Amazon's Innovations in Logistics and Automation
The online retail giant Amazon is not often mentioned as a company that actively utilizes Internet of Things technologies; however, it can be confidently stated that Amazon is an innovator in the storage of goods in warehouses and logistics. Let's look at this through the lens of MIT technology.
Today, Amazon is actively testing new boundaries of automation and human-machine interaction. While society discusses the company's ambitions to use drones for product delivery, its warehouses are already utilizing an army of Kiva robots, connected to WiFi. The main concept of Kiva technology, which Amazon acquired in 2012 for $775 million, is that the robots autonomously locate items on shelves and deliver them to workers, instead of relying on employees to physically move between shelves in search of the necessary product. In 2014, according to Amazon's senior vice president, these robots helped the company reduce operational costs by 20%.
Boeing and the Application of the Internet of Things
William Boeing, a pioneer in aviation, once said that "there is no need to discard any new idea just because it seems impossible to implement." The multinational aviation company named after him adheres to this credo even today. The company aims to make the service sector a more important part of its business than manufacturing and to become a key source of information in the aviation industry. Boeing has made significant progress in transforming its business by actively implementing Internet of Things technologies to enhance the efficiency of all its factories and supply chains. The company is also vigorously increasing the number of networked sensors used in its manufacturing processes.