Sharath Muddaiah, Global Head of Customer Success and Business Strategy for IoT Solutions at Giesecke+Devrient on how real-time asset monitoring technologies are helping organisations improve visibility, resilience and sustainability across global supply chains.
Global supply chains support the livelihoods of billions, with goods often travelling through multiple countries before reaching their destination.
However, disruptions caused by natural disasters, geopolitical tensions and fuel supply issues continue to affect the safe and efficient movement of goods. For example, ongoing conflicts around the world have added risk to global supply chains, with any potential disruption to shipping routes likely to have ramifications for container throughput and wider operations.
At the same time, businesses are under pressure to deliver faster, cut costs and adopt more sustainable practices. To best overcome these disruptions and meet these growing demands, organisations of all sizes, from logistics providers to courier services, must have full visibility into the location and condition of their goods throughout the entire journey.
But achieving true visibility of non-powered assets, such as containers and wagons, presents a challenge, which is where telematics and sensor technologies come in. These solutions play a crucial role by providing real-time data on the position and status of each asset. They present a way for organisations to support continuous, reliable and sustainable operations, even among the backdrop of significant global disruption.
The problems posed by poor visibility across the supply chain
Transparency, cost efficiency and sustainable practices are all difficult to ensure when organisations are unaware of where their goods are in the supply chain. If they do not know what is happening with a container, enterprises cannot check for potential cases of theft, loss or damage.
They also cannot monitor for temperature changes and whether they have had a negative impact on perishable or pharmaceutical items.
Being in the dark about an item’s location also leaves businesses unable to provide updates to customers and stakeholders. Accurate ETAs as to when a container will reach its destination cannot be provided and any reactive measures, such as re-routing a fleet to a more efficient route to save on fuel consumption and reduce travel costs, are not possible.
That is where end-to-end telematics and sensor systems, combining hardware connectivity and IoT platforms, offer the solution. These systems are enabled with GPS trackers that provide real-time visibility over the logistics chain and ensure accountability for goods at all stages.
Accurate and reliable tracking
End-to-end tracking systems determine the current position and movement of goods and containers, wherever they may be in the world. They are sustainable, low-power devices that provide seamless connectivity across networks, communication protocols and borders.
Transparent visualisations on user-friendly web and mobile applications provide details to users such as location, acceleration, vibrations and even the surrounding temperature of goods travelling across land, air and sea.
With this data to hand, organisations can easily see if items have become lost in transit, affected negatively by high or low temperatures or involved in incidences of theft so remedial action can be taken.
Detailed data insights about the direction of travel also enables optimised route planning. Faster and more efficient deliveries can be made, with accurate ETA predictions and fewer fuel resources being used.
This can lead to a reduction in overall costs and contribute to more sustainable practices.
Resilient in all environments
In addition to providing actionable data-driven insights, end-to-end tracking devices are durable, reliable and long-lasting. They can withstand even the harshest conditions, such as the temperature changes and shocks that can take place on train routes.
This resilience ensures compliance with the strict certifications of rail transport, such as the EN 50155 European standard for reliability and safety of electronic equipment used on rolling stock.
Tracking solutions offer minimal downtime and require minimal maintenance and this same resiliency applies to the battery that powers the device. Traditional devices in supply chain operations have often posed issues with limited battery life and replacing these batteries in remote or difficult-to-access locations has been challenging.
Power depletion during transit then presents problems in terms of lost visibility partway through a journey.
Solar-powered charging capabilities ensure that the container’s tracking device does not run out of power during the journey. It does not even need direct sunlight to charge, just the white light that is present in most environments.
Not only does a highly resilient battery life provide peace of mind to organisations, but it also ensures continuous operation in challenging environments such as warehouses and stacked containers, while supporting sustainability practices by operating for over 10 years in the field.
And for high-value or sensitive smaller form factor items where a tracking device cannot be attached, smart labels can transform any package into an IoT device for real-time monitoring.
These are small labels that can be attached to packages with a tamper-proof design for security. If someone opens the box, an alert is sent to the organisation for remedial action.
Smart labels can also be reused for future applications, presenting another sustainable benefit to adopters.
Keeping supply chains running smoothly
A perfect storm of factors are threatening to grind supply chains to a halt. To help keep them running smoothly, real-time visibility and tracking must be features of container transportation.
Durable, low-power solar devices and smart labels offer enterprises the transparency needed to monitor goods accurately, respond quickly to disruptions and optimise operations.
By improving location awareness and condition monitoring across land, sea and air, tracking technologies help reduce costs, enhance security and support more sustainable logistics practices.
Where the operational efficiency of global supply chains has come under threat, effective tracking transforms them into more resilient and efficient networks.
