When unlocking greater efficiency in supply chains, the yard is often overlooked as an area for investment, with many still running on outdated pen, paper, and radio methods. It creates friction that ultimately hurts operations.
“What happens if there’s a disconnect between transportation and the warehouse?” posits Eric Breen, director of enterprise sales at Kaleris, a global leader in yard management solutions. “The disconnect creates conflict, and conflict causes indecision that puts productivity at a standstill, and the yard is stuck between the two.”
Yard managers often default to cheap, quick-fix solutions out of necessity or due to a lack of awareness of how a well-run yard can contribute to overall cost reductions in the supply chain. However, new digital solutions are putting the yard first and introducing new efficiencies that make a stronger foundation for the overall supply chain.
Why is yard management too often overlooked?
Yard inefficiencies are often addressed through a ‘more is better’ approach, wasting money on yard expansion instead of rectifying the root cause.
“In the US especially, there’s the mentality that if you have a problem, just throw more resources at it,” says Breen. “For example: need more yard space? Build another yard. Short on trailers a few days a week? Buy more trailers.”
Yard managers often hesitate to make long-term investments when yards have functioned on the same basic apparatus for decades. “Managers sometimes ask whether it makes sense to spend money on a technology solution to manage yard operations when a guard with a clipboard and a radio can communicate with the warehouse,” notes Derek Pedersen, senior technical product manager at Kaleris. “There’s a strong old-school mentality that if the warehouse can run efficiently, that will spill out into the yard. But yard operations involve multiple complexities that it’s unfair to place on a guard who needs to staff the gate, not run around the yard.”
The benefits of yard digitization
While mindsets can be challenging to shift, the benefits of investing in a full digital yard management strategy sets apart the organizations that adopt it, giving them an edge over the competition. The right platform can help reduce unnecessary labor costs and human errors while providing everyone across the site with greater visibility of data and key performance indicators.
“Yards also often see high staff turnover,” adds Pedersen. “When you’re scribbling things down on paper but the person who wrote them is no longer there, it creates problems.”
Digital platforms provide yard staff with a single source of truth, alongside a variety of other benefits. Users can see time and cost reductions across formerly manual processes, from gate check-in to carrier performance tracking. Overall improvements can be seen in the visibility of asset inventory, documenting drivers, and yard activity metrics, to name a few.
“There’s a lot of ways you can automate a yard in terms of flow,” says Breen. “Some of the most complex flows are in grocery and food logistics, with all the regulations surrounding reefer trailers and inspections.
“A yard management solution [YMS] can automate a lot of these and send notifications when needed. If you have the workflows built into the YMS, it does the active yard management for you.”
A customizable solution
Industry leader Kaleris has been leveraging innovative technology to optimize its YMS for some time, including computer vision and the Internet of Things (IoT). Many F100 and F500 companies have switched to Kaleris’ s solution because of its uniquely adaptable features.
“One of our biggest differentiators is the level of configuration,” notes Pedersen. “Every user approaches the platform with a different perspective and a different agenda for what data they need to see to make business decisions. Different dock managers will want different information and they can easily build their own dashboard to look at data.”
As a result, Kaleris’s YMS can help reduce enterprises’ entire transportation budget by up to 10%. By putting the yard first and inbuilding digitization, organizations can reduce transportation delays and give site personnel real-time alerts to ensure proactive steps are taken to reduce detention and demurrage. The IoT platform also offers accurate and automated visibility of trailer locations to boost the success of yard operations. Unmatched by other location tech, Kaleris’s software can precisely locate a trailer to allow yard spotters to drive full speed to an asset for a required move.
With over 20 years of experience in YMS solutions and a 98% customer retention rate, Kaleris is continuing to develop its solution in line with technological changes to provide customers with the best product. The days of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ yard management are over – Kaleris’s platform puts the yard front and center, highlighting its importance as a critical component of a strong supply chain.
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