Mismanagement of resources risks costly production downtime through misplacement or damage. To combat this, better connectivity is needed to improve tracking and monitoring, including the development of sensors that show locations and also give information on temperature, humidity and potential damage.

Developments in the digitalisation of track and trace have brought some major advances over the last few years. For instance, VW Group is looking to digitalisation to improve container tracking and the Audi division’s efforts to to tag and track containers used to deliver parts to the San José Chiapa plant in Mexico is a good example. BMW’s ‘connected supply chain’ initiative, which envisions using ‘smart packaging’ to capture significant data throughout the logistics chain, is another…