This report provides Transforma Insights’ view on the Inventory Management & Monitoring market. This segment comprises Stock Level Monitoring, Electronic Shelf Labels and Warehouse Management Systems.
As is common for many commercial IoT applications, efficiency improvements are the primary driver behind the adoption of Inventory Management & Monitoring solutions. There are considerable benefits for reducing the workload on employees, freeing them up for other higher-skilled tasks and reducing the errors associated with manual inventory tracking. Greater knowledge of the stored quantity of goods and their flow enables the optimisation of inventories, allowing businesses to operate with a leaner inventory reducing the space and capital dedicated to inventory, or for a greater variety of goods for a given floor space. The growth of e-commerce has also put considerable pressure on improvements in logistics and supply chain processes with customers expecting greater speed of delivery and accelerated fulfilment times compelling companies to adopt inventory management and warehouse automation solutions.
One obstacle to adoption is that many of the tasks that Inventory Management & Monitoring automate can be achieved by suitably equipped employees and extensive use of barcodes. Other IoT solutions such as drones and AI-based video monitoring solutions are also being increasingly used for inventory management, which will limit the market to an extent.
The report provides a detailed definition of the sector, analysis of market development and profiles of the key vendors in the space. It also provides a summary of the current status of adoption and Transforma Insights’ ten-year forecasts for the market. The forecasts include analysis of the number of IoT connections by geography, the technologies used and revenue.
A full set of forecast data, including country-level forecasts, sector break-downs and public/private network splits, is available through the IoT Forecast tool.
This section of the report begins with the argument that efficiency improvement is the principal driver behind the adoption of inventory management and monitoring solutions and the benefits of these solutions like reducing the workload on employees (which allows them to be engaged in other higher-skilled tasks), using the data to monitor employee performance (leading to greater operational efficiency), and reducing the risk of damaged goods remaining undetected (resulting in the loss of revenue opportunities).
It also discusses how the growth of e-commerce businesses (which should capture around 41% of global sales by 2027) will put more pressure on improvements in logistics and supply chain processes, which in turn, will encourage greater adoption of inventory management & monitoring solutions. Besides, this section also estimates the scope for these solutions, based on the increasing demand for warehouses. It then explains how upcoming regulations have also encouraged increased monitoring of goods, rendering non-IoT solutions inadequate, which will lead to greater adoption of warehouse management systems.
This section also discusses the challenges faced by these systems. For instance, many tasks of these systems can be achieved through equipped employees and extensive use of barcodes. So, in regions where wages are low (like in densely populated countries), business entities may not be inclined towards deploying warehouse management systems. It also discusses IoT solutions like drones (since they can scan barcodes and RFID tags) and AI-based video monitoring solutions, that are being increasingly deployed for inventory management, which can negatively impact the scope of inventory management and monitoring market.
This section has been further divided into the following categories:
This subsection first defines what Stock Level Monitoring is and then lists its benefits, like improving on-time deliveries and supplier lead times. It then explains some common ways these technologies are deployed to manage stocks, how they work, and their benefits. For example, RFID tags allow inventory scans in near real-time. It goes on to explain the merits of maintaining optimum stock levels across various verticals like manufacturing, logistics, transportation & storage, hospitality, agriculture, and oil & gas. It also explains how stock level monitoring helps in ensuring sustainability. For instance, Walmart uses RFID tags to track its inventory accurately and to reduce unnecessary truck deliveries.
It also discusses the wide range of connectivity options in use for Stock Level Monitoring and their benefits over one another. This section also provides a few examples of relevant IoT deployments in this application, such as Viva Energy remote fuel station monitoring.
This section first charts the drivers of ESLs (Electronic Shelf Labels) for various businesses (including e-commerce, click & collect stores, and completely unmanned stores) and lists some of the features and usability of ESLs (like enabling stock to be updated digitally to ensure pricing accuracy). It then discusses the future market opportunity of ESL as per Transforma Insights’ IoT forecast, and charts the reason for such wide adoption, such as very low level of functional and deployment complexity and the low cost of these devices from a hardware, maintenance, and communications perspective. It also talks about the average price of ESL devices and their payback time.
It then discusses the connectivity technologies used in ESL devices and provides some examples of relevant IoT deployments in this application, including a French DIY store installing electronic shelf labels from Pricer.
This section first discusses how automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are being used by business enterprises to automate their warehouse tasks, including order picking (which engages maximum labourers) and sorting parcels. For instance, by deploying AMRs in its warehouse, Ryder System increased its productivity by 25%.
It then lists some of the challenges faced by Warehouse Management Systems (such as high upfront costs) that may stop enterprises from adopting this technology at scale. It also discusses the probable solutions to deal with this challenge. For instance, many companies offer RaaS (Robotics as a Service), which can be availed to avoid expensive robots. It also discusses the communication technologies used in Warehouse Management Systems (including Short Range, 4G, and 5G) and lists some examples of relevant IoT deployments in this application, such as Dana improving its warehouse logistics with FlexQube's eQart.
The key vendors section lists some of the main providers of products and services related to the inventory management and monitoring market such as Nanolike, Milesight, Haltian, Hanshow, Vusion Group, Pricer, 6 River Systems, Boston Dynamics, Fetch Robotics, and Locus Robotics. The report provides profiles of the various vendors including aspects most relevant to this Application Group, such as product offerings, pricing, financial results, and technology.
In the market forecasts section, we provide a summary of the forecasts from the Transforma Insights IoT Forecast Database:
The report charts the growth in the number of devices, which will grow from 975 million in 2023 to 3 billion in 2033.
Transforma Insights forecasts are compiled on a country-by-country basis. This report includes a regional summary, showing splits between Australasia, Greater China, North America, Europe, Japan, Latin America, MENA, Russia & Central Asia, South East Asia, South Korea, India & South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Transforma Insights’ IoT forecasts include splits between the various connectivity technologies as follows: 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G mMTC, 5G non-mMTC, LPWA (non-mMTC), Satellite, Short Range, and Other.
This section discusses which technologies will be used in the inventory management & monitoring application group.
This part of the report discusses the market growth in terms of revenue (module revenue, service wrap revenue, and VAC revenue). Transforma Insights estimates that the revenue in the Inventory Management & Monitoring Application Group will grow at a CAGR of 10%.
