Problem Statement
Stock-taking at Aviation X’s warehouse used to be done manually, which was a tedious process prone to human error. It was also dangerous, as workers often had to mount ladders to reach goods on high shelves or move heavy loads.
“Products come and go very quickly, so it’s tedious work as employees need to check shipments and count them manually, which is not only time-consuming but can also pose safety risk as some of the shelves can go up to 8m high,” said Ms Stacey Tong, Aviation X’s Managing Director. The manual counting of stocks also meant that employees often had to work overtime.
So in June 2022, Aviation X reached out to Singapore Polytechnic (SP), which uses the company’s tools to conduct its aerospace engineering courses. A team from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering then worked with SP’s 5G & AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) Centre to develop a software that operates drones for inventory management.
“We told the SP team our key challenges, and the team developed a solution for us by programming the drones for their final-year projects, with guidance from their lecturers,” said Ms Tong.
Impact Achieved
Over 22 weeks, the SP team developed a software that links the drone data with Aviation X’s database. This enables the right information to be automatically logged into the system when stocks are counted. The drones also operate autonomously, as they can identify the different rows according to the way they are arranged in the warehouse.
Now, employees no longer need to work overtime and are able to spend more time learning new skills while the drones do the stock-taking. “The drones capture real-time inventory data with speed and accuracy, while our employees can do work that cannot be done by machines,” said Mr Lukas Liu, Project Manager at Aviation X. “We’ve saved around 40 per cent of costs as a result and can deliver products to clients more quickly.”
This project is the first of many, as Aviation X is already looking at ways to deepen the IoT expertise, such that drones can do 3D readings and operate even when there is no human in the warehouse. “By collaborating with SP, we have been able to break new boundaries that not only impact our workflow today, but also set us up for bigger things to come,” said Ms Tong.
“We told the SP team our key challenges, and the team developed a solution for us by programming the drones for their final-year projects, with guidance from their lecturers,” said Ms Tong.
Aviation X’s Managing Director Stacey Tong and Project Manager Lukas Liu worked closely with SP to develop a software that enables drones to operate autonomously at their warehouse.