Less than 10 months away from hosting the first Olympics in its history, Brazil, and especially Rio de Janeiro, are preparing for the enormous challenge of organizing the greatest sporting event in the world. There are many characteristics of games that bring great complexity to logistical planning, as illustrated in Figure 1. Minis et al. (2006), are they:
- transitory character: the logistical planning of the Olympic Games starts more than a year in advance and is aimed at an operation that lasts only two weeks and, after the closure, must be completely demobilized.
- Dimensão: thousands of athletes, professionals and spectators participate and watch the event
- Demand diversity and uncertainty: it is necessary to control, store and distribute a huge variety of items, ranging from the shuttlecocks used in badminton to the ice used by medical commissions. In addition, there is little knowledge about the quantity and distribution of demand, so athletes can request items from their country within days of the opening ceremony.
- fixed schedule: the start and end date of the Olympics, as well as the schedule of the games, are defined years in advance and cannot be changed.
- Big impact of the error: the Olympic games hardly admit mistakes. Any failure can have huge implications and there is virtually no time to improve processes or train staff further.
- Mixed and inexperienced team: Generally, the workforce used in the games is inexperienced in events of this size and is hired with little notice. In addition, a huge portion of professionals are volunteers.
- Need for integration: the logistics area has an interface with a huge number of agents (athletes, public, sports committees, media and press, among others) and it is necessary to attend to everyone at the time, place and conditions requested
Figure 1 – Complicating factors for the logistics of the Olympic Games
Source: ILOS (adapted from Minis et al. (2006))
At the forefront of the logistical activities of transport, storage and distribution of material for the mega-event will be Correios, chosen as the official logistics operator for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic games and the first public postal service in the world to carry out this operation.
Closing the XXI International Supply Chain Forum, the Vice President of Logistics at Correios, José Furian Filho, presented to the public an overview of the operation that is being planned for next year and what the company's role will be during the games.
During the 2007 Pan American Games, also held in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the Post Office was in charge of all the transport and assembly of the structure of the event. The successful experience 8 years ago was decisive for choosing the company. However, the challenge ahead will be even greater.
According to José Furian Filho, in a presentation held at the XXI International Supply Chain Forum, to serve the nearly 15.000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes from over 200 countries, more than 30 million items will need to be moved, such as parts of sports equipment, participants' luggage, television transmission apparatus, medical supplies and competition and non-competition venue furniture. In addition to delivering the 7,5 million available tickets, moving more than 8.600 anti-doping samples between arenas and analysis laboratories, 5.000 award medals and 500 firearms used by shooting athletes are examples of distribution operations of high complexity inherent to the event.
The budget provided for in the logistics contract provides Correios with a total of 180 million reais to carry out the Rio 2016 operation, which will have around 2.600 people (255 employees), 170 trucks and 2.000 cargo handling equipment. For the storage of items, there will be 100.000 m² in total, in which the Main Distribution Center (MDC) located in Duque de Caxias stands out, which alone has a storage capacity of 75.000 m². The logistical command center will be located in Barra da Tijuca, the neighborhood where the largest number of competitions will take place (23 Olympic sports will be held in the region) and where the Parque dos Atletas is located. Logistics will not only cover the city of Rio de Janeiro. Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Brasília, São Paulo and Salvador will host men's and women's football games and are also included in the logistics operation radius.
Operation planning began in 2014, before the contract was signed (in January of this year), and will end just 35 months later, with the complete demobilization of the structure in 2017. However, still in 2012, a special team of professionals dos Correios was at the London Olympics, with the aim of closely observing the logistics of this type of event and helping to prepare for the service that would be his responsibility 4 years later. During the 2014 Winter Olympics, held in the Russian city of Sochi, and at the 2014 World Cup, held in Brazil, this same team was present, seeking to increase its experience in sporting mega-events. The objective was to identify good practices that could be replicated in Rio de Janeiro, and to prepare for not repeating failures like the one that occurred in the 2008 Olympic Games in China, in which the organization of the event lost one of the poles of the Brazilian jumper Fabiana Murer.
Running the world's largest non-military logistics operation will take a lot of planning and work. However, realizing its goal of delivering memorable games, Correios will take a huge step towards its goal of no longer being seen only as couriers and being recognized as one of the largest logistics companies in the country.
References
Minis, I.; Paraschi, M.; Tzimourtas , A. The design of logistics operations for the Olympic Games. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, v.36, n.8, p. 621-642, 2006.
Accessed in:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435915000214>
Fernanda Monteiro
More than 11 years of experience in training and consultancy projects, focusing on Logistics and Supply Chain. In consultancy, he carried out projects such as Transformational Logistics Plan, Diagnosis of logistics operations, Strategy and Calendarization of Transport Operations, Measuring the Cost of Serving, Market Study, Mapping of Inventory Reduction Opportunities, Review of the S&OP Process, Management Plan Training and Implementation of Commercial Processes in companies such as Nestlé, Raia Drogasil, Ipiranga, Lojas Americanas, B2W, Coca-Cola, Andina, Embraco, Martins Atacado, Loja do Mecânico, Santo Antônio Energia, Ecoporto and Silimed. She is currently one of the teachers of the Inventory Management Course taught every six months by ILOS. She worked on the development and management of Online Courses in Logistics and Supply Chain, Supply Processes, Demand Planning, Inventory Management and Industrial Management. Still in the training area, she was responsible for applying ILOS business games in companies such as Raia Drogasil, Fibria, NEC, Novartis and Moove.
