Integrating internet of things in service parts operations for sustainability

Abstract

Businesses are expected by the society to operate sustainably nowadays. However, companies are having a hard time to make business decisions to achieve both business sustainability and environmental sustainability, especially when such decisions involve numerous uncertainties. Making the wrong decision can result in damaging reputation in the least and going out of business in the worst. In this case study, we consider companies providing service parts maintenance, which have a great potential to bring positive impacts to the environment by refurbishing and reusing the replaced items. However, these companies also need to weight against cost effectiveness of doing so to maintain business sustainability. Informed decision making, meanwhile, is achievable with the use of the latest technologies. Here, we present the integration of Internet-of-Things to collect and provide real-time data for business analysis, such that companies can decide effectively which item(s) can be refurbished economically. We show that by doing so, uncertainties concerning the cost of refurbishment can be reduced, such that service parts operators can achieve both business sustainability and environmental sustainability.