Case Study: GRDF achieves smartphone-based identification of 60 chemical products to boost technician safety with Google Cloud Platform

GRDF Delivering an innovative way to ID chemical products with Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine

GRDF, which operates Europe’s largest natural gas network (200,000 km of pipe serving 10.9 million customers), needed a faster, safer way for field technicians to identify chemical products and access their Safety Data Sheets—information that was previously stored as paper files in vans and often not consulted before use. The company wanted a rapid, low-risk prototype to improve on-the-job safety without requiring technicians to know complex product names.

Working with Devoteam G Cloud, GRDF built a smartphone app in under two months using TensorFlow, Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine, and Cloud Storage to train image-recognition models on thousands of product photos; the app identifies packaging from a photo and pulls up the correct SDS. In a three-month Lyon pilot it reliably recognizes 60 products, gives technicians instant safety instructions, supported fast experimentation with transparent costs, and helped upskill GRDF teams in AI.

GRDF

Jean-Charles Jorandon

Head of Digital Innovation