How Often Should You Perform a Lot Check on Your Yard?
Performing lot checks is an essential responsibility on every yard. With every business, without conducting routine check-ins, you run the risk of letting problems slide under the cracks. To uphold a positive reputation of the Yard and Operations Manager, performing routine lot checks is critical to ensure operations continues to run smoothly. In this article, we’ll discover what exactly a lot check, why it’s an important aspect to a yard’s operations, how often they should be done, and additional tools/resources you can incorporate that will make lot checks simpler.
What is a Lot Check?
A lot check is a term that all yard operations personnel are very familiar with. Since operations during peak periods can have their inventory turned over multiple times daily, it may lead to producing inaccurate counts of what’s in the yard. If inaccurate commodity information is passed across the yard, that can cause a massive interruption and potential failure in the entire operation.
Conducting a lot check is an essential next step to ensure a yard operation collects accurate data, verifies a correct number of commodities in the yard, analyzes what’s inside the units, and counts how many available units are empty.
Operation Failures May Result in Infrequent Lot Checks
It’s self-explanatory. Without conducting routine checks, you won’t have accurate yard inventories. Without accurate information, your operations will eventually crumble. There’s a problem if you don’t know how many empty containers you have, when you don’t know what is occupying different spaces at your operations facility, if you’re running low on visibility, or are uncertain of any raw material counts. If you stay on top of what’s happening in the yard, you’ll remain one step ahead.
Who is Responsible for Performing Lot Checks?
Typically, Yard Drivers are the ones who would normally perform lot checks within their designated areas. To verify they did an accurate job, a Yard Manager (the boss of the Yard Drivers) or an additional security yard worker, would review the lot check and verify proper inventory inspections were completed and information is accurate. It’s always beneficial to have a second set of eyes to prevent mistakes from occurring.
Allow Our YMS to Do All the Tedious Work for You – Accurately!
See why we’ve been leading the industry for more than 20 years. YardView’s cutting-edge yard management system slashes 50% off the amount of time spent used during lot checks. By providing all parties with immediate access to viewing accurate counts and yard positions, you will have time back in your pocket to focus on what’s most important. Then, with the in-cab move request system, as commodities are moved, the inventory constantly updates itself with accurate information. This innovative YMS solution leaves you feeling confident and comforted knowing all future lot checks won’t go unchecked or unnoticed.