The Evolving Australian Logistic Sector

Amanda Heatley is an operations management professional with an intricate knowledge of and experience in all facets of business and people management through leadership roles in various portfolios within Victorian Operations. With several years in the logistics environment, she has progressed from front-line roles and specialization in service analysis to management. She has also been in senior operational management roles that have exceeded challenging business objectives while maintaining quality outcomes and an intense internal or external customer focus.

What are some major challenges and trends impacting the logistics industry lately?

Over the past three years, there have been several challenges for everyone involved within the logistics industry. Throughout the pandemic, we have seen major delays both internationally and domestically with logistics. Global shipping delays and increased shipping costs have had a knock-on effect on our industry.

We are importers of raw materials and resilient flooring. We depend on global shipping for our production. Most global shipping lines have online tracking of their vessels. However, due to disruptions at wharves throughout Australia and New Zealand, there were long delays with unloading vessels, and monitoring stopped.

We were then running blind about when containers would be received and could not provide our customers with accurate information.

Domestically throughout Australia, there have been other challenges. Like every industry, staffing levels were an issue with transport companies. In addition, high absenteeism due to illness and people leaving the industry to explore other opportunities had a major impact on distribution. While, this was happening though consumers were still expecting the same service.

This year has presented new challenges within Australia. Earlier this year, the rail was washed away across to WA for over a month. Logistically this was hard as there weren't many other options, and the options we had were costly; however, we had to find solutions to move our products.

We then had floods throughout QLD and Northern NSW, which caused road closures and long delays in transportation.  

What keeps you up at night regarding some of the significant predicaments in the logistics industry?

Internationally shipping delays are still one of the major concerns, not knowing from day to day if vessels are delayed or if there are further delays at the wharves unloading. This continues to have an impact on our production and distribution.

“Throughout the pandemic, we have seen major delays both internationally and domestically with logistics. Global shipping delays and increased shipping costs have had a knock-on effect on our industry”

Throughout this year, there have been several weather-related issues that have impacted us logistically Australia-wide. These events can happen overnight and cause major impacts you have little to no control over. We are again heading into floods within QLD and NSW without recovering completely from previous floods. This will have an impact on linehaul, deliveries, and customer expectations.

We need to ensure we manage customers' expectations without using excuses and continue moving our products throughout the country.

Can you tell us about the latest project you have been working on and where some of the technological and process elements you leveraged to make the project successful?

Throughout the pandemic, we reviewed our national logistics and warehouse processes to see where we could improve while facing logistical challenges. Transportation and fuel costs have been going up month over month. However, our customers were purchasing more flooring than in previous years. We were conscious of only passing some of these costs onto our consumers. QLD was our growth area of resilient flooring during this time.

After numerous reviews between myself, engineers, and directors within the business on transport costs vs. warehouse costs, we concluded that it would be beneficial to our company to open a warehouse in QLD to process our resilient flooring orders and reduce linehaul costs.

We continued to use our internal systems however found an opportunity with our distributor to have live scanning, track/trace, and POD. This has not been used previously within our network. Deliveries to our customers was improved by 48 hours as we no longer linehaul from Victoria to QLD.

What are some of the technological trends which excite you for the future of the logistics industry?

Moving forward, there is a number of technologies that will improve the logistics area.

Godfrey Hirst already has an internal warehouse management system that is effective and efficient. I would like to see how we could merge this with a supply management system that deals with the flow of raw materials through to finished products.

The key area of focus would be a transport management system. Currently, we use different servable distributors throughout the country. If we could connect their information to our warehouse management system and be able to provide live tracking of retailers' goods, this would be a major improvement to our business.

Having an integrated system such as this would reduce the number of inbound calls to our call center, allow customers to see where their goods are at any stage and provide customers with the confidence of being able to plan their workflow as they will have a cleared picture of when their goods will arrive to store.

How can budding and evolving companies reach you for suggestions to streamline their business?

Throughout my career in logistics, I have been fortunate to have several mentors help guide me along the way. I was always, and still am, grateful for those who have unconditionally given their time to me, and I am more than happy to help others.