DIGITAL RAILWAY

IoT Supply Chains

Steven Tompkins of Inmarsat explains how the Internet of Things is strengthening global supply chains in a challenging climate

As businesses continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic while simultaneously battling rising global inflation, supply chain disruption very much appears to be the new normal.

Soaring fuel costs, shortfalls of key supplies and labour shortages – all within the context of the ongoing transition to a low carbon economy – are creating daily challenges for businesses of all types and the rail industry is no exception.

While there may not be a short-term silver bullet strategy to overcome these challenges, maximising operational efficiencies to reduce costs and staying one step ahead of any disruption can certainly help maintain a competitive advantage.

Something as simple as being able to precisely locate and track rail cargo and locomotives in real-time can help support greater coordination between rail roads and other parts of the intermodal supply chain to avoid downtime and maximise profitability.

Imagine if, rather than having to spend endless hours liaising with numerous stakeholders to keep on top of issues, you could simply locate assets and redirect cargo with the click of a button, alerting customers and upstream and downstream supply chain stakeholders to the changes with the same ease.

The increasing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is making this possible at every level of the supply chain, from trucking to freight rail to shipping.

The value of IoT in the global supply chain

IoT is not a new concept and has been helping create smarter supply chains for many years now. Solutions range from fleet management for road-based haulage, monitoring the cold chain for temperature threshold violations, and predictive maintenance of locomotives to name but a few.

The positive outcomes from such technologies are numerous, including reducing accidents and safety incidents, decreasing wastage of perishable cargo and minimising dwell times for idle railcars to ensure optimised utilisation of assets.

In the current supply chain climate, IoT technologies also have great potential to help rail freight operators manage disruption and optimise their operational costs through acquisition of real-time data. For example, they can help reduce the dwell time and consequent storage costs for cargo by providing better visibility of what is coming in, when it is due to go out, where all assets are located and any possible disruption to the timetable.

Capitalising on solutions that enable businesses to identify delays and adjust logistics to address them ensure products can be delivered as and when they are needed. This can also help instil greater confidence in the end-customer and broader stakeholders by enabling enhanced communications and transparency across all levels of the supply chain.

The IoT connectivity challenge

According to a recent report by Inmarsat, Industrial IoT in the Time of Covid-19, achieving greater supply chain insight is currently the top driver for the deployment of IoT projects within the transport sector, with 71 per cent of respondents stating this was the case for their business.

However, achieving this insight depends on having the right data available at the right time in order to make better decisions. Across the intermodal supply chain there are two major barriers to achieving this.

The first is having the ability to share data between organisations, particularly when supply chains are long and fragmented with many different owners and operators (e.g. road haulage, rail freight and shipping). In order to collect meaningful insights it may be necessary to monitor assets before or after they leave your control, which requires data to be shared and accessible to a range of relevant parties.

The second barrier is ensuring business have access to reliable connectivity to facilitate the real-time transfer of data. While the most common method of data transfer is typically via terrestrial cellular networks, such as GSM, 3G or 4G, coverage is often limited and does not cover the whole supply chain, particularly in rural locations or across oceans.

For instance, there are many examples where rail freight operators can only monitor their goods and communicate with locomotives on parts of the rail network due to unreliable or insufficient coverage via terrestrial networks. To facilitate the sharing of data between stakeholders and ensure insights are provided in real-time on every leg of the journey, businesses need a communications method that can guarantee coverage wherever the cargo or asset is located, whoever it is owned by.

Inmarsat’s research highlights that businesses unhindered by connectivity issues are able to gain significant cost efficiencies and supply chain insights through their use of IoT solutions (both 69 per cent).

Satellite connectivity is key

This is where the use of satellite as a highly reliable communications method comes into play. Satellite has a long track record of enabling connectivity across land, sea and air and is the only communications technology that can provide true global coverage for complex intermodal supply chains.

Inmarsat has owned and operated its global satellite constellation for over 40 years and our ELERA network has a long track record of enabling IoT solutions across all levels of the supply chain, from fleet management for road haulage through to the transfer of telemetry data from rail locomotives across the world.

ELERA is based on Inmarsat’s L-Band satellite network, which has industryleading reliability of 99.9 per cent uptime and global coverage. Our products are well suited to the transport sector, being small in size (typically the size of a tablet computer), able to withstand harsh environments and easy to install and use by non-skilled staff.

Today, satellite IoT solutions are delivering huge benefits to industry by enabling the seamless monitoring of assets regardless of location. Going forward, working together as an industry to improve data sharing between different operators at all levels of the intermodal supply chain will be key to creating more transparent, efficient and dependable supply chains that are fit to weather future storms of disruption.

Steven Tompkins

is Director of Market Development at Inmarsat