Peter Rhodes

Yard Smart Simulation – so what!

YODEL – BUSINESS OVERVIEW & C3 IMPLEMENTATION

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• Business Background

• Control Tower Implementation

• Network Rationalisation

• Wednesbury Sort Centre

• C3 Implementation

• Simulation

• Benefits realised

• Future with C3....

Agenda

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Business Background• Yodel is the new company name for the merged HDNL and DHL

Domestic businesses

• This took place in March 2010, with Yodel born two months later in

May

• The new business now has a share in the B2C and B2B markets

• Following the acquisition of the DHL Domestic business, Yodel had

two networks of drivers, tractor units and trailers to manage

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Business Background• The combined Transport network meant that Yodel Transport had to

manage:

Trailers: c 1600

Trucks : c 600

Drivers: c 600

Fuel: 30m litres

Miles: 60m

• Both HDNL & DHL Domestic had legacy TMS systems in

place and investment was required to manage the fleet

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Control Tower Implementation• Yodel reviewed the market for companies who could provide the following:

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Control Tower Implementation• Yodel chose to use Isotrak, ESS and DPS software suppliers:

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Network Rationalisation

• HDNL network

encompassed two national

Sort Centres

• DHL Domestic used a

Regional Sort network, with

5 Sort Centres in the UK

• Yodel Sort now has 4 Sort

Centres which sort nationally

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C3 Implementation• A Yard Management solution was sought based on:

• Large volumes of traffic at the Sort Centres

• Sort Centres operating across more than 1 sites

• Improved management of client traffic

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C3 Implementation - Wednesbury

• Yard space at Wednesbury was

tight, so a 2nd Yard was required

• Two sites managed by C3

• Simulation required to review Sort

capacities and shunters required

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C3 Simulation – What was the purpose?

• The objective of the simulation was to understand a “day in the life” of Wednesbury :

• Determine how many shunters were needed to operate Wednesbury

• The workability of the expected operational flows

• Can the planned seal times be met based on different volumes and trailer arrival profiles

• Preparation for simulation:

• Initial discussion of requirements

• Provision of data, storyboard, layouts, etc.

• Initial calibration runs of data, processes and key event process / timings

• Master run on standard volume and peak scenarios

• Interpretation of the stages, recalibration and iterative actions

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C3 Simulation - Results•  What the simulation did for Wednesbury was :

• Confirm the shunt numbers expected (originally calculated from base line manual estimates)

• Gave some pointers to the workability / changes to the expected operational flows

• Determine where changes were needed to the  expected configuration

• What the simulation didn’t do for Wednesbury:

• Determine the key congestion bottlenecks (as seen by the Autologic movies / simulation)

• Take account of the emptying of MT trailers from the campus

• Truly determine the average “dead” time of doors following trailer removal

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C3 Simulation

• Starting point: Yard is Setup for Start of Shift.

• Shipping doors: Empty trailers at doors (yellow).

• Receiving doors: Doors are empty waiting for loads.

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C3 Simulation

• Receiving: Doors are full. Inbound trailers (red = National loads) are being parked, then automatically requested to doors.

• Shipping: Loaded trailers (green) are parked on both sides of building and gated out. Door Group requests empty trailers.

• Parking space on top filling up.

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C3 Simulation

• Receiving:• Local loads (orange) are starting to arrive but parked.

Priority still Nationals.• Door group changed to prioritise local loads.

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C3 Simulation

• Shipping:• Last wave. Release of full trailers.• Empty trailers are automatically requested to doors to

setup for next day.

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C3 Simulation

• Simulation succeeded with 8 Shunters. All trailers were delivered by 03H00 AM.

• Stats show times where less resources could be used.

• The receiving and shipping schedule could also be adjusted to even out the shift and reduce rush/peak times.

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• Improved visibility & control of all trailers in yard

• Ability to view all clients / load types and manage on priority, which has resulted

in dramatic reduction of client trailers being missed

• Ability to review history of trailers and movements

• Ability to analyse shunter tasks and performance

• Improved shunter productivity

• This has resulted in the removal of one AM shunter at Droitwich

• Wednesbury could not have operated without C3 system & it

provided flexibility during the transition period

Benefits