Augmented Reality in Logistics: The Evolution of Enterprise

| Developers

augmented reality innovation

Over the last decade, we’ve made great strides with augmented reality (AR)—a technology that seeks to merge the digital and physical worlds together into one seamless experience. By capitalizing on this technology, your enterprise can streamline business processes and drive efficiency across the entire supply chain. And thanks to recent innovations in mobile computer vision featuring augmented reality, it’s never been easier to integrate smart device-based mobile data capture solutions into your daily logistics workflows.

At Scandit, we’ve been developing mobile data capture solutions for the logistics industry for almost a decade. Our proprietary mobile computer vision software brings robust data capture and AR capabilities to inexpensive smart devices, transforming them into powerful barcode scanners. Today, we’ll be exploring how smart device-based barcode scanning solutions with augmented reality features can support faster and more productive logistics operations—and discussing how you can implement this exciting technology into your own enterprise. But before that, let’s take a moment to define AR and its impact on modern business.

How Augmented Reality Supports Business Today

Augmented reality is on the cusp of revolutionizing the logistics, manufacturing and retail industries alike. By superimposing computer-generated images and other assets into real-world environments,solutions featuring augmented reality can support a wide range of business use cases. For example, manufacturing companies are leveraging AR technology with wearable devices to train staff on specialized machinery—using superimposing instructions to guide and educate employees. In a similar vein, today’s retailers use AR-enabled mobile apps to streamline brick-and-mortar shopping—allowing customers to gain detailed insights into products and promotions with a single touch of their smartphone.

In the context of logistics, augmented reality can be used to maximize warehouse efficiency and consistency. Warehouse staff are tasked with finding, scanning and delivering hundreds of items each day—as quickly as possible and without errors. Augmented reality can support these efforts through digital overlays that guide staff to the correct products and highlight exactly which products need to be collected for each order. In short, AR enables warehouse employees to perform more reliably and quickly than ever before by streamlining navigation and item picking.

Camera-equipped smart devices with AR capabilities can be used to optimize all three phases of Last Mile logistics. Computer-generated overlays can display details on time-sensitive items, real-time delivery updates and special delivery instructions—making it easy for staff to coordinate deliveries and exceed customer expectations. Augmented reality in Last Mile logistics is completely reshaping the Post and Parcel industry at large, ushering in a new era of e-commerce.

Augmented Reality Applications for Logistics

Computer vision-enabled smart devices augmented with AR functionality are useful across a wide variety of logistics workflows. Here are a handful of logistics use cases that augmented reality supports:

Shipping & Receiving

Shipping & receiving apps leverage AR technology to provide faster shipment authentication and reports. These tools can use computer-generated displays to assist staff with completing shipping and receiving tasks, reducing labor costs and boosting productivity in the process.

Mobile PoD (Proof of Delivery)

Mobile Proof of Delivery apps use AR feedback to give users real-time delivery information on their smart device screen. These assets can include critical delivery changes, delivery time restrictions and more, fostering smoother delivery operations.

Asset Management

Asset management apps can harness AR overlays to convey information on assets in the field, enabling fast and efficient repairs or replacement. These resources give your logistics enterprise deep insights into the state of assets and opportunities for redeployment.

Implementing Augmented Reality Into Your Logistics App

To effectively incorporate augmented reality functionality into your computer vision-enabled logistics app, you’ll need a mobile data capture solution that can accommodate the technology while delivering enterprise-grade scanning speed and accuracy. The Scandit Barcode Scanner SDK, our award-winning data capture software, offers the same reliability of traditional scanning hardware at a fraction of the price. This versatile software allows smart devices to capture damaged, blurry and poorly lit barcodes with ease—while delivering premium AR capabilities through its MatrixScan feature.

MatrixScan is a premium scanning and AR tracking feature that enables camera-equipped smart devices to locate, track and decode several barcodes at once. SDK-powered apps with MatrixScan can use visual AR feedback to convey important information in real time, bringing greater transparency and efficiency to your supply chain. Devices equipped with MatrixScan also perform three times faster than conventional scanners, driving greater productivity across your enterprise.

Be sure to check out our free 30-day SDK trial if you’d like to test the impact of our augmented reality capabilities for logistics. The demo supports a wide range of 1D and 2D code types and features our latest mobile computer vision tech, making it the perfect opportunity to see Scandit technology in action.

Advance Your Enterprise With Scandit

Ready to learn more about Scandit and our augmented reality-enabled solutions? Then be sure to call or message us today. You can also reach out to us for more information on augmented reality or barcode solutions for logistics in general. You can also explore our whitepapers for more detailed insights into AR technology for logistics companies. These resources can help you get your augmented reality-enabled app up and running fast.