Comprehensive Guide to Supply Chain Visibility

• Supply chains are becoming increasingly complex and difficult to manage. Many businesses operate elaborate, global supply chains that rely on the coordinated activities of multiple suppliers. They need to address the complexity of using and tracking the movements of middlemen and third-party logistics carriers to make multi-stop deliveries, while also ensuring operational efficiency within their own facilities and supply chain segments.
• With the rise of ecommerce and Buy Online, Pickup In Store (BOPIS) orders leading to more products being shipped than ever before, shrinkage and the amount of lost products is at an all time high.
• Rising customer expectations require fast and reliable deliveries, quality products, well-stocked shelves, and shipping updates. Informed consumers also want to know where their products come from and if they have been sustainably sourced.
• Compliance with regulations such as the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) 204 requires supply chain visibility. Visibility is also crucial in recall management to efficiently control the return of damaged or dangerous products, and reduce product waste.
• Risk management leverages visibility to address the repercussions of natural disasters, political instability, or public health crises such as COVID-19 on the supply chain.
• Visibility is necessary to monitor the environmental impact and carbon emissions generated by a company’s supply chain. Data collected by visibility solutions can be used to improve an organization’s sustainable practices, and track carbon footprint data for each segment of a product’s supply chain journey.

Some common challenges face many organizations looking to modernize and implement reliable supply chain visibility solutions. Successfully navigating the following obstacles is paramount to achieving the desired degrees of visibility.

• Cost - Substantial costs may be involved in designing, developing, and implementing a supply chain visibility solution. The cost can vary widely based on the technologies utilized in the solution. Using legacy solutions, companies will need to invest in expensive infrastructure components to facilitate the scanning functionality required for visibility. Adopting modern, advanced solutions such as the Wiliot Ambient Data Platform balances providing enhanced supply chain visibility, while keeping costs low and ROI’s high.
• Process change - Introducing new supply chain visibility solutions typically necessitates changes to existing processes. This can cause operational disruptions that negatively impact the business and negate some of the benefits provided by enhanced visibility. Sufficient training and education must be provided to employees and contractors throughout the supply chain to take full advantage of the new solutions. Unlike traditional solutions, with advanced supply chain visibility solutions like Wiliot, operational processes actually become simpler, as Wiliot helps to remove time and labor-intensive processes.
• Integration - Integrating supply chain visibility solutions with existing supply chain processes and procedures can pose difficulties for a business. It may take time, and system integration partners, to achieve the desired level of integration to fully leverage improved visibility into the supply chain. Companies may opt to start with a methodical approach that addresses specific aspects of their supply chain to begin with, before then expanding scope.

Solutions for overcoming the challenges to supply chain visibility

Many of the challenges to supply chain visibility can be effectively addressed by adopting a solution built around the Wiliot Ambient Intelligence Platform and Wiliot’s IoT Pixels. 
A supply chain visibility solution leveraging Wiliot technology offers businesses the following advantages.

• A low-cost solution based on IoT Pixels and existing Bluetooth communication capabilities minimizes the expense of implementing reliable visibility.
• The size and flexibility of IoT Pixels make them an appropriate solution for tracking pallets, cases, and packages in the supply chain. Transmitting sensor data to Bluetooth-enabled devices eliminates chokepoints caused by the need to pass inventory by stationary RFID readers. Uninterrupted visibility can be maintained, resulting in enhanced supply chain management and optimization.
• Wiliot IoT Pixels transmit information that is sent for processing to the Wiliot Ambient Data Platform. The platform transforms the raw sensory data into actionable insights about your supply chain using machine learning-based algorithms that learn and adapt over time.

The ambient IoT refers to a new class of self-powered IoT devices. These devices harvest ambient energy from sources such as radio waves, light, and heat. The use of ambient energy enables the development of small, inexpensive, and low-maintenance devices. Ambient IoT enables unique and scalable usage scenarios that are not possible with previous generations of IoT devices.

Ambient IoT offers multiple benefits when deployed for real-time tracking and monitoring.

• Efficient integration - Ambient IoT devices are interconnected and operate in the background, eliminating the need for active management. The ubiquitous nature of Ambient IoT makes the technology very effective while appearing to be almost invisible.
• User-centric design - Ambient IoT devices can be constructed in a variety of ways to address specific usage scenarios. IoT Pixels are small and flexible, enabling them to be attached to each product, package, or asset in the supply chain.
• Data-driven insights - Ambient IoT systems rely on data collected from sensors and Ambient IoT devices. For example, Wiliot’s IoT Pixels continuously relay location, temperature, and humidity measurements that are gathered by nearby Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices and forwarded to the Wiliot Ambient Data Platform.
• Data privacy and security - Data security and privacy are essential in an Ambient IoT system. Ensuring this security requires robust measures such as the 128-bit AES encryption employed by Wiliot’s IoT Pixels.

• On time delivery rate measures the percentage of orders delivered on or before the expected delivery date. This KPI plays a major role in customer satisfaction.
• Shrinkage measures the overall amount of unaccounted inventory loss from various sources. High shrink rates indicate supply chain inefficiencies and/or lack of visibility.
• Inventory turnover ratio tracks the number of times inventory is sold and replaced in a given period. A high ratio is indicative of efficient inventory management and visibility.
• Order cycle time measures the time between order placement and fulfillment. Shorter times are characteristics of efficient supply chain processes.

Gartner identifies several trends that will affect supply chain visibility and technology in the near future. They include:

• Cyber extortion as threat actors execute ransomware attacks to extort supply chain organizations;
• End-to-end sustainable supply chains that require a high level of data accuracy;
• Supply chain data governance which requires high levels of data quality.

Emerging technologies will provide the high data accuracy demanded for effective supply chain visibility. Artificial intelligence will be used to develop intuitive user interfaces and process the tremendous volumes of data generated by Ambient IoT. AI and machine learning power the analytical engines that extract insights collected by IoT devices.

Legacy visibility solutions are often limited to performing truck-level tracking, or can only see items at specific chokepoints in the supply chain, while typically relying on expensive infrastructures and manual processes. This limitation provides incomplete visibility into the supply chain which may lead to erroneous decisions that hurt the business with lost sales or expensive overstocks.

Wiliot’s solution enables end-to-end tracking performed at the pallet, case, package, and product level for a complete picture of the supply chain, thanks to a low-cost and passive network capable of reading IoT Pixels without manual scanning.