Management of Finished vehicle yards by 3PL Providers.
Finished vehicle yards in India are growing rapidly in their capacity ranging from 10000 cars to 30000 cars and beyond as car maker Companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hundai and Tata Motors and many others are planning to set up huge Finished vehicle yards country-vide covering the states like Tamilnadu, Maharashtra , Gujarat and Haryana. This advance planning is in line with the Sales Forecast for the financial year ending 31st March,2012 expanding to 3 million light vehicles being manufactured in India and further by 2015 to have almost doubled to just shy of 6million units , with an increase to 8million units by 2019 and 10million units by 2024.Growing appetite of Indian consumer for light vehicles was also evident with the successful Auto Expo 2012 currently staged in New Delhi with almost every Auto manufacturer wooing the Indian customer with the new launches of cars each eager to have their market share in the growing Indian pie of finished vehicles.
The huge expansions in vehicle yards are however associated with new challenges for the third party Logistics providers and shippers due to associated complex sets of problems which can be solved only by introduction of suitable technology ranging from information and communication technology and process control and Automation.
In this article, we shall look into how 3PL providers/shippers in Automotive segment could solve the complex problems of managing huge vehicle yards with mammoth size comparable to several football fields.
In order to keep their bottom line intact and growing, 3PL Service Providers have to keep three things in mind to manage their finished vehicle yard efficiently viz visibility in their inventory of finished vehicles , optimization of space utilization in the vehicle yard and integration with their customers ( dealers and vehicle manufacturers). Easier said than done, this requires to take first a holistic view of major pain areas in a large vehicle yard managed manually and then solve them through technology available.
a) Time waiting inside the yard is unknown.
b) Vehicle Location in the yard is unknown to the yard manager who is responsible to quickly unload the vehicles and the time waiting of the Trailer causes delays.
c) No visibility in loading and unloading and the departure time at the distribution centre.
d) Checkout delays, errors and wrong trailers.
This leads to a very lengthy process to solve other associated real time and pressing requirements in the yard which are as under.
• What labour do I need?
• Which cars are blocked?
• How much capacity do I have?
• Where in the yard is damage occurring?
• Which cars are to be loaded to train and which to truck?
• How did we do last month, and can we do better?
• And more.....
Visualization armed with yard monitor through information and communication technology can give better insight…. better understanding.
Efficient equipment yard inventory management requires the ability to automatically track how much inventory is on hand, where and to whom it is being delivered, how long it has been outstanding, and how often it is used. Existing manual equipment inventory management methods can sometimes work, but as the volume of equipment or activity increases, the need for automation is paramount to running an efficient and profitable operation.
How is it really done?
1. Vehicles are tagged with RFID tags. With the help of these tags, vehicles will be tracked automatically as they move in and out of the yard.
- RFID readers are installed at key entry and exit points and at locations within the yard. These readers provide instant visibility to what is leaving and entering the yard. As well as its location.
- RFID badge tags are provided on the drivers. This allows to track driver’s movement and to ensure the correct association of driver with the associated vehicle. Further whether for security reasons or to ensure proper delivery and accountability, tracking authorized repair crews to the correct vehicle and equipment contents on the vehicle is essential for effective utility yard management aided by such Badge tags.
4. Such RFID sensors and readers are connected to a Wi-Fi local area network connecting them to a warehouse management system (WMS) server.
- Yard monitor placed in the central control room provides for vehicle yard management provides real time inventory visibility, vehicle locations within the yard and control of outgoing and incoming vehicles at the gate.
By integrating with WMS systems following benefits are derived.
- Reduced yard operations costs and increased productivity due to a high level of automation.
- Easy traceability of vehicles within the yard by way of real-time tracking through a visual interface. Vehicles such tagged with RFID tags will be tracked automatically as they move in and out of the yard. RFID readers located at key entry and exit points and at locations within the yard provide instant visibility to inventory leaving and entering the yard, as well as its location. In addition, RFID tags have on-board memory so you can store a complete history of the asset (e.g. life, usage rate, etc.) directly on the tag.
- Real time visibility of the yard and vehicles. RFID tags automate the receipt of vehicles in the yard and reduce the manual intervention. Whether due to peak periods or as part of a bulk delivery, equipment often get missed at check-out. Manual equipment check-in/check-out procedures are prone to errors and delays. Equipment is sometimes “lost” in the field due to not knowing where or who it was delivered to. An automated gate check solution can significantly increase accuracy and prevent loss of equipment.
- Customized MIS report generation for better analysis and planning.
- Ranking of vehicles in order to reduce rework costs.
- Recommendation of a suitable parking location for each vehicle on the basis of the available slots and the parking settings defined.
- Visual damage tracking mechanism in order to enable yard jockeys to effectively communicate the location of damage to workshop Mechanics.
- WMS has an activity management module that identifies the activities that need to be performed on each vehicle, and schedules a time for the performance of the activity. This streamlines the workshop process and ensures timely dispatch of the vehicle from the yard.
- Yard view management software integrated with WMS graphically can display for example say rectangles to represent trailers and their locations, color-coding them to indicate their status - empty or loaded, waiting to be loaded or unloaded, or in the process of being loaded or unloaded
By integrating the above local area network with the customers through internet, complete visibility is provided to the customers and manufacturers with warning alarms and alerts sent through E-Mail.
Summary
RFID managed yard management systems are already in vogue in developed countries. Such web based yard managed systems provide real time location system capabilities to manage the trailers and vehicles in the ever growing complex and large yard environment and complete visibility of the inventory to shippers and third party logistics service providers. It is imperative and a must that Indian shippers and 3PL providers also embrace such technological solutions without delay to remain competitive in the present cut throat competition in Automotive domain due to fresh arrivals of Automotive multinationals in the country.
Written by
Prof. Akhil Chandra
Consultant – Logistics and Supply Chain management
