A. P. Møller Maersk is turning to flying drones from Verity to manage inventory counts in its warehouse network. After a six-month trial run at four Maersk North America sites, the plan now is to install drones in all the containership giant’s warehouses that have pallet storage.
Warehouse inventory management is one of the most important barometers for supply chain flow, financial cost exposure and business decision-making. It is also one of the most difficult, repetitive and tedious tasks to perform consistently in warehouses, with quality of data often questioned and requiring workers to work at heights.
“As a supply chain integrator, we are constantly looking for new innovations and engineering solutions in our warehouse operations. We wanted to deploy a safer, more accurate, data-driven inventory solution that addressed our decarbonization goals for customers and prevented our workforce from working at heights. Verity’s system has delivered data accuracy, safety and speed which makes our warehouse management system stronger, faster and more effective for customer decision-making.”
– Erez Agmoni, Senior Vice President of Innovation & Strategic Growth for Maersk North America
Verity’s warehouse drones navigate from pallet to pallet, collecting accurate inventory data in three dimensions by scanning barcodes at any height using onboard, high-resolution cameras. The system requires one day of operator training, and the electric-powered drones return to the battery charging pad when necessary, operating on nights or weekends and without overhead lighting turned on.
The drones take photos of SKUs on pallets to identify inventory errors, such as missing or misplaced pallets. Once the data is collected, the system compares the findings with data stored in the warehouse management system (WMS) and then distills that information into critical insights delivered directly to users via the user dashboard.
The results are cloud-based, shareable and provide actionable warehouse data that offers better analytics for supply chain leaders.
“We view the Verity solution as an important differentiator to make our customers more competitive through higher quality, faster inventory data, ” added Mr. Agmoni.
About A.P. Moller – Maersk
A.P. Moller – Maersk is an integrated logistics company working to connect and simplify its customers’ supply chains. As a global leader in shipping services, the company operates in more than 130 countries and employs over 100,000 people worldwide. Maersk is aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2040 across the entire business with new technologies, new vessels, and green fuels.
Sources: Press Release; Switzerland Global Enterprises