In this article, you’ll learn about:
2- Digitizing Yard Operations: From Pen and Paper to Mobile Apps and Cloud Systems
3- Process Automation: Enhancing Efficiency and Reducing Errors
4- Dock Management: Enhancing Productivity and Reducing Congestion
5- Choosing the Right Yard Management System for You: A Buyer's Guide
6- Build or Buy? The Case for Purchasing a Cloud-Based Yard Management System
7- Conclusion: A Brighter Future with Smart Yard Management
Introduction
Yard management is the unseen force that enables the complex dance of logistics to unfold with precision and efficiency.
It lies at the critical juncture of transportation and warehousing, ensuring that the movement of goods from production facilities to distribution centers, and onwards to their final destination, is smooth and uninterrupted.
Despite being an unsung hero of sorts in the supply chain, it commands an indispensable role.
The seemingly mundane act of orchestrating truck movements, managing dock doors, and monitoring freight is, in reality, a highly intricate process that can significantly influence a company's bottom line and customer satisfaction levels.
However, conventional yard management practices are often fraught with challenges. Do you feel constantly frustrated by:
- The persistent issue of gate congestion
- The inefficiencies of trailer management
- The tension between you and your customers when there are delayed shipments
The traditional model of yard management can be a source of bottlenecks in the otherwise smooth flow of logistics.
This old-school approach, reliant on manual record-keeping and face-to-face communication, often struggles to keep up with the pace and complexity of modern logistics operations.
Moreover, in the absence of real-time visibility, yard managers may find themselves navigating the operational landscape blindfolded, leading to sub-optimal asset utilization and poor scheduling decisions.
The good news is that we now stand on the cusp of a new era in yard management, thanks to rapid technological advancements.
Yard Management Systems (YMS) equipped with cutting-edge technologies like GPS tracking, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and mobile applications are providing compelling solutions to these age-old problems.
These systems serve as a beacon of operational efficiency, illuminating the path to streamlined operations, cost savings, and improved safety compliance.
As we delve deeper into this article, we will explore how these technological solutions are reshaping the face of yard management in the trucking industry.
1- What's Yard Management?
Yard management is about handling load within the yard of a manufacturing plant, warehouse, or a big distribution center. It is a complex execution in logistics that requires in-depth planning, precise coordination, and timely actions.
This is a crucial aspect of logistics and supply chain management, particularly for manufacturing plants, warehouses, distribution centers, and transportation hubs such as ports and railyards.
A. 10 Yard Management Terms Every Logistics Professional Should Know
Understanding the ins and outs of yard management is more than just logistics. It's a strategic advantage that can dramatically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of any company's operations.
The terms discussed here represent the pieces of a larger puzzle, where each component is interlinked, impacting overall performance. Mastery of these concepts allows teams to transform their yards from simple storage spaces into dynamic, efficient engines that drive the supply chain forward.
1-Terminal
The terminal acts as the heart of the yard. It coordinates the logistics and other tasks crucial for smooth yard operations. This central hub manages inbound and outbound movements, ensuring that vehicles, trailers, and cargo are efficiently processed.
The terminal facilitates communication between different parts of the yard and supply chain, integrating data from TMS, WMS, and dock scheduling to optimize the flow. This integration becomes vital to minimizing turnaround times and improving accuracy and service levels.
By serving as the command center, the terminal ensures that logistics operations are executed effectively, supporting the overall goal of maintaining a responsive and agile supply chain.
2-Tower
Yard Tower is a digital hub designed to monitor and improve operations at yards in warehouses, distribution centers, or manufacturing sites.
This central control system provides a complete view of the yard in real time. It enables tracking the status and location of trucks and trailers, overseeing dock scheduling, and coordinating resource deployment.
With features like real-time tracking, dock appointment management, gate control, inventory oversight, and resource allocation, the yard tower plays a significant role in streamlining yard activities.
It not only aids in reducing idle times and improving productivity but also boosts safety and compliance by automating processes and providing alerts for unusual activities.
Integrating a yard tower with existing yard management system YMS or tools like TMS and WMS further enhances operational visibility and decision-making.
So, while the terminal operates as the central command, focusing on strategic oversight and coordination of logistics operations, the yard tower specializes in real-time monitoring and control, keeping track of vehicles and trailers within the yard, managing appointments, and ensuring quick and efficient resource allocation.
While the terminal sets the strategy for smooth operations, the yard tower provides the digital oversight needed to execute these strategies.
3-Reefer
Refrigerated or reefer containers help move perishable goods that require constant temperature. They have cooling units that can maintain the temperature throughout transit.
Reefers can keep temperatures from as warm as +25 ° C to -25° C, suitable for chilled and frozen products like fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish (fresh or frozen) and milk, dairy products, flowers, pharmaceuticals, concentrated juice, and chocolate.
However, select containers can go even colder, going as low as -35° C, and then there are specialized units, termed super freezers, that can maintain temperatures at -70° C.
In addition to temperature control, reefers come with a humidity regulation feature.
This feature can help manage moisture levels in the air to stay within a range of 60% to 85% relative humidity (RH), though some of the latest models can adjust the humidity level to 50%.
The size and capacity of these refrigerated containers can vary based on the manufacturer, the age of the unit, and its owner. Common types of reefer containers include:
- 20-foot reefer,
- 40-foot reefer,
- 40-foot high cube reefer, and
- 45-foot reefer, among others, provides flexibility for different cargo needs.
4-Turn Around Time (TAT)
Turn time is a critical metric that denotes a truck's time in the yard from arrival to departure.
While the definition appears straightforward, turnaround time can be challenging to manage. And the disadvantages of higher TAT are many:
- Waiting for loading or unloading accrues drivers' costs, which delays operations and can lead to carrier detention charges and higher overall costs.
- The delays impact warehouse employees' regular duties, like picking and placing items, affecting their overall productivity.
- There are higher costs in-house, such as overtime to dock staff when there's an unexpected surge in trucks towards the end of a workday.
- Loading multiple deliveries simultaneously to save time can complicate resource allocation and planning.
- The unnecessary pressure and stress on the team and management can affect morale and efficiency.
5-Less than Truckload (LTL)
Less than Truckload (LTL) shipping manages smaller freight loads. It combines shipments from multiple shippers into one truck to optimize space and other resources.
This method offers significant cost benefits, allowing businesses with smaller freight volumes to share transportation costs and making professional shipping services more affordable to them.
LTL shipping also provides environmental benefits by maximizing available truck space, reducing the number of vehicles on the road, and reducing carbon emissions.
So overall, LTL is excellent for cost savings for small to medium-sized businesses and supports a greener, more efficient transportation industry.
6- Queue Management
Queue management in yard management system YMS further enhances the efficiency of yard operations. It optimizes the flow of incoming and outgoing trucks, managing their loading and unloading to prevent bottlenecks and delays.
Proper queue management reduces waiting times and improves the throughput of goods and truck turnaround.
Queue management via a modern-day yard management system YMS uses real-time data to prioritize trucks and promptly attend to urgent deliveries, improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
7-Shunters (Yard Jockey)
Shunters, also known as yard jockeys or hostlers, are specialized operators who drive trucks and tractors within the yard to move trailers from one location to another.
This movement can be between loading docks and parking spots. Their work ensures that trailers are ready in advance for loading or unloading.
This preparedness helps in significantly minimizing delays in the supply chain.
Shunters are vital to maintaining a smooth logistic flow, optimizing space, and following queueing management inputs to meet yard targets.
8-Trailer Pool
A trailer pool is a reserve of readily available trailers, done as a strategic move in the yard.
Owners of transportation equipment maintain a shared space where empty trailers are stored.
This setup lets drivers pick up and leave these trailers as needed, supporting an on-demand use model without waiting for the loading and unloading of goods.
Such an arrangement of trailer pools enables drivers to perform more efficient trailer exchanges — dropping off one and hooking up to another — instead of the slower process of live loading.
This system reduces wait times for drivers at customer locations since they can swiftly switch between empty and loaded trailers, which might be stationed on the premises or nearby.
This method also allows shippers to manage their loading activities more flexibly. They're not forced to pause their workflow to handle incoming or outgoing goods, allowing for continual operation and maximizing productivity.
9-Drop & Hook
This technique involves dropping a trailer at a location for later pickup and immediately hooking it up to another trailer.
When employed effectively, this method is known to enhance driver productivity by 35%, according to the Transportation and Logistics Council.
The trailer pool makes drop-and-hook possible. With a trailer pool, trailers are always available for drivers to hook up to and continue their route. It helps improve the efficiency of the loading and unloading process by reducing idle time for drivers, which is critical for operations that rely on quick turnaround times.
10-Yard Check (Yard Audit)
Lastly, a yard check, or audit, is the heartbeat of yard management. This process involves a regular inventory of all trailers and containers in the yard.
Businesses often have detailed standard operating procedures for managing warehouse activities, yet the same level of detailed attention is usually not applied to the processes happening in the yard.
Regular yard audits are crucial for maintaining a robust and reliable supply chain that consistently delivers optimal results.
By becoming proficient in the nuances of yard inspections, businesses can significantly improve the smoothness and efficiency of their operations.
Consider it akin to a regular wellness check-up or proactive upkeep for yard activities.
B. The Importance of Visibility
Imagine the scenario: the clock is ticking, and your cargo needs to be on the move to meet a strict delivery window.
The key to making this happen? An empty trailer. But where is it? If you don't know the location of your assets in real-time, you're essentially playing a high-stakes game of hide and seek, and that's a game no logistics operation can afford to play.
This highlights the absolute importance of real-time visibility on yard assets, from knowing exactly where your trailers and tractors are parked to understanding how many empty trailers are available or missing.
It's these critical data points that transform a chaotic yard into an orchestrated symphony of logistics operations.
Real-time visibility of yard assets is a powerful tool in the modern yard manager's toolkit, serving to expedite decision-making, improve asset utilization, and ultimately reduce costs.
With real-time data at their fingertips, yard managers can swiftly locate available equipment, preventing delays in shipments and alleviating the perennial problem of gate congestion.
Furthermore, visibility provides valuable insights into yard operations, paving the way for strategic decisions that maximize operational efficiency.
By enhancing the speed and quality of decisions, real-time visibility is instrumental in avoiding costly detention charges and ensuring that the yard is always primed to meet outbound load schedules.
C. The Role of YMS in Enhancing Visibility
This is where Yard Management Systems (YMS) show their true worth.
They act as the nerve center of the yard, bringing together various innovative technologies such as RFID, IoT, and GPS to provide comprehensive, real-time visibility of yard operations.
Each tractor, trailer, and even gate entry and exit is tracked, monitored, and documented in the system, enabling yard managers to view every single movement in their yard from a centralized platform.
A yard management system YMS is much more than just a tracking tool, it's an operational game-changer. The real-time data and analytical insights it provides can be leveraged to drive efficiency, optimize asset utilization, and maximize throughput.
In other words, it brings order to the complexity of yard operations, ensures that no asset is overlooked, and shines a spotlight on opportunities for improvement.
This revolution in visibility, brought about by the integration of yard management system YMS, is setting the stage for a new level of efficiency and productivity in yard management.
2- Digitizing Yard Operations: From Pen and Paper to Mobile Apps and Cloud Systems
In the context of traditional yard management, the visual of a yard manager with a clipboard in hand, manually checking assets and communicating over the radio, is not uncommon.
This approach, steeped in tradition, has served the industry for many years. However, in the face of increasing operational complexity and competitive pressures, these manual, time-consuming processes can hamper efficiency and become a source of errors and delays.
The industry is crying out for a transition to a more efficient, modern approach to yard management.
Stepping into the breach is digital technology, bringing with it the promise of a new era of yard management that is efficient, accurate, and highly responsive.
Yard Management Systems (YMS) are leading this digital transformation.
By eliminating the need for pen and paper record-keeping and replacing radios with real-time communication tools, yard management system YMS is helping to reshape yard operations.
Digital documentation provides an accurate and up-to-date record of assets and operations, while cloud systems offer secure, accessible storage for all this vital information.
The risk of data loss or errors inherent in manual record-keeping is significantly reduced, paving the way for more reliable and efficient operations.
One of the most transformative aspects of this digital revolution is the integration of mobile applications into yard operations.
Mobile apps offer users access to the yard management system YMS from anywhere, at any time, allowing them to update the status of assets, receive notifications, and communicate with others seamlessly.
This instantaneous access to real-time data enhances decision-making, speeds up processes, and reduces the potential for miscommunication.
The result is a more agile, responsive yard operation that can swiftly adapt to changes and maintain high levels of efficiency.
The digital transformation of yard management, spearheaded by yard management system YMS, is empowering companies to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-paced world of logistics.
3- Process Automation: Enhancing Efficiency and Reducing Errors
The yard is a dynamic environment that is in constant flux, with various tasks happening simultaneously, from trucks entering and exiting to load transfers and dock management.
This bustling activity can make the yard a challenging place to manage effectively, particularly when relying on manual processes.
An abundance of repetitive tasks such as tracking trailer locations, managing gate checks, and scheduling dock appointments can consume a significant portion of a yard manager's time and energy.
It is also an environment ripe for human error, which can lead to delayed shipments, inefficient trailer use, and even safety compliance violations.
Enter process automation, a game-changing approach that employs technology to carry out repetitive tasks, thereby improving operational efficiency and reducing the likelihood of errors.
By automating routine tasks, yard managers can:
- Free up their time to focus on more strategic activities that enhance yard performance
- Ensure a higher level of accuracy and consistency in carrying out tasks
- Improve operational reliability, and ultimately better service delivery.
Yard Management Systems (YMS) sit at the forefront of this automation revolution. They can automate a multitude of yard activities, ranging from
- Dispatching spotter tasks
- Issuing gate passes
- And of course, scheduling dock appointments
Automated alerts and notifications are another vital feature, providing real-time updates on critical events like delayed trucks or vacant dock doors.
These automated notifications keep everyone in the loop, ensuring swift responses to changing yard conditions and avoiding potential delays.
Process automation not only streamlines operations but also brings a new level of visibility and control to yard management.
With automation, yard managers can quickly identify issues and address them proactively, minimizing disruptions and maintaining smooth operations.
It is through these capabilities that yard management system YMS and process automation are rewriting the playbook for yard management, making it more efficient, accurate, and reliable than ever before.
4- Dock Management: Enhancing Productivity and Reducing Congestion
In the complex orchestration of yard operations, dock management holds a significant role.
Each dock door is a critical gateway through which goods flow, connecting the yard to the warehouse or distribution center.
With trucks arriving and departing, and goods continually loaded and unloaded, dock doors must be efficiently managed to ensure the seamless flow of operations.
Poor dock management can lead to a ripple effect of delays, congestions, and increased detention charges, which not only disrupt operations but also dent the company's bottom line.
However, managing the availability of dock doors can be a significant challenge in a bustling yard environment.
Scheduling appointments, coordinating loading and unloading activities, and tracking dock occupancy can be incredibly complex tasks.
And in an environment where time is money, inefficiencies in these areas can prove costly.
Yard Management Systems (YMS) bring much-needed efficiencies to this critical aspect of yard operations.
By providing real-time visibility into dock door status, they allow yard managers to monitor and manage dock door availability effectively.
Whether it's identifying vacant docks for incoming trucks or scheduling dock appointments to balance workload, a yard management system YMS offers the capabilities needed to keep dock operations running smoothly.
The impact of efficient dock management extends beyond the yard. Effective dock management:
- Helps to reduce the waiting time for drivers
- Enhance the speed of goods movement
- Improves the overall productivity of the supply chain.
Furthermore, by reducing congestion in the yard, it can contribute to a safer and more organized working environment.
Thus, the role of yard management system YMS in dock management is not just about improving efficiency; it's about enhancing the overall operational performance and productivity of the yard.
In the demanding world of yard management, these improvements can make all the difference.
5- Choosing the Right Yard Management System YMS for You: A Buyer's Guide
With the clear advantages of adopting a Yard Management System (YMS) now evident, the next step for many organizations is choosing the right system to fit their specific needs.
The market for yard management system YMS is rich and varied, with different providers offering different features, functionalities, and pricing structures.
Here is a guide to help you navigate this complex landscape and select a system that best meets your organization's needs.
1. Understand your requirements
Before you start browsing different systems, take time to understand your organization's needs and goals.
- Are you struggling with visibility?
- Do you need better dock management?
- Or is process automation your main priority?
Identify the challenges you are facing in your yard operations and define what you want to achieve with a yard management system YMS.
This step will give you a clear direction during your search.
2. Comprehensive functionality
Look for a system that provides comprehensive functionalities that cover all aspects of yard management.
This includes real-time visibility, process automation, dock scheduling, and asset management.
Some systems may also offer additional features like predictive analytics and advanced reporting, which can be a bonus.
3. Integration capabilities
Your yard management system YMS will need to interact with other systems in your operations, such as a Warehouse Management System (WMS) or a Transportation Management System (TMS).
Therefore, check that the YMS you are considering can integrate smoothly with your existing systems.
Seamless integration will ensure a smooth flow of data across your supply chain, enhancing overall visibility and efficiency.
4. User-friendly interface
A system that is hard to use will be slow to adopt and may even face resistance from your team.
Look for a system with a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and understand.
This will speed up the learning curve and ensure your team can start benefiting from the system as quickly as possible.
5. Scalability
Choose a system that can grow with your business.
As your operations expand or become more complex, you will need a yard management system YMS that can scale up to meet these demands.
Look for a provider that offers flexible packages or additional modules that you can add on as your needs change.
6. Reliable Support
Finally, choose a provider that offers reliable, responsive customer support.
This can be crucial during the implementation phase and beyond, as you may need technical assistance or have questions about using the system.
Choosing the right yard management system YMS for your business is a significant decision, and taking the time to consider these factors can help you make the best choice.
With the right system in place, you can transform your yard operations and enjoy the benefits of increased efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced visibility.
6- Build or Buy? The Case for Purchasing a Cloud-Based Yard Management System
One of the debates organizations often face when considering a Yard Management System (YMS) is whether to build their own system in-house or buy a ready-made solution from a vendor.
While each approach has its pros and cons, for most businesses, particularly those without a deep background in software development, the scale tips significantly in favor of buying a cloud-based solution. Here's why.
1. Cost Considerations
Building your own yard management system YMS may seem like a cost-effective solution, but when you factor in the costs associated with the development lifecycle – including design, development, testing, deployment, maintenance, and upgrades – the costs can quickly escalate.
Additionally, maintaining a team of software developers is a significant ongoing expense that extends beyond just their salaries, encompassing their training, software licenses, hardware, and more.
2. Expertise and Experience
Software development is a specialized field requiring a specific set of skills and experience.
Even if your organization has software developers, it's unlikely they would have the specific expertise needed to build a sophisticated yard management system YMS.
On the other hand, vendors who specialize in yard management system YMS have spent years honing their expertise and learning from a wide range of use cases.
They have already faced and overcome the challenges that you are likely to encounter.
3. Speed of Deployment
Developing your own yard management system YMS is not only costly, but it's also a time-consuming process. It may take months, if not years, to build, test, and implement a custom solution.
In contrast, a cloud-based yard management system YMS can be up and running in a matter of weeks or even days. This means you can start benefiting from its features and functionality much sooner.
4. Maintenance and Upgrades
Software isn't a one-time investment; it needs regular maintenance and upgrades to remain functional, efficient, and secure.
If you build your own yard management system YMS, you are responsible for all this.
But with a cloud-based solution, the vendor takes care of maintenance, security, and updates, ensuring your system always runs on the latest technology without any effort from your side.
5. Focus on Core Business
Perhaps the most compelling reason to buy instead of build is that it allows your organization to stay focused on what it does best.
If you're in the logistics, transportation, or manufacturing industry, your core competence is not software development.
Outsourcing this function to a trusted vendor allows your team to concentrate on optimizing operations and driving business growth, rather than getting bogged down in software development and maintenance.
In conclusion, while the build versus buy decision is a significant one, the benefits of buying a ready-made, cloud-based yard management system YMS typically outweigh the time, costs, and risks associated with building one in-house.
By choosing a ready-made solution, organizations can accelerate their digital transformation journey, improve their yard operations, and reap the benefits of increased efficiency and visibility.
Implementing best practices for yard management, powered by a robust Yard Management System, will not only reduce headaches, but improve your company’s bottom line.
These best practices, including but not limited to:
- Scheduling dock times
- Maintaining accurate yard maps
- Having fast communication with all parties involved
- Utilizing real-time asset tracking
Drive efficiencies in the yard that create immediate wins for any logistics organizational unit.
Conclusion:
A Brighter Future with Smart Yard Management
In the fast-paced and complex world of logistics, the yard stands as a critical juncture between the warehouse and transportation.
It's a hub where efficient operations can significantly bolster productivity, reduce costs, and enhance customer service.
In contrast, inefficiencies and mismanagement can lead to cascading impacts that ripple through the supply chain, causing delays, increased costs, and strained relationships with customers and partners.
Traditional yard management approaches, while they have served the industry for decades, are increasingly struggling to meet the challenges of modern logistics.
The reliance on manual processes, pen and paper records, and fragmented communication systems not only inhibits efficiency but also creates ample room for errors and delays.
The time for a new approach to yard management is here.
A Yard Management System (YMS) represents the way forward for businesses striving to optimize their yard operations.
By providing real-time visibility of yard assets, digitizing operations, automating processes, and efficiently managing docks, a yard management system YMS offers a powerful platform to transform yard operations.
It goes beyond merely streamlining tasks; it provides the strategic insight and control that businesses need to proactively manage their yards, drive productivity, and make data-driven decisions.
In a market teeming with different yard management system YMS offerings, finding the right solution can be challenging.
However, by understanding your requirements, focusing on comprehensive functionality, considering integration capabilities, usability, scalability, and reliable support, businesses can navigate this landscape to find a solution that fits their needs.
The debate between building a custom solution or buying an off-the-shelf product often hinges on multiple factors. Still, for most businesses, purchasing a cloud-based solution from a trusted vendor like C3 Solutions offers the fastest, most cost-effective path to realizing the benefits of a yard management system YMS.
Embracing a yard management system YMS is more than just a decision to invest in new technology. It's a strategic move towards building a smarter, more efficient, and more future-ready yard.
The journey may require careful navigation, but the destination—a seamlessly running, highly visible, and well-orchestrated yard—is undoubtedly worth the effort.
