It is June 2019, and Lillian Lim of Mackor Consultancy, a third-party consultancy in Singapore, is at the newest warehouse of her client, KYY Group, a major third-party logistics provider. Headquartered in Singapore, KYY’s business activities span Asia.

In 2013, the company started construction of a US$200 million logistics hub. With two million square feet of warehouse space and a million square feet of office space, it would house the KYY Group’s headquarters, as well as its research and warehousing facilities. The new logistics hub was due to open in late 2019, and would comprise the latest supply-chain and logistics automation technology.

Lim’s company was hired to do a study on the improvements that could be made to increase the profitability of KYY’s warehouse operations at the hub. To do this, she needs to understand the expected pattern of supply and demand for goods at the warehouse, and the current process of storage and retrieval of inventory. She has to make a presentation on her preliminary findings in two weeks’ time to KYY Group’s senior management.