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, based in Secaucus, N.J., had a big parking problem. The company manages the shipment and distribution of a high volume of products, including garments and accessories, consumer and industrial goods, computer software, food and beverages and natural resources for Global
NYK's Pople
1000 companies. But NYK's yard-management system was no match for the more than 50,000 inbound ocean freight containers and 30,000 outbound trailers passing through the gates of its Long Beach, Calif., distribution center annually.
Several months ago, the company implemented a real-time locating system (RTLS) at the Long Beach facility that uses battery-powered RFID tags to track the location of assets in the yard. Now NYK knows exactly where each trailer and is parked and can locate containers to within 10 feet. The system has cut costs and increased operational efficiency in numerous ways, including slashing the average turn time—how long a trailer stays in its yard—by 20 to 40 percent.
NYK's old yard-management system at the Long Beach facility relied on people to track containers and trailers manually, and to coordinate the seven hostler tractors used to move containers around its 70-acre yard. But the manual system lent itself to a number of problems, and as volume in the yard grew, the problems were compounded. For example, NYK employees used to manually enter information about when a truck arrived at the yard, what it was carrying and where it would drop its load. But once the driver left the main gate to drop his cargo off and pick up his next shipment, snafus were common. Often, the designated parking spot was filled, forcing the driver to park in a different spot. Employees at the main gate would have no way of knowing where the truck was. The problems rippled through the yard as subsequent drivers found their spots taken for the day.
That wasn't the only challenge. During peak seasons, NYK usually hires temporary yard hostlers to pull loaded trailers out of their parking spots and stage them in the yard for pickup. The hostlers also retrieve empty containers and move them to appropriate areas. But the temporary drivers had a hard time maneuvering through the yard. "We're a 24x7 operation, so the guy driving around trying to find a trailer at 3:30 in the morning when he doesn't know the yard that well can run into problems," says Rick Pople, NYK's general manager.
Pople, formerly an executive at courier companies DHL and FedEx, joined NYK in February and began searching for an automated yard-management system that could eliminate these headaches and help NYK create a more organized yard. The company considered bar code-based technology but decided against it, he says, because it had pitfalls that were similar to the existing manual system. "Although the bar code was associated with the unit, the unit still had to be associated with a location," says Pople. "So if a driver doesn't follow instructions to record that data, we'd be back to square one."
Tag attached at the gate
Pople decided to use an active-tag RFID system from
, an RTLS provider based in Santa Clara, Calif. WhereNet was the only RFID vendor the company considered, Pople says, because it was the only company that had a real-time-location yard-management solution. The entire system took 90 days to deploy. Thirty-five WhereNet readers were installed around the perimeter of the yard. They monitor 1,100 parking spaces and 250 dock doors. When a truck arrives at NYK's entrance gate, it trailer is tagged with a WhereNet transmitter. The tag broadcasts its ID signal at three regular intervals as the container moves through the yard. Each signal is picked up by a different reader. Software uses those signals, along with a time stamp that indicates when the signal was transmitted, to calculate the exact location of the asset to within 10 feet.
All this happens in real time, which is critical, according to Pople, because the yard operates around the clock. NYK's three logistics partners bring in containers from 11 different steamship lines and as many as 15 different domestic carriers. "We couldn't have enough people with clipboards and bicycles to monitor all that," he says.
Now, the NYK has implemented a dual-process system at the year: When a driver enters the yard, a worker uses a handheld computer to enter information about the driver by scanning the magnetic stripe on his driver's license into the system. Then the worker attaches a WhereNet tag to the container or trailer. The tag is fastened using a clip mount on the container or trailer and removed before the container or trailer leaves the yard. The tag is scanned and the unit is associated with the driver. The system then prints a ticket for the driver that tells him where to park the unit he is delivering and where to find the unit he needs to pick up. This has cut check-in time at the gate in half.
NYK integrated the WhereNet system with its own Transload system, a custom database that contains a list of advance shipping notices, the contents of the shipment and distributor information. That means that workers can later use a handheld RFID reader to scan the container's tag, find out its contents and receive instructions on where to take the container. "Not only do we know the name and identity of the unit, we also know its DNA," says Pople. "We can see the yard and the containers."
The WhereNet yard-management application and wireless network has not only improved the speed of operations, it has also saved NYK money. "The biggest cost component for us is space, and if you don't have a highly organized yard, you're probably using more space then you need to," says Pople. NYK measures space in terms of turn time—the amount of time a trailer stays in its yard—and since it launched the WhereNet system in June, it has been able to reduce the average turn time from 10 hours to between six and eight hours. Depending on how busy the yard is, taking two hours off of turn time can save anywhere from 35 to 60 parking spaces.
Hostler's get instructions via wireless terminal
Hostlers are also able to improve the time it takes to find and move loaded trailers and empty containers, because each hostler tractor is equipped with a touch-screen computer that hooks into the WhereNet system. The system wirelessly communicates the precise location of whichever trailer the hostler driver is instructed to move and provides a map of the location, which helps temporary workers maneuver through the yard. Pople says the system has made NYK's full-time workers more efficient, so the company hasn't needed to hire as many temporary workers, even in the fall, its busiest season.
In addition, the system can flag "hot loads," the shipments with the highest priority. It sends alerts to a hostler driver's touch-screen computer with instructions on which loads to move first.
NYK has also been able to save time and money by using the WhereNet system to standardize the way in which it communicates with its carriers and logistics partners. Prior to implementing the system, some carriers required faxes, others had Web sites where data needed to be entered, while others wanted to receive e-mail messages. Now, the WhereNet system automatically sends e-mail messages three times a day to all relevant parties to relay pertinent information about shipments and containers.
Pople says the WhereNet system automatically updates the location of a trailer, so if a driver parks in the wrong spot, the system recognizes the new spot and updates the database. Subsequent drivers entering the yard are then directed to empty spots. The company plans to monitor how well the drivers follow instructions and to alert partners and carriers if their drivers continuously park in the wrong spaces.
NYK has also reduced detention charges levied by shippers by using the new system. The company, its partners or distributors could be charged detention fees if empty containers aren't returned to the port on time. The WhereNet system includes a tool that helps managers see which dock doors have trailers at them, what's inside that trailer and how long the container has been there. Managers can see when a trailer has been delayed at a door and investigate. They can also better manage the flow of trailers through the yard by assigning drivers open doors when they arrive at the gate.
A WhereNet reader
By reducing traffic jams at the dock door, containers move through the facility more quickly and are returned before NYK can be charged detention fees. Moreover, if a shipper tries to tack on unwarranted detention fees, NYK now has the means to challenge the charges. That's because the system flags empty containers and records precisely when it left the yard.
WhereNet also added a new rules engine to the application suite that is designed to help companies reduce shipping costs. NYK has arrangements with many carriers, and some of those carriers charge more than others to move loads out of the yard. The new rules engine will automatically queue up the least expensive carrier to service a route. If the primary carrier isn't available, the system will move down the list to the next least expensive carrier that's available; it will queue up the most expensive carrier only when the system gets to the end of the list.
Pople says the company has about 800 tagged units in the yard at any one time and processes about 700 gate transactions (trailers entering or leaving the yard) a day. Now that the company is in its busy fall season, the volume is expected to increase and be a real test of the system. It'll be easier to measure the return on investment once NYK gets past the holiday season, says Pople, because the company will have time to calculate the ROI and gauge the efficiency of the system. NYK says it may consider using the WhereNet system in more of its facilities—it has 13 nationwide—but it hasn't made any decisions about future deployments yet.
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