Case Study

Digital Label & Goods Tracking

Background

Outdated or lost freight documents, missing information during the transportation process, and language barriers in intercontinental shipments lead to inefficient processes and increased costs in logistics.

In particular, the manual search for small and large load carriers is a time-consuming process. To overcome these challenges, the Digital Label & Goods Tracking system was developed.

Requirements

An e-paper display is to be developed that can be attached to various container sizes and fulfills the following functions:

Display of accompanying documents for goods
Sensors for monitoring the transported goods
Transmission of sensor data to a cloud platform

Implementation

Various challenges were addressed during the development:

Global Localization
Using geofencing and GPS localization, country borders are recognized and information is adjusted accordingly. Dedicated solutions are also applied for use within buildings, ships, and aircraft.
Sensors
The device is equipped with sensors for condition monitoring (temperature, humidity, shock) and localization (inside and outside enclosed spaces) of the transported goods.
Cloud Integration
Data transmission utilizes mobile standards such as 2G, 3G, LTE-M, and, depending on the use case, NarrowBand IoT. The latter can be used without additional infrastructure and allows for an extremely long maintenance-free runtime.

Result

The project led to the development of prototypes with different screen sizes. Successful proof-of-concepts were conducted using these prototypes.

Digital Label & Goods Tracking means increased transparency, as goods can be precisely tracked at any time, less downtime due to quality (damage detection), and monitoring the condition of raw materials, parts, or goods.

The ability to integrate with warehouse management systems through standardized interfaces results in increased efficiency throughout the supply chain.

Material and personnel costs decrease, and the allocation of space for storage from different suppliers can be done more efficiently. Digital Label & Goods Tracking helps avoid production stoppages, enabling time savings and improved just-in-time delivery.