In the quest to increase productivity in material handling and manufacturing environments and be more responsive to the changing interests and expectations of the consumer, companies are increasingly embracing new technology.
As large enterprises seek to deploy next-generation asset tracking technologies to improve operational efficiencies, the market will hit $4.5bn by 2022, according to ABI Research.
Imagine being able to know not only where everything is exactly, but its condition, and what has happened to it along the way. The implications are enormous — temperature can be monitored and adjusted en route, unexpected delays can be determined and corrected, and deliveries to the wrong location can be found and quickly corrected. A much more efficient supply chain is on the way.
Uruguayan startup Chipsafer has completed two pilots of an Internet of Things (IoT)-based solution to track the activities of beef livestock and prevent cattle rustling.
Fiji Airways reports that it has made in-cabin inspections of emergency equipment faster and more efficient across its fleet of 15 airplanes, with the use of radio frequency identification technology.
One of the most important things a pet owner has to keep track of is what his or her's four-legged best friend is eating - and how much. But it's all too easy to get to the bottom of a 24-pound bag of kibble without realizing it and then have to run out to a bodega to grab the first bag of dog food one can find to keep the pooch of the house fed and happy.
Tokyo's St. Luke's International Hospital has completed a pilot of RFID technology to track the movement of equipment. The facility found that the technology identified stock levels at each of its wards in real time, and reduced the number of staff visits to the central clinical engineering room by approximately 55 percent.
In logistics, the best known blockchain pilot program involved Maersk and IBM. It centered on creating a digital distributed ledger to create a single electronic place where all the myriad documents related to a shipment could be housed.
