• Container & Order Management for a new era of supply chain

    The importance of the supply chain is now clear to all, but will your technology meet the expectation

Global Container and Order Management

Accurate container and order visibility and control has long been the ultimate goal for manufacturers (OEMs) and lead logistics providers (LLPs), however the software solutions market has never really embraced or facilitated this goal, preferring to focus solely on individual segments or modes thereby further perpetuating the antiquated, silo’d approach to supply chain management.

This partly because container management can mean many things to many people as do container management software solutions. Whereas service providers may be interested in little more than the container itself and its cargo classification, the shipper of that cargo will be interested in far more detailed information about the cargo including shipment order information, purchase order, packaging media and SKU level information.

Knowing which SKUs are in which containers, which order lines they represent and which purchase order they reconcile against can be critical to the shipper. In addition, knowing where the container is destined, how it will be routed there and what are the latest ETAs at each point in the supply chain and ultimately its final ETA it critical. This is especially true if the cargo is feeding local manufacturing plant or fulfilling the needs of time critical or seasonal sales channels. Having visibility and control of all of this information seamlessly, end-to-end visibility within one solution, ProAct calls a ‘Control Tower’.

A true Control Tower technology brings many benefits, not least that it can project more accurately, down to SKU level the availability of product currently in the supply chain at its final destination. Knowing what product is in which containers at what points in the supply chain also makes it easier to re-prioritise individual containers and expedite critical SKUs. All of this relies on the solution capable of having a detailed understanding of the entire process flow, its decision logic, its dependencies, its service providers, its constraints and overall the routing options for a specific container. This in turn relies on a technology that is dynamic, configurable and flexible enough to project, predict and optimise a complex end-to-end, multi-modal supply chain based on all of this data.

GENERAL CAPABILITY SCOPE

Multi-Language/Terminology
Multi-Time Zone
Multi-Yard/Site/Location
Multi-Currency
Multi-Unit Of Measures (UOM)
Multi-Modal (Transport)
Factory-to-consumer planning and execution
End-to-end control tower visibility
Dealer/Consumer visibility & collaboration
Aftermarket VIN activity management
Network Yard Management
Yard Setup & Configuration
Yard Graphical real-time visualization
Multi-modal route and process planning
Dynamic multi-modal Itinerary projection
Sophisticated yard process/activity management
Multi-modal manifest management
Perpetually configurable events & triggers
Service provider allocation and collaboration
Service and Job allocation management
Route capacity constraints
Resource capacity constraints
Yard Location Maintenance (Bays, Tracks, Lanes, Berths, Sectors, Workshops etc)
Location assignment rules
Parking & movement optimisation
Route/Ramp code allocation
Movement/Proximity Optimisation
Rail car & train load optimisation
Rail Car ‘Spotting’ and Switching support
Barcode Scanning
RFID Configuration
Storage duration management

UMLER data storage and reference facility
QR Label generation
Document Management
Workshop/Resource set up
Workshop Skillset requirements
Workshop Equipment/Asset requirements
Equipment Loading / Unloading (rail, road, ocean)
Automated workflow & task allocation
Crew Bus Management
Workflow & task allocation duration tracking
Parts Inventory allocation
Resource availability diary
Workshop capacity management
Activity duration tracking
Rail car management & tracking
Truck management & tracking
Vessel management & tracking
Vessel unload planning & berth visibility
Vessel schedule management
Inbound/Outbound manifest management
Factory process visibility
KPI Tracking & MIS dashboarding
Vehicle or Equipment Inspections & surveys
Photographic and document support
Storage duration management
Ruled based ‘Hold’ management & release
AIAG format damage recording
Repair tracking
Upfitting management (PIO,DIO,FIO)
Inspection capture & management
VIN decoding
Equipment asset Register
Equipment compartment/Deck Configuration
Equipment load planning restrictions

Cost And revenue tariff management
Automatic charge Matching
Billing creation
Extensive EDI, Web Services and API support
EDI error handling and management tools
EDI activity history & auditing

TELEMATICS

VIN originating data capture/request
Status recording (battery, tyre, GPS etc)
Status based rules and task triggers
Automatic assignment of yard tasks
Resolution verification

MOBILE DEVICE SUPPORT

Android native online/offline App Secure device authorisation
Local operational data storage (offline)
Inspection/Survey Management
Automatic Job allocation
Photo, annotation and signature capture
GPS tracking & Geofencing
Business process management
Job location mapping and orientation
Yard inventory enquiry

NOT ALL YARD MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS ARE BUILT THIS WAY

Yard Management for Finished Vehicle Logistics is a member of the ProAct Yard Management suite which includes ‘Yard Management for Cross-Dock’ and ‘Yard Management for Transload’.  Finished vehicle logistics and indeed vehicle yard management is a core competency for ProAct and a market that ProAct has been involved in since the late 90’s.

Over the years ProAct has deployed yard management solutions on behalf of a number global 3PL providers. Today we consider both our yard management solution and wider finished vehicle logistics solutions to be unique and differentiating ‘best of breed’ global capabilities. The summary below only touches on the extensive scope and depth of capabilities available within this solution.

Multi-manufacturer, multi-yard, multi-modal capability

ProAct’s browser based, yard management solution supports the majority of functions needed for the complete management of one or more yards processing one or more manufacturers’ vehicles. The process typically starts with an electronic production forecast or pre-advice of expected VINs.  VINs may arrive from the production line or indeed be gated in from other plants or facilities coming via road, rail, ocean, at unit level or even containerised.  For externally arriving vehicles the yard may often be a staging or consolidation point for onward distribution.  This applies to both dedicated manufacturer yards and indeed mixing centres dealing with many manufacturers.  Furthermore, the ProAct solution can be applied to any yard type including post-production yards, port/terminal yards, VPCs or mixing centres. Equally, the functionality of yard management can be used in whole or in part for activities ranging from full blown yard management to haul away operations.

Configurable, rules based yard processes based on multiple criteria

ProAct’s yard management is based on its configurable, process execution technology which allows processes and rules to be user defined and then executed by the solution. There is virtually no limit to the extent or granularity of these processes. This means that virtually any criteria can be applied within the rule base to determine the specific processes and tasks that must take place on a particular VIN. These rules are dynamic, so that any change to the status of the vehicle (eg. Damage, dealer allocation, up fitting) might invoke a totally new process which may include moving the vehicle to a third party location for rectification or modification.

From the ProAct solutions user community…

Downtime related to software has not been seen by our organization. We have the utmost confidence in this product to maintain our customer needs.

The emphasis on making the software user-friendly recognizes the need for the end-users to be able to use the tool and do their specific jobs.

I like the possibilities of the software growing with our needs as we address expanding pieces of the market.

I like the deep industry knowledge of the team that supports us, which continue to grow over time.

Find out how ProAct could help your organisation?

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