Eman Nourahmed

Field Experience: Modjo Dry Port, WFP Adama & Bahir Dar Textile Research As part of our final year in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Bahir Dar University, we had the opportunity to combine real-world exposure with hands-on research, gaining insight into how logistics functions across very different operational contexts. Modjo Dry Port gave us a firsthand look at the "Gate-to-Release" process, the discipline of securing and verifying every container entering the country, and how documentation must be perfectly synchronized with physical cargo movement before release. It reshaped our understanding of a port as not just machinery and containers, but a system run by skilled professionals keeping trade moving. UN WFP Warehouse, Adama showed us humanitarian logistics in practice; distinct stacking and handling protocols for Food versus Non-Food Items, rigorous physical inventory counting, and how mobilization to high-risk areas requires a careful balance of data accuracy, coordination, and empathy for the people ultimately served. Our research at Bahir Dar Textile Share Company brought these lessons full circle. Studying a legacy manufacturer still reliant on manual tracking let us see, in practice, what happens without the kind of real-time visibility WFP and Modjo depend on: 38.69% machinery downtime from spare part stock-outs, frozen working capital in obsolete assets, and a striking spatial paradox of cluttered floors next to empty vertical storage. Surveying warehouse staff, interviewing management, and physically auditing the facility taught us how theory (ABC/VED classification, ERP/RFID, lead time management) translates, or fails to translate, into practice when training, policy, and technology aren't aligned. Together, the site visits and the research reinforced the same core lesson: inventory management isn't just a clerical task but a strategic function that determines whether an organization can move goods, serve people, or stay competitive.