When Canadian Tire selected C3’s Yard Smart YMS, it was as a result of the most rigorous selection process we’ve ever witnessed. The year-long selection culminated in an in-depth one-week conference-room pilot where each of the competitors had to demonstrate exactly how their software would address Canadian Tire’s needs.

Fast Forward 2 years: Yard Smart is now an integral part of Canadian Tire’s overall logistic infrastructure, managing the company’s two main distribution centers in Brampton, Ontario which account for 75 percent of total operations.

The challenge

Manage two facilities with a total of more than 2 million sq. ft. of warehouse space, 4,000 trailers and over 400 trailer unloads per day. The system also had to be user-friendly and rugged enough to cope with having over 200 users. The initial deployment went like clockwork and already on day one Canadian Tire could feel the benefits throughout its entire supply chain. But that was only the beginning.

The solution

The initial deployment of Yard Smart fulfilled all of Canadian Tire’s key requirements for a yard management and dock scheduling system. But from the beginning, Canadian Tire’s Logistics team saw the potential for Yard Smart to provide even more value. Since the launch in summer 2005, Canadian Tire has come back to C3 to develop new modules to extend Yard Smart’s capabilities. Coming soon is a replenishment module that will allow Canadian Tire to turn trailers in its yards into warehouses on wheels and provide new levels of efficiency for cross-dock operations.