Smart video in warehousing: how to reap the rewards while keeping employee data safe
Warehouses are a thief’s treasure chest. Large inventories, heavy footfall between employees and visitors, and cargo and equipment move in and out constantly - these busy and dynamic environments are easy “pickings” to steal from undetected.
As a result, vandalism, intentional and accidental damage, physical accidents and inventory loss are common.
In 2018, Loss Prevention Magazine found that cargo theft costs roughly $15-30 billion to the US every year.
The Centre for Retail Research found that employee theft accounts for over 22% of shrinkage, and 18% of overall shrinkage comes from crime that targets warehouses and other suppliers costing £915 million.
There is a need for around-the-clock monitoring, often across multiple locations.
It is vital to keep track of what happens around the premises, and any potential incidents - not only for internal use and training, but for law enforcement, lawyers, or others.
Security guards can help provide physical security in these spaces, but the human eye can often miss things. Between blind spots, low-lighting areas and more, relying solely on in-person security is not always the smartest way. This is where smart video comes in.
Sophisticated systems of video surveillance combined with smart AI analytics help greatly to monitor the space for efficiency and safety. This could be anything from live alerts of detected intruders, biometrics for access control - or people/object counting and tracking.
For organisations that may have multiple warehouse sites across multiple locations, smart surveillance creates a single access and control point - this can be a valuable asset.
The camera streams are sent to a centralised system on-premises, to the cloud and to remote devices where the site(s) can be monitored via mobile. Cloud-based systems are often more advanced, flexible, and scalable than traditional CCTV systems and easily allow for multi-user access.
How can warehouses use smart surveillance and keep employees happy?
There is increasing pushback to workplace surveillance over fears that it can be exploited, and therefore an invasion of privacy.
The Trade Unions Congress (TUC) report on workplace monitoring shows that over half of workers believe they are most likely being monitored at work, with ⅔ of them concerned this surveillance could be used discriminatively if not regulated and done properly.
Additionally, UK GDPR enforces strict obligations about how video can be collected, stored, and processed. Violating these rules can result in hefty fines from the ICO - up to 4% of annual turnover.
With multiple camera streams across multiple sites - along with advanced technologies such as video analytics being used, a vast amount of visual data is collected and stored, including sensitive biometric information.
Video management in a way that protects people’s data will help employees and visitors feel confident that their personal data is safe and secure.
Anonymisation is as much of an asset as smart video surveillance. A win-win for all, it allows for data compliance, protects personal data, and still means video analytics can run in the process.
Secure Redact is a quick and easy machine learning-powered platform that can automatically detect personal data for redaction - in real-time and on live video.
Once redaction is complete, overlay video analytics on top and reap the benefits from the anonymised data for further efficiency, safety and security.