Reference no: EM132265217

Internet of Things (IoT) Assignment -

Project and required specifications -

1. Design and conceptualize an IoT solution to address the following case:

Case Workflow: A tractor manufacturer stores 3000 tractors in its yard as a stock to fulfill the dynamic demands in the market. There are various categories of tractors and they are placed all over in the yard. Due to the unpredictable demand of a category of a tractor, manufacturer cannot allocate a fixed area for each category. Hence, whenever there is a demand of a tractor, a supervisor assigns the category to the driver to find, pick up and park the tractor in the loading bay ready for shipment.

Challenge: As the internal logistics team does not know the exact location of a tractor, they spend a lot of time to assign, find and drive tractor to the loading bay. The pickup vehicle at the loading bay has a scheduled arrival and departure time, hence it cannot tolerate any delay caused by the internal logistics team. Hence, the current process is very inefficient.

Solution Requirements: Tractor manufacturer is looking for an IoT solution which should be able to:

(i) Locate a tractor at its exact location in the yard at any point of time.

(ii) Reduce the internal logistics operation cycle time by at least 30%

(iii) Improve the dynamic schedule workflow with real time stock visibility.

(iv) Minimize human intervention once the solution is deployed.

(v) Minimize maintenance and operational cost of the solution.

(vi) Reduce CAPEX investment in the solution.

(vii) Assure end to end security of the solution.

Your project will be assessed based on your ability to design, fulfilment of specification and the report.

Question 1 - Problem Definition:

(a) Propose and explain FOUR (4) other business and operational problems the tractor manufacturer might be facing due to the above-mentioned inefficiencies in the internal logistics process. Provide table and description.

(b) Prioritise and quantify those four problems in order of their impact to the business (from high to low). Provide table and description.

Question 2 - Workflow Design:

(a) Plan the operational workflow for the above problem. Provide block diagram and description.

(b) Highlight and explain the conditions and dependencies of workflow activities. Provide description.

Question 3 - IoT Solution Design:

(a) Design the overall FOUR (4) stages architectural diagram of the IoT solution for your proposal. Provide block diagram and description.

(b) Recommend the possible technologies in each stage of the IoT solution. Provide table and description.

(i) Sensors

(ii) Connectivity & Communication Protocols

(iii) Cloud Technologies

(iv) Analytics and Applications

(c) Appraise the FOUR (4) key security challenges, and how you would address those in the proposed IoT solution. Provide table and description.

(d) Verify the scalability of your solution by illustrating how the proposed solution can be scaled for 30,000 tractors, at various warehouse locations across the country. Provide table and description.

Question 4 - Business Model Re-Design

(a) Propose and describe a new business model for the solution to minimise the CAPEX for the truck manufacturer. Provide description.

(b) Propose and describe a new business model on how the tractor manufacturer can leverage to increase his revenue. Provide description.

(c) Create Return of Investment matrix- Cost based for the proposed IoT solution. Provide table and description.

(d) Create Return of Investment matrix- Value based for the proposed IoT solution. Provide table and description.