In a 2017 study, Gartner (News - Alert) reported there were more IoT devices in the world than human inhabitants. In business, those IoT devices provide a level of security and risk management that has never been seen before. That’s good, right? Generally speaking, yes, but with so many alarm alerts from remote monitoring, it’s almost impossible for workers to pay attention to all of them, and that puts retail, from big box, department stores, and traditional retailers at risk. Let’s look at one specific retail sector – grocery stores – to show how.
In grocery stores, with an abundance of refrigeration to be monitored, there can be an incredible amount of alarms set off every day. I was speaking recently with a grocery chain with 350 locations. Each store has 500 IoT devices, with an average of ten data points monitored per device. That amounts to 1.75 million data signals. When operations are going smoothly, with only 0.1 percent alarms per day, that still amounts to 1,750 alarms. Or, about five alarms per day per store.
There’s no doubt IoT is making grocers better manage their infrastructure, with refrigeration being a compelling use case. This is due to the dollar value of the inventory, the importance of products to consumers and the significant risks to revenue, profit, and safety when a grocery case loses power or stops cooling properly.
The problem is that most alarms generated by IoT devices are low-level alarms, meaning they are about conditions that do not really need immediate attention. And with more devices triggering more alarms, in-store personnel are being trained to IGNORE alarms.
It makes sense that store personnel don’t want to be chasing the latest alert of Freezer #3C going above 25’ F for the fifth time in a week. They have much more important things to tend to like sales, merchandising displays, managing inventory and servicing customers.
But, ignoring a valid alarm, or not acting on it promptly and properly, can have severe consequences. United Supermarkets had strong processes, but not strong enough. Before fully automating their IoT alarm monitoring and response, they were throwing away at least $300,000 per year of product that had gone off-temperature for more than four hours due to ignored alarms. Since implementing a fully automated alarm handling and dispatch system, they haven’t had a catastrophic product failure in three years.
There are a few keys to creating a remote monitoring system that truly works to avoid the risks of ignored alarms. These apply to most retail businesses, not just grocers:
IoT-driven remote monitoring in retail works only when a business has the correct alarm management system and procedures in place. If it does, disasters can be averted, money can be saved, a competitive advantage will evolve, and the business will be streamlined, safe, and compliant.
About the author: Mike Parks is Senior Vice President, IoT Strategy for Accruent, a global software company that helps organizations achieve superior performance by transforming how they manage their physical resources. Accruent’s cloud-based software and services enables organizations to optimize all stages of real estate, facilities and asset management, from capital planning through to IoT-based monitoring and control.