Logistics company DHL Supply Chain is staging an augmented reality trial with one of its Australian customers as it assesses the productivity benefits that AR can deliver to warehouse operations.
The project, using smart glasses to aid ‘picking’ during order fulfillment, builds on a series of pilots the company has run in a number of other countries, according to Andrew Weyer, DHL Supply Chain vice president, information technology, Australia & New Zealand.
The decision to invest in AR is based on DHL Supply Chain’s assessment of the emerging technologies that comprise ‘Industry 4.0’, Weyer said.
DHL Supply Chain develops its own internal ‘hype cycle’ that assesses the trends likely to have the biggest impact on its business and then works with its vendors and customers in co-creation efforts to develop proof of concepts, he said.
In 2014, DHL Trend Research released a paper — Augmented Reality in Logistics — that identified potential AR use cases in three key areas across the logistics industry:
• Warehousing operations, including pick by vision and warehouse planning.
• Transportation optimisation, including ‘completeness checks’ (ensuring a pick-up load is complete), complying with international import and export regulations (easily assessing trade documentation for example), dynamic rerouting (sending new directions to a driver to optimise travel), and freight loading.
• Last-mile delivery (areas such as parcel loading and drop-off, last-metre navigation, and using augmented reality to boost delivery security through customer recognition).
For the company’s first major foray into AR it partnered with a customer — printer vendor Ricoh — and software company Ubimax.
The 2015 project used Google Glass and Vuzix headsets and involved a Ricoh warehouse in the Netherlands.
“It was a joint decision between us and Ricoh to say, ‘Let’s identify a new digital trend that we can bring into the facility and try to prove some benefits’,” Weyer said
The three-week pilot involved 10 staff equipped with head-mounted displays. During the pilot, they collectively picked more than 20,000 items and fulfilled 9000 orders.
The benefits were substantial, with the augmented reality headsets delivering a greater than 25 per cent productivity boost.
X, the subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet and the new custodian of Glass, earlier this month announced the relaunch of the headset with a focus on the enterprise; DHL is one of the Glass customers X has highlighted.
In the wake of the Netherlands pilot, in August last year DHL Supply Chain announced it would expand the AR program across different industries and stage further trials in the Netherlands, the US and the UK.
“This is one of the things we do in the group: We prove something in one area, then we industrialise it and we try to extend it to other areas and leverage it as a standard solution,” Weyer said.
The scenario where AR has been found to deliver the most significant boost is where an individual warehouse worker is fulfilling multiple orders and making ‘less than carton’ picks, Weyer said.
Difficulty with obtaining Google Glass units in APAC has meant that in this region DHL has partnered with US technology company Vuzix. (Vuzix’s M100 and M300 smart glasses run on Google’s Android mobile platform.)
DHL Supply Chain has already staged a proof of concept in Japan with a major retail customer, Weyer said.“There were some challenges with the POC around the technology,” he said. One of them was the impact of latency between the server and the glasses units being used on the warehouse floor.
“Those problems have since been solved and we’re now looking at a circa 10 per cent productivity improvement from the glasses,” he said.
In Australia, DHL Supply Chain has kicked off a proof of concept with Canon.
“We’ve identified an area of their operations where they’re doing a multiple picking-type operation. We then looked at the [AR] solution and identified two areas we could optimise even further,” Weyer said.
Changes to the AR software have meant that the heads-up display is “more dynamic,” he said: “It automatically fits to the number of trolleys that you’re actually picking into.”
The other enhancement was that in addition to highlighting the container in which a worker should place the current item, a different colour is used to highlight the next tote box — meaning that in the case of any minor system latency, the employee is able to keep working.
The local project is entering user acceptance testing this week.
The Australian pilot will see vision picking directly compared against a manual picking operation, voice picking and RF picking to better assess the productivity improvements that AR can deliver.
The smart glass units will be directly connected to wireless networks in the warehouse operated by DHL Supply Chain.
In most of DHL Supply Chain’s facilities across Asia Pacific the company has already installed standard wireless access points to drive RF-based picking, Weyer explained.
RF picking involves equipping warehouse workers with wearable Wi-Fi-connected terminals that can direct them to the appropriate area of a facility and tell them the item and quantity needed to fulfil an order. The technology has proven particularly important in the pharmaceutical area, Weyer said.
“We’ve got quite a large life science and healthcare operation across a lot of the countries in APAC, especially in Australia,” Weyer explained. In Australia the company does about 80 per cent of the direct to pharmacy distribution of life science and health-care products, he added.
“That RF capability allows us to be more accurate. You’re dealing with patients’ lives: You need to make sure you’re picking the right batch, the right expiry date. You don’t want someone mistaking an R for a 1 or a zero for an O — because you’ve just mixed up a batch number. If I need to do a recall, I need to know where I can find that product; if I’m not using RF and I introduce human error.”
Weyer said that one benefit of the facility chosen for the AR pilot is that it’s managed by an operations maturity standard used globally by DHL Supply Chain. That means that a range of measures to assess warehouse productivity are already in place.
“That operations maturity standard introduces a whole lot of disciplines around the operation; kicking off with things like early morning performance dialogues — what do we need to achieve for the day, what are our KPIs, what are our SLAs, planning the resource allocations to different activities,” he said.
“We’ve got daily reporting on the current productivity and we’ve got daily dashboards that are running. As we put those different technologies in, we can actively understand the impact of them off the base that we’ve already got in place.”
| A DHL release || July 25, 2017 |||
New Zealand start-up manufacturer REYEDR (pronounced rider) has announced the latest in augmented reality (AR) smart tech for the safety-conscious motorcycle enthusiast.
The REYEDR HUD is a heads-up display that retrofits to a motorcyclist’s helmet and shows speed, navigation, distance and more. It runs on the REYEDR smartphone App to provide the rider with key information about the bike, route and ride group. It also has the ability to alert emergency services in the event of an accident.
Using a retrofit approach, the HUD fits on the chinbar of any full-face motorcycle helmet and converts it into a smart device. A transparent screen sits just in the periphery of the motorcyclist’s vision, allowing riders to keep their eyes on the road while still maintaining awareness of key riding conditions.
REYEDR reduces distraction by providing information needed within the motorcyclist’s natural line of sight. There is no need to refocus to see the virtual image, so riders can keep eyes on the road at all times. The GUI (graphical user interface) is designed to be non-distracting and display the right amount of information — colours change to draw attention when needed.
For instance, navigation arrows and distance to the next turn-off change from green to orange to red when approaching the corner. Similarly, speed colours change from green to orange when approaching the speed limit and red when riding at the speed limit and over.
REYEDR showcased the HUD device at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The system connects via Bluetooth 5.0 connection and a social-ready smartphone app (compatible with iOS and Android devices).
Motorcyclists can find interesting rides and connect with a larger community of bikers that share similar interests. Riders can save photos and/or a map of their route for a personal log, which they can share with others.
Horticulture New Zealand has teamed up with WorkSafe New Zealand to create a health and safety toolkit specifically designed for horticulture businesses.
"Managing health and safety in the workplace is a critical issue for horticulture businesses," Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman says. "Keeping up with what is required is something we can help growers with.
"Working with WorKSafe, we have been able to customise a toolkit, called Keep Safe, Keep Growing, which includes both a written booklet and an easy-to-work-through online guide to help growers identify and manage health and safety risks.
"The guideline is targeted at those who are responsible for the management of health and safety in a horticulture business. It covers the steps that growers should take to build a health and safety system.
"Features include a guide for visitors to a property, tools and training resources for workers and contractors, and the ability to create risk assessments for Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) audits that are part of many horticulture businesses."
Horticulture New Zealand represents 5,500 commercial fruit and vegetable growers who employ 60,000 people. A copy of the Keep Safe, Keep Growing guide will be posted to all growers over the coming days. Additional copies will be available from Horticulture New Zealand on request. The online guide can be found here.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Airlines for America (A4A), have launched a year-long global campaign related to baggage tracking with the goal of reducing mishandled bags in addition to increasing efficiency in baggage operations.
Annually, more than 4 billion bags are carried by airlines globally. Less than 0.43 percent do not arrive with their owners. By June 2018, airlines have committed to being able to track a bag when it is accepted at the airport, loaded onto the aircraft, transferred to the arrival system or put into the transfer system for carriage by another airline. Airlines should also be able to share this tracking information with interline carriers as needed.
| A TravelInc Memo release || July 25, 2017 |||
The Commerce Commission has published a statement of preliminary issues relating to Trade Me Limited’s (Trade Me) proposed acquisition of up to 100% of the shares in Limelight Software Limited, trading as Motorcentral.
The statement outlines the main issues that the Commission considers important in deciding whether or not to grant clearance to the proposed merger. A copy can be found on the Commission’s Clearances Register.
The Commission invites interested parties to provide comments on the likely competitive effects of Trade Me’s proposed acquisition of Motorcentral. Submissions can be sent by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the reference “Trade Me/Motorcentral” in the subject line. Any submissions should be received by close of business on 7 August 2017.
The Commission has also updated its Clearances Register to reflect the indicative time frame for its decision on the proposed merger. We have agreed with Trade Me that we will make a decision by 5 September 2017.
However, this date may change as our investigation progresses. In particular, if we need to test and consider the issues identified further, the decision date is likely to extend.
Background
Trade Me is an online marketplace and classified advertising platform, based in New Zealand. Trade Me operates the "Trade Me Motors" business division, which has services including the provision of online vehicle classified advertising and applications that dealers use to manage and sell their stock. Trade Me is seeking clearance to acquire Motorcentral, whose primary business is the provision of dealer management system software to motor vehicle dealers.
When considering a proposed merger, the Commission must determine whether the competition that would be lost with the merger would be substantial.
We will give clearance to a proposed merger only if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.
A fact sheet explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available on the clearances page
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, known for making cathedrals and concert halls out of paper, is designing 20,000 new homes for refugees in northwest Kenya. Ban, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2014, will be working with the UN Habitat to build homes in the Kalobeyei refugee settlement in Kenya’s Turkana region.
After the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, Ban designed a temporary replacement for the church made out of cardboard.
Ban, a minimalist who uses materials ranging from cardboard and paper to beer crates, is known for his work on emergency housing. He’s built DIY refugee shelters in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide and in Nepal after its 2015 earthquake2015. His paper log houses have been used in Japan, Turkey, and India. In Kenya, Ban says his goal is to design housing simple enough for residents to replicate and maintain by themselves—Kenya’s refugee population, at about 400,000, is expected to continue growing.
“The key thing will be to design and construct shelter where no or little technical supervision is required, and use materials that are locally available and eco-friendly. It’s important that the houses can be easily maintained by inhabitants,” Ban said after visiting the Kalobeyei settlement last week.
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On Wednesday, the council’s Finance Committee is being asked to give urgent funding approval to purchase 17 new battery powered trains, or Independently Powered Electric Multiple Units (IPEMUs) as they’re referred to officially.
The council paper and the full business case notes that the urgency is because a deposit needs to be made by September this year to ensure delivery of these new trains in 2019 which is when the capacity constraints really start to bite. Given how plainly obvious this issue has been for some considerable time, it’s a bit absurd that it now needs to be made so quickly.
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How cheap will air travel become? The chief executive of one low-cost carrier believes flying is destined to become so cheap that airlines will end up paying travellers to fly with them.
Chief executive and founder of WOW Air, Skúli Mogensen, considers that flight pricing is becoming so competitive, airlines eventually will hand out free trips just to get passengers aboard their planes.
Mogensen told Britain’s Daily Telegraph: “In the future we could pay you to fly with us – if you come to us and trust us with your booking, we can see that your airfare is reduced to zero and even reward you for it.”
The secret of the cheaper-than-cheap flights is that the flights would be used as bait, in a similar manner to operators who offer “free” resort stays to consumers – who then spend plenty on airfares. Mogensen believes that as airlines make more money from tie-ins with car hire and hotel bookings, the flights themselves could be given away free to lure customers in.
Here’s a telling sentence about the development from London’s Sun newspaper, which will rile a few agents: “By rewarding loyal customers with free flights, they would then become a one-stop shop for travel, like the old fashioned travel agencies.”
WOW Air is an Icelandic low-cost carrier headquartered in Reykjavík and based at Keflavík International Airport. It favours purple, for livery, décor and uniforms. Founded in 2011 it first flew in 2012.
WOW’s sole owner is Titan, an investment company owned by Mogensen. In 2012, WOW acquired Iceland Express’s operations and network to several destinations in Europe and North America.
WOW Air has sold transatlantic flights in the UK (via Reykjavík) for as little as GBP 150 (AUD 246). It is not giving flights away yet or paying customers to fly with it, but you never know.
Rival Scandinavian low-cost airline Norwegian has reportedly started handing out free return flights or upgrades to its most frequent flyers, but plenty of carriers already do similar for frequent flyers who amass enough points.
| Written by Peter Needham For Global Travel Media || July 25, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242