Enabling A Robust And Efficient Distribution Process Using Lanner’s Edge AI Server Appliance - Lanner Electronics | Network Appliance | uCPE SD-WAN| MEC Server | Intelligent Edge Appliance

Introduction

A well-established leader in the foods and beverages industry was in search of an AI-powered industrial automation edge computing solution that could be relied upon for managing their wide range of foods and beverages products; with a growing customer base and increasing product demand, this company decided that streamlining the distribution process and optimizing operational efficiency were of the upmost importance if they were to meet market expectations.

Requirements/Challenges

The said edge AI inference edge server setup must improve the following areas:

• Manual Sorting and Quality Control: the manual sorting of products and quality control checks led to errors, delays and inconsistencies in the distribution process.
• Inefficient Resource Allocation: the allocation of resources such as personnel and vehicles often lacked optimization, resulting in unnecessary costs and inefficiencies.
• Inventory Management: inaccurate inventory tracking and management caused stock-outs and excess inventory, leading to lost sales and increased carrying costs.

Lanner Solution

The core components of this AI-powered industrial automation edge computing solution include Lanner NCA-6520, NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU or NVIDIA A30 Tensor Core GPU.

The NCA-6520 is a 2U 19" Rackmount edge AI server built with 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor (Codenamed Ice Lake SP) and the Intel® C627A chipset. This edge AI platform in particular supports up to 1536GB of system memory and 8 NIC module slots for almost any networking interface and I/O configuration.

Its other notable features include 1300W/2000W or optional 1600W 1+1 ATX redundant power supply, 2x PCI-E *16, three M.2 and four individual hot-swappable smart fans.

The built-in dual PCI-E is compatible with either NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU or NVIDIA A30 Tensor Core GPU, both offer versatile and unprecedented compute acceleration for mainstream enterprise servers at every scale, not only providing the necessary computational power for real-time AI inference but also enabling accelerated deep learning algorithms for object detection, image recognition, and quality control.

The NCA-6520 is ideally complemented by either the A100 or the A30 when handling additional AI workloads, providing optimal performance and improved scalability for the automation system.

Other components include a proprietary machine vision algorithm and the integration and control software. The first was developed to analyze images captured by cameras installed throughout the distribution process. These algorithms enable automated product sorting, quality control and inventory management; and the latter was intended for integrating the AI-powered automation system with the existing distribution infrastructure, allowing seamless communication and control between hardware components, sensors, cameras and backend systems.      

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Benefits

The deployment of an automation system using Lanner’s edge AI server appliance with machine vision resulted in several significant benefits for this foods and beverages company, including:

• Increased Efficiency:
  The automation system eliminated the need for manual sorting, reducing errors and speeding up the distribution process. Real-time quality control checks ensured that only products meeting quality standards were dispatched, improving customer satisfaction.
• Optimal Resource Allocation:
  AI algorithms optimized the allocation of resources, such as personnel and vehicles, based on real-time demand and inventory levels. This led to cost savings, reduced delivery times and improved resource utilization.
• Enhanced Inventory Management:
  Accurate inventory tracking and management reduced stock-outs and excess inventory, minimizing lost sales and carrying costs. The system provided real-time visibility into inventory levels, enabling proactive replenishment and improved supply chain planning.
• Scalability and Flexibility:
  The modular design of the automation system allowed easy scalability to accommodate future growth and adapt to changing business needs. The NVIDIA GPUs provided the computational power required for handling increasing AI workloads.

Conclusion

By leveraging Lanner’s NCA-6520, an edge AI server hardware platform and its compatibility with either NVIDIA A100 or A30 Tensor Core GPUs, this foods and beverages company successfully improved its distribution process. The automation system enhanced efficiency, optimized resource allocation and improved inventory management, resulting in cost savings, increased customer satisfaction and improved overall operational performance.

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