About the ILC

The Integrated Logistics Centre opened its doors on 11 September 2009 to provide the ILC shareholders with a neutral planning facility, with focus given to supply chain collaboration.

In October 2010, the participants incorporated the company under the Australian Corporations Act 2001 and operate under a Shareholders' Agreement and Company Constitution.

In September 2019, the ILC moved to its current location at Evans Avenue Mackay to provide a coordination facility to be used by all service provider shareholders in the event of a natural disaster or other significant supply chain disruptive event.

ILC Building - Evans Avenue, North Mackay

Company Structure

The ILC comprises of 10 full time employees; 6 that reside in Brisbane, Queensland and 4 in Mackay, Queensland.

The ILC is accountable to the ILC Board. All shareholders of the ILC attend the ILC Board.

The image on the right illustrates the organisational structure, reporting and accountability of the ILC.

Shareholder Structure

There are 4 different classes of shareholders within the ILC which are illustrated by the diagram.

Shareholders are separated into financial and non-financial members; financial members fund the ILC whereas non-financial members do not. For Class A shareholders, their stake in the ILC is defined by the company’s percentage share of DBCT’s annual contracted capacity of 85 Mt.

Key Functions of the ILC

Some of the functions the ILC offers to its shareholders include:

Master Planning
Long Term Forecasting
Supply Chain Performance Reporting
Improvement Initiatives
Capacity Analysis
Tailored Simulation Modelling
Supply Chain Analytics
Process Development / Deployment
Stakeholder Project Analysis

Advantages of the ILC

The ILC is in a unique position as an unbiased independent body. Unlike any other stakeholder in the DBCC, the ILC has a shareholder base providing access to key data and information across the entire supply chain. The ILC amplifies this unique advantage by combining unparalleled data access with logistical expertise. This enables the ILC to deliver shareholder requirements in a collaborative manner while maintaining high standards of data security, confidentiality, accuracy and integrity.

Effects of the ILC

As previously stated, the ILC was introduced to address the seriously underperforming DBCC. Frustrations were felt by the participants as well as the Queensland State Government and intervention from an independent body was required to ensure contract realization.

Prior to ILC, each participant only had visibility of their own company and had little to no understanding of how their internal processes may have repercussions on the supply chain. Many attempts were made to pinpoint where the issue lied, but no individual participant had the right tools to make a comprehensive assessment. Internal assessments indicated individual asset capacity far in excess of contract which caused circular blame deflection amongst participants.

Independent assessment confirmed that when there was certainty of supply, the assets either matched or far exceeded contractual obligation. However, unbeknownst to the participants, it was their process’ interaction with each other that was causing the constraint. Conflicting participant objectives and Key Performance Indicators ensured that supply chain performance was not the priority.

Achievements - Independent Supply Chain Reporting

ILC introduced comprehensive reporting of the DBCT coal chain through its Supply Chain Analytics (SCA) system. The system is based in the QlikView program and allows for timely and accurate reporting of key metrics that are imperative to supply chain performance monitoring.

Prior to ILC’s appointment into the DBCC, reporting followed no structure and participants were only able to report on their own performance; essentially coal chain reporting did not exist. Following ILC’s appointment into the DBCC, the coal chain performance reporting process was centralized. Prior to centralization, duplication of and conflicting performance data was quite common; there was no one source of truth.

ILC was able to compile an all-encompassing performance reporting framework to ensure all performance reporting within the DBCC originated from one source; and most importantly that source is independent.

The SCA system is dynamic and allows for fast-paced, interactive and above all accurate reporting. Testimonials from current stakeholders have praised the response time of ILC when data requests are made stating that it is “staggeringly fast compared to other sources of data”.

The SCA system has been designed with improvement identification in mind. The structure allows for quick response to problems as they arise, as well as identifying when the process has done well to ensure resources aren’t wasted trying to find a problem that doesn’t exist. The structure ILC uses is as follows:

First tier metrics – Was there a problem? (Throughput did not match plan)
Second tier metrics – Where in the process has the problem occurred?
Third tier metrics – What assets contribute to the part of the process where the problem occurred?

It’s this structure that allows ILC to identify targeted improvement opportunities and have them escalated in a timely manner to ensure the ongoing success of the supply chain.

Achievements - DBCC Constraint Identification and Alleviation

While substantial investment has been made in the DBCC assets to produce a saleable capacity of 85 Mtpa, they have been unable to deliver more than 68 Mtpa, despite always maintaining a vessel queue which indicates that there was more demand on the supply chain than the 68 Mtpa delivered. At this throughput level the DBCC has a shortfall of 18 Mtpa of bought capacity. ILC provided an independent assessment of the assets of the coal chain due to the assumption by all stakeholders that the assets were unable to deliver the nameplate capacity of 85Mtpa. Through simulation and analysis, the discovery was made that the combined assets of DBCT were indeed able to deliver the tonnes; however, how they were being used was affecting their capacity. The recommendation from ILC focused on getting the process under control before wasting capital on upgrading an asset that has ample capacity.

The DBSCC Operating Methodology design and implementation period spanned from December 2014 to July 2015 after which a trial was implemented in August 2015. The chart above shows the remarkable turnaround of the coal chain from primarily asset constrained to primarily demand constrained which can be traced to the introduction of the new operating mode. Since the implementation of the new operating mode, the DBCC has not experienced an asset constrained month. Following the conclusion of the trial in December 2015, the DBSCC Operating Methodology has since become part of the terminal regulations and considered normal operation.

The introduction of the DBSCC Operating Methodology, and the concurrence by the asset owners and operators in adopting this methodology, has substantially changed the vessel queue distribution curve; unlike other years the vessel turnaround time is achieving a far greater level of consistency. This provides further evidence that the assets are processing the demands of the supply chain with increased ease over any previous comparable year. Perhaps the most impressive result of the new operating mode is the relative ease in which the coal chain is able to achieve throughput.