There is a palpable excitement in the transportati

There is a palpable excitement in the transportation department of Giant Food Inc. The Landover, Md.-based retailer's three-year effort to develop its new Transportation Management System (TMS) will be culminating this month with the roll-out of a high-tech adventure that sets the stage for a paradigm shift in the way the food industry oversees its truck fleets.

Simply stated, Giant's new transportation system gives the corporation real-time control over all its rolling stock and electrifies all driver reporting that has heretofore been paper-bound.

Driven by satellite and wireless local communications via an array of customized hardware and software, the system automates practically every aspect of reporting transportation activity within the chain, including all Department of Transportation requirements. Hand-held terminals and on-board communications computers enable truck drivers to receive instructions and produce information with a minimum of effort.

The project began over three years ago when Giant concluded that its system for driver-to-dispatch office communications was obsolete and must be replaced. The transportation process depended on voice communications between truck drivers and the transportation office at the completion of each assigned task. This resulted in over 1,200 phone calls per day, which wasted drivers' time and influenced their productivity.

Long considered one of the most well managed chains in America, Giant operates 172 stores, which are located within a 170-mile radius of their distribution centers. In a typical week, the chain's fleet of approximately 1,700 trailers and more than 225 tractors makes 2,700 trips and 5,500 stops. The company has more than 300 drivers. Fleet operations are dispatched from two warehouse complexes, one in Landover and one in Jessup, Md. Within those two facilities are seven different shipping warehouses.

The transportation team that took on the task of making these operations more efficient was composed of Sam Thurston, senior vice president of distribution; Chris Balodemas, director of transportation/traffic; Pam Sanford, general manager of transportation; Marty Flaherty, who is now director of warehouse operations; Tracie Doyle, manager of systems planning; and Scott Onion, technical specialist in systems planning.

The executives decided that before making an alternative investment they would take the time to define what would be the ideal solution. Before their brainstorming sessions were over, the solution had grown to encompass the entire way in which the drivers and rolling assets were controlled. As a result of this review, Giant made the decision to take the old systems off the mainframe computer and move into a Unix environment. When the vision was completed, a team was formed to find the technology required to support the system that had been envisioned.

Unfortunately, the team members soon discovered there was no package that would satisfy all their objectives. Rather than scale back the vision, Giant went looking for business partners who would share the vision and the benefits it would ultimately deliver to the chain and the rest of the transportation industry.



The solution is not simply high-tech; Giant is convinced that it will also deliver a high benefit. In fact, the projected ROI is barely one year, and that is based on a calculation limited solely to the benefits expected to be realized through greater driver productivity. Other benefits will accrue in areas ranging from improved store service to the more effective utilization of capital assets. Giant is keeping the amount of its investment in the system confidential.

Key to the new Transportation Management System are the hand-held terminals and on-board computers that bring real-time communication with each truck driver into the cab of his tractor. They were developed by Symbol Technologies, Inc., which also served as the integration manager for the entire project.

The other business partners are Noblestar, which wrote the corporate system; Systems Application Engineering (SAE), which wrote the hand-held application; BellCore, which provided the Airboss middleware that handles the communications to and from the on-board computers; Sierra Wireless, which developed the cellular digital packet data (CDPD) modems; and Fleet Communications, which handled the installation of all the technology throughout the Giant fleet. Doyle and the entire Giant management team had nothing but praise for the way all the vendors worked together to build and manage the implementation process, from specifications to shakedown and roll-out.

Giant decided to use a combination of communications technologies to support its new TMS. The system, represented in Exhibit 1, has the new applications running on a Digital Alpha 4100 computer operating under UNIX with the data bases using Informix. The application code was written using Powerbuilder, Informix's 4GL and Java. The communication facility uses both wirelines and wireless technologies. It has an Airboss communications service, and the Airboss Network provides the wide area network (WAN) communications when the tractor is away from the distribution center. The distribution center has a local area network (LAN) that is seamlessly integrated to communicate while the drivers are in the yard.

Communication uses a specially designed on-board computer called the Symbol Mobile Gateway (SMG) that integrates three different forms of communications: Airboss, which uses CDPD protocol; a global positioning satellite (GPS) link; and the LAN, which uses Spread Spectrum 24 to communicate with Giant's Ethernet LAN and the hand-held terminal, which is a Symbol Technologies PPT 4600 (shown in Exhibit 2). The PPT 4600 connects to a cradle mounted in the cab using infrared technology. It has a display screen, and the driver uses a stylus to enter information. This driver's terminal is used throughout the day for all record keeping, including inspections and trip logs, and to receive messages from the transportation office.

At Giant the transportation process begins two weeks ahead of the shipment week, using an application called ODS (Order Delivery Schedule). It is at this point that a master shipping plan is developed and sent to each store. This schedule tells when each store will get its deliveries and when each must transmit its orders. The schedule changes each week, particularly when there is a holiday or special promotional or competitive activity. The scheduling application uses an extensive order history and reflects the physical limitations of each store, e.g., some stores have either back door limitations or limits on how many trailers can be parked at their lots.

The heart of the system is the transportation host system. The ODS information provides one of the key data bases in this application. The other data bases include an inventory of all tractors and trailers, and the availability of all drivers. The trailer-tractor inventory dynamically reflects the physical location of every unit. This information is updated by the shipping warehouse personnel in the yard or automatically by the communications system in each tractor. Moves of all equipment and all driver assignments are scheduled and directed from a central transportation application.



Exhibit 3 (page 20) shows a portion of the Transportation Management System's main screen, from which all transportation management decisions are made. Users can drill down to more detailed information to support their decisions. In Exhibit 4 the screen reflects a drill-down to see all of the day's work completed by a specific driver. Decisions made from this system are transmitted via the appropriate communications facility to either a dumb terminal carried by yard personnel or to the hand-held terminals.

These hand-held terminals are used for a variety of input applications. When the driver first comes to work, he signs in at a computer terminal in the transportation office. He then gets his tractor assignment and its location in the yard. The drivers usually use the same tractor each day. The driver logs on to the Symbol PPT 4600 computer to which TMS has downloaded his work schedule using the wireless LAN.

The next thing he does is remove the hand-held terminal from its cradle and, using the touch screen, complete his pre-trip inspection of both his tractor and the first trailer (Exhibit 5). The inspection screens are customized to reflect the characteristics of the equipment assigned to the driver. The driver answers all questions by touching the screen with a stylus. When the entry of variable information is indicated, the display screen becomes a keyboard and the driver touches the appropriate key to create his response. When all responses are entered and edited, the driver signs his report using the stylus, and the report and his electronic signature (Exhibit 6) are sent to the TMS data base.

Each trailer has an identification number, and to support the accurate entry of these numbers Giant has added a self-check digit that is painted on the trailer just above where the tractor air hose is located. The screen displays, without the check digit, the number of the trailer to be picked up and its location in the yard. When the driver locates the trailer and enters its identification check digit, the system verifies that he has connected the correct trailer.



The terminal then displays the first stop on the trip along with any special information the driver may require (Exhibit 7). This would include directions to the store and the time when he is expected to arrive at the stop. Throughout the driver's work day, every drop or move of equipment will be communicated to him using this terminal.

Every time he picks up a new piece of equipment, he completes a pre-trip inspection report using the touch screen. At each stop, the driver enters his odometer mileage. The on-board computers include a GPS link that allows the TMS to know where the tractor is at all times. When the tractor is approximately five minutes' driving time from the store, it sends a message through the Airboss network that updates the store computer and makes it possible for the store to respond and assign people to the back door to support the efficient unloading of any multi-stop delivery.

As the truck enters the store's immediate area, the GPS system recognizes this and the on-board computer sends a second message alerting the store computer that the truck has arrived. With Giant's old system, managers could easily think they were waiting for the truck when in fact the driver was in the back of the store waiting for store employees to assist with his delivery.

When the GPS system recognizes movement away from the store's dock, it alerts dispatch that the driver is on the way to his next stop and forecasts what time the truck will arrive. The store uses its terminals to notify transportation when a dropped trailer is ready for pickup and whether the trailer is empty or contains something, e.g., salvage, product returns or transfers. This information is used by the transportation office to identify which trailer the driver is to pick up, if he is dropping the one he is delivering.

The store can also request trailer moves within its facility through the dispatch office, and TMS will automatically update the driver's assigned work in his hand-held terminal. This information allows transportation managers to anticipate when a driver will be available for a new assignment and to make that assignment, which will be transmitted to the hand-held computer.

Changes in the work originally assigned are signaled to the driver by audible alerts from the hand-held computer at one-minute intervals. The drivers are trained not to look at these routine messages while they are driving. However, if there is an emergency message, the computer will send a tone every 30 seconds. In such cases the drivers have been instructed to pull over and then review the message.

If the driver experiences problems on the road, he can use his terminal to send a message to the transportation office. He also notifies the transportation office if he experiences any delays at a store. These holdups have pre-coded messages?dock blocked-vendor truck, dock blocked-Giant truck, store not prepared, and the like?and the driver simply selects a message and enters the time he is delayed. Information about the store's response to the delivery will be used by Transportation and Store Operations to identify stores where better labor scheduling is needed to reduce driver idle time.

The driver also enters all his breaks and their duration. The system creates a log of all of his activity for the day and compares it to a corporate standard for those specific tasks. In the new system, this information is available immediately after the driver returns to the distribution center. If serious deviations have occurred, management can immediately review them with the driver. In the old manual system it wasn't until the next day that transportation managers had access to this information.

The new Transportation Management System also tracks the movement of trailers in the yard as they travel throughout the complex. At the distribution centers a group of jockeys use Symbol VRC3940 mounted terminals that are connected to the wireless LAN. These terminals notify the yard crew when the warehouse needs full trailers moved away and empties brought to the dock. The jockeys notify the Transportation Management System when each move is completed, and the movements are recorded real-time on the TMS master screen. The system is so dynamic that it directs the driver to the new yard location of a trailer if it has been moved prior to his hooking up.

How does Giant expect to benefit from this state of the art system? First, the company anticipates that savings from greater driver productivity and improved efficiency in the use of equipment will provide a full payback in less than one year. Additionally, the entire system is designed to move goods, not paperwork, and this will result in significant improvements in all aspects of the transportation process.

These benefits will come from a number of improvements in management controls, including the following:

? Accurate and dynamic updating of all active trips, including the status of all drivers and trailers.

? Automatic preparation of all DOT logs keeps the drivers' time focused on driving, not paperwork.

? All driver inspection work is automated, and this information automatically updates the company's vehicle maintenance records.

? New driver performance standards can be developed, and in the future new trip time statistics can be used to improve scheduling and on-time delivery performance.

? Drivers' productivity should improve because they no longer have to call the transportation office to get new work assignments. The advance delivery notification to the stores should reduce driver wait time at each store. This can also lead to new performance and productivity standards for store personnel and should improve the freshness and safety of perishable product, eliminating unnecessary waits on the delivery dock before it is moved to the cooler or freezer.

? Through better planning and improved asset utilization, Giant expects to improve fleet utilization, which should result in a more effective capital investment plan and a reduction in the total operating costs of the fleet.

The system is a great example of a retailer making a paradigm shift in the management of its assets. The investment Giant has already made in the implementation of this new transportation system could serve as the foundation for other retail efficiencies. For example, one of the next steps is to provide store managers with interactive personal communications devices that alert them to truck arrivals. Such terminals could look like cell phones, but they would access a shared voice and data network that operates on a common instore RF network with ordering, shelf inventory control and DSD receiving.

This network would permit instore technology to automatically page employees and direct them to move to the back door to handle an incoming delivery. Employing this voice-data network, store management could use the portable telephones to tap into any of Giant's corporate systems to validate deliveries and to check on such product-related information as warehouse out-of-stocks.

Since the Transportation Management System is tracking the movement of the entire fleet, it would know the anticipated arrival time for each delivery. Giant could create a store dock management system that would dynamically schedule all deliveries, both by its own drivers and by DSD vendors, giving priority to the Giant deliveries. The system would not permit a DSD vendor to enter a dock if that delivery could not be completed before the anticipated arrival of a Giant truck.

Extending this concept one more level, many of Giant's DSD vendors already participate in a DEX/NEX exchange of data. It would be possible for these vendors to share the same RF communications facilities operated by Giant. In this way they could transmit their route plan for the day and confirm a delivery time at Giant's dock, minimizing their delays at the back door. These schedules would be integrated with the warehouse schedules for that day so that neither delivery presented a conflict at the back door. As a DSD vendor approached the store, or even at his prior stop, he could reconfirm this schedule with store employees. Clearly, those who could coordinate their delivery requirements ahead of time would get preferential treatment at the back door.



Giant's Transportation Management System is more than a foundation for the chain to integrate communications between the warehouse, the fleet and the stores. The integrated communications network, LAN and WAN, will provide for many exciting new opportunities.

As an example, warehouse operations director Flaherty sees the day when the company will add on-board monitoring of truck engine performance. The on-board computers were designed to integrate this engine data for transmission to the TMS. In addition, sensors could track all reefers filled with product waiting for transportation to the stores. In the event of a compressor failure there would be an automatic communication to the warehouse, which should permit the company to save thousands of dollars worth of food that would have spoiled without this real-time alert.

TMS offers the entire company the opportunity to examine the operating needs and identify ways to achieve improved service and efficiency in all three areas of Giant: stores, transportation and distribution centers.

At the same time, the system can best be described as establishing the basis for a paradigm shift in the way the food industry manages its transportation activity. In this regard it has already set the standard by which all companies, both retailers and wholesalers, must measure their current and future investments in transportation technology.