Solving asset loss & supply chain visibility with IoT tracking

Sensolus is a very product focused company. We create visibility: you just want to know where all your things are, how they move, are they still there, are they ready for pickup. Using IoT sensors — GPS, WiFi, working indoor and outdoor, actually everywhere. In supply chain, it’s the same thing: where is my stuff? Based on this, you can optimize the whole thing. The real value is in the process, and that’s where the partnership with Peak Technologies comes in: they know the customer, they know the domain, and they put the technology in the right place to create maximum value.

Why the consequential costs of asset loss dwarf the replacement value.

Customers lose between 3 and 5% of their assets — but it can really become a big number. As businesses grow and go faster, needing more RTPs or returnable packaging, it’s normal that full control slips away.

But what’s even more shocking is that up to 8 to 20% of assets are never used at the capacity they should be used. And as companies grow, the annual spend on buying new assets is sometimes up to 20% of the total logistics budget — just to replace totes, boxes and packaging while they’re somewhere in the process still.

The second biggest cost is the consequential cost of the contents of the asset not arriving in the right place at the right time — having to do either a rush order, or temporarily stopping a production line because the line side replenishment process is not in order. The fact that they lose assets, customers have kind of taken as a “well, that’s part of running our business.” But when you start to focus on the consequential cost, suddenly it’s like: hold on a second, here’s actually an interesting business case.

How DHL tackled peak season congestion and how a charity stopped organised theft.

DHL in Germany took the leap of faith. They have a lot of rolling cages or roll cages and they really have peak periods like Christmas and Black Friday. At that moment they have a huge congestion problem and they need that visibility. The only way to do it is not by putting infrastructure everywhere; it needs to work over the top, everywhere. But then of course you need a bit of a leap of faith from somebody at a strategic level saying: we need this, because if we have it fully connected with such visibility, it will impact us on productivity, efficiency and so on.

The TRAID project was a bit surprising, actually. The charity donation banks were losing 20 of them in two months. They didn’t just lose them accidentally; there was organised crime taking place, basically stealing them from the streets. They do cost £1,000 each, which was quite a lot. Connecting them with IoT technology made them visible. At least to have good inventory and know if those things get lost, taken out of the market or whatever.

Why exception management is where the real value lies

It’s about exception management. It’s about alerts. Because if you look at so many assets out there, it’s just not about dots on a map. It’s really about what is not going the way we expect it to go. And if there is a critical part, will it be there in time? Because once you see those flows, you actually can know: if a part is not leaving on a Thursday from that location, it will never be in time on a Monday for a production slot. And that’s where you have to focus, because getting production delayed by some hours is a nightmare in your costs.

Customers don’t want siloed systems. They don’t want one technology stack for one business problem and an adjacent technology stack for another. They see their asset pool as a bunch of assets. One could be really expensive, another really cheap. And it’s that mix and match approach that is an absolute wish from customers. They almost don’t want to think about how the data actually ends up in their systems. They have all their planning systems for capacity planning and they just want a feed.

AI, hardware innovation, and cybersecurity: what’s next

Three main things stand out when looking at the technology ahead. First, the use of AI. AI will enable a lot of potential users to get real value from all this supply chain visibility and data. Secondly, the trackers and hardware will see innovation steps. Improvements on battery, form factor and technology; because they need to be very reliable. And then finally, it’s about security. Everything being tracked needs to be very secure, not vulnerable to cyber attacks. Those are the three big steps ahead on the evolution at Sensolus.