IoT for the future supply of materials in the public sector

Purpose and goal

The project aims to contribute to good technical support for public organisations' logistics chains with real-time control of current stock balances at the end user. The delivery note from the project is a procurement document produced on the basis of logistical analyses and tested technologies at the participating parties. The goal is to test and evaluate technologies to support inventory management and formulate the experience for the technical part of a procurement document. The documentation must be so general that it can be used in several types of public activities.

Expected results and effects

New technical solutions free up time for healthcare professionals who no longer need to look for materials. More time is given to care and a quality improvement is expected when the staff has real-time control over the material flow in different stores. New needs for material flows have increased during the pandemic period. Going forward, we see an increased need to secure resilience in the event of a crisis for the coming new civil defense and for a robust healthcare in the future. The project is expected to find new IoT technologies for use in the flows of goods and inventory management that are suitable and possible to procure for the public sector.

Planned approach and implementation

The project will be implemented in different phases with varying staffing from the participating parties. In the first phase, the material supply chain will be analyzed in the region and the municipalities at the same time as IoT technologies, test environments and test articles are evaluated. The second phase is about implementing appropriate solutions, training staff, testing and evaluating. In the final phase, technical aspects are prepared for a procurement document, pre-requisites for a coherent logistics process between different principals and a guide to implementation.