Cost Plus World Market has adopted a new system for automating the tracking and management of fleet trailers at its main Northern California distribution center. Based in Oakland, Calif., the company is a specialty retailer of household items. It operates nearly 300 stores in 34 states. Cost Plus selected the Yard Hound system from PINC Solutions to make possible the real-time monitoring of trailers at the D.C. Previously, much of the yard-management process was done manually, according to Ray Whitley, senior vice president of supply chain at Cost Plus. The new system allows the company to keep tabs on assets in the yard, and share information through a Web-based interface. The technology was implemented with virtually no disruption to operations, Whitley said. According to PINC, Yard Hound can be deployed within a customer's logistics-management system as an overlay to existing processes, or integrated with other yard- and warehouse-management systems that are already in use. Features include real-time task assignment and acknowledgment for yard-truck drivers, and user-defined access to visibility data for third-party logistics providers and carriers.
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