establishing new warehouses€¦ · establishing new warehouses: establishing multiple warehouses...

1 Action Against Hunger USA Case Study: Establishing Multiple Warehouses

ACTION AGAINST HUNGER CASE STUDY:

ESTABLISHING NEW WAREHOUSES: ESTABLISHING MULTIPLE WAREHOUSES IN MAIDUGURI,

NIGERIA

By Iryna Lukyanova, Warehouse Manager

When I arrived in Maiduguri, Nigeria and visited the warehouse, I noticed the following:

- There is not enough space to accommodate the goods for two bases (at the time,

two warehouses were shared between the Monguno and Maiduguri bases);

- There are no facilities (i.e. office, washing rooms and toilets) making the space

impossible to work in for full days;

- Lack of electricity that made the warehouse impossible to work in during dark or

rainy conditions;

- No office or administrative space with tables, chairs, cabinets to keep the files;

- No basic stationary;

- Shortage of pallets;

- No fans to combat the extreme heat inside the warehouses;

- No internet to receive the information from the procurement team in incoming

goods or emergency requests from the programs.


I shared my concerns with the Field Coordinator, Sukhdev Sharma, who supported the

idea to have additional warehouses. He suggested that I separate the two warehouses

by base and gave me the go-ahead to purchase all the necessary items and equipment

to make the warehouses operational. Further, he called up on the Monguno Field

Coordinator, presented the new warehouse staffing propositions with additional staff (2

WH assistants per warehouse), convinced them of the overall vision and plan, got the

plan validated from the capital coordination team, and launched the process of

reformation in 2 days’ time.

As a result of this assessment, planning, and coordination, the following was decided:

Key elements of the planning process:

✓ Identify warehouse needs

✓ Work with Field and Base Coordinators

✓ Develop a vision and work plan

✓ Identify and communicate equipment needs

✓ Identify and communicate staffing needs

✓ Validate plan by capital coordination team

✓ Launch plan

• Establish two additional warehouses, for a total of four

warehouses (two for Maiduguri, two for Monguno)

• Two storekeeper assistants were transferred to Monguno

temporarily to support the team

• One storekeeper and I would stay to implement day-to-day

operations in Maiduguri

• Hire four new warehouse assistants (two per warehouse) for

Monguno team

• Make every effort to find two warehouses either in the same

compound or next to each other

It is ideal to have two assistants per warehouse:

• one primarily receives items, the other issues items to

programs and updates the Stock Follow Up

• allows time to re-organize after deliveries, ensure

reporting and inventory is correct, keep the

warehouse clean and orderly

• Provides staffing coverage in case of illness or travel

for trainings


"Dream" Warehouses

Warehouse 1

Large, previously served as a factory, owner agreed to remove all machines and renovate the

premises

Warehouse 2

Empty, ready to be occupied, possibility to renovate office and washrooms

During the next security meeting, it was announced that

we would begin searching for the warehouses and asked

all national staff to share any contacts they have that

might help us locate the new premises. Beginning the

very next day, I received many phone calls proposing

new locations and visited more than 15 warehouses in

the span of 2 weeks. The process was not always

smooth – for example, one agent showed me pictures

of my dream warehouses that were big with offices,

washrooms, and plenty of space on the compound to store items outdoors. Despite

being told they had been empty for months, we arrived for our visit to find that they

government had already taken up occupancy.

Moving past this disappointment, I visited five more warehouses the next day and

identified two facilities that met our expectations and requirements:

While site visits may be time

consuming, they are critical

to making your decision. Do

not solely rely on word-of-

mouth or photos as

conditions can change

quickly.


I presented these options to our Field Coordinator and we visited the

two warehouses together. He also liked these options so we began the

negotiations and signed a contract. Another benefit of this location is

that both facilities have the same owner. We didn’t waste any time with

the decision – all negotiations and validations were achieved within one

day.

Within a day, we began our first steps:

Warehouses 1 & 2

The warehouses are located right next to each other

Warehouses 1 & 2

Located on a large compound with ample outdoor space to accomodate

items stored outdoors and trucks

Always take detailed

notes and photos

when visiting sites to

share with your

team

• Moved items from old warehouse to new Warehouse 2 (which

was ready to move in)

• Loaded items onto pallets and organized by departments

• Created and placed Bin Cards

• Gave the official “green light” to suppliers to deliver cargo to

the new location


As we moved the items to Warehouse 2, the property owner finished the renovations

and reinforcements of Warehouse 1.

Our specific requests included:

To start, we set up workstations that can accommodate up to 7 people in the room and

made use of the old shelves to store office stationary and cleaning supplies.

Next, we placed orders for:

• Reinforce the walls of the compound with barbed wires

• Wire the outside doors

• Renovate the floor, washrooms and office space

• Air-conditioner for the office

• Metallic cabinets for documents

• Chairs

• Water dispenser

• 4G internet modem

• Generator (10 KVA) to serve both warehouses in case of electricity outage

• Printer/scanner

• General warehouse equipment including:

o Pallets, marine ropes, aluminum wires, tarpaulins, fans, and

plywood to protect the wooden pallets


Once Warehouse 1 was ready, we

immediately began moving goods with

two fifteen ton trucks (for a total of 5

days with 6 trips per day), organizing

goods by department, and placing bin

cards.

When moving items, be very careful not

to lose budget codes and descriptions.

Since bin cards can be easily lost, use

simple colored stickers taped to goods.


Iryna and Maryam, enumerator

As Steve Jobs said, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re

done by a team of people.” I would like to take this opportunity to thank and give credit

to my energetic and hardworking team, including Babagana (storekeeper assistant),

Maryam, Babagana, and Aboubacar (enumerators).

Iryna & Babagana, storekeeper assistant


Monguno Food Warehouse

Back at the Monguno food warehouse, most items were bulky goods such as salt, oil,

beans, and sorghum. We loaded approximately 22 trucks per day from the supplier’s

warehouses.

The second Monguno warehouse, which is intended for NFI goods, is almost empty

now as we wait for the delivery of NFI kits and other items shortly. Our team has

already been brainstorming ideas on how to improve the Monguno warehouses – you

may have to read the next case study to find out what we implement.

General Advice: • Establish weekly planning

o Ex. In the Nigeria mission, the program staff submits SROs every

Thursday for the following week. This allows us to prepare the items

for dispatch, update the SFU in a timely manner, receive new items,

recalculate old items, etc. in an organized manner.

• Coach program staff to use the SFU so that all SROs are done correctly.

• Establish monthly warehouse visits from program heads to speed up the

movement of old stock.

o The Nigeria mission started this practice recently and have already

established a plan on how to use old stocks that have been stored at

the warehouse since

early 2016. We aim

to use all old stock

items by the end of

November 2017.

• Keep warehouses clean

– a good warehouse is a

clean warehouse

o We established a

schedule to clean

the warehouses

Warehouse visits

will refresh

program staff’s

memory on what

items are in the

warehouse

First warehouse visit of the Heads of programs along with field coordinator


once every two weeks with soap and sweep after each

offloading

• Use (at least) rat traps and naphthalene balls in food warehouses.

o In Monguno, we use:

• Always consider the safety of you and your colleagues.

o Purchase warehouse uniforms for staff. Ex:

o Use safety helmets, glasses, gloves, and masks. Always use gloves and

masks when handling chemicals.

o Safety boots are essential to protect your feet from dropped items,

such as heavy pipes or boxes (trust me, I lost two toe nails during this

process!) Ex:


Key Challenges: • Finding appropriate place for warehouses with all required facilities

• Gaining support from program teams to make changes

• Convincing program teams to integrate old stocks in planning

• Lack of warehouse personnel

Success Factors: • Good communication and support from the Logistics Coordinator

• Thorough planning process to assess needs and expectations

• Communicating ideas clearly to establish a shared vision and gain

support from the Field Coordinator

• Hardworking team

Looking Forward: • Implement new SFU and coaching of program and warehouse teams

• Establish better coordination with Supply Chain team and warehouse

teams

• Coaching and training of warehouse teams on warehouse peculiarities

• Working with program team to decrease quantity of old stock

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