PRISM for Inbound Logistics
PRISM is a fully-fledged loading bay scheduling and management system. Through flexible resource management and extensive supplier preference specification, customized, supplier-pleasing schedules can be produced automatically. Using a simple interface, these schedules can then be browsed, searched and easily manipulated: deliveries can be shifted to new times using recommendations supplied by the system itself, whether on the same or a different day. Products from one delivery can even be added to another suitable delivery; even extending that delivery to accommodate the new products where possible.
Setup
PRISM offers a broad range of easy-to-configure data that determines the manner in which schedules are generated.
Each supplier shipping point, for instance, can have its own properties detailing the duration of offloads (dependant on the number of units being offloaded), which can vary according to season. Docks can also be specified to accept only certain product classes.
Additionally, each supplier’s shipping point can have preferred offload docks, offload days, and prioritised time windows, aiding the scheduler in meeting supplier demands.
PRISM also offers a multi-depot environment allowing several, independent schedules for various depots to be managed within the same database. Each depot can be configured with its own docks and shipping points, allowing for informative, multi-depot reports to be produced.
Scheduling
The schedule management screen provides a simple, powerful interface to view, search, auto-schedule and manipulate deliveries.
One click of the ‘Run Scheduler for Selected Week’ button performs a full auto-schedule for all the jobs within the selected week, taking into account supplier preferences, dock open times, supplier preferred docks, etc. Where necessary, ‘soft’ rules may be broken – for example, deliveries that will not fit within any dock’s open window will cause that window to be extended. Likewise, an unavailable supplier preferred offload time or dock will be replaced by the ‘next-best’ available. Supplier shipping points themselves can also be prioritised to ensure that they are preferenced by the scheduler.
The ‘Manage Selected Delivery’ and ‘Manage Selected LineItems’ buttons allow jobs and individual products to be moved manually from one time to another, using the ‘Delivery Movement’ screen. This provides a great deal of flexibility as recommendations are supplied for each day, ordered by how ideal each recommendation is. The user can also view at a glance what available times are within preferred time windows for that supplier, or after dock close.
Finally, PRISM can append products from one delivery to another, if the destination delivery is from the same supplier shipping point and has the required space available. If not, PRISM will even attempt to extend that delivery to accommodate the source products, if the delivery has unscheduled space following it.
Schedule Analyses
Through a combination of custom-written external reports and internal Gantt Charts, a complete overview of the each day’s schedule can be viewed, clearly indicating dock-open overruns and unused space within the schedule. Moving the mouse over each delivery within the graph reveals details regarding that delivery, such as the supplier, shipping point class, and number of offload units.
Integration
Integration with external systems is currently achieved through a simple Import interface table, from which PRISM obtains orders and automatically builds up the required master-data. Through the use of XML, however, both input and output interfaces to any system requiring PRISM can be achieved with ease.
Roadmap
The next phase of the PRISM project includes the development of a fully fledged Supplier Web-Portal, allowing suppliers to view and confirm the current status of their deliveries, as well as send comments and change-requests to the schedule manager – all electronically over the Internet.
Additionally, an automatic emailing service is under development to allow the schedules specific to each supplier to be automatically emailed to that supplier on demand.
The PRISM scheduler was also designed with extensibility in mind, greatly decreasing the turn-around time for the addition of new, user-requested features.
Conclusion
Ideally suited to organisations requiring a combination of efficient loading bay scheduling and management, as well as ease-of-use – without the need for complex financial and vehicle-routing management – PRISM offers substantial power and flexibility in a simple, functional package.
