NYK Logistics launches new yard management system: radio tags increase yard velocity for West Coast 3PL

Frontline Solutions, Feb, 2004 by Brian Albright

Managing freight for big retailers like Target is a challenge. Keeping track of that freight on a 70-acre yard with more than 1,200 parking slots and 250 dock doors is an even bigger challenge.

Third-party logistics provider NYK Logistics Inc. is meeting that challenge with a new yard management system based on radio tags and a wireless LAN. The new real-time locating system has increased dock door use, reduced yard congestion and increased throughput.

NYK's Long Beach, Calif., facility manages more than 50,000 inbound ocean freight containers from the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach and 30,000 outbound trailers per year, mostly for large retailers importing goods from overseas. During its peak season (from early October to late November), the company processes more than 1,000 gate transactions daily, moving equipment from 11 different steamship lines and more than a dozen domestic carriers.

In the past, NYK Logistics managed all this freight using clipboards and walkie-talkies. Yard personnel would roam the yard with bar code scanners and pads of paper to keep inventory up to date, sometimes heading to the outskirts of the facility on a bicycle or golf cart. If drivers dropped a container in the wrong slot, NYK was left to conduct a lengthy search.

With volume increasing and valuable real estate in the yard shrinking, NYK started looking for a new yard management solution in 2002. "There was a lot of pressure on the yard space, and manual processes couldn't keep up with the velocity," says Rick Pople, general manager of NYK's Long Beach operations. "We had no other choice--we exhausted all other options and knew we had to embrace technology. In hindsight, we wished that we had made the move sooner."

NYK wanted to increase yard throughput, which would allow it to increase business; process containers in a more timely fashion; and reduce costs through better gate productivity, improved hostler efficiency and elimination of manual yard checks.

The company chose a real-time locating system (RTLS) from WhereNet Corp., which uses active radio tags, yard management software and wireless communication to track equipment.

Pople says NYK investigated several other WhereNet installations before selecting the system. But because of the risks involved in using a relatively new technology, selling the concept of radio frequency tags to upper management was not easy.

"There were a lot of knock-down, drag-out fights," Pople says. "I only came on board in February, and within two weeks, we were in meetings and making a pretty large decision."

The gamble has paid off. Once NYK signed the contract with WhereNet, the system went live in fewer than 75 days. The new system has automated more than 90% of NYK's yard operations, increasing throughput and reducing yard congestion. The faster gate process has cut driver time spent on site for double transactions by 50%. NYK expects a return on investment in less than one year.

"One of our requirements was that we had to be done with this by June 1 to give us a cushion before the peak season," says Pople. "We went from nothing to practically landing a guy on the moon in three months."

No More Bottlenecks

As containers or trailers arrive at the gate, each is tagged with an active radio transmitter (called a WhereTag), which lets NYK track each container using a network of 35 WhereNet wireless access points mounted around the yard. These same wireless access points provide the wireless infrastructure for the mobile devices yard workers use to transmit data remotely.

NYK uses WhereNet's WhereSoft Yard 4.0 yard management software. The software controls movement of trailers and containers to dock doors, assigns parking spots in the yard and verifies that trailers and containers being checked out are allowed to leave the yard. NYK uses the rules engine in the software to ensure that the lowest cost carriers are selected first for particular routes, and to minimize detention by processing older containers first.

If a container sits idle too long or if a trailer is not picked up on time, the software triggers alerts based on NYK's business rules.

Gate check-ins and check-outs are performed with mobile computers from Symbol Technologies Inc. running WhereNet software. Workers enter information about containers and drivers, swipe the driver's license in a magnetic card reader and then attach the WhereTag to the vehicle. The system matches the load to an advance ship notice and prints a ticket for the driver, providing instructions on where to park the incoming unit and whether or not to pick up another unit. Information from the mobile computer is uploaded to the WhereNet database via the wireless LAN.

"The gate transactions with the drivers are the bottleneck," says Matt Armanino, vice president of business development at WhereNet. "The key goal is to maximize throughput in the yard, and you can do that by speeding up that gate process."

The yard management system is integrated with NYK's existing cargo management system.