DSV is now leaving stock counting to autonomous drones. In several warehouses, the service provider is implementing a drone system from Verity.
At DSV, stock management is usually done manually with barcode scans. A labour-intensive task, claims the logistics service provider. Moreover, more mistakes are made, resulting in stock data not being up-to-date.
Pilot Moerdijk
A Verity drone system was therefore tested in the Moerdijk warehouse. The drones performed thousands of autonomous flights and tens of thousands of scans. The drone system can scan barcodes and detect whether pallet positions are empty or occupied without human interaction. The drones operate mainly at night and do not interrupt warehouse operations.
Rollout to other warehouses
The pilot turned out to be a success, as the use of drones makes it possible to avoid much of the manual counting. Errors are virtually non-existent, DSV said. The successful pilot is now leading to the roll-out in more of DSV's warehouses.
"The drones indicate to the nearest centimetre where the goods are and the information they provide with their scans can be compared with the information in our digital system. This helps us increase the predictability and visibility of inventory," says Luca Graf, senior director of innovation at DSV.
