A Yard Management System (YMS) is a software solution that is used to track the movement of trailers in a facility’s yard, distribution centre, or warehouse. Your yard management software can provide great chances for agility and efficiency as the link between transportation and warehousing.

Many companies are considering ways to improve their yard operations as a result of recent supply chain disruption. A yard management solution, which can be a warehouse management system add-on, a standalone solution, and more, is a significant instrument in yard optimization. Understanding your alternatives is critical to finding the best solution for your company.

The Yard Management Challenges 

While yard management offers distinct challenges for each organization – depending on the size of the firm and the yard, the products on the yard, and a variety of other considerations — here are the primary issues we’ve uncovered during our interactions with yard operations associates around the world.

Insufficient visibility of the trailer

Yard crews do not have enough visibility into available trailer assets (and possibly inventory), resulting in inefficient trailer movement, higher costs, and lower jockey efficiency.

Visibility of shipments is limited

Yard personnel has no prior knowledge of when trucks will arrive to load or unload, leading to wasteful use of the yard and its resources. In addition, gate congestion and demurrage/detention fees have risen dramatically.

Misalignment of processes

Transportation, warehouse, and yard procedures are all managed through multiple systems that are either not dynamically updated or not digitally maintained at all, resulting in reactive operations. This means that stakeholders don’t have real-time visibility into what’s going on, resulting in wasteful use of warehouse dock doors, labour, and equipment, as well as higher prices. Furthermore, inefficient transportation resource use results in longer wait times, greater prices, and delays, all of which can affect customer relationships. 

The inefficiency of the yard jockey

Inefficient use of yard jockeys and failure to oversee operations for safety and compliance stems from a lack of understanding of yard operations. Increased violations and charges, as well as wasted jockey effort and bad planning, result from this.

The Yard Management System coordinates the shipping and receiving process, manages orders, and supervises and administers a company’s yard and dock doors. As a result, implementing a yard management solution is critical because it aids with real-time asset management competency throughout the yard for tracking the whereabouts of goods.

Suraj Informatics is one of the top organizations that provides a Yard Management System, which may help in increasing the yard’s efficiency by properly managing the volume of goods entering and exiting the yard. Suraj Informatics provides Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)systems, which is an automatic identification method that involves the storage and retrieval of data using RFID tags or transponders.