Maintaining the integrity and improving the efficiency of logistics and supply chain is critical for any business. However, the supply chain is fraught with many challenges. Supply chains are always made up of several moving pieces. Monitoring and keeping track of all such pieces is a daunting task. Issues such as transportation disruptions, software glitches, theft, operator errors, and more all cause significant delays and inefficiencies. IoT promises viable solutions to automate processes, monitor goods and manage inventory dynamically, and thereby overcome such challenges.
IoT Sensors Facilitate Real-Time Tracking and Feedback
The most obvious benefit of IoT is real-time tracking and feedback mechanism. “Internet of Logistics” (IoL), or Logistics 4.0, the new-generation supply chain management leverages edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) to offer real-time automated, sense-and-respond feedback mechanisms.
Connected fleet management solutions leverage GPS and other tracking solutions to gather real-time data on the locations and operations of vehicles. Stakeholders get insight on the position of the shipment, and also accurate ETA to the destination. Identifying delayed shipments in real-time opens the door for prompt remedial interventions.
BI Intelligence estimates connected fleet management solutions to cover 180 million commercial vehicles in North America, which represents 90% of the total market, by 2020. This is a tenfold increase from 2010 levels.
IoT Saves Perishables
Information from IoT sensors and filtered through artificial intelligence generates a real-time assessment of the safety and quality of food and pharmaceutical products.
Several things go wrong during shipping. Network-enabled sensors track humidity, temperature, spills unusual motion, and other symptoms of such “wrongs” and trigger real-time remote alerts. Supply chain managers can make the right interventions at the right time before delays damage the goods, and worse, dents customer satisfaction.
As high as 30% of all perishable products never make it to the final destination from the farm. IoT enabled sensors to save a substantial portion of such products and offering multiplier benefits in the form of not having to produce the same perishables or repeat the transportation.
IoT Paves the Way for Detailed Warehouse and Inventory Management
Smooth supply chain management requires proactive warehouse and inventory management. Supply chain managers struggle to ensure enterprises have enough materials on hand to fulfill orders, but at the same time, not be burdened with overstock.
Freight and shipping companies have traditionally used barcode scanners to track and manage inventory. IoT and related technology offer major visibility upgrade over such processes. A combination of active and passive RFID tags, internet-connected trackers, beacons and Bluetooth enable companies to track items at the warehouse and all points in the delivery journeys. Managers at each point get an accurate picture of inventory levels.
RFID standards allow workers to use their mobile devices as readers for the based Near-field communication (NFC) tags, increasing convenience manifold.
Bluetooth tags and beacons facilitate easy and accurate tracking in small confined areas such as a room or enclosure of the warehouse, inside a truck, in retail stores, and other places. Internet-connected trackers use Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) and other long-range networks to track specific items throughout the journey. Satellite trackers provide location data on an item in areas without cellular coverage.
IoT Improves Asset Monitoring
IoT allows logistics and supply chain companies to monitor the condition of their critical assets in a better way. Automatic detection and telemetry technologies offer not just full visibility but also deeper insights not visible, with regards to the health of the assets and the cargo.
Consider the case of Union Pacific, the largest railroad in the USA. The company’s IoT-based system gathers information from an array of visual and acoustic sensors placed on the tracks, to predict equipment failures. The system emits more than 20 million temperature readings alone per day. Railcars not emitting readings within the safe ranges are promptly pulled out for inspection and service.
Greater information sharing allows stakeholders to collect actionable data to not just monitor the status of goods, but also control critical assets remotely. For instance, Collating information such as temperature, weather patterns and more could predict risks, and anticipate bottlenecks.
IoT Enables Better Data-Driven Decisions
Logistics 4.0 offers a secure, flexible, interoperable data exchange infrastructure.
IoT infuses a new level of dynamism to inventory management. Legacy methods of inventory management are error-prone and not dynamic enough to forecast demand accurately.
Newer IoT enabled scanners to go a level deeper compared to conventional scanners, collecting data not just on the broad types of items, but also data on the location or condition of specific items. Such in-depth, comprehensive and accurate insights enable better data-driven decisions, as opposed to management-by-hunches or gut predictions. For instance, the accurate and comprehensive estimates offered by IoT enabled technology allows planners and managers to schedule production or supply based on stock availability.
IoT enables SMEs to Scale-Up their Operations
Small businesses are constrained from scaling up due to the paucity of manpower and other resources. Automation, which takes care of repeatable processes take a heavy load off the back of small and medium businesses, allowing them to focus their resources on expanding their business. The better visibility, insight and guaranteed uptime offered by IoT ensures better overall control of operations. Automation ensures the consistency and integrity of the supply chain, ensuring products are always delivered on schedule. Employees no longer have to waste precious time firefighting to set the right errors.
The flow of information from the IoT stream fuels automation in a big way. It not just drives intelligent manufacturing and facilitates Just-in-Time inventory, but also facilitates a feedback loop for all interconnected data streams, allowing prompt redressal action for any structural or day-to-day issues disrupting logistics, supply chain or other operations.
Gartner forecasts 20.4 billion connected things by 2020. There will be 20.4 billion connected things by 2020. The future belongs to IoT and supply-chain majors who embrace the technology stand a good chance to soar high, leaving tech-laggards behind.