Optimizing Loading and Unloading with YMS
- Digital Factory
- Article
The ever growing variety and number of products means a growing number of suppliers and customers for production companies. As a result the number of trucks to be loaded and unloaded everyday is growing too. Since the carriers are including truck waiting times on their invoices, the planning of truck loading or unloading has become one of the areas all companies are striving to optimize as much as possible.
Companies create their loading and unloading plans, and they maintain the plans either in their corporate systems, or even more frequently in Excel tables. But it is necessary to understand that the loading or unloading plan is essentially an agreement between two or three entities – customer, supplier, carrier. And if the plans are not made available to all interested parties, it is the same, as if the plan would not exist. It is essential to have the plan saved and shared from one accessible location. If we go further, it would be possible to transfer the responsibility for loading and unloading plans to individual customers and suppliers, who would be able to book loading and unloading windows in the plans directly.
Planning with the Yard Management System
The solution is YMS – Yard Management System – within the DCIx system that is accessible via Internet as a planning board; this solution enables suppliers or customers (or carriers, if necessary) to search available time window and to book the truck loading or unloading directly in it. In the background after the booking there are validation checks performed, if the data are entered correctly. Thanks to YMS, the arrivals of individual trucks are recorded accurately. Together with registration of beginning and end of loading or unloading, which are always recorded in the warehouse by the operator, the company receives valuable information to assess the accuracy of the carriers, or to monitor the performance of its operators. Based on this information, the planning of own resources is even more accurate, ie. how many ramps need to be open, or the necessary number of operators, or which handling devices will be needed at any given time.
The solution will bring a financial and time savings
YMS brings considerable financial savings. These savings are on the side of the administrative staff during the planning of arrivals for loading and unloading of individual trucks and arranging with other partners; this system decreases labour intensity of these activities significantly. Any inaccuracy of a carrier generates extra costs again, which are easily identifiable using YMS, and therefore, they can be effectively eliminated. Thanks to the clear plan agreed by all parties, the company can utilize the capacity of operators and technology better and without unnecessary downtime. In addition, if YMS is connected with internal logistics in the form of WMS (Warehouse Management System), further acceleration and refining of the process of goods receipt to the warehouse occurs.
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