About Menzies Aviation

Menzies Aviation is an international aviation services business with operations worldwide, providing safe and efficient ground services, cargo, fueling, executive services and offline services. Operating at over 250 airports in 58 countries across six continents is supported by a global team of 25,000 highly trained people, and a delivery promise of providing safe and efficient services to every customer, every time.

At Heathrow, Menzies has the largest dedicated warehouse with a capacity that exceeds 7,000 square metres for handling passenger and air cargo, handling 10 airlines with 10,000 tonnes passing through the facility on a monthly basis.

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Day-to-day challenges and the need for greater visibility

At the Heathrow cargo facility, the primary day-to-day operational challenges being faced included:

a) under-reported volumes and mis-declarations of air cargo due to human error in the manual processes. Inaccurate data resulted in incorrect storage charges, reducing loading efficiency and ultimately impacting profitability.

b) the availability of aircraft space, freight capacity, facility space, handling and delivery.

Menzies Aviation required greater visibility over the goods as they arrived, where they needed to go and where they actually were placed. The warehouse needed to optimise rack utilisation, obtain more accurate space forecasting and maximise the volume of cargo processed through the facility. Furthermore, it was necessary to identify lost, misplaced and non-compliant assets daily to recover revenue.

In order to keep the promise made to its customers, Menzies recognised that it needed an extremely reliable solution to automate its stock processes. Dexory’s AI platform and fully autonomous mobile robot can easily track and find goods within the facility by scanning and photographically capturing cargo leading to highly accurate, real-time data. The robot operates within the warehouse without needing to change the facility and seamlessly moves around without interrupting people or workflows.

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More efficient operations

Using real-time access to highly accurate data, Menzies Aviation now has efficient operations, providing a cost-effective alternative to refitting its warehouse at Heathrow.

The data insights gained provided far greater clarity on inbound and outbound loads. These loads are quickly scanned, allowing warehouse-bonded inventory checks to be completed efficiently and accurately, with real-time comparisons against the warehouse management systems WMS data. Fill inventory checks previously took a minimum of eight hours a week, this has now been reduced to under 15 minutes on a daily basis.

Playback our webinar on Leveraging AI and real-time data to improve warehouse operations at Menzies Aviation.

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Saving valuable time

On average 30 minutes per pallet on mandatory automating bond checks was saved, resulting in tens of hours per week saved overall. This allowed the warehouse employees to be free to concentrate on more complex and less repetitive tasks. Mandatory bond checks, previously labour-intensive and only performed once to twice a week, are now carried out through Mimi’s automated perpetual checks.

The autonomous robot runs nightly audits for inventory checking and generating exception reports highlighting UTLs (unable to locate pallets), misplaced goods and rack occupancy levels, delivering far greater accuracy of the warehouse stock. From a daily report, inventory can now be validated immediately and UTLs are reduced by 50% resulting in less insurance claims and increased customer satisfaction.

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Optimising space

Dexory’s digital twin platform data also allows Menzies Aviation to undertake very reliable space forecasting and maximise the volume of cargo processed through their warehouses. The aim is to reach 99% utilisation and remove the gaps. Dexory is the only technology powered by autonomous robots that delivers this data and insights in real-time for inventory management.

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Financial and reputation benefits

Financial benefits have been immediately visible as profitability has increased by reducing the number of misplaced and non-compliant assets.

Menzies Aviation enhanced its reputation, being at the forefront of logistics innovation, by being the first company in the industry to adopt an AI platform driven by robotics for real-time, complete visibility of warehouse operations.

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What's next?

To continue the success, Menzies is looking at a number of developments to increase the impact and scope of the robot including bulk lane inventory checks, API development for incorrectly stored cargo, management of dangerous goods, reporting

to identify goods not moved, cargo dimensions, length of time in storage and insight into space occupancy.

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In summary

Menzies Aviation has seen results from the first weeks:

• Efficient operations: Reduced errors by 70% - greater clarity on inbound and outbound.
• Save valuable time: 30+ hours per week saved moving from manual to automated robotic perpetual checks.
• Immediate financial benefit: Recover revenue from 40 goods/day staying longer than needed in the warehouse and reduce the number of UTL (unable to relocate) to zero resulting in £200k of value recovered.

“It was important for us to use the technology to add real-time value to the operation. Mimi is delivering this, as on a daily basis we are scanning over 500 locations and achieving high accuracy levels in a fraction of the time it has historically taken to do it manually”. Rory Fidler, Vice President Cargo Technology

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Working with Dexory, the shared vision for the use of technology and the data collected to drive better business decisions is about making life easier for humans rather than replacing them from operations.

Interesting in seeing Dexory in action? Book your demo today.

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