This project relies on IoT technology to build a materials management system for China Railway No.2 Bureau: it enables material inbound and outbound, intelligent inventory counting, warehouse management, real-time fire alarm monitoring, as well as real-time inventory data updates and 3D visualization dashboard display, making every steel pipe and every bag of cement traceable, verifiable, and visible, helping construction enterprises upgrade materials management from "post-event reconciliation" to "real-time control".
The China Railway No.2 Bureau materials management system is a smart warehousing management platform for construction enterprises based on IoT technology, aimed at materials and warehouse management for railway, highway, municipal, and building construction projects. The system provides 9 core capabilities: material inbound and outbound management, intelligent inventory counting, warehouse and storage location management, material classification and coding (one item, one code), real-time inventory data updates, fire alarm monitoring and emergency linkage, 3D visualization dashboard, inventory statistical reports, and mobile applications, and innovatively builds material business and warehouse fire safety on the same platform: smoke and temperature sensors perceive fire conditions in real time, alarms are located to storage locations, and disposal is closed-loop with records. The system helps construction enterprises achieve consistency between accounts and physical goods, improve inventory counting efficiency, inventory transparency, and asset security protection, supporting unified management of multiple warehouses across the group and smart construction site development.
China Railway No.2 Bureau is a large comprehensive construction enterprise under China Railway, mainly engaged in railway, highway, municipal, and building construction, with projects under construction widely distributed and long in scope. For construction enterprises, material costs usually account for more than half of the total project cost. The inventory and circulation of various materials such as steel, cement, turnover materials, and fuel directly affect project cost, progress, and capital occupation.
For a long time, construction site material management has generally remained at the stage of "paper documents + manual ledgers + Excel reports": receiving and issuing materials relied on handwritten registration, inventory counting relied on closed-warehouse counting, and inventory data relied on post-event summarization. Discrepancies between accounts and physical goods, overstocking, and material shortages causing work stoppages coexisted; material warehouses have many combustibles and are often unattended at night, making fire hazards difficult to detect immediately. Under the management requirements of "smart construction sites" and "cost reduction and efficiency improvement," China Railway No.2 Bureau introduced IoT and visualization technology, with Shenzhen Xiangming Technology Co., Ltd. as the contractor, to build a materials management system covering the full chain of "inbound and outbound—inventory counting—warehouse—safety—visualization."
Before system construction, material management mainly faced six typical pain points:
| No. | Pain Point | Specific Manifestation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inbound and outbound rely on manual registration | Documents are handwritten and entry is delayed; misregistration and omissions occur from time to time, accounts do not match physical goods, and traceability is difficult |
| 2 | Inventory counting is time-consuming and labor-intensive | Traditional closed-warehouse inventory counting often takes several days, with manual transcription and level-by-level summarization, occupying a large amount of manpower |
| 3 | Storage location management is extensive | Materials are piled randomly, finding materials relies on veteran workers' memory, "people looking for goods" is inefficient, and mis-issuance and omissions are frequent |
| 4 | Fire hazards are discovered late | Warehouses have many combustibles and are unattended at night; manual inspections make it difficult to detect fire conditions immediately |
| 5 | Inventory data lags | Inventory relies on post-event summarization; overstocking and material shortages causing work stoppages coexist, and capital occupation is high |
| 6 | Multi-warehouse data silos | Each project warehouse manages its own accounts, and the group cannot grasp global inventory and transfer space in real time |
Centering on "business digitization, mobile operations, perceptible safety, and visualized inventory," the system establishes four major construction goals:
Full-process business digitization.The entire process of material inbound and outbound, transfer, and material requisition and return is documented and barcode-scanned, with accounts matching physical goods and full traceability.
Efficient inventory counting and mobile operations.Mobile barcode scanning inventory counting is executed on a rolling basis by storage location, without stopping operations or closing the warehouse, and differences are automatically generated.
Perceptible warehousing safety.Sensing devices such as smoke and temperature sensors monitor warehouse fire conditions 7×24 hours in real time, with second-level alarms for abnormalities and closed-loop disposal.
Transparent and visualized inventory.Inventory data updates in real time with business, and the 3D visualization dashboard provides a one-screen overview of warehouses, storage locations, inventory, and alarms.
The system is organized into three major stages: "material business management—warehouse and safety management—visualization and decision-making," with 9 core functional modules in total.
[Image position: inbound and outbound operations / mobile inventory counting interface screenshot (recommended size 750×420, jpg/png)]
(1) Material Business Management
1. Material Inbound and Outbound Management
What it is:A document flow covering all business types such as procurement inbound, material requisition outbound, returns, transfers, and scrapping, with barcode scanning for receiving and issuing materials, electronic documents, and automatic ledger generation.
What problem it solves:Replace manual registration, eliminate mis-registration, omissions, and document loss, ensuring every material movement is traceable.
Who it is for:Warehouse keepers, material clerks, project materials departments.
2. Intelligent inventory counting management
What it is:Create counting plans by warehouse, category, and storage location; scan codes item by item on mobile for counting; the system automatically compares book inventory with actual counts and generates discrepancy reports.
What problem it solves:Transform centralized counting that requires "closing the warehouse for several days" into daily counting that "rolls by storage location", greatly shortening the counting cycle and reducing manpower usage.
Who it is for:Warehouse keepers, finance, auditors.
3. Real-time inventory data management
What it is:Every inbound and outbound transaction updates inventory in real time, synchronized across PC, mobile, and large-screen displays; supports safety stock, overstock, and stagnant inventory alerts.
What problem it solves:Enable procurement and scheduling decisions based on "the real inventory at this moment", avoiding the two extremes of material shortage downtime and overstock accumulation.
Who it is for:Materials department, buyers, project managers.
(II) Warehouse and safety management
4. Warehouse and storage location management
What it is:Establish a three-level model of "warehouse - storage zone - storage location", so material shelving and picking have a location to follow, and support real-time maintenance of storage location status (vacant/occupied/locked).
What problem it solves:End the extensive mode of "random stacking and finding materials by memory", with guidance for shelving and paths for finding materials.
Who it is for:Warehouse keepers, warehouse workers.
5. Material classification and coding management
What it is:Establish a unified material classification and coding system, one item one code, supporting barcode/QR code label printing and reading.
What problem it solves:Resolve the inconsistent standards of "same item with different names, same name for different items", laying the data foundation for unified multi-warehouse management and group aggregation.
Who it is for:Group materials department, standardization management personnel.
6. Fire alarm monitoring and emergency linkage
What it is:Deploy IoT sensing devices such as smoke and temperature sensors in warehouses for 7×24-hour real-time monitoring of fire hazards; anomalies trigger on-site sound and light, APP push notifications, and large-screen alarms by level, with the handling process closed-loop and traceable.
What problem it solves:Material warehouses contain many combustibles and are unattended at night; move fire detection from "after the fact" to "second-level perception" to protect the safety of inventory assets.
Who it is for:Safety officers, duty personnel, project departments.
(III) Visualization and decision-making
7. 3D Visualized Large Screen
What it is:Restores warehouse space and storage location layout in 3D, presenting real-time inventory distribution, storage location status, inbound/outbound dynamics, and fire alarm warning positioning.
What problem it solves:Allows managers to "see the full picture at a glance"—how much inventory there is, where it is placed, and where anomalies are, intuitively perceivable and providing a basis for decisions.
Who it is for:Project managers, group management, visiting guests.
8. Inventory Statistics and Reports
What it is:Provides multi-dimensional reports such as receipt, issue, and inventory summaries, inventory turnover, inventory age analysis, and departmental requisitions, supporting drill-down by project, warehouse, and time dimensions.
What problem it solves:Turns data scattered across documents into management language, supporting procurement planning, cost accounting, and performance assessment.
Who it is for:Materials department, finance, cost management department.
9. Mobile Application and Message Collaboration
What it is:High-frequency operations such as inbound/outbound, inventory counting, and alarm handling can all be completed on mobile, with pending approvals and inventory warning messages pushed in real time.
What problem it solves:Frees warehouse keepers from being tied to a fixed computer, enabling on-site operations and on-site order entry, with faster response to anomalies.
Who it is for:Warehouse keepers, material clerks, safety officers.
[Image position: 3D Visualized Large Screen / Fire Monitoring and Alarm Center (recommended size 750×420, jpg/png)]
The system adopts a "cloud-edge-device" layered architecture, balancing real-time on-site operations with group-level scalability:
Perception layer (terminals):IoT terminals such as barcode scanners/RFID readers, barcode labels, smoke sensors, and temperature sensors, responsible for material identification and warehouse environment data collection.
Edge layer (on-site):Warehouse IoT gateways connect with fire control hosts, perform local alarm judgment and linkage, and support data resumption after network interruption when the network is abnormal.
Platform layer (cloud):The business middle platform carries unified coding, documents, and the inventory engine, while the data middle platform supports real-time inventory calculation and multi-dimensional reports.
Application layer:PC management backend, mobile APP, and 3D visualized large screen, respectively serving the operational and management scenarios of different roles.
Integration of business and safety.It is not a simple patchwork of "WMS + fire protection system"; material business and fire alarm monitoring are built on the same platform, alarms can be associated with storage locations and materials, and handling can be traced back to individuals.
3D large screen reaches storage-location level.The 3D scene is connected with real-time inventory and alarm data, so it can not only "see" but also locate specific storage locations and specific materials.
Full-process traceability with one item, one code.The entire process from inbound shelving to requisition and outbound is scanned and recorded, allowing audit and cost accounting to trace the origin and flow of any batch of materials at any time.
Rolling inventory counting model innovation.On mobile, rolling inventory counts by storage location eliminate the need to stop operations or close the warehouse, turning inventory counting from a "special campaign" into a "daily routine."
Multiple warehouses can be replicated, and the model can be rolled out across the group.Standardized coding and configurable warehouse modeling allow new warehouses to go live quickly, supporting unified management and control of multi-project warehouses at the group level.
After the system went live, it brought significant improvements across four dimensions: efficiency, accuracy, safety, and capital:
Inbound and outbound operation efficiency has improved significantly, the inventory-to-book consistency rate has increased substantially, and incorrect or missed entries have been basically eliminated.
The inventory counting cycle has been significantly shortened, compressed from "days" to "hours," and labor usage has dropped sharply.
Put-away and material finding now have a location to rely on, receiving and issuing errors have been noticeably reduced, and on-site operational order has improved significantly.
Warehouse fire hazards are now sensed in real time 24/7, and emergency response has shifted from "passive discovery" to "proactive prevention and control."
Inventory turnover has accelerated, the proportion of excess and stagnant materials has declined, and capital occupation has been effectively reduced.
Cost reduction.Reduce excess inventory and material loss, and lower project capital occupation.
Efficiency improvement.Scan-based operations and mobile inventory counting greatly improve warehousing efficiency and accuracy.
Safety.Real-time fire alarm monitoring protects inventory assets and intercepts fire risks at the budding stage.
Compliance.The entire material flow leaves a full trace and keeps books consistent with actual inventory, making audits and cost accounting easier.
Management upgrade.Accumulate material data assets to support group-level unified management of multiple warehouses and the overall smart construction site blueprint.
The digitalization of material management is essentially about making an enterprise's "family assets" real-time, accurate, and visible. Shenzhen Xiangming Technology Co., Ltd. will continue to use "IoT sensing + business closed loop + 3D visualization" as its core capabilities to help more construction enterprises bring every warehouse and every batch of materials into digital management, so that cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and asset safety are realized in tandem.
——Shenzhen Xiangming Technology Co., Ltd. · Case Library
Q1: What is the China Railway No.2 Bureau material management system?
A: This is a smart warehousing management platform for construction enterprises based on IoT technology. It covers material inbound and outbound, intelligent inventory counting, warehouse management, fire alarm monitoring, and a 3D visualization dashboard, and is aimed at material management scenarios in railway, highway, municipal, and building construction projects.
Q2: What core functional modules does the system include?
A: There are 9 core modules in total, organized into three major areas: material business management (inbound and outbound, intelligent inventory counting, real-time inventory data), warehouse and safety management (warehouses and storage locations, material classification and coding, fire alarm monitoring and emergency linkage), and visualization and decision-making (3D dashboard, inventory statistics reports, mobile applications, and message collaboration).
Q3: What is the difference between intelligent inventory counting and traditional inventory counting?
A: Traditional inventory counting requires closing the warehouse for several days and manually transcribing and summarizing level by level; this system formulates inventory counting plans by warehouse, category, and storage location. Warehouse keepers use mobile devices to scan and count item by item, and the system automatically compares book inventory with physical counts and generates discrepancy reports, turning a "special campaign" into a daily action executed on a rolling basis by storage location, without stopping operations or closing the warehouse.
Q4: How is fire alarm monitoring implemented?
A: IoT sensing devices such as smoke sensors and temperature sensors are deployed in the warehouse to monitor fire hazards in real time 24/7; abnormalities trigger on-site sound and light alerts, APP push notifications, and 3D dashboard alarms by level. Alarms can be located to specific storage locations, and the handling process is closed-loop and traceable, moving fire discovery from "after the fact" to "second-level sensing."
Q5: Is inventory data real-time? How is consistency between books and actual inventory ensured?
A: Yes. Every inbound and outbound transaction updates inventory in real time, and PC, mobile, and 3D dashboard terminals are synchronized. The entire receiving and issuing process is scan-based, and documents are electronically generated into ledgers automatically. Combined with rolling inventory counting, discrepancy reports are generated automatically, eliminating incorrect or missed entries at the source of operations and greatly improving the inventory-to-book consistency rate.
Q6: What can the 3D visualization dashboard display?
A: It restores warehouse space and storage location layout in 3D, presenting inventory distribution, storage location status, inbound and outbound dynamics, and fire alarm locations in real time. Managers can see on one screen "how much inventory there is, where it is placed, and where there are abnormalities," supporting both daily management and control and visit reception displays.
Q7: Which enterprises are suitable for adopting this system?
A: It is suitable for construction enterprises with centralized warehousing management needs (road and bridge, municipal, and building construction), material departments of engineering command centers, and group enterprises that need unified management and control of multiple warehouses and multiple projects; it is especially applicable to units with high requirements for book-to-physical consistency, audit compliance, and asset safety.
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