Logistical Challenges of Industrial Modularization

logistics perspective

SQUARE PEG, ROUND HOLE Logistical Challenges of Industrial Modularization

BY ALAN M. FIELD

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ometime in November, the first lot of 40-foot by 40-foot containers and flat racks arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina, packed with modules for a high-tech machinery known as Reicofil Spunbond, which produces Spunbond fabrics of high quality even with “low basis” weights and at high production speeds.

In the advanced Reicofil non-woven process, polymers are transformed into endless filaments by melting and stretching them, and are then deposited on a wire mesh belt. Although the conversion of granulate into non-woven takes place in a single production step, in a process designed by German-based Reifenhauser Reicofil GMBH, the separate modules in the Reicofil plant come from as far away as France, Belgium and Germany and are later assembled in North Carolina.

Long before any of the various production modules leave for North Carolina, the engineers who designed the Reicofil plant collaborated with logistics specialists to make sure that the various modules “could be loaded as easily and as cost-efficiently as possible,” said Stefan Waschrath, managing director of MBS Logistics GmbH, which oversaw those processes.

Their specialized efforts helped to “avoid most of the problems and unforeseen extra charges” that often take place along the logistics chain. For example, MBS Logistics checked the maximum weight and dimensional weight, or DIM, restrictions in the European countries involved in the project, as well as in the 36 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com

U.S., so that it would not face any problems in its delivery to port or to the destination.

Planning the transportation details began weeks in advance, so that there would be no delays in acquiring licenses or other permits from various authorities.

Modularization of components can present special challenges and opportunities for logistics firms, explained Kenneth Blaine, assistant manager of operations at Midrex Global Logistics, the exclusive global logistics provider for Midrex Technologies. “When a project is bid and won, engineering gets involved with actually designing all the specific components in a specific plant.

And during that engineering phase, they consult with us [logistics firms] in terms of the sizes and weights, and what can be moved – and things of that nature – into the area where we are going [to move the industrial modules].

A lot of times, they will have to do route surveys to make sure that a piece of whatever size and weight that they are planning on designing actually can be transported to the job site,” Blaine said.

Added Rusty Ray, sales and marketing manager at Midrex Global Logistics: “Modularization means early consulting of the logistics providers before the design phase ends.”

The AAL Dampier transfers an electrostatic precipitator from Nantong, China to Port Pirie in southern Australia, as part of a wider end-toend logistics operation managed by Geodis.

Modularization can present unique challenges and opportunities for logistics firms. / Credit: AAL ISSUE 6 / 2016

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BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 37

logistics perspective

CHAIN COMPLEXITIES

The complexities of global industrial modularization projects require the creation of intricate supply chains that span continents and involve the cooperation of numerous service providers. At MBS, Waschrath explained: “For windmills used in one manufacturing plant, we were involved in the dismantling process and modularization quite early in order to plan the transportation.”

But despite such advance planning, the project still faced several logistical problems, sometimes as a result of unforeseen changes in the weather, and at other times because of unforeseen changes after the dismantling of the machinery was completed.

Waschrath said one modularization project that Stefan Waschrath his firm undertook on behalf of an MBS Logistics GmbH industrial company needed to schedule a charter flight to transport its modules to a plant assembly site in Japan. It turned out to be “a perfect example of the old adage that ‘too many cooks spoil the broth,’ ” he explained. Although MBS was initially asked to only tender a price quote on the transportation portion of the project, things turned out to be a lot more complicated and difficult to manage.

Waschrath said: “We had to work with the shipper of the industrial modules in China, with a customer in Germany, with our Japanese consignee, with an FOB shipping agent in China, with our customs broker, and with the handling agent of the consignee in Japan.”

Nearly every day – and sometimes, as often as two or three times a day – MBS had to process new information about various packing lists; and about packing information about the goods; and about different weights, and so forth.” Ultimately, he said, “we had to wait until the vessel reached the port before analyzing how we could load the modules onto it, and how they would fit into the vessel.”

Despite his firm’s best efforts to plan in advance, Waschrath said, “If we 38 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com

KEY QUESTIONS

that logistics companies need answers to early on in a modularization project include:

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Where is the center of gravity of a piece of machinery?

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How to bring it into a show or exhibition?

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Where are the hooking points?

Which side is the front?

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Where is the lashing for the forklift?

Which module goes first into the container?

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Which goes last?

had been involved much earlier in the process, we would have had much less stress and miscommunication and the finger-pointing never would have started about who was failing and giving wrong information, and so forth.” Ultimately, he added, “everything worked out and we have been invited to quote for further projects.”

EARLY INVOLVEMENT A MUST Waschrath stressed that logisticians need to be involved in the entire process from the very beginning. “Too often, it isn’t until the machinery is getting ready to be transported that everyone says, ‘Now we have to think about the transportation.’ And then they send the cargo out to some logistics firm and they need quick delivery. At that point, it’s really difficult to get a good rate, and be competitive.”

Jason Mongelli, logistics coordinator at Midrex Global Logistics, recalled a case when some large fabrications – rather than modules that fit together to create them – were coming over the border from Mexico to a job site in Corpus Christi, Texas. “We had to take these large fabrications up to the border, across it, and to the Texas job site.

Some of the largest fabrications were an extreme challenge … If the engineering and design people who designed these big fabrications had talked to logistics a little bit sooner, we could have avoided a lot of issues that we had.”

When it comes to managing the logistics of modular shipments, logistics specialists don’t always intimately know the products they are shipping, so an open dialogue with the customers is a must. Logisticians need to learn what the product is, learn about the demands of the consignee, learn how to set up the cargo, and learn how many people will be working on it.

Waschrath added that logistics specialists can help manufacturers make decisions about the design of modules based on their knowledge of best logistics practices; “decisions not just about the [appropriate] size of the modules; we also know about what weights are easier to handle. The bigger the weight, the more likely there may be a crane involved in moving them; and if there is less tonnage, you may be able to work with a forklift instead of a crane, which is more expensive since you need additional tools. We can also answer questions about where the lifting point should be of each model of the machinery. When a piece of machinery is on the ground, it does not matter where its center of gravity is located; we in transport have to know that.

“At one show in Dusseldorf, Germany, a company delivered a machine that was six to eight tons in weight; with one machine, they delivered it with the lifting point in the middle of the machine, which was total nonsense.

When we lifted it up, it was dancing in the air. Wherever you moved, it was swinging like hell. It was difficult to bring it in because there were two less lifting points,” Waschrath said.

For all that, modularization does not necessarily make sense in every industrial sector. One of the Midrex logistics specialists explained that, after a careful consideration of its benefits and costs, his firm decided not to get involved in the modularization of ‘iron reduction’ plants around the world; a sector that has unique technical demands. BB International news correspondent Alan M. Field has reported on trade, logistics and related technologies from numerous countries in North America, Latin America and East Asia (Japan, Taiwan and Korea) over the past two decades.

ISSUE 6 / 2016

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