Retailers are faced with the challenge of meeting the demands for quality and transparency for their products along the supply chain. Consumers and end customers demand absolute transparency about where, and under what conditions, products have been produced. Blockchain solutions offer clarity and optimal protection against manipulation. Suppliers and the origin of goods can be securely checked along the entire supply chain. This is possible because there is no opportunity within the supply chain management system to falsify values retrospectively or to deviate from the jointly accepted process. It also enables significant time and cost savings in process handling.
Are we able to deliver and if so, when exactly? How can you avoid stock shortages or zero stocks? And how can goods logistics and product data interfaces be harmonized? Cloud-based supply chain management (SCM) solutions help optimize SCM processes and supply chains – from inbound and outbound goods to warehouse management. Dashboards help retailers stay on top of things and get real-time recommendations for action. The results: increased on-time delivery, shorter warehouse lead times, and lower logistics costs and capital commitment – in other words, more efficient SCM processes with an optimal cost-benefit ratio along the entire supply chain.
The digital service button ensures that shelves are replenished quickly, trucks are unloaded safely and technical faults are reported immediately.
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Goods are regularly lost, spoiled, or damaged in transit to their destination. Searching for or replacing products costs time and money, as well as a lot of patience. Connected trackers offer a remedy. They signal when a delivery slips or the set temperature inside the delivery container changes. However, trackers are rarely worthwhile for one-off deliveries. Furthermore, the batteries of most devices last only a few days. The Low Cost Tracker, on the other hand, transmits data via Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), cellular radio or Wi-Fi to save energy. Batteries last up to five years. The Low Cost Tracker is even worthwhile for tracking one-off deliveries.
Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and IoT operating systems such as MindSphere have also become important IT systems for production in the retail sector. They connect ERP systems with PLC systems that are responsible for machine control. MES are key components of digital transformation because they connect planning and production and bring together data from many departments and calculate key figures from the data. To this end, they process data from machines, order management or human resources, for example. This provides companies with information on machine utilization or process efficiency.
