Indigenous 
Carla Kingston-Floyd, Professor/ Coordinator, Supply Chain Management Graduate Certificate Program
Supply Chain Management students were warmly welcomed to attend a tour of the highly innovation Giant Tiger Distribution Centre in Johnstown, ON last week. After signing in and receiving our visitor badges, we were led to a nice meeting room where Tara Migneault, Head of Supply Chain Integration, gave us an overview of Giant Tiger, the facility, and some safety protocols before being split into smaller groups to head out on the floor for the tour.
Five groups led by Tony Baker, Joel Loiselle, Richard St. Pierre, Cody Rioux and Tara Migneault headed in different directions showing us the various pieces of material handling equipment (MHE) used in the facility before getting us excited to see the robots in action!
“It was an impressive experience! One of my personal highlights was watching the robots sort freight, wrap it up, and organize everything for dispatch. I was also fascinated by the Symbotics robots working in perfect coordination, precision and moving freight together seamlessly” says current SCM student, Kodzo Latey.
The facility is designed to be a safe, efficient, and enjoyable workspace for their employees. It has a massive dining area equipped with numerous microwaves, a fresh walk-through market, and commercial fridges for employee use. Beyond that, the facility houses a fully equipped gym, game space, showers, and quiet private rooms. It was easy to see the employees are happy to be there as they all had big smiles and happily shared information with us.
My favourite part of the tour was watching the ‘bot’ take itself to the ‘hospital’ to be worked on by the ‘Bot Surgeon’. I want to thank Tara and her team for this wonderful student experience; it is great for the students to see the theory put into action. I also want to thank Peter Collins for coming with us to help prepare us for what we could expect to see in a distribution centre.