As the word is riding with innovations, a small mistake or fault can lead to human disaster. Especially in sectors like chemical, manufacturing and logistics, that require continuous human alertness to remain safe, while working. That's why it becomes imperative that workers employed in these areas remain attentive to the changes happening in the workplace. However, human vision is liable to overlook small changes around them. And these small changes can give rise to potential disasters, risking human lives. According to a report by the International Labour Organization, work-related injuries and deaths have accounted to US$3 trillion globally, which is the approximate GDP of India.

We are just about at the end of the year and readying ourselves to make predictions for the new decade, but before I start to do that, I thought we should look at what's been happening in procurement, supply chain, and how the IoT (Internet of Things) is making an impact on business processes. This past weekend was pretty remarkable for the retail industry. Black Friday sales topped a whopping, $7.4 billion. It's not surprising almost $3 billion of those sales were conducted digitally using a computers, tablets, and smartphones. So just how important is technology in this race to capture consumers and businesses?

Digitization has become the dominant theme in discussions about the future of supply chains. Wherever there is a problem, there is the promise of a technological solution, using some combination of artificial intelligence or machine learning, big data, automation, and the Internet of Things. On one side of the room, there is a dynamic and fast-growing cohort of technology vendors. When we studied around 300 supply-chain technology companies, we found that they make much of features like AI and machine learning in marketing materials. In the overwhelming majority of cases, however, these are either niche features or of unclear value to the end user.