The Internet of Things

This paper gives a clear understanding on the current state of art on the IoT. The primary idea of the IoT concept is the pervasive existence around us of a wide range of things such as Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, actuators, sensors, mobile phones, etc. These are able to communicate with each other and collaborate with their neighbors to reach collective goals through distinctive addressing scheme.

Lately Conner and Martin have been working with “radio frequency identification” (RFID) technology. They have developed a detailed system designed to track inventory items using RFID tags embedded invisibly in products. This technology has numerous inventory

RFID systems are currently being used in manufacturing plants to track parts, stay informed of work in progress, reduce product defects, increase throughput, and manage production of given products. Big name retailers such as Best Buy, Metro, Target, Albertson’s, Hewlett Packard, and Wal-Mart are leading the way in implementing RFID systems. These retailers recognize the need to improve inventory efficiency, ensure products are available to customers as needed, decrease theft, and cut down on costs associated with tracking and processing inventory.

Wal-Mart currently has one of the most advanced inventory management systems due to their use of RFID tracking capabilities. Every product is equipped with a radio frequency identification tag, which identifies the location and type of product in the warehouse. As the product leaves the warehouses, there are readers in place at the door that automatically recognize which products are leaving and entering the warehouse. The benefit of this is that it limits the use of employees better employed elsewhere and has impeccable accuracy, much more accurate and faster than if employees were to take inventory. The service that our product provides is to take this current technology and to implement it at a grocery stores as well as retail in the

I live close to a walmart in Burtonsville MD, so I decided to write this Paper on their Inventory System. Wal-mart, the wholesale retail monopoly, focused on developing an RFID-based electronic product code, or EPC. The electronic code would allow businesses to track shipments and inventory automatically through a system of tags and sensors. It was a potential replacement for the manual scanning of bar codes, a technology that itself revolutionized retail two decades earlier. Given the nearly non-existent cost of bar codes relative to RFID, several in the industry said, the EPC was a solution in search of a problem. Wal-Mart view RFID technology in their SMART system as a

The world is getting smarter and better and so are the devices. With the improved technology, we can check our mails on our watch; control our home temperature through our smartphone and much more. The term Internet of Things is referred to any object or device which connects to the Internet to automatically send and/or receive data [1].

RFID data is visible and trackable across the supply chain and reduces scanning error, stockouts and the labour required to move inventory (Shin & Eksioglu 2014, p. 633). Importantly, as Concept2creation (n.d.) shows picking and scanning cartons from the cages is labour intensive and requiring audits. Alternatively, RFID transmitters on pallets and cages, can automatically be scanned upon receipt. Cartons without RFID can be placed in totes to be tracked internally (Michel 2014,

Macy’s is known as the poster child for RFID in the retail industry. By implementing RFID technology, Macy’s gained greater visibility not only in their supply chain, but on a store level. RFID has helped them monitor stock levels more frequently so they could increase their inventory and ordering accuracy. Being more accurate has helped Macy’s meet customer’s demands. Macy’s saw a great increase in their overall sales and revenues shortly after introducing RFID in all of their stores. Earlier this year, Macy’s started a new program that employs RFID to allow Omni-channel fulfillment of consumer purchases. The program, named Pick to the Last Unit (P2LU), allows them to list goods for sale online even when there is only one such item available at the store. Macy’s omni-channel will allow customers to shop anywhere, anytime, and anyhow they choose. Their stores will be functioning as warehouses to utilize the full assortment of owned

Radio Frequency Identification is the use of radio frequency waves to remotely identify material. It is primarily used in supply chain management but can be used in other areas. Used as a tracking tool, RFID keeps track of material in the transportation pipeline enabling users to have real time tracking information throughout the entire shipping process. Inventory management is another important logistics element that is enhanced with the use of RFID. The goal of an inventory manager is to maintain a 100% inventory and RFID makes the process more efficient. RFID allows the user to perform inventories with ease and accuracy while reducing the number of people needed to perform the inventory. In addition to assisting with inventory RFID

RFID technology can offer many advantages to suppliers, retailers, and consumers including “improved accuracy in managing inventory, improved visibility of orders and inventory, reduced costs for logistical operations, improved customer service, improved security, and improved efficiency of business operations” (Park et al. 2010, p. 684).

As a business manager it is important to understand the growth of IoT’s, because utilizing an IoT in your business can provide you with information to carry what products customers are looking to purchase. This would enable a manager to stay ahead of the competition and make more sales, by only ordering what your customers are going to buy. The IoT could help a manager make more successful business decisions.

What is IoT? The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. IoT allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. 3Rishab

The Internet of Things is a complex, innovative system rooted in the idea of connectivity. Individual artifacts that transmit data and information amongst each other ensure a smooth and coherent experience based off their ability to communicate through internet connection, sharing the same network to create incomparable efficiency and convenience. The Internet of Things is constantly developing to work in new areas and scenarios, further securing its essentiality in the domain of the technological future

The Internet of Things is a vision of a global network that connects various physical world objects to the IT infrastructure. This vision has been inspired by the success made in emerging technologies such as Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID), wireless sensor networks, and mobile communication. The realisation of such a global object network will allow seamless interaction and cooperation between the real and logical world.

The concept of the internet of things abbreviated as IoT was introduced as early as the late 90’s by Kevin Ashton, the Executive Director of Auto-ID Labs and a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now, “the Internet of things is already a disruptive technology capable of determining fundamental changes that are happening in everyday life, and it is considered the fourth industrial revolution.” (Hucanu) The Internet of Things (IoT)