Two New Studies: Selective IoT investments For Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Two new reports indicate that Internet of Things (IoT) must be fully embraced by supply chain managers before it’s too late.

The Gartner, Inc. 2020 Hype Cycle for Supply Chain Strategy shows that IoT has reached the bottom of “The Trough of Disillusionment.”

According to analysts, the market will begin to climb out of this trough, as the technology advances and practitioners succeed in defining the best opportunities for the unique measurement and tracking capabilities of IoT.

The Trough of Disillusionment highlights technologies and markets where interest has waned as experiments and implementations fail to deliver.

Mike Burkett, vice president distinguished analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain Practice, says IoT is in the trough because we see that many companies are implementing the technology, but they struggle to define the best opportunities for using its measurement and tracking capabilities.”

This coincides with 451 Research’s Voice of the Enterprise survey, which indicates that IoT investments will be important as supply chain managers seek to maintain efficiency in fuel and predictive maintenance practices with 57% of firms expecting to have diagnostics or predictive maintenance in place within two years.

“Looking ahead investments in IoT and alternative fuelling strategies will be vital in tackling the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” note researchers.

This report was co-authored by Mark Fontecchio of 451 Research along with Chris Rogers and Eric Oak of Panjiva Research.

They say the experience from adapting to desulfurization rules shows the industry can have the discipline to pass through higher costs to users. There are many options for tackling climate change in shipping, but they will take years and a fundamental refit of the fleet to achieve fully:

Selective technology investments can help better prepare the industry, a historic laggard in such spending, for the future. The adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for commercial transportation could create a market worth nearly $308 billion by 2024, a 12x increase from today.

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