A case study about the application of drones employing artificial intelligence to the warehouse operations of Romark Logistics.

Romark Logistics is a third-party logistics provider with a focus on serving the consumer goods, pharmaceutical and retail sectors. It places a heavy emphasis on technology, with significant investment in automation and robotics, according to chief information officer Joe Warakomski.

Even with its reliance on technology, Romark was facing labor shortages, Warakomski says. At the same time, it needed a system that would maintain high levels of inventory accuracy. Romark turned for help to Gather AI, a specialist in warehouse drones for inventory management, because of the latter’s similarly intensive focus on automation, he adds.

Sean Mitchell, vice president of customer success with Gather AI, noted that the company’s drones perform autonomous inventory data gathering. The units take images of product at every location, using artificial intelligence to read barcodes, then compare the information directly with the facility’s warehouse management software (WMS) system.

Introduction of the Gather AI drones into Romark’s warehouse happened in phases. “We started small but were thinking big,” Warakomski says. Following a successful pilot program, the provider was able to rapidly expand the drones’ coverage to some 64,000 pallet positions.

It’s always a challenge to bring new systems into an ongoing operation, which can’t afford to slow for an instant. “Gather worked around our schedule,” Warakomski says. “And the amount of technology needed was fairly low.”

Mitchell says Gather AI was able to get the drones up and running, and complete worker training on the units, in just three weeks.

Romark was skeptical at the outset about Gather AI’s ability to get the drones into place in such a short time. In the end, though, the company experienced “a 5x improvement in our inventory process” with 99.9% accuracy, Warakomski says.