You would hardly expect a warehouse manager to be using a super mobile app, which is connected to real-time GPS and integrated with the ERP & analytics engine in the backend. But this is exactly the kind of innovation that is being implemented at Safexpress
Express Computer Team
Mobile apps are common these days—we use them for managing all kinds of tasks, such as banking, travel, calendar, social networking, etc. The possibilities from mobile apps is just endless. It is nowadays quite common to find the delivery personnel from UPS and Fedex using handheld, app enabled, devices for recording specific transactions. However, the app usage is relatively uncommon in case of warehouse managers.
You would hardly expect to find a warehouse manager using a super mobile app, which is connected to real-time GPS and also integrated with the ERP & analytics engine in the backend. But this is exactly the kind of innovation that is being implemented at Safexpress.
An App for Hub Management
Anjani Kumar, Chief Information Officer, Safexpress, was on a visit to a transhipment hub, which links smaller cities in the region with bigger cities across India. During the two hours that he spent at the hub, he was able to observe that the staff had to constantly travel back and forth between the office complex and the hub floor to get the necessary information related to scheduled departures, arrivals and the shipment tracking info. He also noticed hub managers moving around with papers containing the list of the arrivals and departures.
The idea came to Anjani’s mind that lot of efficiency could be brought to the work by providing every hub manager with a tablet. On returning to office, he had a discussion with the Managing Director of Safexpress, Rubal Jain, who enthusiastically received the idea of empowering the hub managers with tablets.
“I have been thinking on the same lines,” Rubal said. “We should provide the managers with tablets, which will run the app for sourcing the information regarding departures, arrivals, shipment tracking, etc.” Now that he had the go-ahead form the Managing Director, Anjani Kumar devoted himself to creating the application for tablets running on Android OS. He decided to call the app, “Action on the Move.” In few months time, the app was ready—it has the capability of providing instantaneous access to all the necessary information that the hub managers need on the floor. “Many hub managers used to come to me and say—when will the day come when I will have an app like Facebook or Twitter to manage my work?” laughs Anjani. “Well, now I am in a position to provide them the app.”
Action on The Move
The “Action on the Move” app provides information on all the trucks, which arrive at the hub. The information that is provided by the app is related to both scheduled, as well as the ETA time, like in case of the airline panels. The estimated arrival time is derived from the data collated from GPS. Delayed arrivals are presented as exceptions.
The app features a departures dashboard, which displays the list of all the departures. As both arrival and departures are linked, the departures can be adjusted on the basis of the time of arrival. Since hub managers have accurate data about truck arrival, they can easily make a decision on whether to hold the next departure for an arriving truck. This leads to the creation of more efficient load factors.
The app enables hub managers to enquire about the waybill very easily. They get instantaneous information about every step in the movement of any given consignment. The app can highlight the exact location of the consignment at any given point of time. The hub manager can instantly know if the consignment is lying in his hub or in the next. He can also see which material is over-ageing on the floors, by hours or days.
Such information enables the hub managers to take quick decision on what consignment has to move first and thus there is drastic reduction in the instances of delayed shipping.
The App Efficiency
Anjani says, “A good chunk of our shipments are B2B and we follow stringent guidelines for checking documents. The documents get checked at every transit point.” With the app, the hub managers can instantly discover what kind of transit document is required for any particular material. This leads to a vast reduction in the average time that it generally requires for rechecking documents.
The biggest challenge that the logistics setups face has to do with coordination between the customer care professionals and the warehouse. “This application has the provision for online collaboration between customer care centres and the warehouses. Online token for shipment inside the company is linked to this app. Anybody can raise a ticket for any hub manager if the shipment is shown pending at this hub. When they are using this app, the hub managers get an alert, so that he can take appropriate action for updating the tokens with the required information,” says Anjani.
The hub managers, according to Anjani, are finding the application very useful. It has definitely led to an improvement in the team’s productivity. As the hub managers know the exact time when any particular truck is going to arrive, they are able to mobilise their workforce on time—this leads to reduction in the average time that it takes to unload a truck.
The application has led to a significant improvement in the productivity of various hub management teams. As they know exact time of arrival of the truck, the workforce gets mobilised in advance and this in turn ensures that that there is reduction in the unloading time. With the truck’s exact position being visible on the tab, the staff at various hubs don’t have to call up the truck driver. This saves lot of time and money.
A Must Have App
After the pilot project with tablets running the “Action on the Move” app was completed successfully, the hub managers were asked for their views. Most of them were of the opinion that this was a must-have application, one that must be provided to every hub manager in the company. Also, the tablets are equipped with Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, which makes it easy to introduce new versions of the app or even new apps across
many devices.
The tablets serve many purposes, other than using the “Action on the Move” app. They can be used for checking mails, and watching other parts of the warehouse using the live feeds from the video cameras. The tablets can also be used for taking care of many HR related activities like checking staff attendance, taking or granting leave approvals, regularising attendance, etc.
Anjani and his team are already working for the creation of the next version of the app. They are planning the new set of features that could be added to the next version. “One feature that we are contemplating will provide alerts
for vehicles that are waiting for unloading,” says Anjani. “We will also have a feature that will give alerts for vehicles that have been loaded but are yet to depart.”
The evaluation of the performance of each worker after every unload is another feature that the new version of the app could have. With the evaluation of performance, the employees could get instant recommendation on the areas where they need to do better. The formulation of the loading plan is the most complex tasks for any warehouse or hub manager. “We are thinking about a feature that can help the hub manager in developing the most appropriate loading plan,” says Anjani.
The best benefits of the app will start becoming obvious once the app is enabled to perform the major tasks which can be done by ERP and Safexpress’s IT team is definitely headed in that direction.
