Honeywell is collaborating with Stereolabs to develop a tool that automates the process of measuring the size, volume and weight of boxes before they are registered in a warehouse management system, according to an Aug. 6 press release.
The joint technology is a combination of Honeywell's SwiftDecoder software and Stereolabs's ZED X series cameras, Taylor Smith, chief marketing officer for Honeywell's Productivity Solutions and Services business, told Supply Chain Dive.
Stereolabs is looking for system integrators to incorporate the combined technology into a cart or warehouse workstation, a company spokesperson said in an email to Supply Chain Dive. An off-the-shelf product is not yet available, but Stereolabs is validating pilot projects with select partners and expects to have products available later in the year.
Stereolabs' stereoscopic cameras use a vision-based AI perception system to measure product dimensions, per the release. Combining the technology with Honeywell's software would allow warehouse workers to determine dimensions and weight without the use of tape measures and scales while capturing barcode data to register a new SKU in a warehouse management system, Smith said. New SKUs could include seasonal items or new product lines.
Loading dock workers can take a box containing a new SKU from a truck and place it on a four-wheel pushcart equipped with a scale and Stereolabs cameras mounted overhead, Smith said. The cart and cameras gather all information, including weight, dimensions, SKU data, lot numbers and expiration dates, and send it to the WMS.
"One of the biggest problems when a new SKU comes into a facility is getting the proper material master information," Smith said, referring to the central dataset for a specific item.
Data-gathering is particularly difficult in warehouses with multiple loading docks. Workers often bring boxes containing new SKUs to a central location in those facilities. With the Stereolabs-Honeywell cart, they can wheel data-collection gear to where it is needed, Smith said.
"It's really about changing that workflow and eliminating walk time or eliminating overall cost by being able to move to mobile versus stationary systems," he said, adding that the technology would be especially helpful in retail and manufacturing warehouses.
A recent Gartner survey found increasing demand for AI-enabled vision systems in warehouses, said Senior Director Analyst Simon Tunstall in an email to Supply Chain Dive. The analyst firm saw an increase in interest among the organizations surveyed in simplifying packaging and loading activities, with about a third of the respondents in the process of implementing AI-enabled vision systems.
"For the foreseeable future, there will not be one vendor or one solution that fits all possible use cases," Tunstall said. "However, the value proposition of these solutions is potentially so good that companies could experiment with a number of alternatives at low risk and low cost."
Stereolabs is the latest hardware vendor to license Honeywell's SwiftDecoder software. In March, the multinational conglomerate said Corvus Robotics would use the software in self-flying drones to conduct inventory audits in distribution centers with very high shelves, hard-to-reach racks or products, and low-light conditions that make traditional scanning difficult.
