A lot has been written already about the Internet of Things (IoT) and how it will affect nearly every business and industry; In my opinion, one of the most exciting areas of impact and disruption is the global Supply Chain.
One
great example to illustrate this is this short clip from the TV show
Portlandia, in this episode, two friends are dinning out and before
ordering they insist on knowing as much as possible about the chicken
they will be eating. They find out his name, what he was fed, his
social habits etc. The process of assessing the chicken before
agreeing to eat it might be a bit too bizarre, but with the IoT, this
will become the norm. We will be able to experiment that type of
transparency, and eventually it will be demanded by suppliers,
customers and end consumers.
Among
many other, some of the benefits that the IoT will bring are:
-
Operational efficiency: The real-time visibility derived from the IoT
enables information to be shared at every level allowing deficiencies
to be identified quickly so that problems can be immediately
rectified, or possibly even prevented altogether. Companies can see
delays, slowdowns or trends that will affect the bottom line and
inefficient processes that are costing them money can be identified
and corrected
-
Customer services: The IoT will dramatically reduce the amount of
time from click to fulfillment. With customers demanding more and
more information the IoT will fulfill up to the minute details
on where their item is in transit and accurate alerts notifying them
of delivery dates and times.
-
Inventory management: The IoT will allow organizations to
automatically know when products must be restocked or reordered,
eliminating delays or inventory issues that would send customers to
the competition.
Linked
to this, loss management will greatly improve: with sensors tracking
every movement, it will be almost impossible for merchandise to
simply “disappear”, and if it does, it will be possible to know
exactly where the incident happened and what factors may have
contributed to merchandise loss.
- Asset
Tracking and in transit visibility: New
RFID (we talked about RFID technology here)
and GPS sensors can track products “from floor to store” and even
beyond. At any point in time, manufacturers can use these sensors to
gain granular data like the temperature at which an item was stored,
how long it spent in cargo, and even how long it took to fly off the
shelf.
With
some many possibilities, challenges will also need to be considered:
- Need of
many different technical elements to deploy the end-to-end
IoT solutions: Network infrastructure, devices, applications,
platforms, security solutions, and integration services.
- Security:
All the information must be prevented from falling into the wrong
hands, or hacked. Sensors should only send specific information,
which must be held in a secure, private cloud environment. Here
is where Blockchain technology (see more about
Blockchain here)
will play a definitive role.
Overall,
with everything becoming much more internet-driven, IoT in the supply
chain is still only in its infancy, but sure to take off, exciting
times lie ahead!
