 2 2 1Time Available (Hrs) 7 14 14 14 14 14 7Time Actual (Hrs) 6.1 9.32 7.2 9.5 11.84 11 -No. of Bills 40 46 31 51 84 63 -Total Weight (Kgs) 2865

223461

12229

27591

30035 34330

-

Total Pcs. 4445 625 1176 2176 1113 2594 -Utilization (%) 87.1

466.5

751.4

367.8

684.57 78.57 -


6.56 4.94 4.31 5.37 7.09 5.73 -

71

Saturday 24-Dec


Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.15: Reception and accounting operators utilization for week two

Saturday 24-Dec


Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00


Figure 4.16: Reception and accounting operators productivity for week two

Comparison between week one and week two for the utilization

and productivity of Reception and accounting operator/s are shown

in Figure 4.5 and Figure 4.6 respectively.

72

Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Week 1

Week 2

Utilization for Reception & Accounting(%)

Figure 4.17: Utilization comparison for two weeks for the Reception and Accounting operator/s

Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

Week 1

Week 2

Productivity for Reception & Accounting (Bills/Hr)

Figure 4.18: Productivity comparison for two weeks for the Reception and Accounting operators

This operator/s utilization is within the limit, except for one day

which was the 24th of Dec operator which was a day before

Christmas holiday. Usually for Saturday’s there is only one worker

for this task at “shift A” which increases the utilization. Monday

73

the 26th of December had lower utilization because Sunday was the

Christmas holiday and most businesses were on a break.

Wednesdays and Tuesdays operator/s utilization are acceptable.

These operator/s productivity is almost alike for the two weeks

with little differences.

4.7 Performance assessment for the “Unloading and Weighting” operator


available time for each operator/s.


These operators manually unload and weigh the shipment so their

best indicator would be the number of pieces. Their productivity is

measured by dividing the total number of pieces over their actual

time.

Productivity= total piecesactual time



74

covered, utilization and productivity for “Unloading & Weighing”


Figure 4.7 shows the utilization for “Unloading & Weighing”


Figure 4.8 shows the productivity for “Unloading & Weighing”


Table 4.6: Data collected and performance assessment for unloading and weighting operator in week one

Saturday17-Dec

Sunday18-Dec

Monday19-Dec

Tuesday20-Dec

Wednesday21-Dec

Thursday22-Dec

Friday23-Dec

Number of operators 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Time Available (Hrs) 7 7 7 7 7 7 7Time Actual (Hrs) 4.83 4.83 5.67 4.41 3.92 4.58 -No. of Bills 40 38 55 55 63 39 -Total Weight (Kgs) 16348 2005

62019

61203

114995 2219

1-

Total Pcs. 929 937 1959 563 314 1174 -Utilization (%) 69.00 69.0

081.00 63.00 56.00 65.43 -

Productivity (Pcs./Hr)

192.34 194.0

345.5 127.66

80.10 256.33

-

75

Saturday 17-Dec


Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.19: Unloading and weighting operator’s utilization for week one

Saturday 17-Dec


Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00

400.00

Productivity (Pcs. /Hr)

Figure 4.20: Unloading and weighting operator’s productivity for week one



covered, utilization and productivity for “Unloading & Weighing”


Figure 4.9 shows the utilization for “Unloading & Weighing”


76

Figure 4.10 shows the productivity for “Unloading & Weighing”


Table 4.7: Data collected and performance assessment for unloading and weighting operator week two

Saturday24-Dec

Sunday25-Dec

Monday26-Dec

Tuesday27-Dec

Wednesday28-Dec

Thursday29 Dec

Friday30-Dec

Number of operators 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Time Available (Hrs) 7 7 7 7 7 7 7Time Actual (Hrs) 6.1 4.92 5.1 5.67 6.17 5.83 -No. of Bills 40 46 31 51 84 63 -Total Weight (Kgs) 2865

22346

11222

92759

130035 3433

0-

Total Pcs. 4445 625 1176 2176 1113 2594 -Utilization (%) 87.14 70.29 72.86 81.00 88.14 83.29 -Productivity (Pcs. /Hr) 728.6

9127.0

3230.5

9383.7

7180.39 444.9

4-

Saturday 24-Dec


Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.21: Unloading and weighting operator’s utilization for week two

77

Saturday 24-Dec


Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

0.00

100.00

200.00

300.00

400.00

500.00

600.00

700.00

800.00


Figure 4.22: Unloading and weighting operator’s productivity for week two

Comparison between Week one and week two for the utilization

and productivity of Unloading and weighting operator/s are shown

in Figure 4.11 and Figure 4.12 respectively.


10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Week 1

Week 2

Utilization for Unloading & Weighing (%)

Figure 4.23: Utilization comparison for two weeks for Unloading & weighing operators

78


100.00

200.00

300.00

400.00

500.00

600.00

700.00

800.00

Week 1

Week 2

Productivity for Unloading & Weighing (Pcs/Hr)

Figure 4.24: Productivity comparison for two weeks for Unloading & weighing operators

Unloading and Weighting operator works almost in an even uniform utilization except for few days, lower utilization days helps to recover from the lower ones.

Productivity for Saturday the 24th of Dec was very high Due to a medications shipment on that day which has small sizes.

The utilization for the workers is better for the second week rather than the first week.

The variability in the operators’ productivity is high due to the change of the number of pieces he covers which is out of his control.

4.8 Performance assessment for the “Put-away” operator




79

These operators manually take the shipment from the X-ray

Machine and put it on pallets. From interviewing their supervisor,

their best indicator would be the total number of pieces. Their

productivity is measured by dividing the total number of pieces

over their actual time.

Productivity=total piecesactual time

Table 4.6 shows the number of operators, the time available, time


covered, utilization and productivity for “Put-away” operator/s

between the 17th of Dec 2011 until the 23rd of Dec 2011.

Figure 4.13 shows the utilization for “Put-away” operator/s


Figure 4.14 shows the productivity for “Put-away” operator/s


Table 4.8: Data collected and performance assessment for Put-away operator in week one

Saturday17-Dec

Sunday18-Dec

Monday19-Dec

Tuesday20-Dec

Wednesday21-Dec

Thursday22-Dec

Friday23-Dec

Number of operators 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Time Available (Hrs)

7 7 7 7 7 7 7Time Actual (Hrs) 4.92 5 5.83 4.67 3.58 4.67 -No. of Bills 40 38 55 55 63 39 -Total Weight (Kgs) 1634

820056

20196

12031

14995 22191

-


971.4

383.2

966.7

151.14 66.71 -


188.82

187.4

336.02

120.56

87.71 251.39

-

80

Saturday 17-Dec


Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.25: Put-away operator’s utilization for week one

Saturday 17-Dec


Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00

400.00


Figure 4.26: Put-away operator’s productivity for week one



covered, utilization and productivity for “Put-away” operator/s


Figure 4.15 shows the utilization for “Put-away” operator/s


81

Figure 4.16 shows the productivity for “Put-away” operator/s


Table 4.9: Data collected and performance assessment for Put-away operator in week two

Saturday24-Dec

Sunday25-Dec

Monday26-Dec

Tuesday27-Dec

Wednesday28-Dec

Thursday29-Dec

Friday30-Dec


7 7 7 7 7 7 7Time Actual (Hrs) 6.1 4.58 5.25 5.83 5.1 6 -No. of Bills 40 46 31 51 84 63 -Total Weight (Kgs) 2865

223461

12229

27591

30035 34330

-


465.4

375.0

083.2

972.86 85.7

1-


728.69

136.46

224.00

373.24

218.24 432.33

-

Saturday 24-Dec


Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.27: Put-away operator’s utilization for week two

82

Saturday 24-Dec


Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

0.00

100.00

200.00

300.00

400.00

500.00

600.00

700.00

800.00


Figure 4.28: Put-away operator’s productivity for week two


and productivity of Put-away operator/s are shown in Figure 4.17

and figure 4.18 respectively.


10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Week 1

Week 2

Utilization for Put -away (%)

Figure 4.29: Utilization comparison for two weeks for Put-away operators

83


100.00

200.00

300.00

400.00

500.00

600.00

700.00

800.00

Week 1

Week 2

Productivity for Put-away (Pcs/Hr)

Figure 4.30: Productivity comparison for two weeks for Put-away operators

Productivity for Saturday the 24th of Dec was very high Due to a medical supply shipment on that day which has small sizes.

The utilization for the workers is better for the second week rather than the first week. But throughout the two weeks, their utilization is within the limits, except for the 21st of Dec


Wednesday the 21st of Dec was the lowest in utilization and their productivity, because there was little work to be done.

4.9 Performance assessment for the “Storage (Yard)” operator



84


The forklift operator for Storage (Yard) does not have any problem

with the weight of the shipment, or the number of bills, his only

matter is the number of pieces that he stores. This gives a better

indication on his productivity. Therefore, productivity is calculated

by the total number of pieces over the actual hours.




covered, utilization and productivity for “Storage (Yard) operator/s

between the 17th of Dec 2011 until the 23rd of Dec 2011

Figure 4.19 shows the utilization for “Storage (Yard)” operator/s


Figure 4.20 shows the productivity for “Storage (Yard)” operator/s


Table 4.10: Data collected and performance assessment for Put-away operator/s in week one

Saturday17-Dec

Sunday18-Dec

Monday19-Dec

Tuesday20-Dec

Wednesday21-Dec

Thursday22-Dec

Friday23-Dec

Time Available (Hrs)

7 7 7 7 7 7 7Time Actual (Hrs) 5.1 5.25 5.92 4.41 4.17 5.33 -No. of Bills 40 38 55 55 63 39 -Total Weight (Kgs) 1634

82005

62019

61203

114995 2219

1-

Total Pcs. 929 937 1959 563 314 1174 -

85

Utilization (%) 72.86

75.00

84.57

63.00

59.57 76.14 -

Productivity (Pcs./Hr)

182.16

178.48

330.91

127.66

75.30 220.26

-

Saturday 17-Dec


Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.31: Storage (Yard) operator’s utilization for week one

Saturday 17-Dec


Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00


Figure 4.32: Storage (Yard) operator’s productivity for week one



86

covered, utilization and productivity for “Storage (Yard)”


Figure 4.21 shows the utilization for “Storage (Yard)” operator/s


Figure 4.22 shows the productivity for “Storage (Yard)” operator/s


Table 4.11: Data collected and performance assessment for Storage (Yard) operator/s in week two

Saturday24-Dec

Sunday25-Dec

Monday26-Dec

Tuesday27-Dec

Wednesday28-Dec

Thursday29-Dec

Friday30-Dec


7 7 7 7 7 7 7Time Actual (Hrs) 6 4.92 5.17 5.5 5.92 6.1 -No. of Bills 40 46 31 51 84 63 -Total Weight (Kgs) 2865

22346

11222

92759

130035 3433

0-


170.2

973.8

678.5

784.57 87.14 -


740.83

127.03

227.47

395.64

188.01 425.25

-

87

Saturday 24-Dec


Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.33: Storage (Yard) operator’s utilization for week two

Saturday 24-Dec


Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

0.00

100.00

200.00

300.00

400.00

500.00

600.00

700.00

800.00


Figure 4.34: Storage (Yard) operator’s productivity for week two


and productivity of Storage (Yard) operator/s are shown in Figure

4.23 and Figure 4.24 respectively.

88


10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Week 1

Week 2

Utilization for Storage (Yard) (%)

Figure 4.35: Utilization comparison for two weeks for Storage (Yard) operators


100.00

200.00

300.00

400.00

500.00

600.00

700.00

800.00

Week 1

Week 2

Productivity for Storage (Yard) (Pcs/Hr)

Figure 4.36: Productivity comparison for two weeks for Storage (Yard) operators

Productivity for Saturday the 24th of Dec was very high Due to a medical supply shipment on that day which has small sizes.

Storage (Yard) utilization for the two weeks has been acceptable except for the 21st of Wednesday.

89


Wednesday the 21st of Dec was the lowest in utilization and their productivity, because there was little work to be done.

4.10 Performance assessment for the “Collect (Yard)” operator




The forklift operator for Collect (Yard) does not have any problem

with the weight of the shipment, or the number of bills, his only

matter is the number of pieces that he collects. This gives a better

indication on his productivity. Productivity is calculated by the

total number of pieces over the actual hours.

Productivity=total piecesactual time



covered, utilization and productivity for “Collect (Yard)”


Figure 4.25 shows the utilization for “Collect (Yard)” operator/s


90

Figure 4.26 shows the productivity for “Collect (Yard)” operator/s


Table 4.12: Data collected and performance assessment for collect (Yard) operators in week one

Saturday17-Dec

Sunday18-Dec

Monday19-Dec

Tuesday20-Dec

Wednesday21-Dec

Thursday22-Dec

Friday23-Dec


7 7 7 7 7 7 7Time Actual (Hrs) 4.92 5.5 5.1 4.25 5.17 5.67 6.1No. of Bills 41 60 54 40 49 91 67Total Weight (Kgs) 1784

23090

72124

51298

617688 3699

65974

2Total Pcs. 2205 2438 1390 864 1317 1605 2701Utilization (%) 70.2

978.5

772.8

660.7

173.86 81.0

087.1

4Productivity (Pcs. /Hr)

448.17

443.27

272.55

203.29

254.74

283.07

442.79

Saturday 17-Dec

Sunday 18-Dec

Monday 19-Dec

Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

Friday 23-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.37: Collect (Yard) operator’s utilization for week one

91

Saturday 17-Dec

Sunday 18-Dec

Monday 19-Dec

Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

Friday 23-Dec

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00

400.00

450.00

500.00


Figure 4.38: Collect (Yard) operator’s productivity for week one

Table 4.11shows the number of operators, the time available, time




of Dec 2011.

Figure 4.27 shows the utilization for “Collect (Yard)” operator/s


Figure 4.28 shows the productivity for “Collect (Yard)” operator/s


Table 4.13: Data collected and performance assessment for collect (Yard) operator/s in week two

Saturday24-Dec

Sunday25-Dec

Monday26-Dec

Tuesday27-Dec

Wednesday28-Dec

Thursday29-Dec

Friday30-Dec


7 7 7 7 7 7 7Time Actual (Hrs) 4.67 5.83 4.92 5.1 5.5 5.83 6.1No. of Bills 37 100 46 44 64 82 84Total Weight (Kgs) 1511

740908

17351

14666

42379 37879

49456

Total Pcs. 1491 196 1049 1325 1295 1519 216

92

8 2Utilization (%) 66.7

183.2

970.2

972.8

678.57 83.2

987.1

4Productivity (Pcs. /Hr)

319.3

337.5

213.2

260 235.4 260.55

354.4

Saturday 24-Dec

Sunday 25-Dec

Monday 26-Dec

Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

Friday 30-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.39: Collect (Yard) operator’s utilization for week two

Saturday 24-Dec

Sunday 25-Dec

Monday 26-Dec

Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

Friday 30-Dec

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00

400.00


Figure 4.40: Collect (Yard) operator’s productivity for week two


and productivity of Collect (Yard) operator/s are shown in Figure


93


10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

100.00

Week 1

Week 2

Utilization for Collect (Yard) (%)

Figure 4.41: Utilization comparison for two weeks for Collect (Yard) operators


50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00

400.00

450.00

500.00

Week 1

Week 2

Productivity for Collect (Yard) (Pcs/Hr)

Figure 4.42: Productivity comparison for two weeks for Collect (Yard) operators

Usually for this operator mid-week days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) are not that busy, due to less demand from RJ Flights Preparations and other carriers’ preparations flights.

Fridays have high utilization. If we had data about Storage (Yard) operator, we might say that he can help the Collect operator if he is

94

free. Or if he has also high utilization, there can be a third forklift operator to help both of them.

On Saturday the 17th of Dec has the high productivity because on that day there was an extra airplane (Cargo Lox) that’s heading to Algeria with medical supplements (other carriers)

4.11 Performance assessment for the “Preparation RJ flights” operator



Utilization= actual timeavailabletime

Preparation workers are concerned with the number of pieces as

well as the number of bills and the number of RJ flights he has to

cover. However this operation worker/s productivity depends more

likely on the number of pieces. Their productivity is measured by

dividing the total number of pieces over their actual time.




covered, utilization and productivity for “RJ Preparations”


Figure 4.31 shows the utilization for “RJ Preparations” operator/s


95

Figure 4.32 shows the productivity for “RJ Preparations” operator/s


Table 4.14: Data collected and performance assessment for Preparation RJ flights operator/s in week one

Saturday17-Dec

Sunday18-Dec

Monday19-Dec

Tuesday20-Dec

Wednesday21-Dec

Thursday

22-Dec

Friday23-Dec

Number of operators

1 2 1 2 2 2 2Time Available (Hrs)

7 14 7 14 14 14 14Time Actual (Hrs)

5.92 9.66 5.66 8.32 9.5 11.34 11.2No. of Bills 36 49 46 32 37 68 62Total Weight (Kgs)

8595.1

22463.3

19358.6

12340.7

15701.3

24916.4

58648.9

Total Pcs. 264 1250 1144 813 1085 854 2610Utilization (%) 84.5

769.00 80.86 59.4

367.86 81.00 80.00


44.59

129.40

202.12

97.72

114.21

75.31 233.04

Saturday 17-Dec

Sunday 18-Dec

Monday 19-Dec

Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

Friday 23-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.43: Preparation RJ flights operator’s utilization for week one

96

Saturday 17-Dec

Sunday 18-Dec

Monday 19-Dec

Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

Friday 23-Dec

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00


Figure 4.44: Preparation RJ flights operator’s productivity for week one



covered, utilization and productivity for “RJ Preparations”


Figure 4.33 shows the utilization for “RJ Preparations” operator/s


Figure 4.34 shows the productivity for “RJ Preparations” operator/s


Table 4.15: Data collected and performance assessment for Preparation RJ flights operator/s in week two

Saturday24-Dec

Sunday25-Dec

Monday26-Dec

Tuesday27-Dec

Wednesday28-Dec

Thursday29-Dec

Friday30-Dec

Number of operators 1 2 1 2 2 2 2Time Available (Hrs) 7 14 7 14 14 14 14Time Actual (Hrs) 5.25 11.3

25.5 8.82 9.16 11.5 11.3

4No. of Bills 27 85 38 39 42 65 60Total Weight (Kgs) 5307. 2716 1015 1100 14525 2786 3981

97

2 4 2 6 8Total Pcs. 544 1113 345 795 752 1119 1667Utilization (%) 75.00 80.8

678.57 63.00 65.43 82.14 81.0

0Productivity (Pcs. /Hr) 103.6

298.3

262.73 90.14 82.10 97.30 147.

0

Saturday 24-Dec

Sunday 25-Dec

Monday 26-Dec

Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

Friday 30-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.45: Preparation RJ flights operator’s utilization for week two

Saturday 24-Dec

Sunday 25-Dec

Monday 26-Dec

Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

Friday 30-Dec

0.00

20.00

40.00

60.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

140.00

160.00


Figure 4.46: Preparation RJ flights operator’s productivity for week two


and productivity of RJ Preparations operator/s are shown in Figure


98


10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Week 1

Week 2

Utilization for RJ Pre. (%)

Figure 4.47: Utilization comparison for two weeks for RJ Preparations operators


50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

Week 1

Week 2

Productivity for RJ Pre. (Pcs/Hr)

Figure 4.48: Productivity comparison for two weeks for RJ Preparations operators

RJ flights preparations operator/s has good utilization for six days

of the both weeks except Tuesday. So we might consider reducing

the number of operators on that day from two to one operator. Or

we can see if other carrier’s operator can provide some help.

99

Monday the 19th of Dec and Friday the 22nd of Dec has the highest

productivity Even with that, their utilization still does not exceed

the limits.

The operator/s productivity except for those two days are good,

might rise on Friday and Sunday but has good range.

4.12 Performance assessment for the “Preparation other carriers’ flights” operator




Preparation workers are concerned with the number of pieces as

well as the number of bills and the number of other carriers’ flights

he has to cover. However this operation worker/s productivity

depends more likely on the number of pieces. Their productivity is

measured by dividing the total number of pieces over their actual

time.




covered, utilization and productivity for “other carriers’ flights”


100

Figure 4.37 shows the utilization for “other carriers’ flights”

operator/s between 17th of Dec 2011 until the 23rd of Dec 2011.

Figure 4.38 shows the productivity for “other carriers’ flights”


Table 4.16: Data collected and performance assessment for Preparation other carriers’ flights operators in week one

Saturday17-Dec

Sunday18-Dec

Monday19-Dec

Tuesday20-Dec

Wednesday21-Dec

Thursday22-Dec

Friday23-Dec

Number of operators 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Time Available (Hrs) 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Time Actual (Hrs) 4.25 4 3 2 2.83 3.83 2No. of Bills 5 11 8 8 12 23 5Total Weight (Kgs) 9247 8444 1887 646 1987 1208

01093

Total Pcs. 1941 1188 246 51 232 751 91Utilization (%) 85.00 80.00 60.00 40.00 56.60 76.60 40.0

0Productivity (Pcs./Hr) 456.7

1297.0

082.00 25.50 81.98 196.0

845.5

0

101

Saturday 17-Dec

Sunday 18-Dec

Monday 19-Dec

Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

Friday 23-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.49: Preparation other carriers’ flights operator’s utilization for week one

Saturday 17-Dec

Sunday 18-Dec

Monday 19-Dec

Tuesday 20-Dec

Wednesday 21-Dec

Thursday 22-Dec

Friday 23-Dec

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00

400.00

450.00

500.00


Figure 4.50: Preparation other carriers’ flights operator’s productivity for week one



covered, utilization and productivity for “other carriers’ flights”


102

Figure 4.39 shows the utilization for “other carriers’ flights”


Figure 4.40 shows the productivity for “other carriers’ flights”


Table 4.17: Data collected and performance assessment for Preparation other carriers’ flights operator/s in week two

Saturday24-Dec

Sunday25-Dec

Monday26-Dec

Tuesday27-Dec

Wednesday28-Dec

Thursday29-Dec

Friday30-Dec

Number of operators 1 1 1 1 1 1 1Time Available (Hrs) 5 5 5 5 5 5 5Time Actual (Hrs) 3.33 3.5 3 2.83 4.1 3.67 3.83No. of Bills 10 15 8 5 22 17 24Total Weight (Kgs) 9810 1374

47199 3660 27854 1002

09638

Total Pcs. 947 855 704 530 543 400 495Utilization (%) 66.60 70.0

060.00 56.60 82.00 73.40 76.60

Productivity (Pcs. /Hr) 284.38

244.3

234.67

187.28

132.44 108.99

129.24

Saturday 24-Dec

Sunday 25-Dec

Monday 26-Dec

Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

Friday 30-Dec

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Utilization (%)

Figure 4.51: Preparation other carriers’ flights operator’s utilization for week two

103

Saturday 24-Dec

Sunday 25-Dec

Monday 26-Dec

Tuesday 27-Dec

Wednesday 28-Dec

Thursday 29-Dec

Friday 30-Dec

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00


Figure 4.52: Preparation other carriers’ flights operator’s productivity for week two


and productivity of other carriers’ flights operator/s are shown in

Figure 4.41 and Figure 4.42 respectively.


10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

80.00

90.00

Week 1

Week 2

Utilization for Other carriers Pre. (%)

Figure 4.53: Comparing the utilization for two weeks for other carriers Preparations operator/s

104


50.00

100.00

150.00

200.00

250.00

300.00

350.00

400.00

450.00

500.00

Week 1

Week 2

Figure 4.54: Productivity comparison for two weeks for other carriers Preparations operator/s

Saturday the 17th of Dec has the highest utilization and productivity

because on that day there was an extra airplane (Cargo Lox) that’s

heading to Algeria with medical supplements.

Even this operator only works for 5 hours in preparing other

carriers flights, and two hours in the import area. Still he is not

being utilized throughout the week good. So with arranging

between his supervisor and other operations supervisors, there can

be another area that he can work in. for example, reducing the

number of operators in RJ flight preparations and mix their work

together.

This operator has a high productivity at the start of the week, and

less for the rest of it.

105

4.13 Performance assessment for the “ETV system” operator

No data were collected for this operator since this operator is used

by both import and export operations, which makes this data not

useful for performance assessment for this operator in relation to

export area only.

4.14 Overall assessment of operators’ utilization and

productivity

The overall assessment of the operators’ utilization and

productivity is done by calculating the average utilization and

average productivity for each type of operators for the two weeks

as shown in Table 4.16.

The comments on the values of the average utilization and average

productivity are shown in Table 4.16.

Table 4.18: The operators’ average utilization and productivity for two weeksOperators classificati

on

Average Utilization (week one) (%)

Average Utilization (week two) (%)

Average Productivity (week

one)

Average Productivity (week

two)

Comments

Reception & Accounting

69.86 72.69 5.53 Bills/Hr

5.6 Bills/Hr

Utilization: Acceptable Productivity: Unacceptable

Unloading & Weighing

67.24 80.45 199.3 Psc/Hr

349.2 Psc/Hr

Utilization: Acceptable Productivity: Acceptable

106

Put-away 68.26 78.24 195.3 Psc/Hr

352.1 Psc/Hr


Storage (Yard)

71.86 80.02 185.7 Psc/Hr

350.7 Psc/Hr


Collect (Yard)

74.92 77.45 335.4 Psc/Hr

282.8 Psc/Hr


Preparation RJ

74.67 75.14 128.0 Psc/Hr

97.3 Psc/Hr

Utilization: Acceptable Productivity: Unacceptable

Preparation Other Carriers

62.60 69.31 169.2 Psc/Hr

188.7 Psc/Hr

Utilization: Unacceptable Productivity: Unacceptable

107

Discussion and Conclusions

108

Air cargo Warehouse is essentially for easy doing bossiness in and

out the country in the way of attracts investor or domestic investors

to expand their own works out the country. The role of the

warehouse is important that’s why they need to be centralized

between their whole offices and the other airlines company to

create a best warehouse system. This system needs management in

way of moving information’s and goods together without any faults

to satisfy the customer.

RJ air cargo warehouse that is located near Queen Alia

International Airport (QAIA) are unique, it is like an air way port

but with warehouse operations. It work both ways in and out and

more over does the most works of delivering and receiving cargo to

and from Amman-Jordan, controlling these movements is essential.

According to that, system analysis must done helping in how to

control, improve, implantation and design the logistics services and

more even to do your assessments of the air-cargo warehouse like

in operations or employees’ assessments as we did.

We had to read about warehousing systems and mainly about air

cargo warehouse, through we had a good back ground on it from

few courses had previous semesters, like Facility Planning,

Production Planning and Control, and Project Management. But we

felt that we needed more so we read about Logistics and Supply

Chain Management. To analyze RJ system we observe the process

and interview managers.

109

We choose a couple of key performance indicators to help us

assessing RJ air cargo warehouse operators and their utilization and

productivity. In which we analyzed operators’ data and represented

them in Tables with Graphs to simplify it and make it easier to

assess their performance. In result the output of performance

assessment for the utilization for whole operators was acceptable

except for the other carriers’ operator/s. The productivity for whole

operator’s were acceptable except for Reception & Accounting, RJ

Preparation and other carriers’ operator/s. Then we compared for

each operator for their two weeks utilization and productivity.

So far the number of operators is enough, especially that flow of

products in the region is lower, since Egypt, Libya, Syria and

Yemen markets are almost closed, which according to Mr.

Mohannad Awwad were a high demanding countries. The same

performance assessment done on the Export area can be done on

the import area as well.

We interviewed Mr. Mohannad Awwad and Mr. Al-Masri to get

desired utilization and the acceptable productivity for their

operators. Date for two weeks times which are the total weight,

total bills and total pieces. They were very cooperative, except for

Fridays’ supervisor; he found it hard to do.

Thankfully our university is subscribed in ProQuest website, which

turned out to be very helpful to have some variable information’s

about air cargo warehouse system, because it was hard to get this

type of information, and these thesis’s helped a lot.

110

Recommendations

111

At RJ demand is very hard to predict. They should try to make

their employees multitasked. Example: If there are not a lot of

new shipments coming, and there are a lot of flights that should

be prepared, the operators can rearrange themselves to support

the “Pick & Pack” operators.

Paper works are too much, they should try to make it more

automated, so there will be no loss of documents, flow of

information will be easier to track, and as the whole world is

heading toward a better environmental protection this would be

a step further to help doing that as well, not to mention that it

will helps the company to save a little more money specially in

the recession hitting the region due to what is called the “Arab

Spring” which turned to be pretty much an autumn for business.

Whoever makes the operators’ schedule should make a better

forecasting for the next week or month; also he needs to be up

to the level to prepare it properly.

The supervisor or manager who makes the schedule for the

operators should have a long experience in the warehouse; he

should take into consideration not just the days of the week,

whether it is Sunday, Monday… etc. but should see the date of

the day, for example, For New Year Eve, when we went to take

our data from Mr. Fadi Ahmad there was too much work and

shipments, but they were behind, because that day was

Saturday, and on Saturday shift there is only one operator for

each operation. And according to him, most companies try to

112

send before the New Year starts. Which caused a lot of delays

for some flights that did not have their pallets or ULDs’ ready

yet. Also, the supervisor should take into consideration the Hijri

calendar for Islamic events.

There should be also a study for management, because the

warehouse management complains that there are not enough

workers, and the top management for RJ thinks that the number

of operators is enough, which is agreeable. Yes there might be

some hectic days, but it can be handled. But from our own

observations, there is too much supervisors, and some of them

are not qualified enough to make good decisions, because

experience is important but knowledge is vital, so that the

experience he has would be built on a proper base.

We think that the supervisors should help and prepare

shipments with the operators, or at least there should be fewer

supervisors with one export controller. For example, For RJ

Flights preparations and other carrier’s flights preparations

should have one supervisor instead of two supervisors. Or there

can be two supervisors in each shift for the export area to

control and check if things are flowing smoothly. Except for

hectic days, this again, should be scheduled thoughtfully.

According to Mr. Fadi Ahmad there is a lot of paper work to be

done, and try to check the emails from the management for

higher priority shipments. This again supports the idea of trying

to make the flow of information more automated.

113

There can be two computers closer for the “Pick and Pack”

operators, so there would not be wasted time to get the “Flight

Booking Lists” from the transit office which is on the second

floor. Just at the beginning of the shift they will print out the

lists from the transit office and check for updates from the

closer computers. When the information’s are documented they

would not need to weight the shipments three times. First, by

the “Unloading & Weighing” operator when it arrives before he

signs, then by the storage (Yard) forklift operator. And last by

the “Collect (Yard)” operator before he gives it to the flights

preparation operators’. Their excuse is to get the gross weight

every time, whether to check it by the “Unloading and

weighing” operator (because he has to sign the Discharge

Shipment form” or to have the Gross weight before the pallets

are sent to the airplanes, so the air operations department will be

prepared. But if it is documented the operator will put the net

weight, so the shipment will be weighed only one time, and

every time the shipment moves the net weight is the same, but

the gross weight changes due to the pallets they use. These

pallets ULDs are seven to eight types, so they can be

standardized. And every time they change the shipment pallet or

put it in an ULD, they will only edit it easily. So they can track

it, know what is it on and its current weight.

References

114

1. Knowledge based decision support system in the design and control of warehouse operations Chow, Ka Ho. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses; 2008; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT).

2. Exploratory study of RFID applications for air cargo operations by Magalie Laniel, from

http://search.proquest.com/pqdtft/index

3. Pre-feasibility study 4: Amman air cargo hub IP0335 – May 2007, from

http://euromedaviation.org/fileadmin/download/InfrastructureTechnicalNotes/IP0335-RPT-TR- 41_PFS4_Amman_Air_Cargo_Hub_FINAL.pdf

4. Retrieved November 1st ,2011,from http://rj-cargo.com/tabid/64/Default.aspx

5. How to Manage Manpower | eHow.com fromhttp://www.ehow.com/how_12094019_calculate-manpower-

productivity.html

6. Colson, G. & Wakefield (2008). European Distribution Report 2008, available on-line at http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2009/v4-management-and-marketing/50.pdf

7. Retrieved November 2nd, 2011, from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/59/29/2352458.pdf

8. Warehouse key performance indicators, August 27,2010 by Vijay Sangam, from

http://vijaysangamworld.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/warehouse-key-performance-indicators/

9. Retrieved November 2nd,2011, fromhttp://envplan.com/epa/fulltext/a38/a3852.pdf

10. Dangerous goods regulations, 2007, 48th edition, by IATA

11. OPERATIONS MANUAL PART A / GENERAL-BASIC, 2010, 1ST EDITION, BY RJ

12. Export Clearance Procedure at IGI Airport Delhi, posted May 4, 2011 3:12 AM by CS Gauta

13. Mr. Mohannad Awwad, Quality Control Manager, RJ air cargo warehouse, (Mar-Dec 2011).

115

http://envplan.com/epa/fulltext/a38/a3852.pdf



http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/59/29/2352458.pdf

http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2009/v4-management-and-marketing/50.pdf

http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2009/v4-management-and-marketing/50.pdf

http://www.ehow.com/how_12094019_calculate-manpower-productivity.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_12094019_calculate-manpower-productivity.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_7638474_manage-manpower.html#ixzz1g4bRW9qy

http://rj-cargo.com/tabid/64/Default.aspx

http://euromedaviation.org/fileadmin/download/InfrastructureTechnicalNotes/IP0335-RPT-TR-%2041_PFS4_Amman_Air_Cargo_Hub_FINAL.pdf



http://search.proquest.com/pqdtft/index

Appendix A

116

Figure A- 1: Export Good Weighting Form

117

Figure A- 2: Flight Booking List

118

Figure A- 3: Instructions For Dispatching Of Goods Form

119

Figure A- 4: Shipment Discharging Form

120

Figure A- 5: Air Waybill Form

121

Figure A- 6: Activity Performance Inside Export Area Form

122

Figure A- 7: Study For Actual Time For Operators Form

123

draft final

Documents

rj air cargo warehouse

air cargo warehouse

system analysis

industrial engineers

industrial department

performance assessment

table of contents

faculty of engineering