Companies that are producing, selling, or delivering millions or even billions of products or components know that keeping close track of these items is a number one priority. Over time, when products unknowingly break or are misplaced or mishandled, these errors can add up to huge losses in dollars, time, and reputation.
But the logistics of keeping track of each and every item takes time. Consider the journey of a simple carton of milk.
Wirelessly Powered Product Tracker Example
Milk goes from farm to factory to commercial delivery truck to distribution warehouse to grocery store, and all along this journey temperature needs to be closely monitored and controlled. The product might be the right temperature at delivery, but was it for the last 3 days?
This is a tightly controlled and ongoing orchestration. Everyone involved needs to be aware of not only temperatures, but also leakage and damage, expiration dates, location, and quantity.
The barcode only gives so much information, and it’s a manual process to scan at each transition. How many sales are missed as products are held up in Receivables?
Now imagine if the manual process was completely eliminated, and everyone had 100% insight to the quality and location of the milk at every moment.
A futuristic dream? No. This could be a reality for your organization, and very soon, with wirelessly powered product sensors.
How Wirelessly Powered Product Trackers Will Transform Logistics
Wirelessly powered sensors are tiny and can deliver a tremendous amount of information to an online platform, where you can understand exactly where your products are and how they are being handled. The problem has always been getting power to them. Today, with wireless power, the sensors would receive power and send information as soon as the items were within a Cota-enabled space, including vehicles. The moment a box is delivered, the inventory would be automatically added to your system without delay. This could lead to automatic alerts to key personnel who need to move or shelve the products.
You could also gain insight on other factors, including:
- Temperature control of the product over its entire journey
- Weight and weight changes
- Whether the product had been shook up or dropped
- Location in the building
- Expiration dates
- Quantity
- Turnover times
Now extend this insight to not only one product, but also billions of products within a large warehouse or factory. These insights could lead to more control over not just durable goods, but also sensitive products such as medicines, chemical compounds, breakables, and biohazards.
Tracking products and their data can lead to not only tremendous efficiency gains, but also:
- Safety advancements
- Predictive analytics
- Guarantees
- Reputation improvements
- Decreased manual labor and human error
- Fewer losses and problems in other areas of the supply chain
Wireless power delivered over air in some commercial environments has already been approved by the FCC, especially at the levels that sensors would need. Some companies are even using wireless power today as an advanced truck and trailer tracker. All we need to get a wirelessly powered product tracker to market is the desire and commitment to make it happen. Ossia already has proven wireless power technology.
Interested in exploring ways that wireless power technology can advance your business? We’d love to hear from you.
