Some people call beacons small lighthouses, because they can emit signals by pulsating, which is useful for instance in the navigation inside buildings. This is the value that can be applied in logistics. Recently it was tested in one of the factory warehouses in the Lower Silesia (Poland).
A few years ago hundreds of New York’s telephone booths were equipped with beacons, miniature signal emitters. However, they were quickly removed, as it was said that they threatened the inhabitants privacy.
The failure of the experiment with the New York’s telephone booths does not mean that beacons have been completely forgotten. The solutions based on them were applied for instance in shopping malls, on stations and airports, in offices and museums. In shops they are helpful in informing the arriving customers about promotions or make it easier to locate a specific product on a rack or a hanger, and in restaurants they help with choosing meals from the menu.
Beacons can simplify the logistics
Experts claim that beacons may actually be an alternative to the signalisation based on GPS or RFiD tags. A beacon consists of two basic components. The first is a bluetooth chip that emits signal, the other is a supplying component.
The device can emit a wide range of information and, generally speaking, allows to determine the distance from the transmitter to the receiving point. At the last stage of the process, the transferred data are placed in the IT system, for instance ERP (enterprise resource planning) that allows to generate specific communications.
These characteristics, in particular a possibility to monitor traffic on the area of a specific warehouse, were applied in one of the Electrolux facilities, located in Żarów.
It is beacons that created the basis of the system of Indoorway Industry 4.0, that allows for collecting detailed data regarding the employees movement, fork lifters and other means of internal transport inside the facility. The location is determined for instance on the basis of the information gained from the sensors placed on the vehicles. The authorised persons gained access to the analytical panel, in which they could observe traffic volume at the real time and not only check the distance the particular vehicle has driven, but also to what extent the vehicle is used.
Indoorway in their own way organises the data about users movement in a physical space. The system administrator can see the position of the tracked object as well as browse through the movement history. The data may be sorted and filtered according to days, users groups and selected places of the space.
The system can be used constantly or by a specific time to measure current performance of the facility.
Electrolux is optimising the components warehouse
This is what happened in Electrolux. The solution was installed in one specific specific place, which is the so-called reception zone in the components warehouse (in Żarów Electrolux manufactures dishwashers, the machines that consist of dozens of components).
– It is a strategical place where the process of the internal logistics begins. Every delay at this stage may have consequences for the whole production. Thanks to the collected data we checked the extent of use of each unloading ramp, we analysed the work of the particular shifts and we monitored the movement of forklift trucks. The analysis of this information will allow us for standardising team work, improved monitoring of fixed assets and optimising the logistic processes – Kamila Gudzowska-Krzyżak explained, supply chain manager in Electrolux facility in Żarów.
The area covered by the task is about 3500 square metres. Fifty beacons were applied there. The sensors were put on the hall’s ceiling. In order to measure how the workers and the machines move, first the digital map of the space was created.
To create it the appropriate measurements were taken (1200 points). When the map was ready, shift managers received special mobile devices with the installed application that enabled monitoring of traffic and the trackers were mounted to fork lifters.
The measurements lasted for a month, the results of the application test were presented in a report. The report included the information on the most frequently used paths, inputs and outputs, the level of activity of the individual changes, the time spent in the particular zone to perform the task, the level of use and mileage of the vehicles, the level of use of ramps, taking into account the time of day.
All of this is aimed at optimising people’s actions. Also, on the basis of the collected data the best routes for internal means of transport can be determined, in this case for fork lifters, to minimise the air transport. The efficiency of work of people and machines is one thing, the possibility to improve safety in the hall is also important.
Help with preparing to transport
The solution tested in the Electrolux warehouse is its own experiment, an example of applying beacons to execute specific tasks in logistics. There may be many more tasks like that. It was already demonstrated before – one of the first manufacturers who offered a possibility to use beacons in logistics was Comarch. The combination of beacons with the appropriate IT platform allowed for creating a remote delivery control system, adjusting their time and place (number of a ramp) to the occupancy rate of the reception point.
The applicability of beacons includes also storage-related tasks pr preparing the goods for transport. In the process of cross docking it is possible to control the compliance of the load with the order (verifying the beacons ID placed on pallets. The same may apply to the compliance of the delivery with the order during checking the received consignment. In connection with the consumers located on the ramps and in the warehouse, beacons can also help in carrying out automatic inventory.
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