What is yard management?
Yard management, also known as dock management, is the coordination of processes at the loading dock to improve logistics operations, increase loading and unloading efficiency and minimize truck idle time on the premises.
A modern Yard Management System (YMS) such as VISIT enables real-time monitoring and communication to improve inventory tracking. It also provides analytics to identify bottlenecks and improve overall performance.
Digital yard management in use
The success stories of our customers
“By introducing VISIT, we were able to automate and fully digitize the manual registration of external persons, which significantly reduced the workload of the reception staff. The visitor invitation and welcome email support a professional external appearance.
“Processing visits with VISIT has given us a lot of clarity and structure in our management of external persons – our reception no longer wants to do without the software! The interface to our access control system also leaves nothing to be desired. Being able to easily assign access rights to visitor badges greatly relieves our HR department.”
“We wanted to restructure visitor management at the Siemens gates and decided to use a standardized solution throughout Germany. The aim was to significantly reduce waiting times for our visitors and significantly reduce the workload on our staff. Since 2014, we have had a visitor management system at almost all German Siemens locations with manned receptions that fully covers our requirements and is also designed for future optimization.”
“With the software from ASTRUM IT, I can be sure that our processes with visitor and truck traffic work as planned. If problems do occur, they are solved immediately by specialists.”
“In addition to the high level of usability that ASTRUM IT’s system offers us, we were particularly impressed by the way we worked together. The staff at ASTRUM IT are always ready to listen and are always available to help with any problems.”
“We have been using the ASTRUM IT visitor management system since the first generation. It is important to us to make the work of our employees easier – a visit must be processed quickly and easily. Several workstations at our site are equipped with VISIT, which register visitors, vehicles and trucks, including license plates. Hardware components such as ID card readers and barcode scanners, which were also recommended to us, also speed up the processes.”
Overview of all modules
VISIT Basic
VISIT Basic
- Pre-registrations
- Different Visitor types
- Location management and attendance lists
- Overview function / dashboard
- Roles and rights concept
- Invitation e-mails / notifications (also as SMS)
- Configurable visitor tickets
- Comprehensive reporting
- Data protection concept and compliance
- Various user languages
- and much more.
VISIT Plus
VISIT Plus
- Campus solution (multi-client capability)
- Online check-in
- Outlook Add-In
- Individual fields plus
- Catering
- Visitor group import (file)
- Welcome monitor
- Additional UI languages
- Parking lot management
- Plausibility check attendance times
- Employees from other locations
VISIT Secure
VISIT Secure
- Security briefing
- Sanction list comparison
- Evacuation list
- Approval workflow
- Badge management and allocation
- Badge activation via link
- Visitor document management and verification
- Access bans
- Alarms (end of visit / time away)
- Access control
VISIT Self-Service
VISIT Self-Service
- Registration visitors / craftsmen
- Registration suppliers
- Visitor logout
- Language package / individual languages (operation, over 24 language options
VISIT Connect
VISIT Connect
- VISIT web service interface (Public API)
- Access control system interface
- Interface scanner for ID documents
- Guest WLAN voucher system interface
- Room management system interface
- SAML interface
VISIT Logistics
VISIT Logistics
- Delivery traffic management
- Recording and management
- Transport orders, reporting functions
- Downtimes
- Truck call-off
- Radio message receiver
- Display system
- SMS
- Truck acknowledgement (after loading/unloading)
- Truck weighing
- License plate recognition
Current challenges in yard management
Companies in the logistics industry are confronted with a complex web of technological requirements, organizational bottlenecks and rising customer expectations – innovative solutions and flexible strategies are needed to remain competitive. Here are the 3 most important challenges at a glance.
1. Communication and coordination:
Communication between the various players such as drivers, warehouse employees and dispatchers is crucial. Effective coordination is necessary to minimize delays and ensure that everything runs smoothly.
2. Time management:
Timing the loading and unloading of trucks correctly is a challenge. Delays can lead to traffic jams and inefficient operations.
3. Cost pressure and increased efficiency:
Capacity management and efficient use of space are more important than ever in order to reduce costs. At the same time, investments in modern technologies and systems are necessary in order to optimize cost management in the long term.
Is it possible without yard management software?
Inefficient processes on the premises lead to longer waiting times for drivers and waste valuable resources. The core problem often lies in outdated, manual yard management, which inadequately links delivery, storage, production and dispatch. The growing shortage of qualified drivers further exacerbates the situation.
At a time when the complexity of yard processes is constantly increasing, precise control is therefore essential in order to efficiently coordinate the large number of carriers and fleets and thus prevent bottlenecks and delays.
Discover now how our yard management software can support you!
More transparency. More security. More efficiency
– there is little that our Yard Management cannot do.
- VISIT Logistics records your entire delivery traffic including vehicle, driver and carrier.
- VISIT overcomes language barriers by using language packages for the drivers.
- Monitoring of arrival, entry and exit times.
- Location-specific definition of one or more transport orders incl. delivery note number, load with fixed parameters or via free-field configuration.
- Automated retrieval of a logistics overview with vehicles present for those responsible.
- Supplier registration after arrival and automated retrieval of external truck parking space.
- Individual digital assignment of trucks to a specific loading ramp / loading gate via various end devices, e.g. pager, radio receiver or display board.
- Overview of all waiting trucks at a local location.
- Generation of statistics on arrival, call-off, entry and exit times.
- Improvement of internal processes by evaluating truck idle times and other parameters.
Intuitive. Logical. Simple.
This is how yard management works with VISIT LOGISTICS
- Easy to integrate into your existing IT.
- Complexity down, delivery traffic flow up: more efficiency in vehicle processing.
- Security for all sides thanks to the multilingualism of VISIT Logistik (language packages).
- Strengthened service provider-customer relationship through transparent driver downtimes.
- Smooth, cost-efficient handling of loading/unloading processes.
- Proven cost savings of between 50 and 80%
- Avoidance of congestion and maneuvering work in front of / in loading zones.
- Improved occupational health and safety thanks to clear processes.
- Transparent load securing thanks to the obligation to provide evidence of security measures.
- Easier implementation of given safety regulations.