Five Ways Supply Chain IoT Can Help Your Business: Use Cases and Examples
Supply chains have always been, and will always be, extremely complex. No matter how much a company does to simplify, reduce, cut waste, and streamline, complexity will play a role. Even the journey to attain simplicity involves processes like a search for the best vendors, an analysis of tighter processes, and a system to clean up systems.
Fortunately, new tools, such as supply chain IoT, have been developed to facilitate supply chain complexity.
By functioning as a means to collect and visualize precise data about movement, functionality, temperature, hygiene and more, supply chain IoT helps to improve control and visibility in the inner workings of the digital supply chain and thus improve it overall. In this article we discuss several examples of how supply chain IoT can help your business.
Improve stability with supply chain IoT
Using IoT to collect and analyze data is key to avoiding supply chain disruptions before they happen. With all the complexity in supply chains, so much can go wrong. Without the ability to trace products as they move, companies are not able to face a problem until it is already too late. You wouldn’t know if the shipment is too small until it arrives at the door the day it is needed. Contamination is nearly impossible to trace. Theft is not detected until long after it has occurred. Supply Chain IoT can help with this by presenting live, accurate data enabling agile responses to inevitable supply disruptions.
Stay on top of quality control with supply chain traceability
The ability to track where a product has been and when it was there can provide huge value in the realm of quality control. For example, if contamination occurs in a specific plant at a specific time, a functioning supply chain traceability program would be able to pinpoint exactly which assets were affected and where they are in the supply chain. In this way, the potential damage caused by contamination is better contained, and contaminated products can be removed from the supply chain with a simple phone call to the right plant manager.
Increase opportunities for sustainability in the supply chain
Sustainability is enhanced by a reduction of waste, and more control of products flowing through the supply chain with traceability can help eliminate waste. Supply chain IoT can provide that control. More control in the digital supply chain prevents loss, enabling companies to allow for less waste in their predictions and prevent waste from occurring. Ultimately, this also means less “waste” has to be transported and enables fewer transportation legs, thus resulting in less emissions and fuel used.
Enhanced customer reporting
End consumers are increasingly more interested in where products came from and how they got to them. Whether these questions are ethically based, or signify a health concern, the transparency of a provider through every part of the sourcing and supply chain processes can ease valid customer concerns. In this case, supply chain IoT specifically can play a very important role. By owning the supply chain fully from end to end and collecting data throughout the process, you can present to customers and their end consumers the insight they need to feel confident in your products.
Improvement of overall efficiency
Because supply chain IoT enables the capability of visualizing a supply chain overall, certain insights can be discovered and acted upon to improve overall efficiency. For example, if a supplier is delivering assets late repeatedly, the system would pick up on that and report that inefficiency. Or, if drivers are facing repeated traffic issues in the same place or at the same time of day, insights collected can improve predictions and allow supply chain managers to operate with more advanced notice of delays.
Why Tosca?
These examples are only some of the ways Supply Chain IoT can enhance your business. Finding the right partner and vessel for supply chain traceability is key.
Introducing Tosca Asset IQ, Tosca’s reliable supply chain IoT service involving active and passive IoT applied to reusable packaging flowing through your supply chain. Tosca will work with you to determine the right packaging and technology to pair in order to generate the most valuable insights. Core capabilities include real-time asset location, the ability to pinpoint asset leaks, and monitoring of asset utilization, cycle times and overall pool efficiency. The service also includes a live dashboard for both desktops and phones, providing the visibility you need to benefit from the insights the service produces.
Tosca is a global leader in reusable packaging and pallet pooling, specializing in creating more efficient and sustainable supply chains with a diverse range of pooled plastic pallets, bulk containers, retail display solutions, crates, and more. These products are designed to last and offer many benefits to supply chains worldwide.
With a full portfolio of pallets, bins, and crates serving the whole supply chain, from the first mile to the last mile, Tosca is the only packaging provider that can offer this coverage and uncover hidden opportunities for your entire supply chain. Visit our website at toscaltd.com/supply-chain-IoT to learn more.
