YMS Update: Ignore your yard at your own peril

By orchestrating trucks, trailers and other vehicles moving in and out of the warehouse or distribution center (DC) yard, yard management systems (YMS) help expedite traffic, improve inventory management and provide real-time location information for assets out in the yard. They digitalize a process once done using clipboards, paper, and handheld radios, and work in sync with warehouse management systems (WMS) and transportation management systems (TMS) to support fast, accurate tracking of both trailers and their contents.

For any shipper not using YMS prior to the pandemic, the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent business changes put a brighter spotlight on this “black hole” of the supply chain. As e-commerce sales rose in the double digits, the truck driver shortage deepened and social distancing became necessary, companies began looking for ways to automate more aspects of their warehouses, yards and transportation networks.

“We did see a surge in interest in yard management solutions over the last year or so,” says Simon Tunstall, senior principal analyst at Gartner. “The trend was driven in part by the situation that pretty much the whole world has been going through with COVID, which has been causing bottlenecks, congestion, resource constraints and a lot of ‘stops and starts.’”

Any company that came into that situation using manual yard management processes like spreadsheets, paper and clipboards “suddenly ran into issues,” says Tunstall. “At that point, they began digging under the surface to see how they could begin to improve things. This translated into a bigger appetite for YMS, with some vendors reporting year-over-year [2020 versus 2019] sales increases of nearly one-third.”

From paper to automation

Historically, YMS was the domain of very large, busy yard operations that couldn’t possibly manage all of the related activity using manual processes and handheld radios.

A DC with hundreds of dock doors, for example, needed a more centralized, automated way to keep tabs on what was happening at each of those doors at any given point in the day. They also needed automated gate capabilities to keep inbound and outbound traffic flow going smoothly.

For help, these companies turned to YMS either as a standalone system or as part of their WMS platforms. And while YMS remains an obvious choice for companies with complex yard environments, Tunstall says companies are also using the software to manage multiple different facilities in a more centralized, automated manner.

In another development, Tunstall says consolidation is taking place within the supply chain management (SCM) space, and that some of that activity involves YMS. FourKites’ March 2020 acquisition of TrackX Yard Solutions, for example, may help the former extend its real-time visibility into the yard.

“That’s quite an interesting trend that we’ve seen,” says Tunstall, “and in an environment where companies are requesting better visibility right through to the yard along with the optimization of appointments and dock doors.”

Acknowledging that yard management remains a niche market dominated by best-of-breed or “specialist” vendors, Tunstall says those walls are beginning to come down as more WMS providers “extend” their capabilities beyond the four walls of the warehouse and out onto the dock and into the yard. “It’s similar to an arms race in a sense,” Tunstall explains, “with specialist vendors working to differentiate themselves and WMS vendors offering more capabilities.”

One newer capability that’s garnered much attention over the last 18 months is the self-service kiosk for drivers that use their credentials to scan themselves into the facility at a checkpoint that can be manned or even unmanned. PINC YMS, for example, offers a self-service gate capability that includes automated RFID kiosks and drop-boxes.

“Shippers don’t want visiting drivers crowding transportation offices and porter cabins, where the need for social distancing continues,” Tunstall explains. “As a result, interest in the kiosk element of yard management is growing.”

KPIs at your fingertips

Bill Brooks, vice president, North America transportation portfolio at Capgemini, is also seeing more companies looking at and investing in YMS this year. He says challenges like the ongoing supply chain disruptions, raw material shortages and labor issues are all pushing companies to make every corner of their supply chains more efficient—yards included.

“Right now, everyone is looking for efficiency improvements, productivity gains and cost savings,” says Brooks. Of particular interest are software platforms that allow shippers to control some aspects of their supply chain operations in a world where port congestion, container shortages, and rising freight rates are largely out of their individual control.

“Given the current environment, companies need to maximize everything that they can,” says Brooks. “The yard falls under that domain. It’s an area of potential improvement and a place where visibility can be improved and efficiencies gained.” Brooks says that YMS also puts the power of data into shippers’ hands and helps them make better decisions going forward. This is an advantage that companies manually managing their yards don’t have.

“When you have key performance indicators [KPIs] at your fingertips,” Brooks explains, “you know how everything is operating, what needs attention, and what needs to be fixed all from one dashboard.” Multiply these capabilities across dozens or hundreds of dock doors and the business case for YMS comes into focus pretty quickly.

Speeding up processes

Knowing that demand for YMS is fairly high right now, vendors have been answering the call by using more predefined application programming interfaces (APIs) that support integrations with outside applications.

They’ve also moved a lot of their applications into the Cloud and begun utilizing 5G and EDGE computing to help speed up processes. “They’re taking that speed out to the yard and to the outer edges of the warehouse,” says Brooks, “in order to make the entire fulfillment process faster from start to finish.”

To companies that want to leverage these and other capabilities, Brooks says that a good starting point is to know your goals and target return on investment (ROI). Ask yourself questions like: What efficiencies are you looking to gain? What does your current yard operation look like and where are the visibility gaps? How can those gaps be filled or automated? And, how much money are you looking to save by automating some or all of your yard processes?

“Be very specific on your ROI; make it measurable and identifiable,” Brooks adds. “That way, you can lock in that ROI and assure that you’re maximizing your system.”

WMS or standalone: It’s your choice

Howard Turner, director of supply chain systems at St. Onge Company, says companies that need help managing their large, private fleets are showing particular interest in YMS right now.

According to Turner, most of them are focused on improving inventory management and need a way to track where it’s coming into, sitting out in, or exiting the yard. In absence of a YMS, tracking these movements requires much manual work and human intervention.

Turner says that companies are also looking for good WMS/YMS integration. A company that wants to get better visibility into its inbound deliveries, for instance, can use the item master data to identify the products, number of cases, stock keeping units (SKUs) and associated purchase orders for those deliveries. A lot of that information exists in the WMS at the purchase-order level.

“When the YMS can share that information with the WMS, once that trailer is moved from the yard to a dock door location to begin unloading, you automatically know what’s on the trailer,” Turner explains, “and what you should be expecting to receive and unload.”

Companies that want to tap into this and other capabilities should explore the various YMS options on the market before picking the best one for their operations.

“We see some variability among YMS vendors, in terms of the ability to configure their solutions,” Turner points out. “There are some companies that ‘own’ the configuration while others allow the shippers to configure the YMS as needed. The latter may be appealing for a company that has an in-house IT department and a desire to customize the solution.”

If, however, you’re looking for software that “works right out of the box,” says Turner, the best bet may be to work with an YMS vendor that comes in, manages the configuration, and delivers a total solution.

Do your homework

Regardless of which route companies take, Tunstall says the key to success is to map out what you want to achieve across the core areas of the yard, which are: the gate, the kiosk, the yard, the dock doors and the loading/unloading activity. “Consider what you’re trying to manage or optimize, and then focus on use cases with your prospective vendors [i.e., review how current customers are using the solution],” he adds.

Finally, Tunstall suggests thoroughly exploring your WMS’ yard management capabilities before investing in a standalone system. This may save you some implementation time and money, and also give you a solution that’s already integrated with your WMS.

“Your WMS may be good enough to give you what you need, but there may be some specialist capabilities, such as additional reporting or support for yard-based activities, that you want to leverage,” says Tunstall. “The key is to identify what you’re trying to achieve across the different environments and use cases, and then use those insights to make your decision.”