DCL Logistics, a Fremont, California-based third-party logistics service provider (3PL), has a history rooted in adapting to the technology and e-commerce landscapes. Founded in 1982 as DisCopyLabs, a software duplication business, the company has since evolved into DCL Logistics and shifted its focus to fulfillment and inventory management services to meet the demands of the growing e-commerce market.
Today, DCL fulfills millions of products that are shipped across the globe. Over the years, it has expanded its service menu—in addition to fulfillment, the 3PL now provides related services like reverse logistics, transportation management, and kitting and assembly. And its footprint has grown from a single facility in Silicon Valley to a network of five sites across the U.S.
DCL specializes in supporting high-growth omnichannel brands looking to scale up quickly without compromising their inventory accuracy. For such companies, every item of inventory is equivalent to cash, and accuracy is paramount for confident decision-making and financial reporting, the 3PL says.
But for DCL, inventory management was increasingly becoming a struggle. To provide the precision data its clients demanded, the company was conducting continuous cycle counts. Trouble was, the process was both time-intensive and inefficient, requiring significant hours of manual labor to physically verify stock levels and verify that goods were stored in the right locations. So for help streamlining those tasks, DCL turned to Dexory, a British technology company that specializes in inventory counting solutions.
NONSTOP OPERATIONS
After an initial evaluation, the two companies implemented DexoryView, a real-time inventory counting system that combines autonomous mobile robots with an AI (artificial intelligence)-powered software platform.
With the DexoryView system, the actual counts are performed by custom-built robots that operate around the clock, continuously scanning inventory as they cruise down warehouse aisles. The bots, which are equipped with advanced sensors, can capture high-definition scans of over 10,000 locations per hour, according to the developer. But what makes them really stand out from the crowd are their 40-foot masts, which allow them to count goods stored on racking up to 45 feet high, the company adds.
As they make their way around the warehouse, the robots feed real-time data into the DexoryView platform for analysis. The software then uses advanced image analysis to detect misplacements, validate counts, and evaluate storage conditions, enabling proactive issue resolution before a miscount becomes a problem, the firm says.
MOVING SMARTER AND FASTER
As for how the new system is working out, DCL says DexoryView is hitting the mark on all counts. Since it deployed the solution, the 3PL has seen a 14% increase in pallet location accuracy and a tenfold improvement in inventory counting speed compared to its previous drone-based system.
Those improvements have allowed DCL to save 16 hours of labor per day, freeing up workers on the inventory team to focus on higher-value planning and strategic initiatives like warehouse space optimization and customized customer projects, the company says. Plus, by implementing DexoryView, DCL Logistics now has the ability to perform inventory audits on a daily and weekly basis and provide real-time data to its customers so they can feel confident that they know exactly how much merchandise they have stored in the warehouse.
And in the end, it’s that accuracy that counts, according to DCL leaders.
“DexoryView has allowed us to significantly improve the quality of our inventory accuracy, ensuring that our teams have rich and reliable data at their disposal,” DCL President Dave Tu said in a release. “Robotics automation most obviously increases the speed of our daily cycle counting, but it’s the substantial increase in accuracy rates over an accelerated time period that allows our operations to move faster and smarter for our customers, while giving our teams more time to focus on higher-value initiatives.”
