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Santanu Sanyal

Ascentis, an advanced freight processing facility at Heathrow Airport, set up by BAWC, has been designed to avoid bottlenecks and queuing.

recently in London

THE world of freight forwarding is constantly on the move, with goods crossing time zones and freighters travelling from one part of the world to another. Therefore, it is important for cargo carriers to create an environment that will offer customer-friendly services.

With this objective in view British Airways World Cargo (BAWC), an independent profit centre within British Airways, has set up Ascentis, an advanced freight processing facility at Heathrow Airport, to provide customers worldwide with quality service that supports delivery of freight fast and efficiently.

"This unique purpose-built facility is the result of significant investment, planning and resource," according to Mr Gareth Kirkwood, Managing Director, BAWC. "Our aim is to create real competitive advantage for customers, and that requires a single-minded commitment to delivering our service promise on time, every time."

An estimated £300 million has been spent on creating the facility and it includes about £100 million on development of software and training for the staff.

The size of investment is rather steep but not without reasons. The moment cargo arrives at Heathrow by any of the BA or BAWC's services, Ascentis takes over.

ALERTS (Aircraft Logistics Electronic Resource Tracking System) quickly identifies the origin and destination of the consignment, speedily processes the necessary information and requests the first available vehicle to transport the consignment in and out of Ascentis. Transporting from awaiting vehicles to Ascentis is undertaken in record time through several initiatives.

Thus, multiple airside infeeds prevent congestion and delay and there is a fast transfer from the truck dock to the ULD (unit loading device) store.

The ULD store is the first and last point of call for goods moving in and out of Ascentis, with the exception of out-of-gauge freight that is stored on purpose-built racking on the ground floor. It contains 2,500 store positions for units and pallets. This makes the transfer of goods from airside through to the break and build areas, or directly to the customer vehicle, fast and simple.

It is amazing how being in the right place at the right time creates confidence and calm. The Ascentis Cage Store is one such place. Designed to store loose freight before it is built into units, cage store houses 9,000 cages over five levels moved by 80 automatic hoists and 75 cage transfer vehicles. There will be authorised access only for safety and security and laser-guided transfer of vehicles.

Each consignment will be physically located in a single cage and scanned (barcode scanned on both consignment and cargo) and every movement is traceable through the operation. A lot of thought has gone into Ascentis to alleviate many of the physically demanding tasks normally associated with the handling of freight. Thirty-six manipulators, dynamically suspended from the ceiling, have replaced forklift trucks in the core handling area that makes light work of breaking and building consignments.

Managed by a trained operator, they can rotate 360 degrees, giving the operator exceptional control when lifting weights of up to 1,000 kg.

Keeping goods moving is essential to any successful logistics operation. The facilities at Ascentis have been designed to avoid bottlenecks and queuing. Once the paperwork is over, unitised freight is transferred quickly and directly from the moving truck docks to the ULD store.

The two moving truck docks service eight doors. Collection and deliveries can be processed at the same door. The operation provides manned and automated assistance the moment the truck arrives. Security is another area that gets a lot of importance in Ascentis. Entrance to the truck doors is through automated security gates, activated by the driver with a security token issued at the Ascentis gateposts. The security gates are complemented with 24-hour CCTV surveillance.

In the security zones, there are 25 docking doors. Doors 1 and 2 are for goods needing special security handling, 3-10 are for unitised freight and 11-25 are for loose freight. Ascentis was commissioned nearly 18 months ago. Initially there were some problems, normal in any such major venture. In the beginning the old and the Ascentis systems functioned side by side. Subsequently, the old system was dismantled.

The synchronisation of the operation in the new state-of-the-art environment took some time too.

All those problems are now things of the past. With people and technology working together, Ascentis is now geared to offer a dynamic new concept in freight forwarding.

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