Improve Cargo Tracking with Shipping Container Scanning
Shipping containers (also known as intermodal containers & ISO containers) are used to transport goods all around the world. They’re loaded and unloaded at major ports like Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Singapore to name a few. Unfortunately, shipping containers can end up in the wrong place from time to time. To solve this issue, mobile shipping container scanning can greatly reduce the risk of cargo containers going astray.
Shipping container scans with mobile devices are the perfect freight tracking solution for managing cargo and shipping manifests. Mobile optical character recognition (OCR) technology makes sure that container numbers are correctly recorded throughout your supply chain management process and that cargo transports are carried out correctly and accurately.
Additionally, this technological enhancement saves port managers precious time by reducing the amount of manual data entries into their SCM (supply chain management) system.
With improved cargo management and more time in the daily routine of your workforce, there are many ways to optimize logistics management processes and in turn, save money.
Find out the major benefits of mobile shipping containers scanning and how it can be used to further improve work processes at the port and on your cargo ships.
Get Instant and Accurate Cargo Information from Scanning
Anyline’s mobile scanning is used in a variety of industries to improve supply chain processes and optimize logistics management. It’s been adopted across these industries due to the similar benefits it offers, no matter the use case.
The main benefit of Anyline’s mobile scanning technology is the high-level accuracy that it provides. In laboratory settings, the accuracy of Anyline is well above 99% and improving every day.
These highly accurate scan results are delivered in an instant where you need them. This makes Anyline’s OCR technology the perfect supply chain tool for scanning intermodal and ISO containers.
By eliminating human error, your processes will become more accurate immediately. Human error affects all processes that depend on manual data entry. No one is capable of perfectly typing at all times due to stress, fatigue, and distraction. All of these can play a part in contributing to inaccurate data collection.
If a staff member is required to type a piece of data twice, then the likelihood of human error is doubled. This is quite typical when staff members are required to record a code and then later enter it into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or other databases.
Digitizing paper manifests is a typical example of a process that can be disrupted by human error within the industry, and is easily resolved with mobile data collection.
Instant and accurate cargo scanning means an end to hours of tiresome and error-filled manual data entries. Instead of typing your daily records into your database or carrying single-use scanning devices for complex barcodes, a mobile device can simply upload all of your scan data to the backend of your supply chain management (SCM) or warehouse management system (WMS) in an instant.
For these reasons, mobile scanning is one of the best investments you can make to stay productive and keep in touch with the digital transformation of global supply chains.
Remove Dedicated Devices From Your Workflow
While you may already scan your freight with a dedicated device, making the move to mobile devices has advantages for your workforce and operational process as a whole. One of the major benefits of using mobile devices to scan containers is their ability to quickly become multi-purpose devices.
While this solution uses the camera of a mobile device to provide OCR scanning, other companies use microphones, Bluetooth connectivity, and NFC capabilities to bring added functionality to mobile devices. They can also be combined with device add-ons to provide even more functionality for your business process.
Dedicated devices have a much narrower range of features and are designed with a small number of use cases in mind. Single-function scanning devices are becoming redundant, and more versatile mobile devices are replacing them.
What’s more, while new scanning solutions can be easily uploaded to a mobile device, retrofitting an older dedicated scanning device for new use cases can be more difficult and quite costly.
Another major drawback of dedicated devices is that they require specialist training. In contrast, your workforce will be familiar with the use of smart mobile devices and even have experience teaching themselves to perform actions with them on their own.
The use of mobile devices makes workforce training simpler to understand and cheaper to carry out.
Mobile devices also have advantages from an operational perspective. Dedicated devices need to be stored and charged on a schedule. This means you need dedicated charging stations, so they can be charged properly and be ready for use.
Mobile devices are usually much smaller, lighter, and can be charged with regular USB cables from almost any power outlet. This makes mobile devices easier to manage and to maintain on a day-to-day basis.
Your solution for shipping container scanning is ready for deployment: Save time & reduce costs with Anyline’s mobile scanning technology – reach out to us today!
