Stockpile Reports launches bin and bunker measurement for stockpiled materials via iPhone, drone

Updated Feb 4, 2016
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Stockpile Reports announced at World of Concrete it now supports measurement capabilities for stockpiled materials, such as salt, gravel and sand, in bins and bunkers using an iPhone, drone or airplane. Current methods involve using a walking wheel, counting bunker wall blocks and estimates from truckload sizes.

“Our subscribers requested this from our team in 2015, and we’ve been piloting the capability with 23 companies and managing materials in over 500 bunkers,” CEO David Boardman says. “In addition to accelerating and improving physical inventory counts, the capability is transforming the way DOTs manage the utilization and ordering salt in response to ice events.”

Boardman referenced the Utah Department of Transportation as recently completing a full count on their salt inventory using the system, with a plan to inventory all of its maintenance inventory stockpiles this year. The company is also working DOTs in Idaho and Ohio, for example, but in test trial applications only at this time.

The system involves a one-time calibration set up of the bunker or bin from a series of measurements, with a company or agency creating a database containing each individual space. An individual with an iPhone, preferable for covered spaces, or a drone or airplane, used for uncovered stockpiles still in bunkers, then passes over the area to create the 3D model of the materials. Reports containing the data on each stockpile can be exported as PDFs.

“Companies are reporting that this is a much easier system, saving time and providing more accurate and consistent results,” Boardman says, adding that in some cases a 40 percent differential from previous inventory counts has been found “With something like salt, it’s a meaningful number.”

Measuring inventory in bins and bunkers has “been an impossible problem,” Boardman adds, “because people haven’t had the tools to do it.”