Better Yard Management FAQs
Thank you for visiting our FAQ page where we share tips, links and useful information with fellow automotive yard professionals. We started this page following a successful webinar in October 2010. Webinar attendees asked some great questions. Some of them are listed here. If you would like to post a question simply use the 'contact us' page.
Click on a question to see the response.
Q1. All these years we have been hearing about RFID – can you give us a sense of the technology that is being used at the yards where you have operations, and what you might typically recommend customers?
Q2. When we discuss building up some of these yard planning systems, they include information from an array of other stakeholders – shipping lines, trucking and rail, the OEMs, etc. Is it a challenge to get their buy-in and engagement?
Q3. Most examples discussed during the presentation have been somewhat European and North American based – how do you see these systems working in emerging markets, such as India or China?
SJ (Steve Jones): Great question! First, the percentage of installations globally is small, however the largest installation of active RFID that we know of is the Broekman operation at Rotterdam. Here, around 42,000 cars are actively tagged and tracked using Wherenet, which provides slot level position for most cars and, in certain areas, a zone location of around 20 cars. Wherenet is tightly integrated with Vehnet Advance Yard. It works very well as a combination and has been in daily use for more than three years. There is a case study about this
here.
Obviously, you should only use RFID if it delivers the required return on investment (ROI). The challenge is working out what that should be. As a general rule the four key criteria are volume; process complexity; business risk; and local labour rates. There is a range of RFID options, from simple and inexpensive passive tags up to real-time locating systems. Unfortunately, there are no agreed standards for use globally in the automotive outbound sector. The German automotive association VDA (Verband der Automobileindustrie) has worked on a system for passive tags, however these tags are not practical for giving an up-to-date location because they have to be read within a few metres, and yards can be very large. I am convinced that proper standards would allow for more widespread adoption of tags, built in at the factory at a low cost, that can be read over distances. On the other hand, I’m equally sure that this is not going to happen any time soon. So, in short, my best advice would be for individual yards to investigate whether they can gain benefits from RFID, and then do it on the basis of a local ROI. Back to Top
Q2. When we discuss building up some of these yard planning systems, they include information from an array of other stakeholders – shipping lines, trucking and rail, the OEMs, etc. Is it a challenge to get their buy-in and engagement?
SJ: Absolutely. It is not that the parties are unwilling to engage, but they cannot easily do so in a cost-effective way. The reason, again, is a lack of standards. We have a customer that handles around 15 brands, and each one sends a different message, in different mediums, to request actions – and that is happening throughout the world. There is no electronic, reliable lingua franca. There are Odette or ANSI X12 messages, but they are not in general use; secondly the messages are only structured containers, and different parties use them with different contents. If there were one thing the industry should do together, it should be to work towards creating global message standards, and then enforce them. We are supporting this wherever we can. The AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group) in North America has recently done some excellent preparation work in developing standard ‘supply chain event’ definitions, but as an industry we need to go further. Back to Top
Q3. Most examples discussed during the presentation have been somewhat European and North American based – how do you see these systems working in emerging markets, such as India or China?
SJ: Physical handling and storage requirements do not always meet the same high standard in Europe and North America, and they vary from excellent to poor in other regions of the world too. From a systems point of view, I would suggest the issue is simply one of cost. From the earliest days of IT, the justification was that ‘computers can do it cheaper, more reliably and faster’. In some regions it could be argued that labour can do the same job cheaper, because IT comes at a price. However, labour is getting more expensive, whilst IT is getting cheaper every year.
Despite the closing of this gap, it is still fair to say that IT for the automotive sector could and should be cheaper. The kind of developments Vehnet has made in the last two years in introducing free and low-cost software, together with our investment in making solutions available in ‘The Cloud’ and in hosted environments offer part of a potential solution for rolling out IT in areas such as India and China. Back to Top
Q4. Does the Vehnet yard management system allow change prioritisation over which load gets into an assembly plant at the gate, based on urgency of the need of content for JIT? What technology is used for such capability?
SJ: Our system can certainly do this. A data feed from the ASN (Advance Shipping Note) system is required to tell us what parts are in the inbound trailer or container. Then another feed is taken from the production materials system, where the priorities come from. The moment the trailer reaches the gate, the workflow engine kicks in and tells the driver where to position his truck, based on the dock door or parking spot where the parts are needed. Usually production materials will be alerted with an email or a message into their system, or both. It also gives visibility of the trailers in the yard, so that people can search for parts and call the trailers to the dock with a simple click. We call it ‘Warehouse on Wheels’. Back to Top
Q5. How do you handle EDI?
SJ: We are working with organisations such as AIAG, Odette and ECG to improve this situation. How we handle the issue is to provide a very rich toolset for capturing, mapping and processing messages. We can accept simple CSV files, XML, Spreadsheets by email, as well as Edifact and Odette. Same goes for outbound messages. Back to Top
Q6. Is the software multi-language?
SJ: Yes. All language sets are supported, including double-byte characters such as Japanese and Chinese. Customers have a very clever tool to make their own translations. This is important because we deliver our systems as an exact fit to the needs of our customers – right down to the screens they use. Using this tool, customers can make their own help and user manuals and use them online too. Back to Top
Q7. How is billing for storage handled?
SJ: There is certainly a baffling range of billing rules and methods out there; however, our tariffs module goes beyond storage. It is able to handle ‘storage by weight range and number of days range by cargo commodity’, for example. Storage is easily triggered. Using workflow and the price algorithms of tariffs gives the correct price. Storage can be started and stopped at any ‘event’, such as ‘arrived or ‘left terminal’. Very complex billing is increasingly demanded by customers, and without an automated process it takes a great deal of administrative labour, with a high chance of error. Sometimes the billing must stop and restart, such as when a car is delayed due to the fault of the yard operator. Billing takes account of free days and each customer contract is respected so that errors are avoided and all opportunities to invoice are captured.
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Q8. What is the technology that Vehnet uses?
SJ: We use Microsoft VB.NET tools, with a service orientated architecture based on CSLA. There is true database independence built in to serve any database engine, but in practice all customers currently run on Microsoft SQL Server. Back to Top
Q9. We already have an information system with some yard data. How do you migrate us to a full yard management system?
SJ: The good news is that you may not need to buy a whole new system at all! One option is to (a) use the free AYDO tool to design your yard in true-scale 2D (we can help you with training and consultancy on that) then (b) hook up the data from your current system with our Advance Visibility tool. This tool lets you see the yard and the items in the yard and has easy tools for finding and grouping inventory using highly functional data grips and colour coded images of the inventory. While the current version of the Visibility tool is a passive viewer of data, this can certainly boost your current system and low cost, while you decide if a full yard management system is needed. Should you wish to enjoy the full yard experience, then we can provide a service to formalise your requirements. If you choose Vehnet as the next system then your AYDO drawing and Visibility tools continue to work for you, the only difference is that the Visibility tool will point to the AdvanceYardManager database. When it comes to transferring data from your existing systems we have a comprehensive set of migration tools to make that fast and cost-effective. Back to Top
Q10.
We’re all familiar with inventory management but, issues arise when it is time to file for payment with the respective OEM. My question is, does the Vehnet Inventory Management System automatically interface with OEM’s thus providing an action that triggers filing for payment at the VIN level?
SJ: Thanks for the question.
I’m assuming that the thought behind this question is that when a vehicle is released from a processor’s storage facility to the next handoff entity, the hope/expectation would be for the system to automatically file for payment at agreed rates by the service operation with either Chrysler’s VISTA, Ford’s COPAC, or GM etc compatible freight payment system?
If so, the good news is that automated billing is one of the top five reasons customers choose our system.
Here’s a brief description.
In our system each vehicle is under a ‘contract’. Very flexible ‘tariffs’ are set up by our customer to represent any aspect of billing, from a simple handling charge, to ad hoc services such as battery starts, through storage and so on. The tariffs are set to the contract.
In operation ANY event in the life of the car (such as confirmation of loading to a train, arrival in the yard etc) can trigger the creation of an ‘order line’. This is done through our Workflow Engine (this is covered in the webinar). At that moment the workflow will look up the correct tariff and create the order. The orders so created can then be reviewed by a user, or automatically sent as invoice items (we always suggest someone reviews them first).
The sending of the invoice is usually electronic. The format is (sadly!) different for each manufacturer, so we make an interface for each OEM (why can’t we all use the same standard?) We have quite a few already available that we can possibly use with your client, but if not, it is not straightforward to make them. Back to Top
