A Study on the Effect of the IoT Technology on SCM

Abstract

In order to maximize profitability by optimizing the entire supply chain process, enterprises have made efforts to apply IT technologies such as POS, MES, and TMS. In addition, academic societies have also made efforts to verify the effects of IT technology introduction through various researches. However, until now, there is almost no research that analyzes the relationship between the IoT, a new IT technology, and the SCM. To study the effect of IoT technology on SCM, this study conducted professional Delphi surveys for three times. Through this method, this study analyzed changes that will be caused by the IoT technology, the priority area in IoT introduction, and the expected difficulty in IoT introduction on SCM. As a result of the Delphi surveys and analyses, it was expected that when IoT technology is introduced, the level of SCM’s IT use and partnership will increase. However, the effect of the increased performance of the supply chain, which includes inventory management and quality control, will become weaker. The reason is that the development of operation and management skills, as well as the improvement of IT technology, are also important elements for the performance improvement of the supply chain. As for the priority area in IoT introduction, it was expected that the effect will be greater when IoT is introduced in customer service, transportation, and delivery areas. As difficulties in IoT technology introduction, such as the shortage of IoT platform development personnel, standardization, integration with the existing system, securing professional manpower, expenses, data management, and operation, were derived, it has thus become necessary for us to exert greater efforts in order to come up with solutions.