Use Fully Autonomous Drones for Automatic Stock Takes of Pallet, Appliance, Beverage Inventory in Bulk Storage Bays in Big Warehouses & Distribution Centers

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fully autonomous
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Drone Solution for Automatically Counting Bulk
Inventory
Bulk Storage at Warehouses & DCs
Across most large warehouses and distribution centers, bulk storage tends to
occupy 50% or more of the facility’s area. This includes the storage areas used
for shipping, receiving and staging. For sites that store goods such as large
domestic appliances, aircraft components, and alcoholic beverages, bulk
stock inventory turns out to be more effective from an operational perspective.
Copyright © FlytBase, Inc. 2021
Unlike rack storage configured as traditional or very narrow aisles, organising a
bulk storage warehouse involves ground-based storage of inventory stock, in
well-marked areas called bays, with the boxes and/or pallets directly stacked
on top of each other. Bays tend to be ~ 100 to 150 square feet in area, with each
aisle having bays on either side.
As newer DCs move closer to densely populated urban areas, driven by
e-commerce and consumer expectations on rapid delivery, inventory manag-
ers have to optimize the warehouse space utilisation at their facilities. This in
turn implies a tradeoff between bulk and rack areas, with the former easy to
manage, while the latter better in terms of pallet storage capacity.
Bulk Stock Taking via Manual Counts
A key difference between inventory scans of bulk stock versus rack-pallet stock
is that almost all warehouses store the same, single SKU in an entire bay. For
example, pallets of the exact same item may be staked 4-high, and kept

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6-deep in a bay. Similarly, refrigerators or similar appliances may be stacked
high-and-deep in a bay, with all items the same SKU. Thus, there is no need to
scan various types of warehouse barcodes on each pallet/box within a bay. All
that’s needed by the inventory manager is the count of items in each bay.
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Warehouse tagging systems for bulk stock are organised such that there are
wires over each bay, with large barcode labels that indicate the specific loca-
tion. An inventory counting associate walks through each aisle, scans the over-
head signs/labels using an RF gun, and enters a (manually counted) estimate
of the number of items in that bay. Thus, warehouse location mapping in the
bulk areas relies on diligent scans of bay barcodes.
While the manual counting of inventory is easier for bulk storage (than for
rack) given the ease of access, it can be time consuming as well as inaccu-
rate, for reasons such as:
1. Hundreds of thousands of square footage to be manually covered
2. Honeycombing of items by fork-lift operators
3. Lack of overhead views resulting in inaccurate counts
4. Lack of auditable data & counting methods
For quarter/year-end counts, as well as for audits, an army of people may
have to be employed to scan and count bulk inventory. They may also need
scissor lifts, ladders, fork-lifts and other equipment to conduct a comprehen-
sive inspection of multi-deep, stacked pallets in bays.

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Automated Bulk Stock Takes
Warehouse bulk storage management has trended towards automation in
recent years, powered by automated fork-lifts, ground vehicles and other ma-
terial handling equipment. Space utilization has been one key driver, as is the
increasing cost (and reducing availability) of labor.
Automated bulk storage scanning systems, however, are yet to penetrate most
facilities. This is true despite traditional inventory counting processes that are
inefficient, laborious and infrequent. They involve MHE that has to be leased at
high costs, and yet do not provide rich enough inventory data.
Counting Bulk Inventory Using Drones
Drones, especially autonomous ones, offer great promise for bulk stock takes.
They can fly fully autonomously over the bulk storage, capture images &
videos from all sides, and potentially even count the inventory with high accu-
racy, all without any pilot or human operator.
Barcode scans aren’t required for most bulk inventory counts; instead intelli-
gent drone solutions can use AI/ML techniques to analyze the images and
videos captured by drones. By delineating pallets, cartons and boxes, the soft-
ware can estimate how high, and how deep, they are stored in each bay, thus
truly automating the bulk inventory counts.
Live videos during drone flights can help inventory managers identify honey-
combing in bays, unsafe storage practices by forklift operators, missing SKUs,
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Copyright © FlytBase, Inc. 2021
opportunities to improve space utilisation via consolidation, etc.
By using cost-effective, off-the-shelf drones, a fleet of such aerial vehicles can
be deployed to scan thousands of bays and millions of square feet. This en-
ables faster, more frequent, and more accurate bulk stock stakes compared to
traditional, manual counts.
Realizing Business Value From Bulk Inventory Drones
It turns out that aerial inventory scans of bulk stock, using drones, is ideally
suited for warehouses and distribution centers with:
1. Bulk storage area larger than 200,000 square feet,
2. Availability of overhead wires for placing QR codes that enable indoor au-
tonomous navigation, and
3. nventory SOPs that involve storing the same SKU in a given bay, thus obviat-
ing the need to scan barcodes.
Early adopters of automated bulk stock taking using drones find that a pay-
back period and RoI of less than a year is easily achievable for such facilities. In
fact, there is significant intangible value created by aerial inventory scans in
the form of live video feeds, auditable bay-wise images and adjacent
use-cases such as empty bay audits and on-demand spot checks for specific
SKUs.

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Copyright © Flytbase, Inc. 2021
FlytWare PoC at an Appliance Distribution
Center
Recognizing the opportunity to trial autonomous drones at their 1M+ square
foot distribution center in the Greater Atlanta area, a US-based manufacturer
invited FlytBase to deploy our aerial scan solution – as a proof-of-concept –
for automated bulk stock taking at their site.
With thousands of bays, this warehouse is designed for nearly 100% bulk stor-
age of home appliances. Counting the inventory in this vast DC consumes
significant time, labor and equipment, especially during peak season with the
facility operating at near 100% capacity. Drones can address these challenges
faced by inventory stakeholders at such large warehouses – especially when
deployed in the form of fully autonomous fleets with built-in precision landing,
battery charging, aisle crossing, etc.
Despite the lack of GPS, FlytWare drones can be programmed to automatically
navigate over bulk bays, in different patterns, to capture images of the SKUs of
interest. This can be planned, executed and monitored via an operator dash-
board. FlytWare’s indoor autonomous navigation has been tested for reliability
despite the presence of static obstacles, turbulence caused by large overhead
fans, and interference from other RF networks in the facility.
Thus, through PoCs and pilots, home appliance manufacturers – for example –
validate the potential return-on-investment from bulk inventory drones –
driven by labor and equipment savings, live video feeds, bay-wise images, and
faster cycle counts.
Streamline your DC inventory audits, and honor your 3PL customer SLAs, by
deploying drone solutions that come with live video feeds, date-wise image
archives, and location-wise barcode data.
Write to us at info@flytbase.com or schedule a call with the FlytWare team.
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