Logistics - On the move

Posted by Satish Kumar Sahoo at 3:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The mere usage of different modern technologies in warehouse might not produce the desired results. Belonging to the community of the creator of these technologies - humans, who make use of these technologies, can always find loopholes and can make use of it to achieve individual benefits defeating the very purpose of implementing the costly technologies. So effective use of the technology to make it definitely achieve what it is primarily intended to achieve becomes a necessity.  We will take here an example of usage of RF Technology in warehouses and determine how it can be effectively used. The primary use of RF guns at warehouse is to save time as scanning the barcodes is much faster than entering the item id, location details using key pad.  It also takes away the necessity of warehouse workers to know about any products being handled as they just need to deal with product and location barcodes.

One more important usage of RF guns at warehouses is forcing the picker or person who does put-away to go to the actual location suggested by the system to pick or put-away the product.  An operation problem widely prevalent in most of the warehouse here is that the picker or the person who does put-away doesn't go to the actual location suggested by the system or doesn't operate on the exact product suggested system, but accidentally or intentionally uses the keypad to enter the system suggested product or location value while actually they are in a different location or operate on different product. This problem is more with users who use keypad mostly than scanners, as this is not possible when they scan the barcode of the location or product they operate on. Some of the ways in which we could avoid this scenario are discussed below

The first simple solution is to take away the capability of using keypads from users. But this is not practical as not all inputs the users need to give can always be given by scanning and some of the inputs will have to be given by keypads.

The second solution is to make RF gun affix a checksum at the end of each scanned value. Then the WMS system needs to be enhanced to separate the actual value and check sum digit from the scanned value and make use of only the actual value. Since the users cannot calculate and enter the check sum digit themselves they will have to go to the system suggested location or operate on the system suggested product. This requires RF guns with capabilities of producing check sum digits and enhancements to be done in the WMS system accordingly.

The third solution is to store an alias value for each scanned value inside the WMS system. Labels will have to be generated with barcodes for this alias value. Actual Alias value should not be easily accessible to all users so that they have to go to the system suggested location and scan the barcode of the alias value in the location label and the enhanced WMS system can get the corresponding actual value for the scanned alias value. This solution doesn't require any new capabilities with that hardware (i.e) RF guns, but it requires enhancements to be done in the WMS system.

The last solution, similar to the third solution is to store a prefix or suffix value for each scanned value inside the WMS system. Labels will have to be generated with barcodes including the prefix or suffix value. This prefix or suffix value should not be easily accessible to all users so that they have to go to the system suggested location and scan the barcode in the location label and the enhanced WMS system can get the corresponding actual value for the scanned value by separating out the prefix or suffix. This solution too doesn't require any new capabilities with that hardware (i.e) RF guns, but it requires enhancements to be done in the WMS system.

Similarly if the possible loopholes in the usage of technologies are identified and if the system is enhanced such that no one takes advantage of such loopholes the system integrity will be achieved with ease.

Posted by Senthil Kumar Chockalingam at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recent Quarter results from Class I US Railroads are promising. The economy over the past two years has forced all industries, including Railroad, to squeeze the maximum out of their systems. Organizations were able to do this more efficiently on their core competencies. Could they have run some of their non-core departments more efficiently?  Let's take IT Department for example. Most of the fortune 500 companies have a part of their IT work force as floating, compared to a decade back. They call this strategy as transferring fixed costs to Variable costs. During recession they were able to scale down their team sizes (now a variable cost) if required. Can they do the same with Servers and applications?

They could, if they were in the Cloud. Before we go into 'Possibility of how Cloud can help during recession', let's take a stock of Cloud adoption in Railroad.

Cloud Adoption in Railroad -
Every Railroad has started adopting Cloud Computing in different levels. Some are making their application servers virtual. Others are giving importance to Service-oriented or software as a service architectures and frameworks. Few Years back the largest class I Railroad, Union Pacific Corporation, identified that its ability to scale for growth was limited, with rising costs and an aging mainframe IT infrastructure. Union Pacific Railroad announced that it is embarking on a multi-year overhaul to it its IT systems.

By 2013 it plans to have its IT in virtualized infrastructure (based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux). This will be managed by Red Hat Network Satellite systems management and monitoring tool, which will give centralized control and higher scalability for UP's systems. Union Pacific Railroad is also utilizing cloud computing concepts at the Java application hosting level. It is transitioning from a highly-shared, heavyweight Web container platform to thinner web application tier, a virtualized Java Hosting environment built on JBoss Enterprise Middleware architecture.
 
A key system that will use this infrastructure is a transportation system called NetControl, which will replace the mainframe-based Transportation Control System that was responsible for tasks such as order taking, monitoring and scheduling shipments and train schedules, and dealing with service interruptions.

Change IT Infrastructure from fixed costs to Variable costs -
Using Cloud Union Pacific has increased its ability to scale for business growth, increased its system performance at a significantly lower cost structure and implemented a highly-available and most importantly stable and reliable operating platform. During an economically strong year UP's NetControl can quickly scale up to handle the increase in Bill of landings, Scheduling and other systems.

Now how can this help during recession? Imagine a possibility where the IT infrastructure could be scaled down. Reduce number of servers just enough to handle the reduced business. Imagine if Railroads can take one more step towards public cloud offerings like AWS, where you can increase and decrease the processing power and storage based on demand. During tough times, when organizations are tightening their belt, they would rather not worry about managing and scaling their infrastructure. They would not if they were consuming it as a utility, a utility that Public Cloud Computing can offer on demand, thus enabling the company to effectively concentrate and support its core business.

Posted by Deepak Ilango at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Carriers and 3PL s are gearing up to meet the latest regulation in customs security measures - the Entry summary declaration from the European Union. This blog is the first in a two part series that looks into various aspects of this regulation and how it impacts the Logistics community.
The regulation states that an Entry summary declaration (ENS) containing specific details about the cargo must be submitted to the first port of call in the European Union by the carrier. The timelines for submission of ENS depend on the type of transport and the duration that takes the transport to carry the cargo into the port of entry  -

For maritime containerized cargo = at least 24 hours before loading begins at the non-EU port of loading.
For maritime bulk or break bulk cargo = at least 4 hours before arrival at first EU port
For short distance maritime movements (e.g. movement that takes less than 24 hours) = at least 2 hours before arrival at the first port
Flights = at least 4 hours before arrival at the first port
Short distance flights less than 4 hours duration = at least before take off
Rail and inland water movements = at least 2 hours before arrival
Road movement = at least 1 hour before arrival

The above rule has been put into effect from 2011 at 27 member states comprising the EU. The main driver for this regulation is to enforce strict security compliance and risk assessment in line with the expectations of EU member states, as near the point of origin as possible - well before goods actually arrive at the EU, and reduce delays and bottlenecks in EU destination ports. Similar regulation has been enforced in the US and other countries through measures such as the Importer Security Filing (ISF) or 10+2.

Consequences of noncompliance with ENS can be severe - resulting in fines and penalties on carriers and parties responsible for submission, needless to say the operational delay in cargo traffic impacting the end customer / shipper and consignee. Only the customs office at the port of entry can waive an ENS filing subject to an electronic filing of customs manifest containing the data elements specific to ENS, and within the strict timelines ENS mandates.

The onus on filing the ENS lies with the actual carrier of the cargo, regardless of who is managing the logistics portion of the supply chain (e.g. a 3PL). If the carrier has a contract with another party for B/L preparations - such as alliances, freight forwarders etc. - then that party may also submit the ENS of behalf of the carrier, but must have explicit permission from the carrier to do so.  

Due to the strict timelines, need for data accuracy and seriousness of the filing, freight forwarders and 3PL s managing the logistics or responsible for submissions start requesting for the ENS even as early as 5 days before due date. This brings the entire logistics chain forward, requiring importers and 3PL s to complete inspections / quality compliance checks and confirm on suppliers / vendors shipments many days ahead of the due date. Needless to say how far ahead the planning for overseas cargo must now begin to cover for all of this.

Will this measure ultimately achieve better success in reducing delays for ports or cause more hastles for end customers? - only time will tell.
In the next part, I will provide more insight into the specifics of ENS data and its implementation.

Posted by Satish Kumar Sahoo at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)