A Case Study: DS Smith, a leading sustainable packaging manufacturer pilots digital 3D dimensioning to transform logistic operations

DS Smith is a leading provider of sustainable fibre-based packaging that improves transport and storage efficiency, boosts retail presentation and increases product sales for their customers worldwide. The company plays a central role in the value chain across sectors including e-commerce, fast moving consumer goods and industrials and is constantly looking for ways to improve its production process. DS Smith creates packaging solutions that meet their customers’ supply chain requirements and improve the end-customer and brand experiences with customed made packaging while facing major challenges on designing, handle managing and shipping a large variety of custom packages to various end-customers.

DS Smith wanted a digital end-of-line monitoring solution that would integrate with their current production processes and provide more accurate dimensional data. They turned to Neadvance, a computer vision and artificial intelligence solutions provider for industry and SICK, a leading producer of sensors and sensor solutions for industrial automation applications, to help them address their challenge and implement a pilot solution, in order to validate the results and confirm the potential for future improvements. Using SICK’s Visionary-T Mini based on Microsoft 3D Time of Flight (ToF) technology, DS Smith was able to capture the necessary data quickly and accurately without adding resources or interrupting production. Solution integration and 3D vision camera processing was designed by Neadvance.

The Visionary-T Mini uses the innovative 3D time-of-flight camera technology by Microsoft with depth data that allows fast and accurate measurement of the spatial dimensions of pallets and their volumetric load. The Visionary-T Mini is currently on the verge of a broad market launch. Visionary-T Mini CX is the first product in a series of SICK products based on Microsoft ToF technology, which showcases a long strategic collaboration between SICK and Microsoft.

This DS Smith case illustrates that the close collaboration between SICK, Neadvance and Microsoft demonstrates a system that offers possibilities for more efficient logistics and extensive opportunities to transport more efficiently. Following this successful pilot prototype implementation, international packaging manufacturer DS Smith believes that this new approach, with additional data made available through new technology, will help monitoring the material flow and optimize it in the long haul.

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