I well remember the many times I heard from the late Professor Donald Bowersox, in lectures given at the ILOS forums or at the global meetings of the CSCMP, his well-known phrase: “logistics is the art of doing more and more with less and less, until you can do everything with nothing”.
Despite the playful tone to expose the enormous challenge of professionals in the area, who need to deliver an ever-increasing level of service to customers while at the same time being pressured to reduce their logistical costs, Professor Bowersox was very serious when anticipating innovations “coming” technological changes, some of which we experience today in practice, and their impacts on supply chain management.
One of these innovations, known as Internet of Things (IoT), or Internet of Things, has the potential to bring about a true revolution in Supply Chain Management, greatly reducing waste in the chain and allowing for a level of efficiency unimaginable just a few years ago.
In Video 1, Marco Annunziata talks about the transformative power of IoT in a very enlightening way.
Video 1 – welcome to the industrial internet age
Source: Marco Annunziata – TED Talk
We can easily imagine the impact to supply chain management of having smart labels for RFID in all products, facilitating the location and control of stocks, vehicles that communicate with computers that redefine routes in real time and define the preventive maintenance plan, inventory control at the customer's home, allowing automatic replacement, among many other possibilities . Video 2 illustrates some of the intermediate steps on this journey.
Video 2 – Amazon Dash
Source: Amazon – Youtube
A thanks in memoriam to Professor Bowersox for inspiring so many professionals in Supply Chain and for so clearly anticipating what we would see happen!
References
<http://cerasis.com/2015/02/25/internet-of-things/>
<http://www.scdigest.com/ONTARGET/11-07-05-3.PHP?cid=4693&ctype=content>
Leonardo Julianelli
https://ilos.com.brExecutive Partner of ILOS. Graduated in Production Engineering from EE/UFRJ, Master in Business Administration from COPPEAD/UFRJ with extension at EM Lyon, France, and PhD in Production Engineering from COPPE/UFRJ. He has several articles published in periodicals and specialized magazines, being one of the authors of the book: “Sales Forecast: Organizational Processes & Qualitative and Quantitative Methods”. His research areas are: Demand Planning, Customer Service in the Logistics Process and Operations Planning. He worked for 8 years at CEL-COPPEAD / UFRJ, helping to organize the Logistics Teaching area. In consultancy, he carried out several projects in the logistics area, such as Diagnosis and Master Plan, Sales Forecast, Inventory Management, Demand Planning and Training Plan in companies such as Abbott, Braskem, Nitriflex, Petrobras, Promon IP, Vale, Natura, Jequití, among others. As a professor, he taught classes at companies such as Coca-Cola, Souza Cruz, ThyssenKrupp, Votorantim, Carrefour, Petrobras, Vale, Via Varejo, Furukawa, Monsanto, Natura, Ambev, BR Distribuidora, ABM, International Paper, Pepsico, Boehringer, Metrô Rio , Novelis, Sony, GVT, SBF, Silimed, Bettanin, Caramuru, CSN, Libra, Schlumberger, Schneider, FCA, Boticário, Usiminas, Bayer, ESG, Kimberly Clark and Transpetro, among others.
