Yard Management - The Rodney Dangerfield of the Supply Chain
I recently attended the C3 European User Group meeting and I have to say it was a great opportunity to hear about the challenges facing yard operators from all sorts of different industries. While many varied topics were discussed there seemed to be a re-occurring sentiment that presented itself: that people who manage yards don't feel they are given the respect and support that other operating areas of their companies receive.
Now, at first, I found this somewhat trivial and even amusing but the more I thought about it the more it seemed to be a legitimate concern.
It is safe to say that nobody builds a yard. Companies build warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, cross docks - but no one builds a yard. The yard is a piece of real estate that is included with all of these facilities as a necessary element to support the buildings - just like the employee parking lot. In the perfect world trailers arrive, they are brought to a dock door, they are loaded or unloaded and then they leave. The important business is done within the four walls!
With this perspective it becomes easier to understand why yard managers often feel like the forgotten "step sister" of their operation. So what needs to happen to resolve this predicament? How can we improve the profile of yard management in the supply chain and ultimately add more value to the operation?
I don't think there is one right answer to these questions, however, I can outline some of the best practices that I have seen some of our customers implement that are very successful.
3 Steps to Better Understanding the Importance of Yard Management in your Operation
1. Clearly define the yard processes. While this may seem obvious the key word here is clearly. I distinctly remember visiting a prospective customer to better understand their yard processes. I was expecting to see a typical simple process flow diagram but, to my surprise, the yard processes spanned the entire wall. It was clearly understood how each distribution function affected the yard and what operations were at risk if the yard failed.
2. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI's). Examples of important KPIs are, the time it takes a trailer to be brought to a door once it has been requested by the warehouse; the percentage of trailers that leave on time from the warehouse on their outbound trips; total number of trailer moves performed by driver by shift; trailer utilization etc.. Defining KPI's and then continuing to measure them will help improve the visibility, and importance, that the yard plays in the operation.
3. Allocate sole responsibility for the operation of the yard. Without a doubt, all of our customers that have a dedicated team in charge of the operation and performance of the yard have experienced superior results. That being said if your operation is not significant enough to warrant a dedicated team or person, there needs to be one team or person that is responsible for the yard. Again this may seem obvious; however, sometimes the obvious things are things we tend to take for granted and consequently don't do them.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, so please feel free to contribute your comments on other steps that you believe are necessary to increase the profile of yard management within the organization. I sincerely believe that companies that do not recognize the importance of yard management are denying themselves the opportunity to improve their supply chain operations.
Ultimately, yard management has to be something that the organization believes is worth the investment. I previously wrote a white paper which documents some of the challenges in establishing a return on investment in the yard. I invite you to download this white paper to further explore this challenging subject.