Supply chain visibility provider FourKites has unveiled extensive enhancements to its automated Slot Manager solution.
Now, with live status updates from customers’ networks, full configurability and end-to-end automation, Slot Manager is claimed to be the industry’s first no-touch scheduling tool for warehouses, plants and distribution centres. Shippers, carriers and drivers benefit from significant time savings, smoother operations, reduced detention fees and a lower carbon footprint.
With these latest enhancements, shippers can specify the desired delivery date for both full truckload and less-than-truckload shipments, and Slot Manager will automatically select optimal time slots, securely share time slot data across partner networks, and allow teams to proactively reschedule time slots based on FourKites’ machine learning-based predictive ETAs.
Specifically, the updates to Slot Manager include:
- AutoBooker, a new premium feature that integrates with customers’ load planning platforms to intelligently select the best time slots based on the planned delivery date, enabling completely automated scheduling and carrier notifications based on real-time data. AutoBooker is highly configurable to shippers’ business rules, and accommodates the creation of calendars by commodity, carrier and more. AutoBooker is estimated to save up to 8 minutes per scheduled time slot.
- LTL Scheduling. Slot Manager now allows the scheduling of less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments, including the ability to split time slots into smaller blocks to accommodate shorter unloading times, schedule time slots with shipments spread among multiple trailers, and schedule outbound shipments with multiple order numbers in a single trailer. This capability improves facility throughput for industries who are frequent users of LTL shipping, especially LSP, CPG and retail supply chains.
- Comprehensive Reporting. Shippers can now drill into granular details regarding carrier time slot compliance, facility metrics, capacity utilisation, arrival success and more to better inform carrier selection and drive continuous operational improvements.
FourKites’ Slot Manager enhancements are being introduced on the heels of the one millionth time slot booked with the solution, scheduled by longtime customer Trane Technologies from its site in Tyler, Texas. “FourKites’ Slot Manager, with integrated real-time visibility, has increased our yard efficiency, improved truck turn times and enabled us to provide superior customer service,” says Tom France, Vice President of Distribution, Logistics and Transportation for Trane Technologies.
Slot Manager is claimed to be the first appointment solution to integrate with every major transportation management and enterprise resource planning system. Hundreds of the world’s leading brands now rely on the solution to slash manual processes and improve their bottom line. Over the past 12 months, FourKites has seen triple-digit growth in the number of facilities managed with Dynamic Yard and Slot Manager, as well as the number of time slots managed in Slot Manager.
“Our new Slot Manager capabilities are a harbinger of what we’ve long been building toward: a new era in automated, interconnected and collaborative global supply chains, built on a foundation of real-time supply chain visibility,” says FourKites founder and CEO Mathew Elenjickal. “Efficient facility management is critical to the logistics industry right now, and our Slot Manager solution — in combination with Dynamic Yard and our industry-leading predictive ETAs — are unlocking exponentially higher levels of productivity, agility and efficiency.”
