Why Factory Trucks Wait for Hours | Yard Management Challenges in Logistics Operations — Transcript

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1. 0:06Hello everyone and welcome to the new
2. 0:08episode of digital podcast. I am Priya
3. 0:11and today we have with us the product
4. 0:13lead Jojo George for the discussion.
5. 0:17A very warm welcome Jojo.
6. 0:19>> Thank you Priya for having me in this
7. 0:20episode.
8. 0:22Today let's focus on one of the most
9. 0:25important problems that every factory
10. 0:27has been facing but it's not very much
11. 0:29talked about. So companies are investing
12. 0:32heavily on ERP systems, warehouses are
13. 0:34being automated, the reports are
14. 0:37perfect. But on the other side, the
15. 0:39moment we step into the yard, it's a
16. 0:41complete chaos. The trucks are
17. 0:44everywhere, the drivers are waiting, the
18. 0:46gates are congested, but no one actually
19. 0:48knows what is the core problem. So Jojo
20. 0:52according to you even though since there
21. 0:54are so many technological systems in
22. 0:56place why are the yards still running as
23. 0:59a controlled chaos
24. 1:00>> that's because uh companies have
25. 1:02digitized their warehouse operations but
26. 1:05not the yard and globally many often
27. 1:09yard is the missing link between the
28. 1:11transport and the warehouse operations
29. 1:14>> well that's a quite structured and
30. 1:16defined answer I want something that is
31. 1:18more real like an example Example.
32. 1:21>> Yeah. For example, take a large
33. 1:23distribution center. Uh a truck arrives
34. 1:25on time, but the dock that this supposed
35. 1:27this truck is supposed to go uh the
36. 1:30unloading is happening and it's already
37. 1:31delayed by 20 minutes. So now this truck
38. 1:33gets delayed and this creates a domino
39. 1:36effect. So in no time the yard starts
40. 1:39filling up. But in the warehouse system
41. 1:43in the WM system, it everything still
42. 1:45shows as green. That means the system
43. 1:48has a clear understanding of the
44. 1:50shipment but it does not have an
45. 1:52understanding of the ground reality.
46. 1:53>> Exactly. So the ERP um tracks
47. 1:57transactions but there is no system that
48. 2:00has a complete yard visibility.
49. 2:02>> That makes complete sense but uh let's
50. 2:05narrow this down a bit. Uh when we take
51. 2:08particular scenarios since every yard
52. 2:10has its own pain points and problems
53. 2:12depending on their geographical
54. 2:14locations. If we take India as a case
55. 2:16study, what would be your take on that?
56. 2:18>> Yeah. Uh in India, the challenges become
57. 2:21even more operational. Say for example,
58. 2:23the morning shift starts at 8:00. Uh at
59. 2:278 many trucks arrive together like some
60. 2:29might be on time, some might be coming
61. 2:31much early, some might be delayed. So uh
62. 2:34like when all these trucks come together
63. 2:36like what happens the person who is in
64. 2:37hand of in charge of the gate or the
65. 2:39yard, they try calling the dog. I mean
66. 2:41they start coordinating manually. They
67. 2:44check with the dog. The doc person says
68. 2:45no it's full now wait for some time. The
69. 2:48drivers
70. 2:50starts asking sir like how long we have
71. 2:52to wait.
72. 2:53>> So this happens on a daily basis in
73. 2:55every yard
74. 2:56>> every single day especially on large
75. 2:58manufacturing plants.
76. 3:00>> I've also seen and read uh through many
77. 3:03reports and all that a single
78. 3:05communication gap maybe it might be
79. 3:07quite minor but it leads to huge
80. 3:09operational delays.
81. 3:10>> True. Say for example, um a trailer is
82. 3:14inside the yard. It's waiting at the
83. 3:15temporary inspection zone for
84. 3:17inspection. Okay. Now the person at the
85. 3:19dog door, he doesn't know where the
86. 3:20truck is. He thinks it might be at the
87. 3:22gate or could be at the parking lot. So
88. 3:24he has to spend some time calling people
89. 3:26checking where it is. So just for the
90. 3:29coordination, a lot of time is getting
91. 3:30wasted.
92. 3:32>> So basically these huge companies that
93. 3:34have such large yards don't have a
94. 3:37proper visibility in their facility.
95. 3:39>> Exactly. And most yards still run on uh
96. 3:44phone calls, WhatsApp and the memory of
97. 3:46the person who's coordinating it. It's
98. 3:48just one person who knows what happens
99. 3:50where. And if that person goes for a
100. 3:52lunch, half the yard gets confused.
101. 3:55>> That is true.
102. 3:56>> Yeah. I'll give you one more example. Uh
103. 3:59consider the shift change. The morning
104. 4:01shift people leaves. The next shift
105. 4:02people comes in. Now truck is waiting at
106. 4:05the parking slot. Uh waiting for doctor
107. 4:084 say for example. But no one uh did a
108. 4:10proper handoff. So what happens? The
109. 4:12truck is waiting at the parking slot but
110. 4:15the dog still remains empty.
111. 4:17>> That would mean the truck is stuck at
112. 4:20the yard for hours even when the dog
113. 4:22stands free.
114. 4:23>> Correct. And that's when the management
115. 4:25starts asking why the turnaround time is
116. 4:27increasing
117. 4:28>> and everyone will give different kinds
118. 4:30of reasons without actually addressing
119. 4:32the whole problem.
120. 4:33>> Correct. And people will start blaming
121. 4:35others. Transport guys will start
122. 4:37blaming the warehouse people. The dock
123. 4:39people will blame the security. The
124. 4:41security will blame the truck drivers.
125. 4:43The truck drivers blame the system. Like
126. 4:46no one will have complete visibility of
127. 4:48what is happening.
128. 4:49>> Very much right. Another issue that I
129. 4:52have noticed is detention cost. Lately
130. 4:55it's becoming a huge issue.
131. 4:57>> Yes. Uh the trucks waiting longer than
132. 4:59that is planned. Especially in the US uh
133. 5:02the warehouse operators have to pay
134. 5:05large detention costs which is actually
135. 5:07a major cause of concern. But what
136. 5:10nobody can answer is why what is the
137. 5:11cause of this like is it uh happening at
138. 5:13the dock is it happening at the gate at
139. 5:16the parking zone is it due to paperwork
140. 5:18like what is causing it no one knows
141. 5:20>> and when we focus on India
142. 5:23uh points like whether the festive
143. 5:26season or the seasonal rush make things
144. 5:28even worse.
145. 5:29>> Correct. So like as you said weather
146. 5:31like heavy rains and all can definitely
147. 5:33delay schedules even during festive
148. 5:35seasons like just before them there's a
149. 5:37spike uh in the in the in the demand and
150. 5:40like there could be many trucks like say
151. 5:42for example 30 trucks coming to a
152. 5:44facility which can handle only five
153. 5:46trucks at a time. So these kind of
154. 5:48things create more chaos.
155. 5:51>> Many companies but still work on this
156. 5:53concept that the schedule is working
157. 5:55normal. Yeah, that's because many teams
158. 5:58have become used to this firefighting
159. 6:00mode. Just think it think of it like
160. 6:02this. If you have uh one person per
161. 6:05shift just for coordinating the trucks
162. 6:08or if you have uh frequent phone calls
163. 6:10or uh calls calls happening between the
164. 6:13yard, the dog and the gate. If you have
165. 6:15drivers asking for a status every 15
166. 6:17minutes, that's not operations, that's
167. 6:19damage control.
168. 6:20>> That's a very good way to look at it.
169. 6:22But apart from all these issues that we
170. 6:24have been focusing on, there is one more
171. 6:26matter that has not been quite in the
172. 6:29eyes of people that is drivers coming to
173. 6:32the plant and waiting there overnight.
174. 6:34>> Yeah, that's very common especially in
175. 6:36India like for example drivers come
176. 6:38after the like the working house of the
177. 6:41warehouse and they have to wait
178. 6:42overnight to get the load unloaded I
179. 6:45mean unloading done. So just think about
180. 6:47it like they are spending so much time
181. 6:48just for that and uh they are incurring
182. 6:51huge detention cost but no one is paying
183. 6:53for that. So ultimately that is born by
184. 6:56the carrier.
185. 6:58>> That means these companies prioritize
186. 7:00investing in these warehouse systems but
187. 7:03the gap between the gate and the
188. 7:04warehouse is not being managed.
189. 7:07>> Yeah. And that's the space that creates
190. 7:09all these uh delays, congestions,
191. 7:12um driver irritations, uh poor turn
192. 7:16around time, detention cost, all these
193. 7:18things.
194. 7:19>> I very much agree because there are
195. 7:21operational teams that work continuously
196. 7:24under constant pressure.
197. 7:26>> Yeah. So in in such cases it's mostly
198. 7:28like the entire yard is dependent on
199. 7:30some people who knows uh the entire
200. 7:33things and um the moment volume
201. 7:35increases things go out of their
202. 7:37control.
203. 7:39>> Absolutely. So the real question over
204. 7:41here is not if we have ERP systems in
205. 7:44place it is do we actually have a
206. 7:46control over our yard operations.
207. 7:48>> Yeah. Because if your yard is still
208. 7:50relying on phone calls, assumptions or
209. 7:52manual coordination, then your
210. 7:54operations are depending on efforts not
211. 7:57systems and efforts doesn't scale. And I
212. 8:00believe that's the real difference
213. 8:02between companies that are used to
214. 8:04firefighting and companies that are
215. 8:06actually functioning with control.
216. 8:09This was a very insightful discussion on
217. 8:11a topic that every operation team faces
218. 8:13but still somehow remains ignored. So
219. 8:15thank you very much Jojo for joining us
220. 8:17today with this discussion.
221. 8:19>> Thank you. I too enjoyed this
222. 8:20discussion.
223. 8:21>> So to conclude, Yara operations are not
224. 8:24just about trucks entering and leaving.
225. 8:26It's a space where operational delays
226. 8:28and coordinated gaps are visible first.
227. 8:30Follow us for more insightful
228. 8:32discussions.