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Based in Portsmouth, Condor Logistics and its sister company Condor Ferries provide daily services to the Channel Islands and St. Malo on the Brittany coast. The vast majority of goods arriving in the Channel Islands pass through Condor Logistics, which currently handles around 120,000 consignments a year, helping to keep the wheels of the Islands’ economies turning.
Condor has been a ForwardOffice user for a number of years. One of Condor’s early priorities was to streamline its administrative processes and to this end put a great deal of effort into implementing the advanced functionality of auto-charging and Job Costing. With these areas now well bedded-in and working efficiently, it was time for Condor to turn their attention to other areas of the business and to explore where the application of IT could bring about even greater control and profitability. For some time, Condor had considered the possibility of introducing bar-coding of some sort, but was unsure exactly how to achieve this, or how it might be integrated with the core system. It was time to sit down with the chaps from FCL and talk it through! At first, Condor focused on the actual technology of bar code readers, but it was only after discussions with FCL that it became completely clear that the real issues were with process analysis and understanding precisely the stages that a piece of cargo goes through, before it reaches the customer. Only when this is fully understood can IT be applied to improve the process.
The broad objective was for Condor to be able to identify cargo the moment it hit the depot and then keep track of it until it reached the customer - while at the same time improving efficiency and reducing the administrative overhead. The final "cherry on the icing" was to gather POD information electronically for every shipment, thus eliminating a massive ongoing problem. It was clear from the outset that this would represent a major undertaking, requiring considerable time to roll out and procedural changes and re-training at virtually every stage of the operation.
It was agreed that phase one would cover receipt of goods into the warehouse, ensuring that every package was bar-code labelled with the Consignment reference and package number. In order to achieve this, the first issue to address was to create a mechanism whereby Condor could quickly generate a Consignment reference with a minimum amount of information.
This is where the FCL’s "OPS Workbench" program came into its own, offering the flexibility to create a purpose-designed data entry screen where all key information could be collected with the minimum of key-strokes, allowing a Booking reference to be allocated and a bar-coded Consignment Note to be generated. This note is handed to the driver, who is then sent to the unloading bay at the depot. Here, a warehouse operative takes over, equipped with an RF (Radio Frequency) hand-held scanner and a portable label printer slung around his belt. First of all, he takes the Consignment note and scans the bar-code. This immediately brings up details of the Consignment on his scanner. As the vehicle is unloaded, he counts the packages and confirms the weight (scales built into fork-lift) and volume on the scanner. This information is instantaneously updated to the main database. When all packages are counted, bar-code labels are automatically produced on the portable label printer. A label is then applied to each package.
In the words of Steve Colwell, IT manager at Condor, "Getting every package bar-code labelled was the main objective of Phase one. We allowed this to bed in for about six weeks to iron out teething problems and then stood back to look at the results. What came as a real surprise was that even after this first phase, we were starting to see significant benefits in cargo tracking and accuracy of goods details recorded into the system. Clearly, the introduction of the bar-code labels and the greater disciplines required, meant that the warehouse operatives were taking far greater care when they were unloading. Where the documentation said ‘Six Cartons’, we were going to get six labels and needed to find six cartons to place them on. Mistakes were being found and corrected much earlier in the process. And this was just Phase one!"
Phase two now started in earnest. For most of the year there are multiple daily sailings, and a great many trailers can be required per sailing. Previously, the administration department would provide a loading list to the warehouse for each trailer - and allocating Consignments to trailers could be a laborious and time-consuming affair. This whole regime was turned completely on its head. The warehouse was given a loading list only for urgent consignments and was allowed to ‘stuff’ the remaining space on the trailers. Again through the use of the RF scanner, this process becomes hugely simplified and streamlined. Firstly, a bar code on the side of each trailer is scanned to identify the trailer number. The system cross-references the trailer master job, identifying the correct destination, Jersey or Guernsey. Each package is then scanned onto the trailer. If a Jersey package is accidentally scanned for a Guernsey trailer, the operator is stopped by the scanner program. When the loading is complete, an integrity check takes place to ensure that all ‘package sets’ are complete, i.e. if a consignment has six packages, that all six have been scanned on together. From the scanner, the trailer load is now automatically confirmed and a manifest produced on a printer in the warehouse. The seals go on - and away she goes. Also at this stage, an automatic ‘Tracking’ update takes place, which moves the status of each job forward - in this case ‘Vehicle Loaded’. This information becomes instantly visible via the Web, using FCL’s "WebTrack" Consignment Tracking system.
Phase three deals with the arrival at the island depot. The narrow roads on the islands mean that delivery on trailer is impossible and all goods must be unloaded from the trailer, onto the depot floor, in preparation for re-allocation to smaller delivery vehicles. The seals are removed and the unloading process commences. Once again, an RF scanner scans off every package. At the end of the unloading process, an automatic exceptions audit report is produced, which highlights any ‘Un-manifested’ or missing goods. Un-manifested goods could have crept on board the trailer if the warehouse operative on the mainland had neglected to scan a package on. At this point, the Tracking status of the jobs now moves forward to ‘Arrived Island Depot’, which is once again instantly visible on the Web.
The last phase handles the final delivery. Here, the FCL Transport Module takes over, as jobs are allocated to Vehicle Running Sheets (VRS). VRS control records are pre-allocated for the day or the week - the more runs required, the more VRS records required. Once again, packages are scanned onto the vehicle with an RF scanner. Upon completion, a physical VRS is printed off, with a bar-code identifier for each drop. At this point, a new type of scanner is introduced - a remote scanner, which the driver will take with him in the cab and which has to be uploaded with the VRS information. The driver sets off on his delivery run with the scanner parked in a holster in the cab, keeping it permanently charged up. At the first drop, the driver scans the bar-code on the printed running sheet, and up comes the details of the delivery. A number of options are then open to the driver; he can take a POD signature on the touch sensitive screen of the scanner; or, if the customer prefers, the scanner can be used to take a photograph of the signed POD documents; if the goods have sustained any damage, he can photograph the damage. The driver then confirms the delivery is complete and moves on to the next drop.
Upon return to the depot, the driver parks the scanner in a holster and an upload process commences. This updates the status of each Consignment to ‘Delivered’ and automatically copies the POD images into FCL’s e-Document Management system against the relevant Consignment. The POD documents instantly become visible on the web and can also be e-Mailed to the customer as Proof of Delivery, together with the Invoice. Finally, any goods which could not be delivered for whatever reason are scanned off the delivery vehicle back onto the depot floor, ready for the next available re-delivery.
The entire project has taken two years to reach this stage, requiring major procedural changes to be implemented on the ground throughout the operation. However, the benefits have totally exceeded expectation, with even the most hardened sceptics now fully won over. In the words of Paul Wilson, Guernsey office manager, ‘It really does work!’.
As for the future, Condor is certainly not resting on its laurels. Phase five is now under development, which involves the concept of a ‘Quarantine’ facility for packages which may for example have been damaged, or arrived at the islands ‘Un-manifested’, or indeed may have been forced into Quarantine by the job being placed on ‘Hold’, for credit status or other reasons.
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