The Role of IoT in Shaping the Future of Supply Chain: August 2023, 23rd Edition
IoT is impacting supply chain to drive agility, efficiency, and enhance customer experience.
In the era of digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT) is impacting supply chain and playing a key role in reshaping the future of supply chain management. The IoT allows real-time insights into various processes, including inventory management, transportation, and warehousing.
This unprecedented level of visibility and connectivity has the potential to revolutionize the way supply chains operate, enabling organizations to enhance their efficiency, reduce costs, and meet the demands of an increasingly globalized and complex marketplace.
The goal of this edition is to illustrate this key role through specific examples:
- We start with “Enhancing Supply Chain Operations Using IoT and Digital Twin.” In this article, Shyam Varan Nath explores the use of IoT and digital twin technology to enhance supply chain operations. By utilizing IoT for real-time tracking and incorporating data into process digital twins, this approach optimizes intricate supply chains. The author highlights IoT’s role in identifying issues and refining processes, citing incidents such as the Suez Canal disruption. The paper emphasizes AI and digital threads for better decision-making. It acknowledges challenges in implementation, such as legacy integration and cybersecurity.
- Next, in “Early Learnings from a Logistics Testbed,” Dr. Patrick Weber, Sven Kurrle, and Prof. Dr. Heiner Lasi describe the learnings from a two-year old testbed. The learnings explore and exploit data ecosystems in logistics involving a manufacturer of wheeled excavators, an industrial service provider, an industrial sensor manufacturer and the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute.
- In “IoT Techniques and Elements for Drone Package Delivery Network,” Chuck Byers describes architectures and elements of drone cargo delivery networks with special emphasis on how IoT techniques, sensors and actuators are used in each element.
- In “Negotiation Automation Platform,” Satoshi Morinaga (Ph.D), Shinji Nakadai (Ph.D), Tomohito Ando, Hiromu Imura, and Kazuhiro Takahashi describe a cutting-edge and specific type of negotiation platform solution that utilizes AI technology to automate negotiations between economic entities (primarily in the manufacturing and logistics sectors) to streamline the process of reaching agreement between them.
We hope these articles provide you with a heightened perspective on how IoT is impacting supply chain to drive agility, efficiency, and enhance customer experience.