The coronavirus crisis is influencing the world. Restrictions and rules determine everyday life with severe disruptions in the management of previously well working supply chains and logistics processes. Additionally, workers need to be protected by using secure and hygienic processes preferably in the adoption to the “new normal”. But what does that mean to the yard process?
With the help of SAP Yard Logistics you can organize contactless and digitized yard processes. This not only increases your security level in the current pandemic situation but also reduces the organizational efforts and risks of errors.
We are going through a very challenging time for many people – and the world around us is changing quickly. For many people, working from their home offices has turned from an option to a necessity. There are hygiene recommendations and contact restrictions to protect ourselves and, particularly, vulnerable people. Shaking hands as a greeting is history – at least for the time being.
Social distancing, hygiene rules and distance regulations must be complied with in almost every country of the world. The coronavirus crisis is affecting every area of life and will bring change in certain areas.
This is especially so in the logistics area, where the crisis has a significant number of manufacturing companies to stop production over the previous weeks. At the same time, logistics service providers have had to keep their services going for system-relevant industries like hospitals, pharmacies and supermarkets. Due to this fact, the order situation is very volatile and hard to handle.
A good chance to digitize your yard.
On the other hand, businesses like e-commerce and home delivery have seen a huge upturn. The number of shipments skyrocketed in the Covid-19 crisis. This caused bottlenecks among the deliverers. Due to the increasing quota of home deliveries, they will continue to be under pressure.
Also, the retailers in food supply can hardly keep up with the demand which proves that the current crisis also brings up winners. To keep up with the new demands and the pace of the market, the efficiency of the current processes must be examined to ensure smooth operations.
For some, it is extremely important to process as many trucks as possible. Every delayed delivery, no matter whether goods receipt or goods issue, causes both costs and damage to the reputation. Fast processing is particularly important in peak times.
Cost pressure has also increased further, so that digitizing processes pays off even faster.
Last but not least, the social distancing rules must be implemented and adhered to.
All of these requirements lead to one conclusion:
The global Covid-19 crisis is a good reason and chance to digitize and automate your yard processes.
What possibilities can Westernacher offer?
Having a closer look at the impact on yard activities, it quickly becomes clear that a digitized yard process using SAP Yard Logistics can decrease the direct contact points between people tremendously.
The most effective application we offer to realize a contactless yard process and decrease contact points is the check-in application. It can be used from the warehouse doorman, from the truck driver himself on a terminal or from the truck driver on a mobile device.
This “Mobile Self Check-In Application” can be used on every kind of device and is probably the best way to avoid social contacts during the check-in process. It is available in several languages and very intuitive.
In the registration app, a reference number must be provided. This number is customer specific and can be realized individually. Examples:
- Transport Number
- Yard Order Number
- Appointment Number
- Shipment Number
- Delivery Number
By providing the reference number and clicking on continue, the registration is continued with the next steps.
If no reference number is available, for example when parcel or service vehicles arrive at the yard, the driver can register through the option “I do not have a number” from where he can select a suitable process.
For an even more hygienic secure supply chain process, carriers can book and manage their own time slots for your yard using the Carrier Portal application. This way, your clients can connect to your Yard Logistics system directly, so that their transport planning can be transformed into a Yard Logistics specific document automatically.
Additionally, the capacity planning of our application can help you to ensure a dedicated distance between customers trucks.
Dynamic determination of maximum capacities and keeping distance by locking capacities are just two possible ways to increase the hygienic security on site.
Further to these named examples, SAP Yard Logistics brings many advantages to your site logistics.
Communication is key.
In order to optimize and reduce driving and waiting times for all processes, as well as increase the hygienic standards due to Covid-19 crisis, we want to achieve higher hygienic security and avoid personal contact in all yard processes. The basis for this is the communication.
In SAP Yard Logistics, mobile communication is the standard way of connecting the drivers. In any case where the truck driver needs to contact the office or other way round, there are several contactless options:
- Telephone
- Text message
- Whatsapp / Telegram
- Pager messages
The communication on the yard is important to make sure drivers are in the correct lanes, parking lots and loading points. The efficiency of a process suffers enormously if lanes, parking spaces or loading ramps are blocked at the wrong time.
Additionally, you can reach the driver in any exception case. If the driver is late, you can communicate with him. If your door planning has changed, you can let the driver know. You can immediately react to exceptions like damaged scales, terminals or lanes to lead the next drivers into other lanes.
Yard Logistics is able to automate messages and send them at the right time to the right driver.
In the best case, a message does not have to be sent manually.
All of these features increase the security of your employees. They don’t need to get in contact with external persons. The risk of an infection will be minimized and the effort for establishing the hygiene conditions is lower. In case somebody is not following the rules on the yard, SAP Yard Logistics enables you to react quickly and smoothly.
If you are interested in bringing your yard to the next level of digitalization, please contact our experts at Westernacher.
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