CHALLENGE

A manufacturer was faced with the challenge of maintaining control and visibility of inventory on their docks and in the yard, because they relied heavily on manual receiving processes and yard audits. In a JIT environment, this information couldn’t be compiled / analyzed quickly enough to be useful, nor could much of it be considered accurate given the manually intensive process. Something needed to be done quickly to ensure control of the entire production system, so the customer approached Transfreight.

SOLUTION

Transfreight designed, developed, and implemented a progress-based shunt tracking database to remedy the problems. This database linked directly to our existing EDI system; as trailers returned to the yard and were entered into the database, visibility (through a user-friendly interface) of its location and of details of freight on that trailer were immediately available. We could now report exactly which trailer freight was loaded on, and where that trailer was. As trailers moved into their scheduled docks, their status was updated in the shunt tracker. We also sent a POD (Proof of Delivery) ASN to the customer, which automatically triggered that trailer’s freight details into the company’s inventory management system in real-time.

RESULTS

With accurate information, the customer was able to effectively and accurately order new material, decreasing the amount of muda (waste) throughout the entire inventory system. Improved inventory visibility helped them maintain heijunka (level flow). The solution also reduced the amount of equipment required to facilitate / support production requirements. The customer benefited from increased efficiencies and significantly reduced total logistics cost.