Critical investigation of in-plant logistics: Case study at a Coal Washery Plant

In-Plant logistics is one of the most important sections within enterprises, especially in the large manufacturing companies. It manages, arranges, plans and delivers the finished products. It is an indispensable part of the supply chain, as well as reflects the result of implementation company strategy. This paper critically analyses the in-plant logistics in a large Coal Washery Plant. The existing operational practices have several bottlenecks in dispatch and movement of trucks due to which the actual truck turnaround time is significantly higher than the target turnaround time. By use of historic and real-time data analysis, this investigation identifies reasons of high turn-around time of trucks inside the Plant. The results bring forward possible suggestions to reduce the turn-around time by deploying additional resources, re-defining some identified works and changing some operational practices. The implementation of the suggestions will improve the performance and productivity of the in-plant logistics by significantly reducing the overall turn-around time.