On arrival at the Mercedes-Benz spare part facility the students were divided into groups and guided on an in-depth tour of the cross-dock operation. The tour commenced at the receiving end where parts are received from local and international suppliers. From there students had the opportunity to walk through the offloading and sorting-stations, where goods are unpacked, counted and checked.

Next was the system documentation, inbound stations, outbound stations, repackaging of goods, quality control, security checks and finally the dispatch areas for each of the different regional dealers.

The systems, tools and documentation used to keep track of the inventory moving through this spare parts operation of the supply chain were explained in detail to the students, and their questions were answered.

The next facility on the programme was the Johannesburg Distribution Centre of Caterpillar. The students were welcomed with a finger lunch and an in-depth presentation on the logistics operations at Caterpillar by Mr Alex Lake, whereafter they where taken on a professional facility tour and learned about the inner workings of the facility.