08.11.2019 by Daniel Kunz

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The Internet of Things is revolutionizing transport and intralogistics. In the BVL.digital podcast, Rami Avidan, head of IoT at Deutsche Telekom, explains what really matters when it comes to the Supply Chain 4.0.

A shortage of drivers, rising customer expectations and compliance requirements, complex transport and value chains: production logistics and freight transport are currently being massively slowed down in many places. The Internet of Things (IoT) removes obstacles and gets logistics moving.

"The area of logistics and the supply chain is probably the sector that has the deepest penetration of IoTsays Rami Avidan, head of IoT at Deutsche Telekom – and directly cites concrete examples: Smart industrial trucks that store goods independently, forward-looking analytics applications that allow transport to be planned precisely, innovative tracking solutions that give logistics managers maximum visibility across the entire supply chain. " And the potential is enormous there," the expert says.

On the other hand, data protection, IT security and connectivity also play an important role. " This is why – a few years ago – we formed a business called T-Sec. Which is basically a very large security provider as part of Telekom, as part of T-Systems, Which is doing phenomenally well explains Avidan. 

WHERE ARE THE CURRENT CHINKS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN?

According to a recent study by the German Logistics Association (BVL), 81 percent of those surveyed regard the lack of networking between the various systems as one of the greatest challenges on the road to Logistics 4.0 and digital supply chains. Around one in four companies (26 percent) don’t want to share their data with other participants in the value chain for fear of it being misused. After all, the cross-company use of data is an indispensable prerequisite for the digitalization of supply chains – and thus the seamless interaction between customers, suppliers and manufacturers.

For example, during the transport of foodstuffs, one third of the goods are currently lost or spoiled. An IoT digitalized supply chain could massively reduce this loss. With the help of trackers, sensors and similar technologies, temperature fluctuations within the cold chain can be monitored in real time and deviations identified in next to no time. "There are many abilities for the IoT technology to improve on efficiency levels in that type of environment," Avidan says. Digital technologies, on the other hand, can identify and eliminate disruptions in the supply chain in real time.

HOW DOES TELEKOM SUPPORT THE DIGITALIZATION OF LOGISTICS?

Deutsche Telekom has developed the Data Intelligence Hub (DIH) so that loaders, transporters and recipients can exchange their data securely and get new IoT applications up and running in no time at all. It functions as an interface through which data suppliers and customers can easily contact and interact with each other. Since the data is stored exclusively on the Telekom platform, data suppliers retain sovereignty at all times and can control who can use which information when and how. the DIH is the first data marketplace to meet the security requirements of the International Data Space Association (IDSA).

The Telekom platform isn’t just intended to support logistics providers in the transparent design of global supply chains. It also provides the necessary tools to turn existing data treasures into real gold. " So, what we are building as another layer in DIH is this marketplace to actually broker that type of data in a controlled manner," explains Avidan. That’s a huge added value – especially for companies that don't have the time or resources to optimize their data-driven logistics processes.