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700 million iPhones are in use in the world. These
accessible technologies are driving adoption of
widespread measurement methods. It should not
matter whether we take a photo from a camera in
the air, on a plane, on a drone, or suspended on a
wire: the technology processing should make sense of
what the camera captures and turn it into meaningful
data.
Stockpile Reports tracks aerial and ground
measures year over year and is seeing a trend
from fixed wing planes toward drone flights
and ground measurements. Last year saw a 40%
increase in measurements captured by drone. Today,
iPhone-based measurements are growing dramatically
and, within the next three to five years, it is feasible
that producers will have instant data on all their
stock levels via autonomous drones, truck-mounted
cameras, and wearable cameras.
The sci-fi effect of witnessing 3D image
reconstruction and photogrammetry can be difficult
to comprehend in a day-to-day operation, but
labour-intensive, elaborate systems are no longer
required to obtain accurate measurement. Stockpile
Reports measures accuracy levels within 2% of
LiDAR and received an award from the American
Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials (AASHTO) for its combined ease and accuracy
last year. After six months of measurements, the
iPhone-derived volumes were coming in within about
1.6% of their conventional measurements.
Trend 3: Shared data to inform more
people and processes
The very act of moving assets from one location to
another is a costly part of the business. Some customers
report substantial losses – even as high as 30 – 40% –
during transit. Data shared along the supply chain has
the potential to end disputes and smooth transitions
between locations. The new wave of innovation is
pushing towards the middle space between production
and delivery. Therefore, integration and communications
will naturally expand when information is shared
between departments, locations, and companies.
Companies can no longer “operate without paying
attention to what is happening in the middle between
our customers and us,” said an executive from one
leading US building materials company. “There can be
losses at each touch point, whether moving by truck
or barges. There has not been a good understanding
between accounting and the field. There is a knee-jerk
reaction that we are losing material, when the number is
not what they think it should be. We need to understand
if there really is a percentage loss at each touch point,
before we call it a problem. It may be a problem of
inconsistent measurements.”
Stockpile Report’s largest customer experienced cost-
saving innovation by using a drone to make sure that
the job sites were on the right path. Precision metrics
may not be needed to ensure an operation is on the
right track, so doing a quick check more frequently along
the product’s journey may mitigate these losses. One
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