In an increasingly competitive landscape, retail distributors and logistics centers are seeking efficient methods to enhance cargo tracking from receiving to shipping. The goal of “no loss” of goods throughout the transit process requires managers to focus more on operational quality and asset management, especially accurately verifying truck load quantity before leaving the warehouse.
Currently, many businesses still rely on the accuracy of the sorting system to ensure the correct products are loaded onto the correct trucks. However, this method does not always meet the goal of minimizing losses. Goods can be lost, stolen, or simply sorted into the wrong lane. Even after goods have passed through the sorting system, mis-sorting can still occur due to poor barcode quality or a scanning system that cannot read the codes. It is not uncommon for distribution centers to lose dozens of packages per day, and tens of thousands of packages per year. In addition to internal costs, customer expectations and brand reputation are also negatively affected when products are not delivered on time or are not delivered at all.
Many companies still use handheld scanners as a basic tracking solution, or have no controls at the shipping door. This causes unwanted delays as employees have to take the time to pick up the scanner, scan each box, put the scanner down, and load the goods onto the truck.
To improve the truck load quantity tracking process at the shipping door, Cognex offers a variety of solutions, depending on the number of employees and the productivity requirements of each facility. Adding more touchpoints (employees) can increase operating time and costs. Therefore, finding the right balance between automation and labor is key.
Cognex’s Modular Vision Tunnels automated scanning gates, integrated with DataMan barcode readers, provide a hands-free solution for reading barcodes quickly, efficiently, and accurately. Using advanced algorithms and industry-leading decoding technology, Cognex barcode readers can achieve read rates of up to 99.9%, even with damaged, faded, torn, or obscured barcodes.
In addition, these readers also collect and transmit output data and images, providing valuable information for managers to assess quality and quickly identify issues arising from previous processes. This saves time, reduces costs, and minimizes rework, ensuring truck load quantity is tightly controlled, contributing to optimizing logistics processes and improving operational efficiency.
