How Remote Access Control Solves Security Challenges for Industrial Facilities

Remote access control has become an important security update for industrial facilities, logistics yards, warehouses, manufacturing sites, and transportation operations.

Conventional access control assumes that the key opens the door, the card opens the gate, the guard inspects the ID and the camera records what happened.

This solution may work fine for a small office building, however, it is not going to work well for a large industrial facility.

Large facilities are constantly in motion. There could be employees, drivers, contractors, vendors, visitors, inspectors and third party carriers who need access during different periods of the day. There could be trucks and trailers arriving and leaving the facility. There could be bills of lading that need to be captured. Trailer seals might need checking. There could be activities on the yard that need supervision. Perimeters might need to be protected. And there could be manager reports in case something goes wrong.

It is precisely for such cases that remote access control has become a critical requirement.

Birdseye has developed a solution to take access control beyond mere opening the door or gate. With our AI-powered, human-verified facility supervision platform, including GateCORE, SafeCORE, YardCORE and The Portal, we help industrial operations to verify access, monitor activity, act in real time and document access-related events.

Why Access Control Becomes More Difficult for Industrial Facilities

As the facility grows, access control gets complicated.

A large warehouse could need employees’ access through one part of the facility, delivery drivers access at the gate, access for contractors through a service entrance, scheduled access for vendors, access for trailers moving on the yard. A manufacturing facility could need access for workers through restricted production areas, access for trailers through outdoor storage, employee access for parking, access for drivers and trailers at the truck docks, access for construction equipment. A large transportation yard could need control over drivers, trailers, carriers and visitors across its territory.

However, apart from deciding on who should enter, access control should deal with the question of verifying and documenting each access event.

And conventional systems usually do not cope with this challenge very well.

Fobs can be shared, keys can be copied, badges can be used by someone else, guard log can be incomplete, camera footage can be recorded at the gate and watched at some other time. Driver can be allowed to enter and there would not be proper documentation of this access event. Trailer may arrive at the facility and there may be no proof of that.

All these problems get solved by remote access control with real-time visibility and verification without placing the burden entirely upon the shoulders of on-site personnel.

The Limitations of On-Site Guard Only Access Control

There are cases when on-site guards can be helpful, however, guard-only access control has some limitations.

A guard can be supposed to check IDs, communicate with drivers, open gates, attend to the phone, write logs, control cameras, deal with exceptions and at the same time keep track of the rest of the facility.

The result of this could be inconsistent coverage of access events.

During some shifts all procedures may be strictly followed, whereas others may neglect some details, logs may differ from shift to shift, gate activity may be recorded manually thus making it difficult to analyze afterwards, 24/7 coverage will require expensive guard staffing.

In Birdseye, we do not consider access control just another tool to replace on-site guards with a cheaper one. Instead, we strive to provide better visibility, consistency and control over it.

With the help of AI-powered detections and trained remote agents we are able to give facilities the opportunity to verify access events, facilitate gate workflow, control activity and act in real time without burdening on-site personnel.

Why Keys, Cards and Fobs Are Not Enough

Keys, cards and fobs are common tools for access control, however, they have one serious drawback – they prove the fact that a person has a credential but cannot guarantee that it is used by him or her.

Someone may lose their fob, someone may give their card to another person or someone may copy the key. Sometimes visitors and contractors may lack appropriate credential at all.

In the case of large industrial facilities this creates a serious threat.

In case somebody accesses your facility with incorrect credential, the system will recognize it as a correct access event anyway. Later on, when there is a theft, damage claim, shipment problem or some unauthorized access issues, you may find yourself lacking necessary information about who accessed the facility.

Our GateCORE is designed to address these concerns with additional verification and documentation of access events.

GateCORE is able to perform drivers verification, logging of vehicles and trailers, license plate capturing, bills of lading capturing, trailer seal check, access workflow facilitation, gate transactions documentation and live remote agent control of the process.

Thus, the access control stops being a mere operation “the gate opened” and turns into a verified event.

Remote Access Control with Human Verification

While automation has great advantages, industrial access control cannot be completely automated.

Driver may arrive earlier than expected. Contractor may not be present in the expected list. Vendor may need an approval to enter the facility. Trailer number might not coincide with the registered one. Seal might need to be rechecked. Someone may be near restricted area and might either be allowed or not allowed to be there.

AI may notice activity immediately but human verification is required for giving meaning to it.

At Birdseye we use our AI-powered monitoring to identify important events in gates, perimeters and yards. After that trained remote agents verify them according to the procedure and make a decision how to act.

It might mean that remote agent speaks to the driver, confirms his authorization, verifies access event, delivers a voice-down warning to the intruder, contacts on-site personnel or escalates the situation.

Such approach gives better security than passive monitoring by the camera or software solutions, since access event is being analyzed while it is taking place.

GateCORE: Remote Access Control for the Gate

Gate is one of the most important access points at any industrial facility.

Each entering and exiting affects security, compliance and operational flow. Poorly organized gate process can affect the whole facility.

Birdseye GateCORE is created to modernize access control for gates in warehouses, truck yards, distribution centers, manufacturing facilities, automotive yards and industrial facilities.

GateCORE helps facilities to verify drivers, log vehicles and trailers, capture documentation, check seals, facilitate access workflow and keep structured gate transactions record. Remote agents can assist in the process and help dealing with exceptions if necessary.

It helps reducing manual errors, increasing consistency and keeping the better record of who accessed the facility and what had been verified.

For large facilities such gate control may greatly affect the security and operational efficiency.

SafeCORE: Securing the Perimeter Around Access Points

Access control does not end with the gate.

Facilities may have fences, outdoor storage areas, trailer lots, restricted zones, employee parking areas and side entrances which increase the vulnerability. In case if someone bypasses the gate, traditional access control system may fail to detect this problem in time.

Birdseye SafeCORE helps securing these vulnerable areas with the help of AI-powered perimeter monitoring, live human verification, voice-down intervention, escalation procedures and incidents documentation.

Such approach gives facilities the possibility to have a proactive layer of security around the whole facility.

Not only detecting the incident in time, but reacting to it before it develops further.

YardCORE: Supervising Yard Activities After Access Is Granted

One of the drawbacks of traditional access control is that it stops working as soon as a person or vehicle is inside the premises.

However, at industrial facilities what happens after the access has been granted is of the same importance.

Driver may go to the wrong place. Trailer may park improperly. Vendor may enter the restricted zone. Truck may pass through the yard undetected. Safety incident may happen at the yard area.

YardCORE of Birdseye helps facilities to supervise yard activities in real time. This module supports visibility of vehicle movements, safety events, restricted areas control, procedure enforcement and incidents documentation.

The point is that access control and yard activities monitoring are directly related. Information about who entered is good but information about what he or she did afterwards is much better.

The Portal: Integrated Access and Activity Events

Most of the traditional access control systems create a fragmented information.

There may be gate logs stored in one place, footage recorded in the camera somewhere else, incidents described in emails, vendor approvals made by phone and manually recorded or unrecorded yard activities.

Birdseye’s Facility Supervisor Portal gathers all key activity events in one place.

The portal allows reviewing gate transactions, yard events, perimeter alerts, incident records and operational data. It helps investigating problems, improving procedures, compliance and understanding what is happening in the facility.

Thus, instead of searching for disconnected information managers may work with structured events related to real facility activities.

This is how we move from access control to the facility supervision with Birdseye.

Advantages of Remote Access Control with Birdseye

Remote access control decreases the dependence on manual procedures while providing better visibility and accountability.

With Birdseye, facilities are able to verify access events in real time, assist in driver and vendor workflows, decrease manual guard workload, secure perimeters, supervise yards and create audit ready records.

The benefit here is not only improved security but improved operational control as well.

Industrial facilities rely on access control for effective truck flow, shipment documentation, compliance, safety, yard activities and incidents investigation. Improved access control makes all these things easier.

Remote Access Control Is Not Limited to the Gate Only Anymore

Traditional access control system had the following logic: to allow entrance or not to allow it.

Modern access control system has a broader approach.

Nowadays large industrial facilities need to verify who is entering the facility, what vehicle is used, what trailer is involved, what documentation has been collected, are the restricted areas secured, what has happened at the yard and is there any way for managers to see what has been done.

Birdseye provides facilities with such level of visibility.

GateCORE controls and documents access events at the gate, SafeCORE secures the perimeter and YardCORE supervises the yard activities.

And this is how remote access control system solves security challenges nowadays.

Go Beyond Traditional Access Control

If your facility relies on guard logs, key cards, fobs, disconnected cameras and after the fact footage watching, it is high time to update it.

Birdseye helps to modernize access control in warehouses, logistics yards, manufacturing facilities, transportation operations, automotive yards and industrial facilities with the help of AI-powered monitoring, human verification, remote intervention and reporting.