5 Ways to more Sustainable Logistics

Modern, sustainable logistics services involve many stakeholders. When the right amount of goods doesn’t arrive at the right time, it creates irritation, reflects on customer service, and incurs cost. That cost is not just to the value chain, it’s to our wider environment. When more goods are shipped more often than they need, they use up more valuable resources.

In the supply chain, the only way you can really know what happened is to see what happened. Intelligent Video and AI Services give companies true insight and the ability to lead fact-based improvement initiatives which improve each company’s efforts to become more sustainable.

Innovating where it matters

Intelligent video and AI Services give you the benefits of fact-based visual insights combined with real-time assistance to enable flawless logistics. “We collaborate with cutting-edge technology players in the fields of video, Cloud computing, Edge computing and AI to enable logistics providers to make significant gains throughout their operations,” says Stefan Borg (pictured), CEO at SiB Solutions. “We identified the processes that benefit from flawless logistics and the savings to be made, namely picking, receiving, transport, loading and packing. We see that companies are investing more and more in logistics technologies to become leaner, and especially more sustainable.”

Five steps towards a sustainable supply chain through flawless logistics

Stefan outlines five ways flawless logistics can make a real difference to a company’s sustainability efforts.

1: Leave nothing behind and avoid unnecessary shipments

“Most picking assignments revolve around putting items out of conveyors and into boxes. But it’s easy for items to be left behind,” says Stefan. “By using intelligent video and AI in critical processes it’s possible to verify if the conveyor is empty or not and give operators a window of time to correct a fault.”

2: Check for faults in Human Machine Interaction to improve working conditions
“Hiccups in the way a machine is set up can cause humans to make errors. For instance operators may get delayed information due to seconds of lag. Similarly, there may be something missing or unclear in the interface design. If you visually search for behaviour patterns, you can find them. And come down on the side of humans!”

3: Strive for better fill rates and avoid shipping air
“A simple visual test to measure to what extent a box is filled – and then fill it, makes sure you’re not using fuel to ship air,” says Stefan. “Intelligent Video and AI Services verifies output and gives an opportunity to correct master data used earlier in the process, enabling continuous improvement to optimize fill rates.”

4: Use visual evidence to improve circular goods flows
“One way to achieve circular goods flows is through reusable pallets, but where are they exactly?” Asks Stefan. “RFID scanning lets you know that the pallets have passed a certain checkpoint, but adding visual evidence lets you know exactly where they are, or were, pre-or post scanning, safeguarding the movement of valuable assets – the pallets, or even the goods themselves.

5: Use intelligent video and AI services to cut down resource use
“Energy is scarce, and becoming more so as more people chase fewer resources. Using flawless logistics throughout the supply chain, from guiding operators to put the right goods on the right pallets, to shipping the right goods to cut down on returns, to ensuring goods don’t go missing in transit; all means less use of scarce resources,” comments Stefan.

Flawless logistics isn’t just good for your brand and your bottom line. It’s good for people, and especially good for the planet. Stefan Borg is co-founder and CEO of SiB Solutions, possessing over 30 years’ experience in logistics and energy at management level.