How DiscoveryIoT’s solution can improve the Consumer Durable industry
Consumer durables are a category of consumer products that do not have to be purchased frequently because they are made to last for an extended period of time (typically more than three years). They are also called durable goods or durables. Durables have an extended product life and are not worn out or consumed quickly when you use them. Since consumer durables usually represent big-ticket items, both consumers and businesses will typically make these purchases only when they are confident they can afford them. Also, orders for durable goods can foreshadow an increase or decrease in industrial production. Over the last two years, DiscoveryIot has made plans to impact the consumer durables sector in a big way. Their solutions will be helping the durable industry overcome the hurdles in place. The consumer durables market in India is estimated to have reached INR 1 trillion (US$ 15.5 billion) in 2017. The given illustration shows the Indian industry analysis of the consumer durables.
Image credits: MakeinIndia
The Major Hurdles
Since the durables are made to last, they are typically more expensive than non-durable goods that have to be purchased over and over again. During a recession, when consumers have less confidence in the economy, there’s an increased risk that demand for durable goods will decrease. This is important to remember when investing in companies that produce durables. The most eminent challenges faced by the durable industry are due to the absence of transparency and visibility in their network. Transparency describes a window into the current stock levels, contrary to which, visibility is the discoverability of the stock values and associated behaviours by internal and external stakeholders across the network. While visibility is similar to transparency, the differences are a key to understanding what makes modern business solutions successful. The simplest explanation is to say what’s visible is technically transparent, but what’s transparent might not be necessarily visible. Without proper visibility into the stock levels, enterprises face what is known as stock-outs and stock obsolescence. As the consumer durable industry runs on a very high channel inventory of around 60 days from parts manufacturing to the store; ineffectual management of the inventory is also a noticeable challenge. Because of the unsuccessful optimization of the inventories as per the customer demands, various delays in the delivery occur thereby increasing the number of unsatisfied customers. The durable industry is also plagued by the inherent lack of data sharing through various layers of the channel.
The Feasible Panacea
As mentioned above, the most pronounced challenges in the durables industry are the absence of visibility and transparency which thereby lead to the issue of stock obsolescence and inefficient inventory management giving rise to unsatisfied customers. Through the most effective supply chain management solutions, DiscoveryIoT is specifically providing solutions to companies that have a requirement for tracking of their products through a channel. The consumer durables industry is thus one of their primary focusses. DiscoveryIoT believes that by the virtue of the intensity of the aforementioned factors, visibility of stock levels would add tremendous value to brands/manufacturers. They would not only be able to plan their production and shipping better, but also give much better visibility to their component suppliers and vendors. The company is thus developing a miniature IoT tag called the Cliot, which can be attached to products to be tracked for better inventory management. Using the protocols of WiFi and Bluetooth communication, the information from the tag is transmitted across the network layer to reach the cloud storage. Surprisingly, this tag has been developed at an extremely affordable cost of $0.10 hence quite attractive to the entire consumer durables industry.
Therefore
On the sidelines of an extremely vibrant atmosphere created by various projects worldwide, the consumer durables industry is growing at a healthy pace. Unfazed by the challenges, the industry continues to be optimistic with its alignment to a broader agenda. The durables industry, therefore, has different intermediaries which keep growing individually, leading to the growth of the industry as a whole. To succeed in the next 15 years, manufacturers will need to stretch their operating models in new directions that provide solutions to every kind of problem thereby making ideal the industry of consumer durables.
