This internal questionnaire may help you to gather information from others in your department and in your organization to see if there are operational, economic and customer service benefits to implementing or improving yard management.
- You can E-mail this page link to those on your staff and in your organization who have, or might have an interest in the benefits of a yard management system.
- You might send the link to: Security / Receiving / Shipping / Customer Service / Purchasing / Traffic / Transportation.
- As the yard is an extension of the warehouse or distribution center, anyone who has an interest in what is in the warehouse probably has an interest in the yard and might benefit from improved yard management.
- How does each group get yard information now?
- Do they keep your their own version of yard management? If so How? (spreadsheet, board, yellow tablet etc.)
- How much time do they spend keeping their version? (hours per week) Estimate the cost per week.
- How much time is spent working with updating other yard management information, including corrections and synchronizing in hours per week? cost?
- How often do you perform physical inventories and how long does each one take? What is the cost?
- How many departments need information from the physical inventory and how long does it take to share the information per week? How much does it cost to share information per week?
- How many internal people request information from the physical inventory and how long does this take per week? How much is spent responding to internal requests?
- How many external people request information from the physical inventory and how long does this take per week? (phone, faxes e-mails etc.) How much is spent responding to external requests?
- What other manual logs and/or systems do you use? Please provide a brief explanation?
- How would you benefit from a central "portal" for yard information? One data base that everyone uses?
- How many hours per week would you save if you could search yard history by any number of search fields and have answers in seconds? How much could be saved with an automated search system?
- If you are interested in interacting with other systems for example warehouse management or transportation management, tell us which ones?
- If available would you give customers and/or carriers online access to equipment or other status?
- Are detention (demurrage, per diem) charges an issue in your operation? If so, how many dollars might be saved?
- Should other factors be taken into account? Do they have a potential to save? Cost?
- What do you see as the greatest challenge to implementing or improving a yard management system?
