Supply Chain & Logistics

Accurate real time data enabling better informed business decisions.

Whilst globalisation and multi-supplier environments are great for business growth they can lead to a lack of visibility and bottlenecks in your supply chain. Overcoming these challenges requires accurate business intelligence that gives you 360° visibility over all you assets and key personnel to help you determine the best asset lifecycle strategy to save time and money. The Orion Data Network allows you to reap the benefits of predictive maintenance, increased availability of containers and spare parts, route optimisation and faster turnaround times for your customers.

Benefits of Orion for Supply Chain & Logistics Sector

The Orion Data Network is affordable technology that simplifies data communication by removing the need for a mobile phone network. The system is highly scalable and very flexible so you can decide what kind of services and application you require to meet your particular business goals and budget.

The accurate real-time business intelligence that Orion provides allows you to make better and more informed business decisions, create a much higher level of automation throughout your supply chain, eliminate bottlenecks and predict your maintenance requirements.

NFC Group hybrid vehicle tracking

Supply Chain & Logistics Challenges

The main challenges in the modern supply chain are:

  • Globalisation has extended the size of the supply chain and the number of partners involved in transporting assets and goods. This multi supplier landscape is complex and open to human error.
  • Assets and goods may be transported by land, sea or air in the course of one journey, which makes it harder to have total visibility over the supply chain.
  • Multiple transportation modes can make route optimisation difficult.
  • Empty pallets and containers are frequently only collected from the final stop on a journey when the vehicle is empty, to avoid having to unload full containers to load up empty ones. Pallets therefore either build up at other stops or go missing.
  • Spare parts are bought based on estimated usage which is not always correct, or do not take into account how long it takes for each part to be repaired. This means maintenance and repair schedules are not optimised which causes delay and expense for both the customer and the supplier.

How the Orion Data Network Streamlines the Supply Chain

 

Smarter Technologies Group’s Orion Data Network combines RFID, GPS and IoT technologies to create a highly accurate real-time tracking, monitoring and recovery solution that gives you 360° visibility over your assets and people.

Accuracy & Speed

Orion operates over a broadcast network rather than a control channel network. Many other available solutions on the market utilise a control channel network and, when you start to use these systems at scale, you get control channel overlap, which causes inaccuracies and slows the system down. With Orion’s broadcast system, you can scale up the system as your business grows. You can use as many Orion gateways as you require and place them wherever needed and the data speed and accuracy remains at the same level, as there is no overlap. The enables real-time monitoring and highly accurate data feedback across your entire supply chain.

Fault Tolerance

The system uses RSSI (Received Signal Strength Information) for communication between the tags and the gateways. Each transmission is heard by every single gateway that’s within range, which eliminates the usual inaccuracies and faults associated with other comparable solutions in the market place.

Security

The Orion Data Network is not susceptible to hacking, blocking and cyber attacks in the same way as other market solutions, so it is far more secure. Also, if you want to track sensitive high security assets, we can implement a ‘double blind’ system that hides the real identity of each attached tag.

Infinite Scalability at Low Cost

The Orion system can be easily expanded by adding more tags and gateways, as required. The more of your sites or suppliers’ sites that have gateways, the more integrated the management of assets will be within the overall system and the better time and cost savings you will enjoy.

Orion offers up to 75% better cost savings than other comparable solutions in the market place.

Digital & Analogue Mode

Orion tags come in both GPS and non-GPS types. The tags are able to transmit in either digital or analogue mode. This means when you are seeking to recover an asset that is missing from your supply chain you can switch to analogue mode with a hand-held directional scanner. The hand-held device enables you to pin point the exact location of your lost or stolen asset.

Long Battery Life

Orion’s broadcast based system gives a longer and more predictable tag battery life. In other market solutions that use a control channel system, the tags must search for available control channels in order to operate. This can cause the battery life at the device end to vary by up to 300%. With Orion, you can predict your battery life and therefore predict your maintenance schedules properly.

Fast Installation

All our asset tracking, monitoring and recovery solutions over the Orion Data Network, are simple and fast to implement on any type of site and can be integrated with your existing systems.

Automation & Optimisation

Orion automates your asset management throughout your supply chain and gives you better control with 360 degree visibility, greater flexibility and infinite scalability.

You can predefine the type of data sets you require to give you the right business intelligence insights for your particular business. This data can then be shared across your business and throughout your supply chain, even with third-party partners. This means you can see where there are bottlenecks that are slowing down the movement of your assets and eating into your budget and profits.

Orion enables demand planning, better inventory management, predictive maintenance scheduling, enhanced productivity, theft prevention, spare part management, better route efficiency and faster delivery. The end result is a streamlined supply chain and better logistics, which saves you money and allows you to provide a better customer experience to your clients while protecting your brand reputation.

Orion’s Software

Access to Orion’s data is via a website with an HTML 5 front end, so that it looks great an is easy to view on anything from a desktop to an iPhone. An interesting note on the software is that the data can be fed back and integrated, via an API, into your other existing management systems. The Oil and Gas companies, for example, refer to this as a ‘daily global audit’.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Orion is designed to prevent waste throughout your supply chain and make everything faster and more efficient. This reduces your carbon footprint so you can meet your environmental goals more easily.

Route Optimisation

You may already be checking for optimum routes for transporting assets, goods and people throughout your supply chain. However, in the case of recovering and reusing empty pallets, what appears to be the optimum route may actually be causing you to lose or abandon containers and pallets, which negatively impacts your top and bottom lines. This is because drivers usually only pick up empty containers at the last stop on their route so that they don’t have to unload heavy full containers in order to load the empty ones. Orion can give you useful insights into where your empty containers are and then work out a sub-optimal route for your driver to take, once or twice a month, to pick up more of your empty containers for reuse. Over time this greatly increases asset life and saves your business a great deal of money.

Benefits of Using Orion in Your Supply Chain

Real time data from sensors and tracking tags

Customise your data sets to include information on identification, location, temperature, shock, tilt, tamper, pressure, damage, route, delivery time, productivity, fuel usage, status, rerouting, theft and fraud

Increase supply chain transparency and visibility

Track monitor and recover goods in production, in transit and in the warehouse

Digital proof of delivery

Daily Global Audit

Optimise your supply chain to deliver goods on time and within budget

Customise your Orion reporting to align with your desired business outcomes

Improve workforce and third-party productivity

Deter and prevent unauthorised vehicle and equipment use

Prevent theft and fraud

Reduce costs by up to 75% more than with other comparable technologies

Identify, manage and reduce supply chain risks

Respond faster to emergencies and take action to prevent future issues

Ensure compliance with Global Regulations and laws

Route optimisation

Protect lone workers

Reduce insurance liability

Improve your reverse logistics to retrieve pallets, kegs and empty storage containers

Offer services to other companies operating within your facility

No contract or ongoing cost

Features of Orion for Supply Chain & Logistics Sector

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Easily attaches to the Ethernet port

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The Orion Gateways control key access points

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Utilises a Low Frequency RFID Signal

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Enables long-range monitoring, 500 meters to 10KM radius of the Gateways

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GPS tags enable real time tracking, monitoring and reporting

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Non-GPS tags enable tamper alerts and enhance logistics

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Temperature tags

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Switch tags attach to fire and smoke detectors

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Small tags requiring only AAA to D cell sized battery

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Real-time Visibility (RTLS)

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Directional antennae

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The Orion Data Network is entirely independent of GSM

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Orion is highly adaptive and simple to deploy

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For large scale infrastructure projects the tags tend to be in an IP67, waterproof and dust proof case, with an external aerial and a year or more of battery power

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Intelligent Data – a suite of API’s and online asset management system capable of managing all of your physical assets and billing reports with greater efficiency and clarity

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3-year battery reporting in real time with customisable reports

To find out how your business can benefit from this highly efficient asset management solution and bring you up to 75% higher cost savings than other tracking technologies call Smarter Technologies Group.

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Call on 0330 223 5000

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Smarter Technologies Group 1 Austin Park, Yeoman Road, Ringwood, BH24 3FG, United Kingdom

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