technologyreview
on deadlines and other require-
ments. Back in the pre-YMS days,
prioritizing all those trailer moves
would have been a headache and a
half, so Canadian Tire simply adopt-
ed a policy of giving shipping prece-
dence when it assigned trailers to
dock doors. But the software has
allowed it to take a much more
sophisticated approach. With the
YMS, the company can now priori-
tize all trailer moves—both shipping
and receiving—based on when the
equipment is needed at a door to
meet a specific loading or unloading
schedule. Improved scheduling has
AND WHY NOT? FOR THE PAST 100 YEARS, NOBODY HAS
MATCHED THE WORK CAPACITY OF OUR IRONCLAD® BATTERIES.
reduced driver wait times considerably.
Based on its success using the YMS to
boost dock door utilization, Canadian
Tire began casting about for other uses for
the software. “We realized that there’s a lot
more to it than just putting a trailer to the
door and improving our receiving and
capacity utilization,” says Fast.
One of the applications the company
came up with for the software is improving its maintenance scheduling.
Essentially, the software has taken the
guesswork out of the process. Because the
YMS keeps tabs on equipment utilization,
it’s easy for the company to identify which
trucks, tractors, or trailers are due for servicing. “Now that I have all this data, operations can figure out what things need to
be maintained and when,” says Fast.
The retailer is also using the YMS to
obtain better supply chain visibility. The
software gives Canadian Tire advance
notification of incoming truck and rail
shipments and manages all intermodal
equipment—whether that equipment is
owned by the company or a third party.
Visibility enables the retailer to better
plan the daily workload at the DC and
keep track of what merchandise is en
route to specific stores.
Managing growth
Since installing the YMS, Canadian Tire
has seen improvements in both equipment
utilization and driver productivity at all
three facilities where the software is
deployed. Driver wait times have been
reduced by six to seven minutes on average, and equipment throughput in the
yards has increased by 10 percent. “This is
one piece of technology that has allowed us
to manage our yards as our business has
grown over the years,” says Fast.
What advice would he offer to other
managers considering the purchase of a
YMS? “You want to make sure that the
application has the right open architecture to be able to integrate properly [with
other software],” says Fast. “And you need
to approach it with a mindset of improving and changing and adding new
processes rather than having the YMS fit
into an existing process. There’s always a
way to do things better, and technology
can aid in that.” ;
