SAP Yard Logistics Implementation and Adaptation for a Railway Company

The LeverX team participated in the implementation of a multi-dimensional sustainability SAP EHS solution for a chemical company that needed to manage and keep safety on different levels of its big factories worldwide.

Client and Challenge

Our client is an American railway company that transports automobiles and manages vehicle movements within its yard (compound), supporting deliveries across the transportation chain, including automobile dealerships.

The client sought to streamline automobile transportation between dealerships. In this process, the yard (compound) served as a critical staging area where vehicles were received, inspected, positioned, and prepared for onward movement. Before the implementation, the customer lacked the required level of automation, visibility, and system connectivity to support yard execution and stakeholder coordination. As a result, delays and data gaps at the compound could ripple downstream, causing cascading logistics failures for dealerships. To address this, the company needed stronger yard-level execution, real-time visibility into vehicle status, and better integration with external systems. Key challenges included:

• Limited control over yard operations: The customer needed to manage all automobile movements within the yard (compound) with better coordination and execution support.
• Manual and inefficient inspection processes: Cargo inspection required automation to reduce manual effort and improve operational consistency.
• Lack of real-time vehicle visibility: The customer required transparency into vehicle status through VIN tracking to facilitate effective monitoring and informed decision-making.
• No unified view of the yard and vehicle positioning: The customer required compound visualization and the ability to see current automobile positioning.
• Disconnected systems and limited event-driven coordination: The project required integration between SAP Yard Logistics (SAP YL) and third-party systems to enable instant messages and event triggers, including automated creation of inbound yard requests based on inbound ASN (Advanced Shipping Notice) data.
• Different user roles needed dedicated tools: The customer required mobile enablement for the compound crew (including offline operation) and a portal interface for external users (manufacturers and carriers) to track workload and VIN status.

Solution

LeverX proposed SAP Yard Logistics as the core solution because the project required analytical, reporting, and planning capabilities for yard operations, along with document tracking and the flexibility to adapt the product through integrations and mobile enablement. We implemented SAP YL and tailored it to the customer’s requirements. The scope included integration with third-party systems and mobile development to support yard execution.

Key elements of the delivered solution included:

• Yard execution and movement management: Managing all automobile movements within the yard (compound).
• Inspection automation: Automating cargo inspection processes.
• Yard visualization: Visualizing compounds using SAP Visual Business for geographic/schematic yard mapping, enabling planners to see current automobile positioning within the yard in real time.
• Integration with external systems: Integrating SAP YL with third-party solutions to support instant messages and trigger events, including the ability to create yard requests via ASN.
• Mobile enablement for the compound crew: Developing a mobile app using SAP Mobile Platform for handheld devices, with offline operation and asynchronous data synchronization to ensure inspectors don’t lose inspection and yard-check data in low-connectivity areas of the rail yard. The app supported inspection, yard checking, loading/unloading, and related tasks.
• Customer Station Portal backend: Developing the backend for a Customer Station Portal that enables manufacturers and carriers to track workload, monitor VIN status, and view relevant data.

Technology Stack

• Yard Management: SAP Yard Logistics (SAP YL)
  SAP YL supports yard execution, planning, reporting, analytics, and document tracking within yard operations.
• Visualization: SAP Visual Business
  It is used to visualize compounds and display the current position of automobiles.
• Mobile enablement: SAP Mobile Platform
  Used to develop a handheld mobile application for the compound crew with offline capabilities.
• Integrations: Third-party systems and ASN
  Automated creation of inbound yard requests triggered by the receipt of ASNs from manufacturers, with event-driven messaging and notifications.
• Portal backend: Customer Station Portal backend developed to support external users (manufacturers and carriers) with workload visibility, VIN tracking, and access to required data.

Results

LeverX delivered the analytical, reporting, and planning capabilities of SAP YL, enabling:

• Expanded analytics, reporting, planning, and document tracking within SAP Yard Logistics
• Enabled high-granularity data processing for real-time operational oversight based on large volumes of data stored in SAP YL
• Improved partner collaboration through the Customer Station Portal, enabling manufacturers and carriers to self-serve workload and VIN status, and reducing labor costs associated with manual coordination
• Enabled clear liability handover between the rail carrier and the compound through automated inspections