Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the existing Internet infrastructure.
The vast network of devices connected to the Internet, including smart phones and tablets and almost anything with a sensor on it – cars, machines in production plants, jet engines, oil drills, wearable devices, and more. These “things” collect and exchange data.
IoT – and the machine-to-machine (M2M) technology behind it – are bringing a kind of “super visibility” to nearly every industry. Imagine utilities and telcos that can predict and prevent service outages, airlines that can remotely monitor and optimise plane performance, and healthcare organisations that can base treatment on real-time genome analysis. The business possibilities are endless.
IoT Benefit
IoT platforms can help organizations reduce cost through improved process efficiency, asset utilization and productivity. With improved tracking of devices/objects using sensors and connectivity, they can benefit from real-time insights and analytics, which would help them make smarter decisions. The growth and convergence of data, processes and things on the internet would make such connections more relevant and important, creating more opportunities for people, businesses and industries.
IoT and Transportation
At every layer of transportation, IoT provides improved communication, control, and data distribution. These applications include personal vehicles, commercial vehicles, trains, UAVs, and other equipment. It extends throughout the entire system of all transportation elements such as traffic control, parking, fuel consumption, and more.
Rails and Mass Transit – Current systems deliver sophisticated integration and performance, however, they employ older technology and approaches to MRT. The improvements brought by IoT deliver more complete control and monitoring. This results in better management of overall performance, maintenance issues, maintenance, and improvements.
Mass transit options beyond standard MRT suffer from a lack of the integration necessary to transform them from an option to a dedicated service. IoT provides an inexpensive and advanced way to optimize performance and bring qualities of MRT to other transportation options like buses. This improves services and service delivery in the areas of scheduling, optimizing transport times, reliability, managing equipment issues, and responding to customer needs.
Road – The primary concerns of traffic are managing congestion, reducing accidents, and parking. IoT allows us to better observe and analyze the flow of traffic through devices at all traffic observation points. It aids in parking by making storage flow transparent when current methods offer little if any data.
Automobile – Many in the automotive industry envision a future for cars in which IoT technology makes cars “smart,” attractive options equal to MRT. IoT offers few significant improvements to personal vehicles. Most benefits come from better control over related infrastructure and the inherent flaws in automobile transport; however, IoT does improve personal vehicles as personal spaces. IoT brings the same improvements and customization to a vehicle as those in the home.
Commercial Transportation – Transportation benefits extend to business and manufacturing by optimizing the transport arm of organizations. It reduces and eliminates problems related to poor fleet management through better analytics and control such as monitoring idling, fuel consumption, travel conditions, and travel time between points. This results in product transportation operating more like an aligned service and less like a collection of contracted services.
IoT and SCM
One area that will play a prominent role in the future supply chain, as it’s impacted by IoT, is in-transit visibility. The logistics ecosystem has many players, and thus, many moving parts. Products are handled and transferred between the manufacturer, suppliers, the distribution center, retailer, and customer. This many nodes in the supply chain calls for an agile and informed supply network in regards to product whereabouts and other specifications.
Key to in-transit visibility are cloud-based GPS and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies, which provide identity, location, and other tracking information. These are the backbone of IoT as it relates to the supply chain. By tapping the data gathered by these technologies, detailed visibility of an item is provided all the way from the manufacturer to the retailer. Data gathered from GPS and RFID technologies not only allows supply chain professionals to automate shipping and delivery by exactly predicting the time of arrival; they can monitor important details like temperature control, which impact the quality of a product in-transit.
IoT will bring all of this together in the following way: By putting an RFID chip in a pallet, for example, and a combined integrated device in the shipment vehicle, data is transferred into the cloud, and the devices can identify the pallet and not only share its position using GPS coordinates, but also bring in other data like weather conditions, traffic conditions, and driver-specific data (i.e., driving pattern, average speed).
Combining real-time sensor data with environmental data can provide intelligence of higher order to all the stakeholders in the ecosystem. This allows the stakeholders to be socially aware and make efficient decisions that drive overall productivity. This moves the supply chain process from a reactive mode to a proactive one by offering information well before any activity happens.
For example, providing information about a traffic jam and potential delay before the trip starts has much higher value than getting that alert when one is already stuck in the traffic. This context-aware intelligence can enhance the supply chain visibility by implementing IoT.
Clearly this scenario can be applied to others in the supply chain – from the manufacturer to the end user, the Internet of Things means richer data and deeper intelligence for all parties in a supply network. And that doesn’t just apply to product visibility. By allowing devices to “talk to each other” in the right way, IoT can help supply chain professionals:
- Reduce asset loss. Know about product issues in time to find a solution.
- Save fuel costs. Optimize fleet routes by monitoring traffic conditions.
- Ensure temperature stability. Monitor the cold chain – according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about one third of food perishes in transit every year.
- Manage warehouse stock. Monitor inventory to reduce out-of-stock situations.
- Gain user insight. Embedded sensors provide visibility into customer behavior and product usage.
- Create fleet efficiencies. Reduce redundancies – deadhead miles account for up to 10 percent of truck miles, according to the EPA, and 28 percent for private fleet trucks, according to the National Private Truck Council.
