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In the business world, seldom do you find widespread agreement on any topic. However, everyone seems to know that the Internet of Things (IoT) is important and getting more so—especially in the ways that organizations handle transportation and logistics.
"If you look at from supply chain perceptive, IoT is going to be transformative in connecting the physical world to digital world in a new way," Mark Wheeler, director of supply chain solutions at Zebra Technologies told EBN in an interview. "These technology allows intelligent assets to be visible in the cloud and accessible in a new way."
Although consumers may be most enamored by the Apple Watch or other technological toys, the really exciting uses will be in the realm of industrial IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. By every measure, the understanding is nearly unanimous—and supply chain organizations are already getting hopping on the bandwagon. "There are very strong expectations that this will be transformative across industries and organizational functions," said Wheeler. "In transportation and logistics, better visibility translates into better utilization."
According to a recent Forrester survey, 90% of transportation of logistics companies either have or plan to deploy IoT solutions within the next year. (The survey polled IT decision makers in 593 organizations in 16 countries.) The benefits are substantial, organizations said, citing improvements to:
- Regulatory compliance (cited by 51%)
- Delivery processes (51%)
- Safety (45%)
- Cost efficiency (44%)
- Supply chain visibility (44%)
Of course, the right technologies are needed to support the use of connected tech to streamline the supply chain. Users pointed to WiFi, security sensors, near field communications (NFC) and real-time locating systems (RTLS) as the most important enabling technologies.
In addition, organizations are thinking carefully about overcoming some of the obvious challenges. Nearly 40% of those surveyed listed privacy and security concerns as the largest challenges ahead. Another 38% pointed to the complexity of implementation. "Broadly, a lot of the solutions we envision for IoT can be done today with available technology, but it tends to be highly complex and one-off," said Wheeler. "What we are looking for out of IoT is standard ways of connecting and securing these devices to the cloud, as well as apps to leverage that visibility."
Take a look at the infographic below, from Zebra Technologies. How is your organization leveraging or planning to leverage IoT in its supply chain? Let us know in the comments section below.
— Hailey Lynne McKeefry, Editor in Chief, EBN 
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- Solving the 5 Biggest IoT Adoption Issues
- Mass Capitalism Paves the Way for the IoT Revolution
- 4 Strategies to Maximize Multimodal Shipping Opportunities
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There are really two major questions here:
first one is how does one design, prototype and manufacture in high volume using the supply chain for wearables, and,
the second, how does one work with the same supply chain to make it more responsive to fast-changing consumer demands while retaining its resiliency.
The answers to these questions are quite different since they are very contextual and depend on product's life cycle. When designing a new wearable product, one of the most common mistakes startups make is to use an eval kit and then try to 'engineer' around it. This most often leads to multiple prototyping runs and longer development cycles. It also puts pressure on the supply chain which has to some extent assume the risk for volumes that may not materialize.
Volume production, re-spins and subsequent manufacturing lots on the otherhand have different challenges -cost reduction, quality and reliability improvements and enabling improved user experiences while still following the JIT manufactuirng. These production cycles are much more shorter.
In my experience of working with few wearables startups, most are DoA in the concept to prototyping phase itself. Of the few that do make it to the high volume manufacturing and re-spin phase, most important parameters contributing to their success tend to be the right contract manufacturer (EMSs), items on the BoM and their evolution to cost reduction, manufacturing process, quality and reliability.
MP Divakar
Everything you say is true, docdivakar. I've talked to many designers who have focused completely on the question of how to create a device that achieves some function without a thought to the manufacturability of that design, or of what supply chain might be needed to support a true product launch. I am willing that bet that many exciting products die in this particular ditch.