A 2022 study by Peerless Research Group into materials handling technology found that only a few warehouses use yard management systems.
Warehouses tend to focus on two principal areas: what goes on within the warehouse and the transportation systems that take goods to customers. What often gets neglected is the yard and dock areas. The 2022 Material Handling Study found that 56% of companies surveyed used warehouse management software systems, 26% have inventory management systems but only 7% have yard management systems. In 2020, 17% surveyed had yard management systems and, in 2021, the percentage was 8%.
According to Bridget McCrea, the editor of Logistics Management, yard management systems automate truck arrivals and departures and monitor trailer movement in the yard to speed up transportation operations and improve yard safety.
Many warehouse management system companies are seeing yard management as a gap in the market and are offering yard management systems to their customers. The aim is to provide a comprehensive system that monitors the entire warehouse operation, including delivery trucks arriving in the yard, processing and picking orders, taking orders to packing benches, loading orders on trucks and vehicles moving out of the yard.
Warehouse operators are faced with increasing costs from higher electricity bills, increased wages and extra fuel costs. Yard management system vendors are asking companies to explore the use of their systems. They claim that they save money by enabling faster turnarounds for drivers dropping off and picking up goods.
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