Successful Launch of Innovative Automation System in Asia Airfreight Terminal Co. Ltd. (AAT)

As a reputed automation solution provider with manufacturer-independent background, in 2015, BPS Global was invited with great honour to participate in an innovative project in Asia Airfreight Terminal Co. Ltd. (AAT) to address the rising challenges such as the increasing throughput, rising of labour costs and the increasing accuracy requirement. The objective of the project is to enhance the operational productivity and to improve the process quality, thereby increasing enterprise competitiveness.

AAT is the Air Cargo Terminal Operator that provides total airfreight solutions to the Hong Kong International Airport. With two well-designed terminals with state-of-the-art Material Handling Systems (MHS), AAT serves the world's leading airlines, offering a comprehensive range of quality services, from physical cargo handling to documentation processing.

In their traditional operation, after cargo is unloaded at the loading dock, a series of manual handling tasks is required, including size dimensioning, cargo weighing and restricted label scanning, before cargo were palletized and loaded into the Unit Loading Devices (ULDs). The purpose of the ULDs is to enable individual pieces of cargo to be assembled into a standard-size unit to facilitate efficient loading and unloading of aircraft. As such, the accuracy of dimension data needed to be correctly synchronized with the existing Material Handling Systems and efficiency of measuring of individual pieces of cargo will be the key concerns.

After thorough study of the existing operational flow, BPS designed and built an innovative automation system at the inbound stage. The system is capable of streamlining the receiving operation by automatically identifying airway bill label, measuring individual cargo dimensional size and weight, and capturing real-time image. The result data will be seamlessly integrated with their existing Cargo Management System (CMS).

With the successful launch at the beginning of 2016, the system has made great contribution to the continual productivity and quality improvement in AAT. Recently, the proposed innovative automation system has been shortlisted as candidate of the Hong Kong Awards for Industries 2016: Productivity & Quality organized by Hong Kong Productivity Council.