Tying Logistics Software Together Would Be Revolutionary
At that place and time, David Bunk, transportation manager for Alliant/Atlantic Foodservice of Manassas, Va., witnessed a demonstration of Randtec Inc.’s UltraYard 2.1 yard and dock management program working for the first time in conjunction with other two logistics packages.
So what was the big deal?
“The demonstration was groundbreaking because it integrated three applications which were written in different platforms, languages, and environments,” said Tim Moynihan, director of sales and marketing
andtec is a high-tech company based in Fairfax, Va.
“With LOMAS, companies can buy our architecture and integrate the best-of-breed applications together,” said Mr. Moynihan. “This represents a departure from current information technology investment practice whereby companies buy stand-alone dispatch, fleet management, and other systems. To share data among these applications, they need to do custom work, which drives up the costs of ownership and detracts from the expected return on investment.”
Randtec’s UltraYard has been configured to be compatible with LOMAS. This is true also of Manhattan Associates’ PkMS warehouse management system as well as Systems Applications Engineering’s Dispatch Management System/Driver Assistance System. All three of these software developers have been designated as “Symbol-authorized business partners” by the developer of LOMAS.
David Bunk is very familiar with UltraYard, but LOMAS represents something completely different. Randtec approached Mr. Bunk to beta-test UltraYard
year and a half ago. He agreed to let Alliant/Atlantic be the guinea pig for an untested technology because, he said, “the operation we had before was a paperwork nightmare.”
As transportation manager for Alliant/Atlantic Foodservice, Mr. Bunk is responsible for distributing over $200 million and 15,500 “stock-keeping units” of food and supplies to hotels, restaurants, and universities from Philadelphia to Virginia Beach. “We send out 25 trailers a night from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.,” he said. “We have sets of doubles coming in and going out all the time. We have a resident driver program in nine different locations. With all of that activity, it was inevitable that some of the shipments and some of the trailers would end up going to the wrong place.”
Mr. Bunk was interested in a system that could keep his assets, loads, and people straight. Randtec proposed to implement a system that would track Alliant/Atlantic’s fleet of seven straight trucks, 52 tractors and 79 trailers by means of radio-frequency technology. RF tags are placed on the equipment and the information is displayed on the computer screen in the form of a graphical representation of the yard.
“A sensor at the gate tells the dispatcher that a trailer has arrived,” said Mr. Bunk. “The system sends the trailer to the correct dock door by telling the yard jockey, who carries a hand-held computer, where to put the trailer. A sensor over the door confirms that the correct trailer has been placed there.
“In the warehouse, we are able to flag a truck, have the correct load placed in the right truck and confirm that the trailer has been loaded. This eliminates a lot of paperwork and the possibility of human error in assigning loads.”
Over the past five months, Mr. Bunk has implemented UltraYard’s latest upgrades. UltraYard 2.0 rewrites the original version in a programming environment called Java. Java’s virtue is its high degree of flexibility: Its programming techniques allow code to be adapted easily to the user’s business environment. Because Java can be operated with a variety of software and hardware, it has become the standard for communication over the World Wide Web.
This Internet affinity is important because any Web browser can function as the system’s user interface.
“Anyone with access to the company intranet, and the proper security clearance, no matter where they are, can access and use the system,” says Fred Krazeise, Randtec’s vice president for sales and marketing.
e said the user access with a Web browser makes for easier implementation and upgrade.
The Java platform also means that the system can accept data from a variety of media, including EDI, RFID, and mobile applications running on hand-held terminals. UltraYard 2.1, which was introduced at the end of September, includes an EDI capability that can transfer standard transaction files within and between enterprises. It also provides greater visibility of, and planning for, inbound loads, Randtec says.
he connectivity that both Java and LOMAS exhibit is characteristic of a new wave of logistics technology that links together applications as well as enterprises.
“It could take decades to develop this kind of integration and customization under the old ways of doing things,” said R. Michael Donovan, an expert in systems integration and implementation in Framingham, Mass. “With the scalability and flexibility of these systems, users are not required to scrap their old systems when they upgrade.”
For Mr. Donovan, of greater importance is the integration that these products promote with outside supply-chain partners. “Companies want to become strategic partners with external parties such as customers and suppliers,” he said. “To do that you need your supply chain totally synchronized to provide a predictable quick response.”
That is why Mr. Krazeise sees UltraYard expanding to offer more supply-chain planning.
“One feature we’d like to add next year will be a load-tender application through which a shipper can access a carrier Web site to request a pickup,” he said.
But the imagination of software developers seems to run ahead of the ability of businesses to absorb the innovations. While David Bunk plans on incrementally adding software to his operations, he does not plan on stitching them together with a LOMAS until his people have fully adopted the new applications. That may be a couple of years down the road.
For the moment, Mr. Bunk is enjoying the simple pleasures provided by the software that he
as now.
“The Randtec system has made my life easier,” he said. “It has cut down on paperwork. We’ve gotten more productivity out of the yard. We’re better able to keep track of our assets, especially at night. We don’t have to go groping around in the dark anymore looking for trailers.”
