Customer application March 2, 2023

Automated Loading Documentation

It’s uncommon to find systems in production plants that combine the three different worlds smoothly. A project by WAGO and TTS-Automation shows exactly how providing an open control and protocol landscape can achieve this. This project combines the IT environment, process technology and logistics to implement an efficient, safe, well-documented loading processes.

TTS Automation and WAGO:

Intelligent industrial camera and WAGO IoT Box for loading documentation
Automation of the control and loading process for containers
WAGO controller used for documentation in compliance with data protection regulations

Never an Empty Truck!

This age-old adage of the logistics industry still guides today’s freight forwarders and logistics managers. Operating profitably has long depended on filling every last bit of empty space – not just gaps in the delivery schedule, but also any free space in every single truck. To optimize the material flow and shipping, many companies are already attempting to automate their business processes and support them with software applications. Nonetheless, the day-to-day in most logistics departments is still dominated by manual activities. Entering orders, scheduling shipments, monitoring transport routes and deliveries and providing delivery status information to customers: These processes are usually only partially automated – if at all.

In most cases, automating these processes makes sense, even just from an economic point of view; however, in many cases, the decision-makers are hesitant to invest. This decision often overlooks a crucial issue that may not be obvious at first: Incorrect vehicle loading can create significant risk, possibly with far-reaching legal consequences.

“Anyone who’s ever had to look a prosecutor in the eye when asked ‘What did you do to prevent this accident from happening?’ understands the importance of documenting transport safety once damage has occurred,” explains Thomas Striegel, CEO of TTS Automation GmbH.

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A few years ago, a chemical industry customer approached Thomas Striegel, wanting to know whether his industrial cameras were also capable of automating the monitoring and documentation process for loading vehicles transporting hazardous goods – a process that had been performed manually up till that point. In the earlier approach, employees had been responsible for photographing the load with a tablet or digital camera and manually sorting the images in a file archive.

But this approach lacks a standardized procedure and is error-prone. “It wasn’t uncommon to end up with blurry images, with crucial areas obscured, or to not even be able to locate the images because they’d obviously been archived incorrectly, or not even saved,” explains Striegel, describing the previous state of affairs. With error-prone manual documentation, problems can arise even when every single truck is loaded correctly. For example, in the event of an accident, the shipper needs proof that the correct procedure was followed in order to clear themselves of any wrongdoing – but this may be missing or unusable.

Industrial Cameras for Documentation

That goal is not to simply install a camera that films everything like a surveillance camera. Our solution evaluates the loading situation intelligently and generates useful images with important information for documentation in compliance with data protection regulations,” explains Striegel. Since this challenge is far from trivial, each individual customer application involves its own project.

For most requests, the aim is to use the recorded images to generate documentation proving that the correct goods and container types for the order were loaded onto the correct truck and that the load was secured. The software adds a timestamp and order number to the images it has identified as containing significant information; these are then burned into the image data, making subsequent manipulation more difficult.

Documenting these processes requires technology and logic. For example, the front and rear license plate of the empty truck need to be detected. The truck is then automatically associated with the appropriate ERP order and guided to the loading dock reserved for it. In the loading terminal as well, cameras at the appropriate points on the ramp and forklifts make sure that the images generated contain significant information. The cameras and their software identify the forklift, recognize when it drives in and out and then save an image of the secure loading process.

Then the interface to the ERP system saves the images in the user’s merchandise and logistics management system, ensure they can be located when needed.