Tractor-trailers and containers are vital to manufacturing operations. Due to the size, both loaded and empty trailers are stored in outdoor lots, many acres deep, or in multiple locations.
The challenge is how to locate trailers with the correct parts, determine which trailers are empty, and secure trailers and contents from theft or damage.
Tracking these valuable assets has traditionally come with labor-intensive paperwork, outmoded technology, spreadsheets and basic inventory management, and workers assigned to physically walk yards searching for vehicles or opening trailers to see or find what was inside. Add to this, the need to service and maintain finished goods while they are waiting for transportation. In our current pandemic transportation shortage and plant slowdowns, trailers may remain longer in yards before making it to the final destination.
Surgere has solved the yard management headache with its field-tested Yard Management module, an application part of the Interius™ software suite.
Yard Management fuses GPS and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RFID technology to accurately, in real-time, locate objects in a yard within two feet of the actual location.
Trailers can be assigned parking spaces and users can be guided to them using satellite map views.
Other benefits include:
- Query location data by trailer number, part, or container data
- Provide aging data to users to alert users when material has been misplaced or hasn’t departed on schedule
- Identify open or available spots for inbound material
- Prioritize outbound routes to carriers so that the right load is picked up at the right time
Surgere was recently awarded a new technology patent that allows for exterior spaces to be mapped and tracked without needing a location perimeter. Yard management is no longer dependent on a fixed wall, post, or the need to physically sink a sensor in the ground to know where an object is located. For this new technology, all that is needed is the Surgere sensor and GPS triangulation. The application is cloud-based and can be accessed anywhere on a variety of devices, mobile phones, tablets, or PC.
This powerful, cloud-based application has lots of features and extras. The bottom line is you’ll save money and time, and you’ll know 24/7 where your trailers are in the yard and have an efficient way to find them and direct traffic.
