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The average person in today's society must have made an online purchase, especially through the Shopee application. The bulk of orders received, including goods from within and outside the country, certainly require a structured, organized and efficient distribution system so that the goods can be delivered safely and precisely to the customer's doorstep.
Therefore, DDR SPX Express, Pulau Indah, Selangor is a warehouse or hub location where goods ordered through Shopee, whether from within or abroad, are placed and distributed systematically before being delivered to customers. That being said, the writer recently had the opportunity to go there to see and feel for himself the experience of being at the DDR SPX Express Distribution Center. All packages received will go through 4 main processes namely First Mile, Sorting Center, Linehaul and Last Mile Delivery.
First Mile – a process where the driver will pick up the package directly from the seller or from the drop off point location to be taken to the DDR SPX Express Distribution Center.
Sorting Center - the second process is where all the packages will be placed to be distributed according to the receiving area.
Linehaul – Parcels that have been sorted according to the receiving area will be sent to the Last Mile hub closest to the receiving area across the state.
Last Mile Delivery – Couriers will pick up packages from the Last Mile hub and deliver to the customer. This Last Mile location is also a location for customers who want to receive items by self collect.
Therefore, the writer's visit to the SPX Express Distribution Center allows the writer to see for himself how the goods distribution process takes place before all the goods are sent to the Last Mile. For the goods distribution process at DDR SPX Express, it involves 5 important channels namely Unloading, Cross Belt System, Outbound Sorting System, Staging Area and Line Haul.
Unloading Area
The Unloading Area is the first area in the goods distribution process that takes place at the DDR SPZ Express Distribution Center where the lorry arriving from the First Mile will move out the goods brought in the Unloading Area. All of these items will then go through the separation process where as many as 50 channels are available in the Unloading Area and allow items to be separated on a large scale at one time.
Cross Belt System
Next, the packages that have been unloaded at the Unloading Area will be separated according to size and weight using the Cross Belt System (CBS). However, only packages that conform to specifications and flat surfaces will go through the process at CBS. Packages that are too large, round and non-static will not go through this process but will be processed manually. The scanning of the QR code on the package will be done automatically by the camera which allows the delivery information of the goods to be identified.
The packages whose location and delivery information have been identified will go through the channel that has been set according to the delivery area. All the packages are then directly brought into sacks to go through the Outbound Sorting System (OBS) process.
Outbound Sorting System (OBS)
Then in this OBS channel, the package from CBS will once again go through the second scanning and distribution process (tier 2 sorting) to identify the location of the hub that will be sent to. In addition, sacks from CBS will also go through OBS and will be taken to the Staging Area.
Staging Area
This Staging Area is an area where all packages and bags that have been distributed will be placed before being sent to the Last Mile for the purpose of delivery to the hub. There are as many as 130 SPX Express hubs throughout Malaysia.
Line Haul
Line Haul refers to the transportation method for the purpose of delivering packages and sacks that have been ready to be distributed to their respective hubs. Only hub areas in peninsular Malaysia will use Line Haul Truck, while for Sabah and Sarawak, SPX Express will use two types of transport, namely sea and air transport. As such, this is the last channel that all packages ordered through the Shopee application need to go through before being sent to the hub and picked up by the courier to be delivered to the customer's home or wherever the customer specifies.
The application of technology through the sophistication of operating tools, channel structuring and the system applied by Shopee at SPX Express is seen to be very organized and efficient while increasing the value of the productivity of Shopee's goods delivery service nationwide. This indirectly shows the efforts of SPX Express to further improve the quality of their services over time.