IoT Tracking Improves In-Bound Logistics for PSA

Groupe PSA (groupe-psa.com) is implementing a system that enables their shipping containers—inbound, from suppliers to factories—to be tracked over a digital network in real time. The system, called Track&Trace, was developed with IBM’s Internet of Things technology division (ibm.com/IoT) and IoT service provider Sigfox (sigfox.com), in consultation with Groupe PSA’s logistic experts.

The system uses IBM’s cloud-based Watson IoT technology to enable containers equipped with customized sensors to be tracked over Sigfox’s international data network. That network, which Sigfox calls “0G” (as opposed to 4G or 5G), is a low-power, wide-area (LPWA) category network designed to be accessed using much less energy and at a lower cost than, for example, cellular networks. The network is currently available in 60 countries, according to Sigfox.

“The Track&Trace system allows us to know, individually and in detail, where our containers are located,” explains Yann Vincent, Groupe PSA Executive VP of Manufacturing & Supply Chain.

The system allows Groupe PSA to optimize container rotation between various supplier sites and factories, improving production line uptime and reducing waste, Vincent says. “This is a real disruption and a new step in the digitalization of the Supply Chain.”

The system currently is being used for shipments between select PSA suppliers and factories. Before the year is out, the three companies plan to make the system available to other European manufacturers.