Automation and Remote Monitoring in Supply Chain
Published on : Thursday 07-01-2021
It is important for the user to understand the gaps and have willingness to adopt technology for productivity improvement, says Sudhanshu Mittal.
As the manufacturing world battles the impact of Covid, it is increasingly clear that industries need to adopt the digital technologies – IIoT, AI based tools for managing their operations. Many of the functions which earlier used to work via manual inspection have been severely disrupted due to social distancing and travel restrictions.
One common theme for any manufacturing player talking about IIoT is automation. They talk about automation as a necessary requirement but often don’t understand what it means. The general thought process is for robotic solutions for assembly line operations and on the shop floor for material delivery. However in reality the automation is much more than that. Let’s look at some of the scenarios where we can deploy automation, especially in the supply-chain area.
Vendor monitoring: For manufacturing OEMs it is necessary to monitor their vendors. OEMs need clarity as to when they are going to get the required components in their warehouse and this requires more than tracking the shipment. It also means that OEMs need to have insight into the production operation of their suppliers – what is the production rate of good quality components, what is the current inventory. Earlier they used to make visits to their suppliers’ factories to assess the situation and to determine as to which supplier is in best condition to meet an order they need to make.
Due to disruption of persons visits due to Covid, the OEMs are exploring how they can connect to the production system of their supplier so that they are able to get the visibility into production rate, inventories, shipments to other customers (with confidential information redacted). This will allow OEMs to have an assurance about delivery of an order they need to make or the shipment they are already waiting for. OEMs may get an automated customised report about the situation at their supplier. From every perspective this will be classified as Automation in Supply-chain even though we don’t have any robotic arms or vehicles.
Dispatch verification: One of the critical problems is the wrong addressing of shipment, thereby having to go through the costly cycle of return and then re-sending of shipment. Apart from the direct cost, it can cause production disruption at receiver’s end which may entail a penalty on the supplier. Using automated checking by mapping the shipment against the order received, such mistakes can be avoided. The solution may have multiple layers, with semi automation where someone at gate does the verification to full automation where the system itself would throw the potential mistake.
Incoming shipment inspection: For the shipments where products are delivered by weight, typically the loaded truck will be weighed at entry and the empty truck at exit, after the delivery. Instead of manually taking down the reading and calculating the delivered product, the system can be automated where vehicle registration number or a barcode affixed at the entry can act as identifier at exit time, with delivered shipment weight being automatically logged in the system.
Beyond automation, there are other scenarios where we need to deploy the remote monitoring on account of Covid disruptions. We look at some of the scenarios here.
Shipment tracking: For the OEMs maintaining the bare minimum inventory, even 2 days delay in shipment can cause production disruption unless the production lines are properly managed. For this they need to have real-time visibility in the shipment movement progress so that they can take preventive action to prevent production line shutdown by producing different products for which they have the required components in their warehouse.
Remote inspection: Another challenge for OEMs is when they are getting shipments at docks, where those need to be inspected by their field staff and the field staff also needs to be monitored by a supervisor to check how diligently they are doing their job. Earlier the supervisors would be personally present at the docks for monitoring, however due to Covid those personal visits have been disrupted. The installed cameras at the dock sites are able to provide the requisite technology platform to monitor the working of field personnel and assess how diligently they are doing their job.
As we explore the automation and remote monitoring in supply-chain, there are many use cases where digital technology can play a role. Important part is for the user to understand the gaps in their operations and have willingness to adopt technology for productivity improvement.
As Head – CoE Gurugram & Director – Technical Solutions with NASSCOM Centre of Excellence – IoT & AI, Sudhanshu Mittal leads the overall operations of Gurugram CoE and is also responsible for driving the solutioning of the problem statements brought by CoE partners. Vertical focus includes Automotive and Standard verticals for CoE-IoT.
The key responsibilities include: a) Driving the solutioning of the problem statements brought on by CoE partners; b) Driving the Automotive and Connected Vehicle activities for CoE; c) Driving standard body participation from CoE-IoT for Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) and Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC); d) Driving academic research engagement activities; and e) Niche partner engagement like Indian Army, Railways, PSUs, etc. The views expressed are personal.
