Logistical Subsystem Case Study

If you look at everything that 's around you, chances are high that most of the things you see have passed through a supply chain. Supply chains handle a large volume of products on a daily basis, so it is vital that they operate efficiently with minimal errors. In order to operate efficiently, supply chains often use logistical subsystems to manage high volumes of products. One of the logistical subsystems that gets overlooked is the yard management system. Yard management systems, commonly referred to as YMS, are logistical subsystems that track the trailers within the yard of a distribution center. Yard management systems allow employees to know the location of a trailer, what products are in the trailer, how long it has been in the yard, …show more content…
In order to help with this transition, NYK Logistics hired Rick Pople (Maselli 1). Pople made the decision for NYK Logistics to use an active-tag RFID system rather than a bar code system that the company was originally considering. Pople believed that a bar code system would only help identify the containers and would not help locate them, which was the primary issue (Maselli 1). Instead, Pople chose an active tag RFID system (Maselli, 2). As explained in an online article by Claire Swedberg from RFID Journal, radio frequency identifications use microchips, also called tags, to store information about an item that the tag is attached to. Attached to the microchip is an antenna, which allows a reader to receive information that is sent from the chip. The waves sent out by the reader are picked up by the tag, used to power the tag, and then returned from the tag back to the reader with information about the tag. The information from the tag is then used by an employee or the logistical subsystem to determine what to do with the item that was scanned …show more content…
NYK Logistics has twelve other distribution center locations around the country (Maselli 1). Although they have only updated the yard management system at their Long Beach distribution center, it is possible that they will consider expanding the program to other locations. At the time of this article, the new yard management system has only been active for a few months, so it is hard for them to quantify their return on investment of the system (Maselli 4). However, since they have already seen an improvement in the efficiency of their operations, it is likely that they will expand the system to more of their large distribution center locations (Maselli