Once upon a time, every manufacturer had a guy called the “efficiency expert,” who may or may not have been like Anthony Hopkins’ character here. His job was to roam the shop floor, identify wasteful processes and tasks, and recommend to management ways to increase efficiency – optimization, long before it was called that. I’m sure everyone along the production line loved the efficiency expert, even baking him Christmas cookies.
Okay, maybe they weren’t overly fond of his clipboard, calculator (when those came along), game face, and pocket protector, fearing it meant more work was coming, or layoffs, or both. Still, the concept of efficiency was (and is) critical to every aspect of business, and no more so than in logistics and supply chain.
Yard operations, given their complexity and vital role in the supply chain, including constantly moving logistics assets, cannot function properly without a continual eye to efficiency. Any bottlenecks, delays, or miscommunications there quickly ripple through the warehouse, transportation, production, and inventory management functions. This situation is exacerbated by the use of manual processes for managing gate access, tracking yard asset inventory and flow, inbound and outbound scheduling, and dock assignments.
With advances in technology, including yard management systems (YMS) and AI-powered vision solutions, companies can overcome the complexity of yard operations and see performance improvement. We’ll look at some common challenges facing yard management teams and how technology is helping increase their operational efficiency.
Common Challenges in Yard Operations
Here are some of the issues faced by yard operations managers who still rely on manual processes to facilitate the flow of trucks, trailers, and the goods they carry.
Lack of Real-Time Visibility
Manual tracking of asset movements severely limits visibility into yard operations. Without access to real-time information, delays proliferate as staff struggles to locate trailers, chassis, and containers on a timely basis.
This hampers the ability of yard managers to make timely decisions, leading to slower response times in locating misplaced trailers or handling unexpected delays. Poor visibility also makes it harder to efficiently allocate yard personnel and equipment, resulting in underutilization or overuse of assets.
Inefficient Gate Management
The facility’s gate is the main access point, but it can also quickly become a chokepoint and cause congestion. The manual processing of inbound trucks can hold them up at busy times, causing delays of up to 20 minutes per vehicle. Inefficient scheduling due to poor coordination with third-party carriers and in-house transportation teams also causes gate delays.
This quickly causes a domino effect, affecting gate schedules, inventory management, and production planning. Personnel such as yard spotters sit idle while waiting for the incoming trailer to be processed. The result is an overall increase in wait times, delays in loading and unloading, higher operating costs, and decreased productivity.
Costs increase, and idling trucks pump CO2 emissions into the air. States like California and New York are getting more serious about environmental issues caused by idling trucks at warehouse facilities. In California, fines for violating the ISR-WAIRE emission standard can reach $11,710 per day.
Disjointed Communication
Poor communication among yard staff, drivers, carriers, and warehouse teams often results in misplaced trailers and delayed shipments. This leads to increased labor costs as workers have to track down assets. It can also cause significant supply chain disruption and increased costs and negatively impact production and delivery schedules.
Due to poor communication among teams, delayed trailers can miss scheduled delivery windows, requiring expensive expedited shipping. It also affects order fulfillment and on-time delivery rates, potentially leading to lost customers or penalties for failing to meet service-level agreements (SLAs).
Poor Resource Allocation
Manual yard operations processes can significantly hamper resource allocation, leading to the underutilization of personnel, such as yard jockeys and inefficient vehicle deployment. Tasks can’t be prioritized dynamically without real-time visibility into yard assets and personnel availability. As a result, yard jockeys are often idle or end up working on non-critical tasks. This results in wasted labor hours and reduced productivity. Similarly, yard trucks are deployed inefficiently, contributing to unnecessary fuel consumption and increased operating costs.
Without advanced yard management tools, managers rely on static schedules or manual interventions. This makes it difficult to adapt to sudden changes, such as delayed shipments or urgent orders. The lack of flexibility creates bottlenecks and missed opportunities to streamline workflows.
Compliance and Safety Risks
Yard operations managers face challenges in meeting safety regulations and minimizing accidents. They need to ensure safe working conditions for yard staff, including proper equipment maintenance, vehicle safety standards, and adequate training. Non-compliance with OSHA standards can lead to penalties and increased liability risks.+
Manually stored records can be difficult to locate or verify during inspections or audits, increasing the risk of noncompliance. This is particularly problematic when dealing with environmental reporting, customs documentation, or worker safety incident logs.
How Technology Addresses Yard Challenges
The YMS certainly brought vast improvements to what were largely manual yard operations. It provides centralized visibility into yard assets and inbound/outbound shipments, schedules bay trips, and handles gate access control. Over time, YMS technology has gotten more sophisticated, with the ability to incorporate RFID tagging and sensors, GPS, and cloud computing.
A YMS plays a key role in helping companies alleviate delays at the entrance gate, the loading docks, and across the entire yard. It monitors vehicle flow, keeps an eye on truck dwell time, and processes arriving and departing vehicles. It also acts as a task management tool for personnel such as yard jockeys and gate personnel. The result is improved efficiency and safety, better regulatory compliance, and maintenance of tight delivery schedules and turn times.
Integrating YMS With WMS, TMS
A YMS can integrate via API with a Transportation Management System (TMS), using location data to optimize truck and trailer movements, and coordinate dock scheduling. It can also integrate with a Warehouse Management System (WMS) to track arriving inventory and an Order Management System (OMS) to facilitate cross-docking and trailer slotting based on order urgency.
The Next Level: Adding Powerful AI-Powered Yard Vision
A traditional YMS typically lacks dynamic data integration and advanced analytics. For this reason, it’s not as adaptable to changing business needs and provides less visibility into real-time data to optimize asset location, audits, and yard access control. But, advances in artificial intelligence and dynamic data capture have enabled the creation of powerful yard vision systems that augment a legacy YMS.
By pulling in and analyzing real-time data from across yard operations via security cameras, a yard vision system significantly enhances interlogistics. While a legacy YMS connects to TMS, WMS, and OMS via API, it does not have advanced dynamic situational awareness and automation capabilities.
An AI-powered yard vision system uses real-time analytics and machine learning to precisely locate and track yard assets, trailer movements, and driver activities. Integrating it with a legacy YMS automates decision-making. For instance, managers can prioritize trailer moves based on carrier schedules, order priority, load configurations, and staging requirements instead of relying on pre-scheduled data from adjacent systems.
These advanced systems can also dynamically adapt to unexpected changes (delayed shipments, unplanned arrivals, etc.) by automatically reprioritizing tasks across systems. This reduces bottlenecks and enhances synchronization between yard operations and warehouse or transportation operations. The result is faster turnaround times, better resource utilization, and fewer errors from manual data entry, creating greater supply chain agility.
Benefits of Technology in Yard Operations
Technology is pivotal in revolutionizing yard operations, addressing inefficiencies, and enhancing productivity.
Enhanced Visibility and Communication
Technology improves coordination among yard teams, carriers, and warehouse staff. Real-time data from an integrated YMS minimizes errors and delays by providing accurate information about trailer locations, task priorities, and shipment status.
Better Resource Utilization
Modern systems ensure yard teams maximize efficiency by focusing on high-value tasks. AI-driven systems dynamically allocate resources and minimize personnel and equipment downtime, streamlining operations even during times of peak demand.
Faster Turnaround Times
Automated vehicle access control (VAC) systems and optimized trailer movement reduce bottlenecks, enabling faster inbound and outbound processing, boosting throughput.
Improved Safety and Compliance
Advanced systems can automate safety checks, incident reporting, and hazard detection, reducing workplace risks. Time-stamped digital records simplify regulatory compliance, eliminating manual errors, and comprehensive vision systems enable automated yard audits.
Cost Savings
Labor costs are reduced by automating repetitive tasks, reducing downtime for yard equipment, and optimizing workflows. Real-time shipment visibility also minimizes detention and demurrage (D&D) charges on overdue containers.
Selection and Implementation of Yard Technology
Before reviewing yard operations solutions, conduct a detailed review of yard inefficiencies, identifying where and when bottlenecks and process breakdowns occur. Identify areas where technology can have the greatest impact.
In evaluating YMS vendors, look for solutions that can easily integrate via API with existing software (WMS, TMS, OMS, ERP) and compatibility with yard vision systems. Consider scalability as well as the level of vendor support. If possible, go beyond reference clients to accurately gauge actual performance, implementation requirements and hiccups, and ROI/time to value.
Post-go live, use detailed analytics to measure KPIs such as truck dwell times, dock turnover, yard labor and asset utilization, inventory accuracy, and gate throughput. Continuously refine system processes based on these insights.
Managing Yard Complexity, Improving Efficiency
Yard operations have grown more complex due to increasing supply chain demands (e-commerce growth, customer expectations, environmental regulations, etc.) and the need for seamless coordination between transportation, warehouse, and inventory management systems.
Technology solutions like YMS, augmented with AI-powered vision systems, have transformed how yards operate, reducing bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and compliance risks. Through real-time visibility, better resource allocation, and automated processes, these technologies boost productivity, safety, and cost-effectiveness.
EAIGLE is a pioneer in applying AI to logistics across retail and manufacturing organizations. Its groundbreaking technology leverages dynamic data capture from a facility’s security cameras to optimize vehicle flow and yard asset management.
An advanced vehicle access control system (VAC) captures vehicle data in real time. EAIGLE’s optical character recognition (OCR) technology automatically identifies 25 separate ID characteristics as trucks, trailers, and chassis enter and exit the yard. This enables precise, dynamic tracking of location and activity, streamlines traffic flow, optimizes space utilization, and reduces errors from manual data entry. Gate access functions can be automated, speeding up vehicle and driver verification, eliminating backups, and reducing reliance on personnel. To learn more, request a demo today.