Mobile warehousing addresses inadequate facilities in Africa

Addressing a critical shortage of warehousing in Africa, Imperial Health Services has come up with an innovative mobile warehousing concept. When the company identified a lack of adequate warehousing in Tanzania, it came up with its warehouse in a box idea which has provided big benefits for its pharmaceutical logistics chain in Africa. According to Deon Vos, business development director for Imperial Health Sciences, a warehouse in a box is merely a prefabricated warehouse that is packed into a forty-foot container and delivered to a site where it is assembled. “We were not in the warehouse construction business, but delivering pharmaceuticals that are extremely regulated and need a well-controlled supply chain was exceptionally difficult in the African environment,” he told delegates at the Transport Forum in Cape Town recently. “The result was the conceptualisation of a warehouse – fabricated locally – and delivered to the warehouse site in forty-foot containers.” Vos said five such warehouses had already been constructed in Tanzania and had generated major improvements in pharmaceutical logistics and supply chain. “The warehouse includes receiving, dispatch, racked storage, cold room facilities, offices, ablutions and other facilities for staff such as kitchens. It is a very costeffective way to put up a warehouse – especially in countries where there are infrastructure and construction constraints.” Vos said that any size warehouse can be designed based on the specific needs of the area and it can be rapidly deployed on site as it is prefabricated in a factory under controlled conditions. “It is up to 30% faster to assemble than the conventional brick and mortar warehouses, but the product on the ground is as durable and has all the same attributes in place.” He said instead of pharmaceuticals now having to be housed in unsafe and uncontrolled spaces, the delivery of the warehouses in boxes has changed the environment for pharmaceutical warehousing in Tanzania. According to Vos, talks are under way to grow the model and implement it in other countries struggling to deliver modern warehousing. “What is just as important is that the process includes the training of staff in warehouse management and operations,” he said. “It is an innovative turnkey solution to provide the necessary infrastructure on the ground, but at the same time very necessary skills transfer is taking place through the training programme, which is just as important.” INSERT & CAPTION It is up to 30% faster to assemble than the conventional brick and mortar warehouses, but the product on the ground is as durable and has all the same attributes in place. – Deon Vos