— Newsletter Archive: Newsletter Vol. 1, 8/23/2023 —
Introducing some examples of how the warehouse management solution “HAKO-FLO” is used to streamline manual tasks such as “inbound/outbound management,” “inventory management,” “stocktaking management,” and “documentation,” including cargo damage reports.
◆What is “HAKO-FLO”?
As logistics volume increases along with the recent surge in the size of the Internet shopping market, there is a need to reduce manual work and shift to more effective operations without incurring the cost of modifying existing warehouse management systems. In some distribution warehouses, many tasks related to receiving, storing, and shipping cargo are managed by manual operations. In such warehouses, there is a risk of incurring return costs due to misplaced or misdirected shipments.
The current situation is that there are many issues that need to be resolved, such as incurring costs for returned goods due to misdelivery, accurate grasp of inventory quantities, effective utilization of empty space on shelves and in the warehouse, elimination of delivery delays due to insufficient staff, and control of labor costs.
The warehouse floor management solution “HAKO-FLO” developed by TOKYO ELECTRON DEVICE AMERICA manages and streamlines the “receiving management” such as “measurement” and “inspection” at the time of receiving and shipping that occur in existing systems, as well as “inventory management,” “shipping management,” “inventory control,” “damage to outer boxes,” and “documentation” such as reporting. It is a service that supports efficiency improvement in conjunction with users’ existing systems by managing and streamlining manual tasks such as “documentation” and “report creation” with dedicated software provided in the cloud or on-premises.
The HAKO-FLO service consists of four services: RFID Query, which quickly retrieves information on the cargo and streamline tasks that were previously performed visually or manually, and saving significant time and money; EZ-Report, which create records during receiving and shipping operations by AR(Augmented Reality)-measuring and taking photos
of the cargo for evidence; TAG, which digitalize the actual goods slips to support paperless operation and prevent operational errors; and Cloud, which connects and interoperates with information obtained from all services, visualizing the state of the warehouse site remotely, and analyzing the obtained information to improve the business environment. HAKO-FLO can be used for specific tasks independently, and also can be combined with other services to best suit for the user’s warehouse operations.
Streamline work process efficiency by AR measurement using LiDAR
1) Challenges due to manual operations
Users who own and operate distribution warehouses throughout the U.S. conduct damage checks of outer boxes upon cargo arrival and measurements of outer boxes during shipment. In some cases, dozens of damage checks are conducted per day. When damage occurs, the user visually checks for damage, takes pictures with a digital camera or mobile phone, imports the pictures into a PC, compiles them into a damage report, and sends the report to the user. Each time this occurs, the people in the office rush to the warehouse site to respond, which takes more than 30 minutes per case. In addition, measurements for shipments are taken manually using a tape measure, which imposes a heavy workload when taking measurements for large packages, and it is difficult to compile a database of measurement information.
2) How to resolve issues
“HAKO-FLO EZ-Report” enables users to complete a series of tasks from AR (Augmented Reality) measurement, photo shooting, text input, and report creation on a tablet device with our application installed on an iPad Pro equipped with a LiDAR sensor. This allows the work to be completed using only a tablet device, instead of the previously dispersed work using individual tools, thereby improving work efficiency, and reducing work time. In our experience, it has reduced work time by more than 80%. Also, even for large cargoes over 1 meter in length, the AR measurement allows for easy and quick measurement.
We are currently developing an automatic measurement application that utilizes the ToF camera, and plan to add a service that allows measurements to be taken more easily, quickly, and accurately with a fixed camera.
3) Integrating with the Cloud
Exterior box damage reports created with tablet terminals and measurement data obtained can be easily uploaded to “HAKO-FLO CLOUD” to create a database. Furthermore, information can be shared with back offices and other locations. Data in the cloud can be analyzed and utilized to improve transportation quality. (Figure 3) In addition, since no paper is used at all, it is possible to promote a paperless environment.
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