Since 2004, PINC has been providing real-time location and yard-management solutions. In 2014, the firm introduced cycle-counting drones (also known as aerial robots) that fly through an area, such as a vehicle or trailer yard in manufacturing plants and distribution centers, and use ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification technology to capture tag reads and confirm the location of inventory based on those reads. The company provides an automated way to collect inventory data on a daily basis. PINC often offers the solution with other technology as well, such as optic functionality to capture images or video of the conditions of vehicles, trailers and containers.

The company considered itself a tool for outdoor yard management only, says Matt Yearling, PINC's president and CEO, but customers had expressed a growing need for solutions at their facilities. "Some of our customers had said they were having issues [with inventory tracking] indoors," he says.

These customers tend to be large businesses with potentially a million square feet of indoor space. Companies found that inventory accuracy indoors was not always as accurate as they believed it to be. "We looked around," he states. "We thought the warehouse-management system players would have been addressing these problems." However, he says, customers found no such solution. PINC is now delivering its solution indoors as well, with autonomous drones specially designed to locate and count inventory for use inside buildings.

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