Location, location, location. Those are the three most important rules in real estate.

In the third party logistics (3PL) business, it’s velocity, velocity, velocity.

“Everyone we work with is trying to speed up the distribution chain while having visibility,” says Charles Kerr, the senior operations manager for Performance Team, a California-based 3PL specializing in importing, domestic consolidation and distribution for clients in the retail supply chain. “The customer wants to be able to see every handoff as their freight moves through the supply chain.”

At the gate, information about the container is manually entered into the yard management system (YMS). The system directs the driver to a zone for putaway. The driver selects an empty space, and makes note of the location when he drops the trailer on his gate pass. When that information is manually entered into the system, the YMS knows a container is available to be unloaded, based on pre-established business rules. Meanwhile, the driver is directed to pick up an empty container on his way out of the gate. 

The YMS uses those business rules to manage the movement of containers to the docks to be unloaded. Whenever a dock becomes available, the system automatically sends an RF command to the yard shuttle to move a container to that dock. Once the container is at the door, the status changes to “ready to be unloaded.” When that container is empty, an RF command is sent to the yard shuttle to move the container to a predetermined spot in the yard to await transport back to the port.

The benefit: With better visibility, Performance Team was able to eliminate one of two yard shuttles that were previously being used. What’s more, the combination of a yard and event management alerting system is allowing Performance Team to keep velocity in its supply chain.

“Visibility and technology are allowing us to accelerate our operations,” Kerr said. “We have a seamless operation from the time a container comes off a ship until we bring it to the facility, work the freight, and ship it out.”How does it work? The process begins when Performance Team receives notification in its transportation management system (TMS) that a container is at the port. “With velocity and acceleration in mind, you want to work the containers as quickly as possible,” says Kerr. “When we know a container has been unloaded at the port, we dispatch a truck to pick it up. When the truck arrives at our facility, responsibility to manage it shifts from our TMS system to our yard management system.”