Logistics is a fledgling vertical when it comes to implementing IoT , but the potential is immense. Anjani Kumar, CIO, Safexpress shares his experience of dabbling in IoT and the key lessons learnt
What is the IoT story at Safexpress?
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GPS tracking is one of the initiatives that has been very common in the industry for past few years, and we have added our own twist to it as per our need. A separate window is provided by the GPS provider where one can track the vehicle. Our warehouse managers cannot go to multiple systems as they do not have time and they are not that technically adept to change their screens in a short time. So, we ask for the data from GPS provider every 15 minutes and we have integrated this GPS data with our ERP system and mobility apps. Through this system, people can see through the ERP and understand the time of the arrival of the vehicle. Since analytics is also integrated into it, they can plan for the departure based on the arrival. Once vehicle arrival is connected with the GPS, one gets actual ETA.
On the other side, hub managers are on the warehouse floor. Previously, to get any information about the truck they had to call the truck driver. Now, on the tablet they can see which truck is arriving at what time and accordingly mobilize the whole workforce. Also, for few of the warehouses we have put airport style arrival terminals. There are TV displays at some distance through which one can see which truck has arrived at what time, through GPS.
Presently, we are trying to connect the weigh bridge (where an entire truck is weighed). Before loading the truck is weighed and after loading the truck is weighed. Both the time it gets recorded on ERP online. However, it is at a primary stage, and we are looking at couple of vendors for this initiative.
We are also looking at deploying door sensors which will look at how many doors are open in a warehouse at any given point of time. Another one we are trying to have is fuel sensor to check the level of fuel when a truck is moving.
We are also in talks with a service provider for low energy radio frequency RFID tags which do not work on GSM but on the towers of service providers which are placed every 5 kms. For example, a high valuable item like ATM machine which is getting shipped can be tagged. And since it is not GSM one can even put it on bottom of the truck as there is no problem of the signal. And a low energy RFID device can last for months without charging.
What security risks does IoT expose your organization to, and how do you tackle it?
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For us security risks can come in form of data leaks. Secondly, if the connectivity breaks it is a major issue. Earlier, everyone was used to manual way of working. The moment any system is automated and IoT comes into the picture, expectations have gone high. Thus, if connectivity breaks, the whole operation comes to a standstill. Connectivity works well in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in India, but in other places it does not work so well. We have put secondary connectivity in such places apart from primary connectivity in major cities. But this cannot be done in smaller places as it is a very costly endeavor and there are not enough choices. Here one can only hope for better connectivity from telecom companies in the future.
For us life has not changed so much from a security perspective, but it has from a convenience and productivity perspective. Life has become easier. However, if we implement warehouse control through IoT, then the security risk becomes very high. Presently, since we have only done weigh bridge integration, tracking integration, if the data is not available then it is an inconvenience at this point but not a high risk situation.
Also, from a data perspective we make sure to expose only certain data. We do not expose any customer data. All data is end-to-end encrypted. Also, when it comes to GPS we only send location and the truck information. And on the consignment side only weigh bill information, packet information is shared and nothing about the consigner or the consignee. That particular data still remains in our ERP system. Thus, customer data is secured in all situations. One has to look at all aspects of security with or without IoT in the environment. We re-look at our security framework every six months.
What best practices have you implemented for IoT?
IoT as a framework has been used for a long time. Now it is much more organized. However, it has not reached a maturity peak. Before understanding best practices in IoT we should understand the challenges. Firstly, there is a serious lack of vendors when it comes to service. The choice of vendor is very limited who can do integration of IoT devices, integration of IoT framework. Secondly, sensors are available in the market but it is very disorganized. Among Tier 1 and Tier 2 very few vendors are available from whom these sensors can be purchased with confidence. Some of the vendors we are in talk with are in process of certifying and before that would not want to sell it to customers. We are getting involved with some of them in their own pilots. Thirdly, security is a big challenge. Security vendors are themselves exploring the loopholes and bugs in IoT arena. Fourth is lack of seamless connectivity across India.
What advice would give to organization who are starting out on their IoT journey?
Organizations can decide what is their objective/ goal when it comes to IoT implementation and what results are they trying to achieve. Also, they should check what is the feasibility of doing it with existing set of data and tools one can get. The goal should be aligned with what is available in the market or what the organization can create in-house. Then, one can do gap analysis as to what is not available in the market and if it can be created in-house skill wise. IoT is very customized. Many vendors would not want to create such skills for just one customer. They should keep expectations realistic. Secondly, they should give sometime to unexpected bottlenecks as this area is not fully explored. Thirdly, skill need to be created in-house. If the vendor does not have skill, then the organization has to create it in-house. For us, we trained one person who trained others. And in another scenario, we gave them web-based training and for some it was on the job training.
Secondly, one should check all exposure that an organization will have in terms of security, how will it be addressed. Organizations should get a security audit done. Another aspect is testing as IoT testing is very different in nature. Because of different connectivity environment, organizations should check if the connectivity is broken should it be re-established in a millisecond, a minute or two minutes etc, what was the response in all three scenarios. What is the lag time of the connection, what is the impact of IoT application with the lag of connection as somewhere it could be 1,000 milliseconds and somewhere it could be 1 millisecond. Thus, how does application behave in that lag time. Organizations should try to develop it on cloud if possible. In fact, IoT applications are perfect case of going on cloud. After these organizations should finalize the sensors and their APIs. POC should be done before finalizing anything.
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