The Digital Revolution is well underway, with 20 billion objects expected to be connected by 2020. Low power wide area network provider like Sigfox offer new capabilities to connect the physical assets around us and collect valuable data about how the world works.
Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives create huge opportunities to follow real-time industrial and finished goods flows, to decrease lead-times and costs, to optimize production, and to offer new services to clients. As such, they herald a new era for the connected Supply Chain and the development of new business models.
One way to bring value to the Supply Chain is Asset Tracking. In a Supply Chain organization, some flows are followed accurately and carefully monitored through various integrated systems like ERPs. However, when the Supply Chain is complex and involves many actors like suppliers, sub-contractors, and transportation companies, it becomes very challenging to have an end-to-end view. Supply Chain Managers are almost blind on some parts of the physical flows, which creates instability in the Supply Chain, reduces planning accuracy, and significantly reduces agility, while increasing lead-times.
