Bart De Muynck releases Market Radar Report identifying yard operations as an emerging enterprise risk for shippers

Supply chain analyst and industry thought leader Bart De Muynck announced the release of Market Radar: Yard Logistics – From Tactical Execution to an Enterprise Yard Operating System, a new report examining how yard operations are increasingly shaping enterprise supply chain performance.

The report finds that yard operations, long treated as a local and tactical function, now represent a critical execution layer influencing cost variability, service reliability, safety exposure, and sustainability outcomes across multi-site networks.

“Across industries, the same execution issues continue to surface at the yard level,” said De Muynck. “Inconsistent processes, hidden costs, accountability gaps, and limited visibility are quietly amplifying variability across transportation and warehouse networks. In today’s operating environment, unmanaged yard operations are no longer an inconvenience. They are an enterprise execution risk.”

According to the report, yard performance increasingly affects network reliability and cost control, yet governance models have failed to keep pace with the scale and complexity of modern supply chains. Many organizations continue to manage yards independently by site, relying on localized labor decisions, underperforming outsourced providers, fragmented processes, or siloed technology deployments that do not scale across the enterprise.

This gap is becoming more consequential as supply chains face sustained volatility, tighter labor markets, higher service expectations, and increasing pressure to deliver measurable safety and sustainability outcomes across networks.

Key findings include:

• Yard operations now directly influence enterprise-level outcomes, including cost volatility, service reliability, safety performance, and sustainability targets.
• Execution governance and operating discipline, not technology availability, represent the primary constraint on consistent yard performance at scale.
• Traditional yard models, whether in-house, labor-focused outsourcing, or standalone yard management systems, enable activity but fail to deliver enterprise-level accountability and repeatability.
• Despite growing operational complexity, most yards still operate without standardized performance metrics, consistent workflows, or cross-site operating frameworks.

The report concludes that technology alone has not delivered consistent results. While automation and tracking tools have expanded, the absence of standardized workflows, ownership models, and cross-site governance continues to limit enterprise impact.

As a result, leading organizations are shifting toward an enterprise yard operating system, defined not as software, but as an integrated operating model that governs how yard operations are planned, executed, measured, and continuously improved across facilities.

“At scale, a yard operating system drives operational maturity, not just activity,” said De Muynck. “It enables predictability, accountability, and repeatability across the network rather than isolated site-level improvements.”