Blog Post

The changing nature of supply chain optimisation & monitoring

Adapt Ideations • Jul 15, 2019

With today's supply chain continuously evolving, managing the supply chain is greatly changing in particular methods for optimisation and monitoring.

With today’s supply chain continuously evolving, managing the supply chain is greatly changing in particular methods for optimisation and monitoring. The industrial internet of things or IIoT has greatly contributed to the rise of the evolving supply chain. IIoT can be defined as the interconnection of objects and devices via the web in order to enhance manufacturing and industrial processes. Even though the supply chain is evolving greatly, according to a recent study conducted by McKinsey , only 2 percent of executives consider supply chain as a focus of their digital strategy. The digitalisation of the supply chain is highly underestimated by this statistic pointing towards the need for change. In the same study by McKinsey, research suggests that aggressively digitalising the supply chain can boost a company’s annual growth by 3.2%.

Some of the initial hesitation from adopting such IIoT technology could be explained by technology gaps and management choices in the past. With evolutionary technology now on the rise along with technology specifically made for use within the supply chain, companies are now easily able to adopt such technology and reap the benefits almost instantaneously. Cisco highlights the considerably large number of connected things to reach 50 billion by 2020. The implementation of IIoT in the supply chain is crucial to remaining competitive with other companies and remaining profitable in the near future.

Due to the rise in IIoT technology, how a supply chain is managed has also been transformed. The connected devices and objects, as many would know are able to collect vast amounts of data depending on how they are programmed. The data strategically is able to help inform key stakeholders involved in the management of the supply chain transforming the way that decisions are able to be made. The analytics itself is not only able to assist in making decisions by management, but also in many cases has the capability to be used for predictive maintenance meaning less down time. With supply chain and logistics alone believed by Cisco to be worth 1.9 trillion in value, the capability of IoT alone has endless potential. However, it’s only when companies are ready to embrace IIoT technology and successfully use the data collected, that its full potential can be understood.

As costs of living rise, companies and their suppliers are looking at ways to optimise their supply chain becoming more efficient and saving on unnecessary expenses. It goes without saying that in order to have one of the best supply chains, it’s important to have consistency making sure that it flows smoothly from start to finish. Among many benefits other than better flow, optimising a supply chain can better assist in improving margins, increasing expansion into various markets enhancing consumer experience while also reducing unnecessary operating costs. The use of IoT itself and the successful use of data analytics takes the hassle out of waiting for such data to be available in your hands, allowing smart, effective and timely decisions to be made delaying inefficiencies.

What once used to be only controlled with manual intervention, has now seen the vast possibilities of connecting the unconnected. Connecting these dark assets through the use of IIoT technology allows them to not only be monitored but also for insights to be developed. With IoT coming to the forefront of innovative technology today, the process can be referred to as the value loop where in the space of IoT certain assets are monitored, the information is then passed on to the portal, and then relayed to the platform where concerned parties are able to access the data securely.

With the endless possibilities of IIoT technology, the days of experiencing long down times are now a thing of the past when machines would break down for no known apparent reason. IIoT technology has made predictive maintenance a reality with the use of data analytics. By successful monitoring of assets, instantly the supply chain can be significantly impacted. It is not only predictive maintenance that can be a successful monitoring outcome, but also protecting assets with the placement of strategic sensors in the supply chain. Ultimately the sensors are able to monitor where assets are within the supply chain, and potentially where they have been damaged improving quality control practices within the company and increasing transparency throughout the supply chain.

Here at Adapt Ideations , we believe in using advanced technology to assist companies to achieve their goals. Adapt Ideations has innovated a solution to help improve billing accuracy and assist in predictive maintenance of machines. The solution was innovated for a large logistics company looking to improve inconsistencies and save on manual labour linked to manual readings for the machines needed for each billing period. As you could imagine, the process was wrought with inconsistencies and expensive. With our help, the company was able to instantly save on unnecessary expenses and allow their specialised team to focus on other core activities. Adapt Ideations’ hub lite has successfully been deployed at 100 client sites and over 350 machines instantly improving inconstancies in manual readings, introducing predictive maintenance for machines and reducing costs linked to manual readings from the machines.

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