Visualization techniques in Logistics : Case study on the strategy development for logistics network in Internet of Things era

Abstract: Twenty years ago, if someone said that every object could have its own identity, no one would agree and some might even think that was crazy. However, it turns out that the wild imagination is possible today. With the help of the Internet of Things (IoT), it is convenient to identify any objects with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and control the objects via the Internet. In the near future, people will even make the IoT network visible, thus all the information on the Internet can become dynamic and much easier to understand than numbers to be.   At the moment, Guiyang Municipal Science & Technology Bureau is planning to design and apply visualization technique to logistics, the focus of Guizhou Provincial logistic network in the IoT era. This is a good opportunity for different kinds of enterprises in theGuizhoudistrict or even in the whole country.   This thesis focuses on three problems, namely, discussion on the use of visualization techniques in IoT, the necessary preparation of manufacturing industry to join in the visible IoT and measures available that the government can adopt. The exploratory case study in this thesis is about the visualization technique in IoT in manufacturing industry in theGuizhouProvince. A company was selected for the case study to explore the situation inGuizhouProvince. The related information was collected through interviews with relevant personnel and observation in the company. To bring a clear view of the situation and provide enterprises with information for reference, SWOT analysis is adopted to evaluate the strength and weakness in both the internal and external environment. Those measures that government can take to promote its development include unification in standards, support in research and development of technology and emphasis on personal privacy.   The conclusion shows that the use of visualization techniques in IoT can promote information transmission both in effectiveness and efficiency, and control the supply chain as well as special processes in an efficient way. Discussions have been conducted on four techniques which are able to realize visualization, including GPS, RFID, bar code and machine vision. The preparation that needs to be done in a progressive way, of manufacturing enterprises mainly involves three aspects: equipment, system, and management; which have been discussed in detail in this study. Only totally combining the three aspects, not a single one can be omitted, can enterprises achieve the goal of growth in benefit and costs reduction through the use of IoT. Due to immaturity of the emerging network and technology, in the future, the IoT still has a long way to go. Certainly, we should not ignore the followed huge benefit and improvement that IoT can bring.