The Indian dairy industry is one of the largest in the world, contributing a quarter of global milk production. It is a crucial industry that provides livelihoods to millions of farmers and plays a significant role in ensuring food security and rural development in the country. However, the industry faces various challenges, including the management of milk crates. Improper management of these crates results in significant financial losses for dairy companies and poses a risk to those involved in this business.

India loses approximately a quarter of its milk crates each year due to reasons such as theft, poor inventory control, damage, maintenance, and inefficient handling practices. To address these challenges, the Indian dairy industry has adopted several crate management solutions.

Manual crate management is the traditional way of managing crates, involving pen and paper to keep track of crate movements. However, it is labour-intensive, time-consuming, and prone to errors, making it less effective in providing real-time insights into the movement of crates.

Technological solutions such as Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology and barcode-based crate management are available. While RFID-based crate management provides real-time insights into the movement of crates, it requires special hardware and software, making it less accessible to small and medium-sized businesses. Barcode-based crate management is relatively inexpensive and easy to implement, but it is prone to errors, requires reading devices, and disrupts the trade cycle, making it cumbersome.

Prompt TRACKSURE is the world’s first AI-powered patented end-to-end crate management system, from dairy processing plants to retail stores. Using industrial cameras, sensors, and mobile apps, it tracks crates in real time, providing accurate crate inventory management insights. The system uniquely identifies each crate as they are embedded with washable, non-removable, lye, acid, and heat tolerant tags of various shapes.

Prompt TRACKSURE uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the efficiency of the crate management process. Images of each crate on the conveyor belt are captured without interrupting the current packaging process, capturing unique crate IDs, SKUs of product variants, product variants in crates by colour, and the total number of crates, with timestamps. With the Prompt TRACKSURE mobile app, warehouse personnel can capture unique crate IDs, SKUs of product variants, the total number and type of crates loaded, vehicle details, and driver information. At retail stores, truck drivers click images of each stack of crates being unloaded using the Prompt TRACKSURE mobile app, ensuring transparency between the distributor and the retailer. When the empty crates are returned by the retailer, the truck driver uses the Prompt TRACKSURE mobile app, takes the images, capturing data such as unique crate IDs, the number of crates returned, and the geolocation and timestamp. Upon arrival at the dairy reception deck, the Prompt TRACKSURE mobile app captures images of the crates being unloaded without interfering with the existing unloading process.

Prompt TRACKSURE is a patented, AI-powered crate management system that offers a comprehensive and efficient solution for the challenges faced by the Indian dairy industry. By providing real-time insights, identifying missing crates, and generating alerts, businesses can reduce operational costs and enhance transparency and traceability in the dairy trade. The adoption of innovative technologies such as Prompt TRACKSURE can help the Indian dairy industry continue to grow sustainably while overcoming the challenges it faces.

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