Mr. Bartuli, you said that a part of the Karl Gross on-site logistics is often the inspection of incoming goods and the preparation of installation. What exactly does that look like?

Once the goods are unloaded at their assigned place on-site, it is time for a thorough check-up. The main questions are whether the delivery is complete and if there are damages visible.

The inspection of the delivery also includes squaring the complete content with a detailed packing list. That can be quite a “mammoth task”, as we are talking about the inspection of ten thousands of parts. In case of larger projects detailed packing lists often contain more than 10,000 single items. Nonetheless, it is important to know, whether for example all the screws, which should have been delivered, are actually on-site. That may sound trivial, but is necessary for a smooth workflow. It costs time and money if the assembly needs to be stopped due to missing screws. Part of the inspection of incoming good is a constant reporting to the site management, so that, if necessary, they can react quickly and reorder any missing quantities, which are then delivered by air freight for instance, to keep the assembling process running.

And what do you do in installation preparation?

After all the packages have been checked, we hand them over to the assembly teams once they are needed and document the handover accordingly. We act as a kind of “warehouse stock manager” on the construction site.

So the assembly teams do not have direct access to the parts?

You can’t exactly say it like that. The assembly team tells us what is needed and receives the corresponding parts. So yes, there is generally no “self-service”. Just consider that shipping containers are generally stowed in terms of space efficiency and not in terms of “all material for machine xyz”. It is quite common for the components of one machine to be spread between five different containers or for the components of several machines to be stowed in the same container. You really have to have a complete overview.

Missing parts are always an issue on construction sites. Our intensive supervision of the parts on-site and the detailed documentation of the inventory minimizes the risk of that and makes it easier to trace where missing parts went. Our job is done once all parts have been properly handed over for assembly.

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