物流現場で働く加藤亜美（係長）が、パワハラ・セクハラにもめげずに努力して、やがて課長に昇進し、結婚・出産しても仕事を諦めない物語です。

◆英単語、表現
rampant : 〔恐ろしいほどに〕まん延した、広がった、はびこった

Title: Chase the Palette! -Challenges of young women in the field of logistics-

My name is Ami Kato, and I am one of the young women who works in logistics. I am the chief of staff at the company.

Our workplace is a distribution center that transports cargo to and from Japan and overseas. We are mainly engaged in delivery and shipping operations, but recently we have also been in charge of cross-docking and picking.

Our work is one of the most demanding in the field of logistics. In the warehouse, we use forklifts to transport pallets and containers and store them in racks on a daily basis. And in deliveries and shipments, you load cargo onto the truck bed and run to deliver it to its destination.

However, this logistics site also has its drawbacks. Harassment is rampant. We women are subject to unreasonable demands and verbal abuse from male employees, and in some cases, our bodies are even touched.

In order to face such a situation, we are united and working like chasing pallets. We believe that by improving our material handling technology and exploring more efficient transport methods, we can create an environment in which women working in logistics can work with greater peace of mind.

I was promoted to section manager. She told me that the reason I became a section manager was because her boss recognized the attitude of women to stand up against harassment. I myself have also maintained the desire to protect our position and make the logistics site better.

Even after becoming a manager, we women are working together to improve logistics sites. Our distribution center had a high volume of pallet stacks and frequent pallet shortages. So we decided to work on improving inventory management. In order to use the racks efficiently, we were able to solve the pallet shortage problem by reviewing the pallet storage method and sorting out unnecessary inventory.

On the other hand, I got married and had a child. However, I did not give up on continuing my work. I took maternity leave, and after giving birth, I aimed to balance childcare and work. My husband supported my work and helped me raise my children.

Before I returned from maternity leave, our distribution center underwent training to improve my forklift driving skills. I was trained and learned new techniques. After returning to work, we women had more opportunities to use forklifts, so we worked on safer and more efficient forklift operation.

On a daily basis, I struggled to balance work and child-rearing, while working hard to improve the logistics site. At our distribution center, we decided to work on efficient delivery of cargo through cross-docking. By sorting cargo by container and reducing picking in the warehouse, we were able to significantly shorten the time to shipment.

We also paid attention to material handling at the logistics site. We were looking for a safer and more efficient transportation method that could be done not only by forklift but also by hand. We also reviewed inventory management and worked to optimize inventory.

Our bosses were also paying attention to the growth of us women. Our distribution center has also been attracting attention as a workplace where women play an active role, and there have been calls to incorporate it from other distribution centers.

Even after returning from maternity leave, my superiors trusted me and I was sometimes appointed as the leader of a new project. That project was about export. We were able to secure the quality and delivery time required for export while working to improve the logistics site by working on the necessary procedures and documents for export.

I was aiming for my own growth, aiming for women to play an active role in the logistics field. And we women were balancing work and home and facing various problems. We aimed to increase the presence of women in the logistics field and improve the logistics industry as a whole.