Roundtable Discussion: Yard Operations Remain a Critical Visibility Gap

Yard management continues to expose one of the most persistent operational bottlenecks in modern logistics. Despite heavy investments in transportation management systems, warehouse automation, and advanced forecasting tools, many facilities still rely on fragmented visibility and manual processes at the physical point where inbound trailers, outbound loads, dock scheduling, labor, and inventory converge. Execution gaps here quickly cascade into broader network disruptions, affecting throughput, labor retention, and customer service levels.

In a recent roundtable on the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, host Tom Raftery spoke with Adam Newsome, CEO of Lazer Logistics, Blaine Dirker, CTO at Lazer Logistics and leader of Yard Nexus, and Pini Usha, Product Manager at Buffers AI. The discussion highlighted how yard problems often surface first even when they originate upstream in planning or forecasting.

The full episode is available at www.resilientsupplychainpodcast.com

Roundtable Discussion: Yard Operations Remain a Critical Visibility Gap

Visibility Alone Falls Short Without Operational Discipline

Adam Newsome, CEO of Lazer Logistics, said that yard operations remain one of the most underestimated failure points in supply chain execution, where poor coordination and limited visibility can quickly disrupt labor, inventory flow, and customer service.

Blaine Dirker opened the conversation by addressing the gap between technology hype and on-the-ground realities. He noted that the vast majority of sites still handle yard movements with arcane methods, including pen and paper processes that remain predominant. According to Dirker, this creates a fundamental disconnect: organizations may have strong upstream visibility, but without accurate, real-time yard data on trailer locations, carrier status, and dock proximity, downstream execution suffers.

He explained that yard visibility serves dual purposes. On the service provider side, it identifies opportunities for more effective processes and efficient trailer movements. On the customer side, it delivers ROI by revealing hidden assets, such as trailers sitting idle or out of service that generate detention charges. Dirker stressed that any technology is only as good as the people and processes supporting it. For instance, gate clerks must maintain data integrity when entering stack and identification details, or drivers cannot locate trailers effectively. Without this foundation, even sophisticated systems fail to deliver proactive decision-making. He pointed to metrics like cycle and task times as key indicators of improvement, where AI can highlight coaching opportunities for drivers or reveal batch-loading issues that back up warehouses. Ultimately, Dirker argued that embracing configurable technology helps manage site-specific variability and shifts operations from reactive firefighting to proactive orchestration.

Adam Newsome, CEO at Lazer Logistics: “Labour breaks first in a bad yard.”

Forecasting and Replenishment Layers Face Real-World Constraints

Pini Usha positioned Buffers AI as an additional planning layer on top of warehouse management systems, focused on replenishment, stop planning, purchasing, and store-level distribution. The company serves enterprises including H&M and Toshiba. He described how the system handles millions of micro-decisions daily, automatically adjusting for local and global constraints within seconds and synchronizing with underlying data. When a truck fails to arrive or plans change, the platform recalculates and pushes updates back to the WMS without manual Excel adjustments or phone calls.

Usha was candid about AI's role in forecasting. While statistical methods like exponential smoothing still perform better and more cost-effectively for short-term horizons (typically 3-5 days), AI solutions such as Google’s Time Series Foundation model using LLMs excel for longer periods and scenarios with limited history, such as new products. The system can identify similar items through text or image analysis when catalog changes eliminate historical data. However, he emphasized that no system is plug-and-play. Integration often takes longer than expected because clients underestimate poor data integrity. Users must still adjust parameters for real-world changes like lead time shifts or extreme weather that ERP or WMS data may not reflect. Even with heavy automation, human input remains essential to set up and fine-tune according to operational conditions. Usha noted that better upstream forecasting reduces error rates and firefighting downstream, but weak execution can still undermine even strong planning. For larger clients like H&M or Procter & Gamble with statistical expertise, manual control works well; smaller operations benefit more from automated AI approaches.

Pini Usha, Product Manager at Buffers AI “For short period forecasting, we found that statistical methods works better than the AI. And that’s the truth that nobody likes to hear.”

Execution at the Choke Point Depends on People, Data, and Coordination

Adam Newsome described Lazer Logistics’ role as the execution partner moving over 30 million trailers annually across the US and Canada. He characterized the yard as a natural choke point where transport, warehousing, labor, trailers, docks, and inventory collide. Problems originating elsewhere often surface here first, as carriers drop trailers and expect rapid turnaround. With limited equipment - sometimes only two trucks handling a hundred movements - poor coordination can shut down warehouse operations or delay freight.

Newsome highlighted labor as the element that breaks first in a bad yard. With over 6,000 employees, Lazer must ensure safety, reliability, and density of resources. He shared a practical example of a CPG customer switching bottle sizes mid-shift due to sudden demand changes: required inventory sat two miles away on another yard, forcing rapid adjustments across shuttles, carriers, and production lines. Such scenarios demand strong communication and data flow. He stressed that forecasting and predictability are critical because short-notice weekend work or seasonal spikes (like beverage demand during heat waves) require mobilizing people and assets. Resilient operations rely on backup plans, rapid response teams for disruptions or new business start ups, and historical data layered with telematics, weather, and camera inputs for better decision-making.

Blaine Dirker, CTO at Lazer Logistics, Yard Nexus: “Even pen and paper is still incredibly predominant.”

Newsome noted that while AI and large language models can analyze trends from years of yard data, foundational systems and human judgment remain essential. Five years out, he expects yards to combine people, platforms, and partnerships rather than full automation, as yard movements involve more complexity than over-the-road autonomous trucking. In chaotic yards, nearly 50% of sites still lack digitized inventory. Lazer sees its role as educating customers on best practices while adapting to evolving tools.

Operational Implications and Forward Path

The roundtable made clear that yard execution failures stem from the intersection of incomplete data, fragmented processes, and labor realities. Blaine Dirker returned to the theme that AI is only as good as the data fed into it, warning against inundation without proper analysis of historical events like heat waves or blizzards. Pini Usha reinforced that data integrity issues often kill projects and that planning must account for chain-wide dependencies. Adam Newsome closed by noting that density of resources and real-time coordination separate resilient yards from brittle ones.

For supply chain leaders, the message is operational: visibility without execution capability creates vulnerability. Improving yard performance requires attention to cycle times, task completion, trailer inventory accuracy, and cross-functional alignment between planning and physical movement. As labor shortages and service expectations intensify, yards will remain a key test of overall supply chain resilience.