IoT-Enabled Supply Chain Management From a Customer Perspective: Challenges and Opportunities

Supply chain management (SCM), a critical factor in enhancing companies’ efficiency and competitiveness, has received significant attention from both industry and academia. Beyond the flow of products from supplier to customer, SCM also involves the flow of information necessary to monitor, track, and optimize the entire product lifecycle. Consequently, integrating the information flow in SCM with the Internet of Things (IoT) is imperative, as IoT provides the ability to onboard, interconnect, interact with, and sense products. However, IoT-enabled SCM also presents unique challenges, such as managing large volumes of data, ensuring credible and traceable data sources, and achieving low-cost, seamless connectivity. In this article, we systematically present recent advances in leveraging IoT to build robust and effective SCM systems. Unlike existing surveys and overviews, this article focuses on the customer side as customers are the destination of the information flow and tightly coupled with IoT networks. We offer deep insights into the principles, challenges, and research opportunities in IoT-enabled SCM, aiming to assist IoT practitioners in understanding and designing IoT solutions for SCM.