3D Measurement & Dimensioning, powered by GPC Systems

Thinking outside of the box about freight & warehouse operations

Whether its warehouses or storage facilities, space is a valuable asset. With the average warehouse utilisation at 68%, companies need to leverage technological innovation to stay competitive.

Panasonic 3D Measurement tools, Scanner & Dimensioning system, powered by GPC Systems, enables you to accurately measure the size of your freight in seconds, receive directions on how much can fit into a given space, or how much space is being consumed.

Maximising your storage space and vehicle loads has never been easier. With Panasonic’s 3D measurement solution, you can expect to see an increase in efficiencies, savings on transportation costs and other expenses, and faster order fulfilment.

Global freight shipments have been on a rapidly rising upward curve over recent years, helped by the growth of online sales driving the movement of goods and packages in every region around the world. Although this growth is great for business within freight and logistics companies, alongside it comes fierce competition and an ever growing pressure on profit margins.

With transportation costs being the primary expense for freight organisations, the ability to maximise the cargo on every journey is a natural place to improve efficiencies. A lack of accurate information about the freight size can often make forward planning and packing efficiency as difficult as a game of Tetris. Of course, in the transportation business, any empty space is dead space and that costs money.

3D Measurement - A Major Breakthrough

Innovation in 3D sensor technology is one area that is already being used to address challenges within the transport and logistics sector. GPC’s 3D Freight Measure provides instant measurements with a 3D camera to calculate the volume, width, length and depth to accurately measure cargo and stock located in warehouses.

Using advanced 3D algorithms, an Intel RealSense camera connected to a rugged mobile TOUGHBOOK device can identify the size of any object. The software can provide an instant measurement of an item to enable effective planning for packing, processing, cross charging or stock control. It provides multiple customisable functions including manual and birds eye view measuring.

A prominent freight and passenger airline has utilised these capabilities with great success. It has been used to accurately measure the volume occupied by any shape of freight, enabling the carrier to efficiently plan and load parcels. This has improved their freight carrying efficiency by more than 40%, a level of efficiency improvement that can generate significant profits for an international freight shipping business.

In the backend, a portal provides a secure cloud application for collecting data from the 3D application. This customisable portal means customers do not have to develop a new application every time data is collected in a new way or for a new commercial purpose.

Available as a service running on the Microsoft Azure Cloud, the portal allows organisations to create their own electronic forms and collect data via a Windows, iOS or Android app. Uniquely it also supports 3D captured data allowing the business to share, collaborate and re-measure images captured within the 3D applications.

As innovation within the connected supply chain continues to move at a fast pace, this type of 3D measuring technology looks set to find a number of valuable commercial applications across the industry.