Outdoor yards are notoriously difficult to manage. Between oversized materials, open-air storage, and constantly shifting inventory, keeping track of what’s where—and how much of it you actually have—can be a daily challenge.
Manual inventory counts in these environments take hours, require heavy labor, and often lead to costly errors or missed materials. That’s why more building material suppliers are investing in drones for inventory tracking—not just for accuracy, but for serious savings.
Here’s how drone-based inventory tracking helps cut costs and improve margins in multi-yard operations.
- Reduce Labor Costs from Manual Counts
Traditional physical inventory audits in a large outdoor yard can require:
Multiple employees
Several days (or nights) of downtime
Manual documentation, reconciliation, and follow-ups
With drones:
One operator can scan an entire yard in a fraction of the time
No need to stop operations for counting
Results are uploaded directly to your ERP
✅ Savings: Lower labor hours, fewer overtime shifts, and less disruption to daily operations.
- Minimize Inventory Errors and Write-Offs
Misplaced stock or incorrect quantities often lead to:
Emergency restocks
Double-ordering
Inaccurate job-site deliveries
Excess inventory sitting idle or expiring
Drone scans increase inventory accuracy by visually and digitally tracking:
SKU barcodes
Pallet tags
Inventory stack locations
✅ Savings: Avoid costly write-offs and reduce ordering errors caused by bad data.
- Increase Inventory Turnover with Faster Cycle Counts
Stale inventory ties up cash and takes up valuable yard space. Regular cycle counts help identify slow movers, but they’re often skipped because they’re too labor-intensive.
With drones, you can:
Perform frequent cycle counts without extra headcount
Identify stock that hasn’t moved in weeks or months
Quickly flag discrepancies between physical and system inventory
✅ Savings: Increase cash flow by turning inventory faster and avoiding overstock.
- Eliminate the Cost of Lost or Forgotten Materials
In open yards, materials get stacked, moved, and sometimes buried—literally. Without real-time tracking, items go missing and often get replaced unnecessarily.
Drone-based scans can:
Detect and record inventory across the entire yard footprint
Create a visual inventory map linked to your ERP
Ensure nothing “falls through the cracks” behind racks or in blind spots
✅ Savings: Recover lost materials and avoid the cost of unnecessary repurchasing.
- Reduce Safety Incidents During Audits
Climbing stacks, working around heavy equipment, and navigating tight outdoor lanes during manual counts introduces real safety risks.
Drones:
Keep people off ladders, lifts, and exposed outdoor racks
Remove the need to physically move stock just to count it
Allow scanning from a safe distance—even during operating hours
✅ Savings: Fewer injuries, reduced insurance claims, and lower safety-related downtime.
- Enable Just-in-Time Yard Management
Instead of flooding your yard with seasonal materials in advance, drones make it possible to track fast-moving SKUs in real time—enabling just-in-time stock positioning.
When paired with ERP:
You can see what’s low and what’s idle—by location
Easily schedule transfers or replenishment
Reduce seasonal overstock and improve yard layout flow
✅ Savings: Better use of space and tighter control over seasonal purchasing.
Final Thoughts
Drones aren’t just futuristic—they’re financially smart. For large yards, warehouses with open-air zones, or multi-location distributors, drones offer a fast, safe, and cost-effective way to maintain accurate inventory and eliminate inefficiencies.
Paired with ERP integration, drones help turn your inventory from a cost center into a competitive advantage.
🚁 Curious about the ROI of drone scanning in your operation? Let’s walk through how much time—and money—you could be saving.
