November 17, 2019
Fetch Robotics announced new functionality for their TagSurveyor solution today. TagSurveyor is capable of autonomously navigating a warehouse and inventoring RFID data. This inventory information helps fulfillment and distribution centers track inventory throughout the warehouse. The new functionality adds the capability for TagSurveyor to map the RFID data in real-time and overlay that information on a map of the warehouse. The map makes it easy to locate misplaced items or perform other inventory management actions.
Accurate Inventory Counts
Poor inventory management accounts for over a trillion dollars from lost or misplaced items annually. Traditionally, warehouse managers have relied on physical counts, in which associates scan individual items to create a numerical record of items in the warehouse. These physical counts, which require hours of manual work and demand high labor costs, often result in inaccurate data collection and fail to collect location-specific information. With TagSurveyor and the latest FetchCore enhancements from Fetch, warehouse managers can now autonomously get an accurate picture of their inventory.
Fetch’s software is completely cloud enabled. This enables easy access to the data for warehouse managers who might be located off-site or responsible for multiple facilities within a region. All of the tag data gathered by TagSurveyor can be reconciled with the inventory information in the warehouse management system (WMS) to provide accurate count data for planning purposes. Fetch provides integration to the WMS to facilitate this data exchange.
Real Time Inventory Location Data
What’s new with this announcement is the ability to view the inventory data overlayed on a map of the facility. As TagSurveyor traverses the warehouse floor, it updates both the inventory count and inventory location data with every sweep of the facility.
“Distribution and fulfillment centers are becoming more data-driven, but most facilities still lack basic information such as up-to-date inventory counts. Fetch is developing a full suite of robots to provide new levels of insights into warehouse operations and workflows, and TagSurveyor is our most specialized solution to date,” said Fetch Robotics Vice President of Products Stefan Nusser. “With Fetch’s cloud platform, customers already using Fetch robots can add a TagSurveyor with no additional effort, and can outfit their facilities with any of Fetch’s broad range of AMRs to help them find, track and move anything from parts to pallets.”
For Fetch customers who’ve already deployed other Fetch solutions to handling their warehouse operations, the additional of a Fetch TagSurveyor into the fleet is a simple operation. Fetch customers can deploy the TagSurveyor on an as-needed basis through Fetch’s Robots-as-a-Service model, which allows companies to scale effectively as the business grows. This model may be adventageous for Fetch clients who only require intermittent inventory counts (e.g. end of quarter).
