Telematics, IOT and the ELD Mandate

Telematics, IOT and the ELD Mandate

Jim Dempsey

The world of logistics has taken on a high tech approach to managing transportation and tracking, monitoring and tracing the goods moving around the world. Supply chain professionals expect to understand the status of their orders in detail and in real time. That means more than just whether the package is on board the truck, but also where it is, if the temperature and other conditions in the trailer are correct, did the package get dropped, and lots of other factors. The electronic components that monitor all those conditions as well as information about the vehicle itself need to be able to connect to both the driver's on-board application and to online systems. Telematics, the IoT, mobility and cloud all enable those connections.

Today’s vehicles are monitored and controlled by electronic control modules (ECMs). The number and variety of ECMs has increased exponentially since they were first added to cars and trucks in the mid 1990s, to the point that today a typical commercial truck has anywhere from 30 to 50 ECMs that connect to the central engine buss and control how the vehicle works. They also monitor conditions as part of their control duties. Telematics devices connect to the engine buss and collect the data generated by the ECMs. They then connect wirelessly to online services and deliver the ECM data so it can be used in a wide variety of applications to help manage fleets, provide notifications to supply chain participants, and deliver information to drivers for streamlined efficiency.

The data collected from the vehicle telematics needs to be delivered to a variety of interested participants in order to be useful. Possibly the most important player is the driver of the truck. Increasingly, trucking companies are turning to mobile handheld devices rather than screens hardwired and mounted in the cab, as the preferred way to both deliver information to drivers and for drivers to interact with that information. In part, the move is driven by the flexibility offered by wirelessly connected units that can be used outside the cab and for multiple purposes. Even more important is the upcoming change in federal regulations that mandates that all commercial vehicles must have electronic logging devices (ELD) by December 2017. For drivers, that means the official end of paper logs. However, the incorporation of ELDs also means those devices can be used for additional tasks like the inspection, or ‘walkaround’ report.

“ELDs must be mounted in the cab, but also must be able to be presented outside the cab,” explains Kelly Frey, VP of product marketing for Telogis, a Verizon Company. “ELDs can no longer be bolted down in the cab. One reason for that is safety officials are not permitted inside cabs so the logs need to be on something the inspectors can access.” This means the handheld device needs to be able to connect wirelessly to their information sources.

In addition to meeting the specifications of the federal mandate there are practical implications to consider when using handheld or tablets as ELDs. Trucking environments can be tough on equipment, and consumer grade devices can easily be damaged by dropping or the vibrations during use in a commercial vehicle. ELD devices need to be able to withstand this kind of abuse. Also,outdoor conditions are often less than ideal when truckers need to inspect their rigs or take photos of damage. The ELDs need to be impervious to rain and snow as well as grease and dirt so that they can be simply wiped and washed when they get dirty. And the screens need to be readable even when used in bright sunlight. Most of these requirements are unspecified in the regulations but are critical to successful implementation of the ELD regulation that turns the telematics and other data captured with a multi-purpose mobile device, into useful information that makes trucking safer and more efficient.

As trucking fleets consider their strategy for ELD compliance and the devices to be used, they should also consider other tasks and processes that can be improved as the functionality of the device for the needs of drivers and their jobs.  For information on Panasonic mobility solutions for trucking and logistics, visit us online. 

Technology’s impact on your summer ice cream parlor

icecreamblog

Technology’s impact on your summer ice cream parlor

6 minute read

While consumers may spend their summer seeking exotic ice cream flavors—Lobster, Cheetos and Spruce Tip are whipped up, ready for the adventurous eater—savvy businesses are bringing on new technologies to help figure out things like what new flavors will sell. 

Just south of Cincinnati, across the Kentucky border, vegan and vegetarian ice cream and sandwich shop Piper’s Cafe is leveraging big data to keep up with its customers: “We are growing and we can't remember all of our customers by name and face any longer. I'm looking forward to seeing what patterns my new regular guests fall into and adapting," says co-owner Chip Atkins in a report from The Week. Cloud and mobile technology mean that ice cream shops and other small restaurants can take advantage of the kind of big data insights that large restaurant owners have been using to lower costs and boost operational efficiencies. 
 

How the restaurant industry is reading tech disruptions

Not all restaurant innovations come in the form of new flavors or food items. Some important breakthroughs arise as solutions to common problems plaguing restauranteurs—from high labor costs to declining traffic. How to use breakthroughs such as big data and other disruptive technologies dominated our conversations at the 2018 National Restaurant Association trade show. 

In a recent research study conducted by Panasonic, nearly four out of five respondents stated they believed competitors in their own industry will pull ahead if they do not adopt or invest in disruptive technology. Seven in ten said they felt companies outside their industry could disrupt them. 

And these ideas were more pronounced in the food service, hospitality and retail industries. These sectors are more likely than others to say disruptive technologies are critical to the future success of their companies.

Connected restaurants

Across all industries, three of the top five adopted disruptive technologies are cloud, IoT and robotics. Each of these technologies plays a role in the connected kitchen, where appliances all sync to the cloud, communicate over a network, can be managed remotely and even using predictive analytics. Spyce, a new restaurant in Boston, is built around a robotic kitchen, and relies on cloud and IoT. The robotic kitchen “wirelessly collects multiple orders from a bank of self-service menu kiosks, displays the names of the guests whose orders are being prepared, pipes the various ingredients from refrigerated hoppers into a wok to be cooked and tossed, and dumps the hot meal into a compostable bowl waiting on the counter below,” according to a review in Salon. 

Labor is one of the costliest elements of running a restaurant and can eat up as much as 40 percent of a restaurant’s gross revenue, according to estimates. Software that has the capacity to collect and analyze data will the connecting element of automated processes and are already making it possible for labor intensive industries across the board to run more efficiently. MaryPat Sullivan, chief nursing officer at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, New Jersey, told Healthcare IT News earlier this year that the hospital network was able to save $70 million on operational costs by successfully employing predictive analytics. Software programs such as Panasonic’s Clearview platform have helped franchise owners of some of the largest QSR chains grow at a faster rate than their corporate-owned counterparts that still operate on legacy software. These functionalities integrated with the automation capabilities of PanaCIM are already changing the landscape of kitchen and back office interoperability.

icecream infograph

Personalizing experiences

Last month, we wrote about how the hospitality and retail industry are turning to artificial intelligence to create an increasingly nuanced personal experience for their customers. Of all the industries polled in our research, 90 percent say personalization is important to the future success of their company. Furthermore, they believe that the first step is to simplify the customer experience. But there is also a divide about what personalizing the customer experience entails. According to 40 percent of respondents, “personalizing” means making it simpler for customers to engage. Only 20 percent interpret this as “being able to customize services and offerings” by using customer data analytics to predict and impact purchase behavior. 

Personalization in ordering has contributed to the widespread interest and adoption of kiosks in the restaurant industry. McDonalds see kiosks as part its digital growth accelerator that will expand choices for how customers order, pay and are served, according to its latest annual report. Similarly, Subway also announced it was planning to introduce kiosks. In Texas, a number of Dairy Queen restaurants are already reaping benefits of self-service kiosks. 

Brands that have been early adopters of kiosks have reported that the average check size is up to 30 percent higher than at the counter. These kiosks don’t just allow the restaurant to continually upsell through the entire ordering process, but customers are also given the opportunity to fully customize their order, which leads to an increasingly personalized experience.

Authors
Jeff Pinc - Director of Food Services at Panasonic

Inside next-gen manufacturing

next gen factory

Inside next-gen manufacturing

5 minutes

In mid-February, the National Association of Manufacturers kicked off a cross-country trip visiting plants in more than a half-dozen states. The trip started in Troy, Michigan at “Automation Alley.” 

Job growth from Michigan to Buffalo, NY

The trip began as the business of making things faces major changes. Today American manufacturers need to fill some 364,000 jobs, according to a report from Deloitte and NAM. Panasonic manufacturing jobs are among them. In Buffalo, New York, Panasonic is partnering with Tesla in the production of solar cells for roof tiles—a product that integrates high-efficiency photovoltaics with roofing materials—and we’re looking for next-gen workers.

According to the Deloitte/NAM report, over the next couple of years, the number of manufacturing jobs in this country is expected to climb to 3.5 million. What kind of jobs will they be?

Our findings show that most of these new jobs will be created by small to mid-size manufacturers. The majority of American manufacturers are considered “small,” with fewer than 500 employees, according the U.S. Census Bureau. Its data shows that in 2015, there were 251,774 firms in the sector and all but 3,813 were defined as small. 

Disruptive tech in manufacturing

When these manufacturers create jobs tomorrow, they’ll have titles like supply chain specialist, manufacturing execution system developer, electrical technician and analyst. These titles relate to changes brought on by everything from supply chain automation to advanced robotics to artificial intelligence (AI). A few years ago, consulting firm McKinsey identified AI, advanced robotics and IoT among two dozen disruptive technologies that would account for trillions of dollars in economic value. Panasonic is deeply engaged in the advancement of almost half of these technologies. That’s important because when you’re creating experiences, chances are, you’re going to need to stitch together many of them into an integrated solution. Our future is focused on finding ways to apply our disruptive tech expertise to make radically new experiences possible. 

Factory work is becoming a new experience. From Automation Alley in Feb., NAM CEO Jay Timmons talked about how innovation is changing work: “Some people may think ‘automation’ and ‘job creation’ are mutually exclusive. That’s simply not true. Innovation is expanding opportunities and what American workers can do."

Millennials bring new skills to manufacturing

Manufacturers must think about how disruptive technologies will change the way they do business, operate plants and train workers. Automation, for instance, means that a worker will handle more responsibilities and needs additional skills to fulfill them. Big Data skills, for instance, are important to advanced manufacturing. Panasonic’s award-winning PanaCIM is a manufacturing execution system that creates an ecosystem connecting disparate islands of data across an enterprise—production data, MRP/ERP and legacy systems. Understanding and applying such data is key to operating the system.  Millennials (often defined as those now aged 20-40) come to manufacturing with new skills like MES management, but experts say that's just the start. “Millennials have already started changing the manufacturing and supply chains -- and for the better," according to an IndustryWeek report.

In support of growing manufacturers, Panasonic has invested heavily in its vision of a new manufacturing landscape–one that supports companies regardless of size, product mix or skill level. For instance, it designed its MES Manufacturing Execution System software to optimize the supply chain as a full-blown package and as an easy-to-install express system for companies with limited infrastructure. Panasonic introduced pick-and-place equipment that addresses the need for smaller lot sizes and tighter control over work in process and scheduling. Additionally, the Panasonic cloud9 Innovation Center, just outside Chicago, is a comprehensive facility where manufacturers can try out new applications, speak with experts and explore production hardware and complementary technology. 

Learn more about disruptive technology and manufacturing. 

Authors
Faisal Pandit - President of Panasonic Factory Solutions Co. of America