Integrating IoT Technology with Supply Chain Management: A Case Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report explores IoT integration in supply chain management.

Abstract
This report comprises the opportunities with the supply chain management if it is integrated
with the modern technology of IoT or internet of things. These techniques are used for the
help of the industries in case of any ICT based issues or to smooth the process of
management and integration of this new IoT or cloud-based system, first of all, the
researchers need to know about the company and then go through some literature that
explains about the supply chain management and observe what they need for this particular
case study. The IoT technology will integrate to the company management department or ICT
department where it will keep a database of the products of the company hence it will create a
common platform where every retailer can keep information regarding their resources that
they have managed and are provided by the company.
After that using some particular methods that are going to use in this study some limitation
and delimitations are explained of this integration with its significance and ethical issues.
There are various managerial perceptions for the IoT use in the SCM systems. These
perceptions describe the way in which the systems got affected by the use of IoT into the
company infrastructure in both negative and positive ways. To research on the results of the
study, the structural equation modelling technique is used. This research is a combination of
various literatures written by various authors on their research and is a product of their
observations. Hence, this research is a quality report of this particular topic. It can help the
industry to gain knowledge and go to a final decision of implementing IoT services into the
company without any doubt.

Table of Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Section 1 – Research Questions.............................................................................................................3
Section 2 – Conceptual Framework.......................................................................................................5
Section 3 – Literature............................................................................................................................6
Section 4 – Methods..............................................................................................................................8
Section 5 – Significance.........................................................................................................................9
Section 6 – Limitations and Delimitations...........................................................................................10
Limitations.......................................................................................................................................10
Delimitations...................................................................................................................................10
Section 7 - Ethical Issues......................................................................................................................12
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................14
Referencing.........................................................................................................................................15
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework...........................................................................................................5
Table 1: Ethical Issues..........................................................................................................................12

Introduction
For a company with various retailers that want to introduce a technology of their resource
management where they can store them with a proper strategy of supply chain management
and also integrate a IoT or cloud system in their business so that it can be used to circulate a
network into the organisation to produce a output where all the other retailers of that
particular company can share their management regarding their resources. Section 1 explains
research question based on the research report, section 2 explains Conceptual framework
which is basically a technique that describes how one can work with their case studies of any
research. On the basis of some literature reviews, the conceptual framework is designed
according to the case scenario (Paksoy et al. 2016).
Section 3 explains literature review parts related with integration of supply chain
management with the internet of things as Linking IoT into the ICT systems of the company
can increase the growth of the company as IoT will be helpful in connecting these devices
with an internet connection. Section 4 explains various methods and procedures that are used
for the research part in this report. Like they type of research, sampling strategy and sample
size, instruments that are used to collect the data. Procedure to collect the data and the
method for the analysis of the data. Section 5 explains the significance that this research will
impact the working architecture of the company. The management department of the
company will now able to work on a cloud-based network where they will be able to work
according to the new digital technology of virtual space attached with their particular smart
device. Section 6 explains the limitations and delimitations of IoT infrastructure with supply
chain management and the last section 7 explains the ethical issues in this project that can
arise like data anonymity data privacy and others.
Section 1 – Research Questions
1. A proper strategy to develop the qualities that can be helpful in improving the
infrastructure of the company and integrating it with modern technologies like IoT
and cloud infrastructure.
2. Explanation of the conceptual framework of the integrated system with the proper
engagement of all the elements and how does it affect the company before and after
the integration of the internet of things with Supply chain management.

3. The research methodology (Quantitative, Qualitative or mixed) that can be proposed
for the integration of the IoT with the supply chain management system of the
company.
4. The data collection tools that are used for the data collection and data analysis in the
process of integration of the internet of things with Supply chain management.
5. A brief explanation of the procedure of data collection and maintaining data quality.
6. The process of data analysis which is going to follow in this particular research paper
on how the supply chain management is related to the ICT systems and what are the
advantages of integrating the SCM with IOT.
7. An explanation of the significance of this integration. This explains the importance
and outcomes of the integration process or the positive consequences that can be
observed by the company after integrating it with a supply chain management system
of the company that it is currently using.
8. Some limitations and delimitation that are observed by the internet of things system.
How this system can help in maintaining and managing the SCM system of ICT and
what are its boundaries.
9. What are the main ethical issues that can arise while completing this project and with
proper management? Key issues like data anonymity, data privacy, data
confidentiality, and use of research result, intervention and advocacy.
10. Describe supply chain management and also elaborate on what things and the
procedure can be determined using this strategy.
11. The way in which the proper methodology of creating a data sequence is used for the
supply chain management analysis is used.
12. What is sample size, sample strategy and how proper plans of work management into
ICT are done?
13. Specify the proper work management into the supply chain and before and after
implementing the Internet of Things technology into it.
14. On what parameter does the cloud technology and IoT technology work for enhancing
the purpose of company ICT and SCM management?
15. What are the key elements or major parameters that are used to measure the
performance of the supply chain management in the ICT systems?
16. How can the crucial management strategy of SCM or Supply Chain Management be
helpful in providing quality management?

17. ICT systems are used to create the SCM plans, what is the procedure of creating an
SCM plan.
18. What processes are followed while creating an SCM strategy plan? Explain on the
basis of research.
19. Provide particular alternatives to control and monitor the asset and manage resource
storage for the industry.
20. Effect of IoT Capabilities and Energy Consumption behaviour on Supply Chain
Integration with the Internet of Things.
Section 2 – Conceptual Framework
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
A conceptual framework is basically a technique that describes how one can work with their
case studies of any research. On the basis of some literature reviews, the conceptual
framework is designed according to the case scenario. This basically describes that the
functions they are right now preceding for the new project along with the observations from
the Literature are used. A conceptual framework can also be defined as this is the graphical
representation of what a researcher think about a problem and how can he/she represent their
thought about that problem or case scenario in a graphical representation (Chin et al. 2015).
The above mentioned graphical diagram is a representation of the current problem or
opportunity for this company. Here the problem is, for various retailers company want to

introduce a technology of their resource management where they can store them with a
proper strategy of supply chain management and also integrate an IoT or cloud system in
their business so that it can be used to circulate a cloud network into the organisation a
produce an output where all the other retailers of that particular company can share their
management regarding their resources. Implementing cloud system can increase the growth
of the company and also the owner of the company will be able to monitor the supplies from
various retailers as that cloud services will unite them with a network where those retailers
will be able to communicate with the company regarding their supplies and its management
(Ramakrishnan & Ma 2018).
For the integration of part of this new IoT or cloud-based system, first of all, the researchers
need to know about the company and then go through some literature that explains about the
supply chain management and observe what they need for this particular case study. The
above diagram is designed in this way that explains the structure that can be followed for the
implementation and processing of the new technology of IoT for the company. As this
graphical representation of conceptual framework is a theoretical framework and designed on
the basis of knowledge and observation from the literature, this concept based design can be
later modified according to new idea or design that can benefit the company better in this
way. This diagram shows that the internet of things or IoT will be integrated with the network
of the customer as well as the retailers or suppliers of the company. Using this network the
supply chain will be managed by the management staff and they will send a particular report
to the owner about the resources. When conducting this thing it is also considered that there
will be some energy loss in the integration part as IoT is operated by smart devices and
computer connected to the network. In addition to this, a training session will also be required
for the staff by the IoT professionals so that they can get to know about IoT and handle this
technology on their basis afterwards. The training session should be compulsory for the
management staff and as they are going to send a critical report of the Supply Chain to the
owner to keep them updated (Chan 2015).
Section 3 – Literature
According to Shafique, In an organisation, the ICT department is responsible for the
monitoring and managing the company inputs and outputs like storage, transportations,
distribution, orders in the supply chain of the industry. It is also called supply chain
management (SCM). Linking IoT into the ICT systems of the company can increase the

growth of the company as IoT will be helpful in connecting these devices with an internet
connection. Also the retailers, suppliers, clients will be able to contact the manufacturers for
information and data exchange activities. Also RFID, bar codes, sensors can be used to
regrow retailers(Shafique et al. 2018).
According to Shee, Supply chain in an industry is used to increase the revenue by managing
the process of the company like transaction, cost efficiency, effectiveness by the use of ICT
technology. ICT use ERP based system for the business management and transaction
systems. Integrating cloud technology into an ICT department or system of a company can
gradually increase their management capabilities and procedures. The management and
monitoring that can be done using cloud storage and it will enhance the performance of the
supply chain as well. Elements to measure Supply chain performance are responsiveness,
efficiency, flexibility, reliability and cost (Shee et al. 2018).
According to Xu, to level up the SCM or supply chain management into an industry, it is very
appropriate and important to develop a strategy that can improve this crucial element of the
company. The information and communication technology or ICT system draw SCM
architecture to manage its data for a particular place and side, not for the whole company.
Using IoT or internet of things or IoT as an integrated device can be helpful for the company
managing their data and controlling and managing it over the network with real-time
management of quality. Also, Integrating cloud technology into an ICT department or system
of a company can gradually increase their management capabilities and procedures and
according to the researches it came out that role of SOA, workflow management, RFID can
be controlled over IoT networks (Xu 2011).
According to Basset, The supply chain management method that the companies have been
using since a long time isn’t that useful in modern technology and isn’t able to provide the
proper management of the resources of the company. The ICT system creates SCM
architecture to manage its data for a particular place and side, not for the whole company.
The problems that have been arising with the traditional supply chain management are costly,
complexity, uncertainty and other problems. There should be a method that can make smarter
the supply chain to manage and overcome these issues. IoT infrastructure can be used to
merge information and data, products, objects and other things for the management of the
supply chain by building an interactive secure and smart system if supply chain management
(Abdel-Basset et al. 2018).

According to Chin, Internet of things is the technology that is best suitable for the supply
chain management of the information and communication technology systems available with
the vast knowledge of smart technology of networking, monitoring managing the databases.
There are various managerial perceptions for the IoT use in the SCM systems. These
perceptions describe the way in which the systems got affected by the use of IoT into the
company infrastructure in both negative and positive ways. To research on the results of the
study, the structural equation modelling technique is used. Research on both the IoT and
cloud explains that this technology should be used in an individual infrastructure of a
company to produce noticeable outputs (Chin et al. 2015).
Section 4 – Methods
This research is regarding the integration of IoT technology with supply chain management.
Supply chain management for a company works to produce quality as well as quantity of
product like improving their quality, productivity, efficiency. Therefore, the integration of the
Internet of things with the supply chain of current firm product and services production
system will increase its product benefit. Hence the suitable process for this kind of project,
research methodology will be both Qualitative and Quantitative. In the qualitative process,
there will be a strategy to work on the ethical parameter while in the quantitative process the
research will be based using numerical parameters like sample size and strategy (Xu 2011).
Sample strategy is the plan in which one decides a strategy that is going to follow in the
project with sample collection and to data analyse data. Here, Sample will be taken according
to the number of employees that are working in the company. The samples will be based on
the upcoming strategy and in a gradually increasing order these samples will be collected of
approximately 100 employees working with the department of ICT. First of all 20 employees
will be asked about current SCM system and before and after integration and then with 40
employees and so on (Rani 2015).
To collect the data within the organisation and with the externals retailers, there will be a
survey conducted which will be able to define the thought of the retailers about an IoT or
cloud infrastructure system so that they can monitor their asset or available resources to make
a list of availability. For this, in this survey the retailers may be asked about their thinking
regarding the procedure of IoT and their opinion of implementing this option with proper ICT
protocols followed for the same.

To collect the research data, there are very common points like the data can be collected
arranging interview questionnaire with the retailers out there in the market and asking about
related questions, there fact finding and opinions can be used to collect data. Oral history and
past case studies can be also used to manage the collected database with a particular way of
arrangement. These databases can be then used to generate reports and records to represent it
in front of the sponsor for further decision on this integration project.
For the analysis of the data, the statistical data analysis technique can be used. This technique
is used for the business intelligence and it involves data collection and scrutinizing the data
samples in a proper set of substances using which the statistical sample can be made. This
kind of data analysis technique has five steps. First is nature description of the data to be
analysed, second is data relation with population of industry, then a representing model that
can show how are population and data is connected to each other, approval of model validity
and a predictive analysis to run case scenarios for future guidance (Rouse 2014).
Section 5 – Significance
This research is proposed for the companies working with multiple suppliers or retailer in the
market and providing them with their product to sell out to the people. To make quick
management and monitoring the resources with each supplier or retailer, this research is
intended to provide them with a technology that the company can use to manage their
resources with the various retailers out there. The IoT technology will integrate to the
company management department or ICT department where it will keep a database of the
products of the company hence it will create a common platform where every retailer can
keep information regarding their resources that they have managed and are provided by the
company. Supply chain management is normally a technique where the flow of services and
good is managed with their storage and transaction (Schniederjans et al. 2016).
Hence this research will impact the working architecture of the company. The management
department of the company will now able to work on a cloud-based network where they will
be able to work according to the new digital technology of virtual space attached with their
particular smart device or computer to produce accuracy in controlling the major and minor
response with their products and services that are available at various retailers (Majeed &
Rupasinghe 2017).

This research is a combination of various literatures written by various authors on their
research and is a product of their observations. Hence, this research is a quality report of this
particular topic. It can help the industry to gain knowledge and go to a final decision of
implementing IoT services into the company without any doubt. All the research method and
technologies used with this research comes under the law and the content is legitimate.
Talking about the outcomes of this report is that it is a product of various author’s thoughts
and hence concludes the best result of applying the IoT framework to the company’s ICT
department so that they can increase their basic deliveries with better accuracy (Cui 2018).
Section 6 – Limitations and Delimitations
Limitations
 IoT devices are some daily life digital devices that are used. IoT integration cannot be
established without these digital devices like smart printers, smartphones, smart TVs,
radios, modem and any machine that can be digitally connected to any other machine
with network and without any human connection.
 IoT technology is a networking based technology that is going to implement into the ICT
systems of that particular company to manage the resources associated with various
retailers. Without a network connection, or any Radio Frequency ID tag, these devices
can’t connect to each other for data & information storage and resources management.
 IoT infrastructure needs a network to join its devices and hence dependent on a network
connection. Also, IoT is a framework that can be established on some devices. Before the
network implementation, the IoT needs devices also as a hardware component and can’t
be implemented without them (Maguire & Delahunt 2017).
Delimitations
 IoT can be used to select an optimal path and route the devices towards some particular
job.
 IoT is optimized with a reconfigurable network in which the network can be designed
according to the industry and also can be reconfigured according to the industry need.
 IoT is used with maximum resource utilization. IoT provides better use of all the
available resources and can be managed as per the need of the owner.
 IoT has the best advantage that it works on real-time marketing manner. All the
information and data is provided in such a way that the data transaction is noted to the
main ICT server with real and accurate time stamps.

 It also lowers the cost of an organisation as there is almost no additional need for specific
costly devices to implement this framework.
Section 7 - Ethical Issues
Table 1: Ethical Issues
Issue Name Issue Description Occurrence
Probability Solution
Data
Anonymity or
Data
Confidentiality
Data anonymity is the
technique of data refining
where the data is protected
by encrypting it or removing
the personal information of a
user from it. Issue can be
like disclosing of
anonymous data or data
breach that may hurt privacy
of user (Tu 2018).
Medium
To keep data confidential
and protected from
unauthorized accesses,
malware and malicious
software, it should be
carefully noted that use of
some anti-malware and theft
detectors can solve this
problem as these software
identifies any theft or
suspicious action taken by
particular software into its
infrastructure and notifies
the engineers about it.
Data Privacy
Data privacy is an issue is a
major issue in IoT services.
Company will be daily
uploading and downloading
big amount of data. This
data will contain private
information of user and can
be hacked by various
unauthorized access and
malicious software (Chen
2016).
Medium
To keep data safe from
unauthorized accesses,
malware and malicious
software, and to protect its
privacy, use of anti-malware
and theft detectors can help.
This software identifies any
theft or suspicious action
taken by particular software
into its infrastructure and
notifies the engineers about
it.

Research
Result Use
Research will be conducted
in a proper manner where all
the factual findings and
conclusion will be emerged
to get an accurate outcome
regarding integrating supply
chain management with IoT
services. Therefore, these
results should be accurate in
sense to achieve the desired
result or deliverables.
Low
Here comes the point of
project governance. Project
governance allows one to
manage their project in a
manner that the outcomes are
focused by milestone
achievements or short term
goals so that it can be
ensured that the project is in
line or on correct path.
Intervention
and advocacy
Intervention and advocacy
issues arise due to
unconvinced members of
project.
Project goal should be clear
to all project members and
they must know the
significance of this project.