1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172 
;omputers can't replace he skilled planner — yet!
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
E DISTRIBUTION business Is ntinuing to show that it's the lizz-kid of the road transport lustry. It was the first sector to periment with the computer to 15 years ago at a time len they were room-sized and 3 public were beginning to 3me them for gas bills that 3d £25,000 instead of £50, 'Res DAVID WILCOX.
But the two-day conference on a computer's role in distribuin planning held in London p17) showed that things ive changed a lot in the inrvening years. The computer at took up a whole room now :s in the corner and is a fraction the cost.
What's more, it's far more adinced, has more functions, and e bureaux that sell a computer • rvice understand a lot about e needs of the distribution anager.
The result of all this is that the ■ mputer is now far more feasie for everyday use in the distriation industry, both technically financially. That was one of e main messages that came ;ross from the conference; the ther was illustrating the amber of applications the cornter has in distribution.
One of its more simple uses is stock control. Everyone knows at the aim of stock control is to at a balance between maintainig service levels with a high :ock-holding and minimising Dsts by keeping stocks as low s possible.
But, held Adrian Williams of A Computers and Telecom muications, this is usually done by ale of thumb methods, often reulting in excessive stocks givig high holding costs, particuIrly when taking account of lost pportunity costs — how you ould be investing the capital ed up in the stock.
Because when to re-order tock is mainly a mathematical roblem, it is suited to the cornlater. A programme can work .ut re-order points based on md time, stock costs, order osts and demand.
Transport consultant David :owe thought "that fleet mainenance is the most wasteful and Bast cost-effective aspect in oad transport operations.Arong words, but he felt that the
recording of maintenance work was where computers could be most useful. Comprehensive maintenance records of each vehicle can be stored and easily extracted with the help of a computer.
Analysis of these costs (the computer instantly gives the right answers to the maths) can, says Mr Lowe, lead to lower maintenance costs, less downtime, better workshop utilisation and the likelihood of choosing the best vehicle for the job.
After hearing the theory from Mr Lowe, Colin Searle of FCS Fleetplan gave us the commercial practice. Fleetplan is one of half a dozen such systems on the market, offering a computer bureau service to calculate both vehicle maintenance and operating costs.
Using Fleetplan, the operator completes his usual documentation — such as fitters' checksheets, maintenance schedules, mpg records, and load-out figures — and sends these to the bureau where they will be converted to computer figures, stored and analysed.
The bureau will supply the operator with comprehensive analyses of the figures in a variety of forms as requested, also highlighting vehicles that don't meet pre-set standards of performance, cost or reliability. A computer system can pick up and correlate facts that would take days searching through conventional maintenance and vehicle files. Costs are typically £1.60 per vehicle per month plus an initial setting-up cost of around £1,000.
The computer is particularly good for number-crunching (a computer-man's cliché) and siting a new depot certainly involves plenty of that. Brian McKibbin of PW International (responsible for the muchpraised Woolworth warehouse/depot structure) described how the computer tackles the problem, handling the vast numbers of suppliers and customers, their location and demand.
Each location is converted to a map grid reference readily understood by the computer and at the end of the exercise the computer re-converts the references, producing a map illustrating proportional demand for the distribution service.
To find the best depot site/network structure, the computer patiently works through all the options until the best is found. Said Brian McKinnon: "It's not magic — it simply takes the slog out of the interminable maths."
Delegates heard how Schweppes are using their own computer, mainly to remove the time-consuming chores of administration. Briefly, as the telesales girls take the custom
ers' orders, she keys them straight into a vdu keyboard and this instantly produces, via a computer, processed delivery notes in the traffic office (even if it is in another part of the country).
Getting his delivery notes so much earlier gives the traffic planner more time to plan the load in the normal way, producing a better load. When the load is so planned, the computer will rapidly summarise it using the previously keyed-in invoice information.
Brian Hume of Scicon tackled the subject of the ultimate distribution use of computers — the actual load or route planning. Mistakes with earlier computers in this field gave them their bad name in distribution, but the systems now available mainly use post-code based map references for plotting time and distance between major road junctions to calculate the quickest or shortest delivery-rounc routes.
These systems are expensive because of the amount of com outer time needed to store al the road information. Mr Hum( said that it does work and bette delivery rounds can be planned Ten per cent savings are typical but the depot should have minimum of ten vehicles an 100 orders a day.
After spending two days hear ing about computers I can ap preciate their usefulness in stoc control, vehicle costing and dE pot siting where their ability t, store, search and analyse maE sive amounts of information i impressive.
Similarly, the use of the corr outer to process invoices an summarise loads makes sens( giving the load planner time t do just that — plan loads.
But to use computer-based ir formation to replace th planner's skill is taking thing too far. Nobody at the confe ence could convince me thi they have a computer syster that can plan better loads mot cheaply than a traffic plann( working under the right cond tions. But they're working on i The conference organiser wE Oyez IBC, Norwich House, 11-1 Norwich Street, London EC 1AB.