Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) is an industry that primarily combines consumer goods with multiple product categories like health, home, beverages, personal care, along with its marketing, production, and distribution. Statistically, the global FMCG market is expected to reach $15,361.8 billion by the end of the year 2025. It includes many factors like a tremendous surge in eCommerce trends, R&D for new products and business markets, and expansion of FMCG in remote areas of the developing countries. However, FMCG is set to incorporate technologies like IoT to set up production process flexibility, improve the industrial functioning with real-time data, operate through predictive analytics, improvise the equipment potential, and deploy effective employees. The Internet of Things is one of the fastest and most disruptive technologies in current times. With automation and analytics as its expertise in various industries, the technology is rapidly rising in the FMCG market with a CAGR of 17.52% by 2026.
The Internet of Things technology is booming across most industries, as we all know. The amount of IoT devices is said to increase significantly with the acceptance of automation to process business functioning. The Internet of Things is becoming the keystone for conducting productive consumer-driven activities, providing suggestive options and updated models to boost their existing preferences. The FMCG sector is also looking forward to improving its production quality with IoT, thus, reducing the supply/availability challenges. This also results in the cost reduction of hardware maintenance and services in the fast-moving consumer goods space. But how does IoT technology specializes in scaling up the production quality for the FMCG sector? Let’s understand the same.
The Contributing Features of IoT Technology in FMCG
IoT significantly increases the potential of businesses with local management through automated processing and data-driven insights. It further enables better decision-making among FMCG businesses by providing historical data with suggestive analysis. The consumer businesses are purposefully helping with installing IoT technology via targeted collaboration across the organization and effective analytics to reduce factory downtime or excess supply chain wastage. Here are the major contributing features of IoT technology that help improve the production quality of businesses.
1) Real-time Monitoring
IoT technology uses sensor abilities to extract relevant information from the assets. The FMCG sector includes different verticals of multiple products, where sensor-based technology effectively provides real-time insights to the managers. They enable quick decision-making while improving the production quality of the FMCG businesses. For instance, if a beverage business requires level monitoring of its products, an IoT-based smart level monitoring solution provides accurate results and insights to match the adequacy of demand & supply. It offers a one-stop solution to the clients, automating the entire processing and delivering ready-to-use insights for business growth.
2) Advanced Analytics
IoT technology has an in-built system, which assists in analysing the real-time situation of the process. With the help of advanced analytics, the industrialists have clear visibility of the production floor for smooth functioning. Also, analytics largely covers the delivery segment, making optimising the networks much easier and quicker. This results in improved efficiency and serves according to the dynamicity of consumer behaviour. Many businessmen from the FMCG domain are leveraging the benefits of installing smart solutions and revamping the marketing and operations segment for profitable results.
3) Detailed Insights
Almost every industry seeks an eye for detail and expects a solution that provides detailed insights on improving productivity. Here, IoT technology plays a critical role by supplying varied solutions for businesses, including the sensor-based architecture and advanced algorithms for analytics. This enables the industrialists to gain detailed insights into consumer behaviour and their buying patterns, directly impacting the strategic product sales for the FMCG business. The managers can easily improve their work abilities by procuring relevant industrial insights and making effective decisions.
4) Fleet Management
Most businesses face challenges with the timely estimate of the product delivery, whether it is getting delayed, on time, or its real-time status. Here, IoT-powered fleet management comes into play with advanced options of real-time monitoring, a data-driven approach, systematically engaged supply chain processing and interconnected smart devices. A smart fleet management approach is essential for tracking and maintaining a large pool of networks across all relevant businesses. Also, it is one of the most advancing ways in which businesses accept the technological revolution and gain benefits like supply chain transparency for better business opportunities.
5) Smart Inventory Management
In an FMCG business, inventory management is one of the main aspects that need regular supervision and real-time monitoring. IoT-based solutions for smart inventory management eliminate errors and set up high possibilities of keeping the products systematically organized. The sensors, when installed, extract asset data like their position, condition, and other relevant specifications, enabling the managers with the required industrial information for better production. In the case of a milk business, the manager can easily identify his inventory quality and the amount which would be required for the next lot.
CONCLUSION:
IoT technology in the FMCG business is raising its bar by providing industrialists with infinite business opportunities. Automation and sensor-based process execution are booming across the entire business network, thus increasing their profits and productivity. IoT technology, as a whole, is a complete package of varied solutions to minimize manual efficiency and increase revenue in less time. It enables the FMCG businesses with real-time monitoring, data-driven analytics, accurate results, smart inventory management, and an effective supply chain network that accumulates to strengthen the overall industrial outcome. Hence, we can say that IoT is advanced and specialized in improving the production quality of FMCG industries through smart techniques.
