A study on warehouse capacity utilisation and operation - ex Guinness Malaysia Berhad with relation to the bonded store and empty bottle store

The purpose of this study is in partial fulfilment of the Advanced Diploma in Business Administration (Transport) Course of The Mara Institute of Technology, Shah Alam, Selangor. Physical Distribution Management, being the main subject connected to the exercise, plays a direct role in the choice of the place of study. Guinness Malaysia Berhad was chosen as there exists in this organization, a comparably large distribution network which inevitably needs the services of warehouses. Therefore with this in mind, the Bonded Store, which stores finished goods, and the Empty Bottles Store, where it acts as a receiving centre for the return of empty bottles and crates were chosen as the subject of study. The study was conducted to look into the space intensity and usage of these warehouses together with the systems of stacking used and the condition of the warehouses themselves. From these, contributory factors to the warehousing problems are to be found and last but not least to give remedial recommendations to the existing problems. Therefore the main objectives of the study are : 1. To look into the conditions of the Bonded Store and Empty Bottles Store where space and capacity utilisation is concerned. 2. To find out the discrepancies that may exist in the present system of warehousing and the contributory factors to the problems. 3. To give suggestions to remedy the problems may it be 'boiling underneath' or persistant. The study conducted through several techniques namely information gathered from personal interviews, secondary data from books, magazines and annual reports. Apart from those, secondary data was also obtained from studies conducted internally in the form of questionnaires and studies on the stacking capacity, etc. Observations were also conducted on conditions of warehouses, cleanliness, loading and unloading systems and time of these activities. Observations were also conducted on the materials handling facilities available and workers productivity through the number of wagons and lorries loaded per day. Limitations to the study exist in the form of Union Negotiations being carried out during the practical Training Period thus management do not allow the circulation of the questionnaires hence during the course of the study, questionnaires that have already been conducted and results attained were used.