Wiliot makes the case for ambient IoT for QSRs
Quick service restaurants (QSRs) face a daily balancing act between speed, accuracy, safety, and cost control. With industry-wide inventory accuracy hovering around just 75–80%, the result is often a costly mix of overstocking, waste, and the dreaded stockout. In a recent webinar hosted by Wiliot, Director of Product Marketing Eric Casavant offered a bold solution: eliminate manual barcode scanning altogether in favor of scan-free inventory tracking using ambient IoT technology.
“Inventory accuracy is one of the most important levers QSRs have to improve profitability,” Casavant told attendees. “But the systems they rely on today—primarily barcode scanning—are outdated, labor-intensive, and not accurate enough to support modern forecasting and replenishment platforms.”
QSR Operations Under Pressure
QSRs, which generated $447 billion in U.S. sales last year, are fast-paced environments dealing with perishable products, high employee turnover, and tight margins. Labor accounts for 25–30% of sales, and waste—often caused by inaccurate inventory levels—accounts for up to 10% of inventory, or roughly $10 billion annually.
Manual scanning of inventory—typically using handheld barcode readers—is still the primary method of maintaining stock records in many QSRs. But Casavant noted that scanning is slow, often inaccurate, and diverts labor from higher-value customer service roles. Even RFID, often seen as the next step up, falls short when it comes to wet or perishable goods common in restaurant operations, achieving only marginally better accuracy than barcodes in that context.
Why Scanning Fails
Inventory counts in QSRs typically involve a staff member manually scanning dozens or hundreds of similar-looking cases in the back room. “It’s easy to lose track of what’s been scanned and what hasn’t,” Casavant said. “So you get gaps. And the forecasting systems that rely on those inventory levels—no matter how good the AI—are working with flawed assumptions.”
Those flaws are expensive. A restaurant may over-order to buffer against stockouts, leading to waste. Or it may under-order, leading to lost sales. In a business with ~10% margins, this tradeoff has real consequences.
The Ambient IoT Advantage
Wiliot’s proposed solution is ambient IoT—wireless, battery-free tags known as IoT Pixels that attach to reusable containers, cases, or pallets. These tags stream real-time data, including location, temperature, and even light or humidity exposure, to the cloud using Bluetooth. The data is picked up by low-cost Bluetooth “bridges” installed throughout the supply chain—in warehouses, trucks, and restaurants.
This continuous scan-free approach allows for “true” visibility into inventory, according to Casavant. “It’s not just knowing where your cases are—it’s knowing what condition they’re in, whether they’ve been loaded into the fridge, if something got left on the dock, or if a cooler is about to fail.”
In side-by-side comparisons, Casavant said Wiliot’s system routinely detects more inventory than manual scanning. One customer dropped scanning entirely after Wiliot’s reports helped them locate cases that scanning missed, day after day.
Implications for Reusable Packaging, System Integration
From a reusable packaging perspective, Wiliot’s approach strengthens the value proposition for smart containers and pooled assets. Casavant noted that Wiliot’s IoT Pixels can be affixed to reusable pallets, totes, or bins—turning what were once “dumb” assets into data sources. That opens the door to real-time traceability of reusable transport items (RTIs) across the supply chain, a long-standing challenge in both foodservice and broader logistics sectors.
The condition monitoring capabilities—such as verifying refrigeration compliance or detecting prolonged dwell times—add another layer of accountability for reusable assets that must meet food safety requirements.
Casavant clarified that Wiliot’s intelligence platform is not intended to replace existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) or restaurant management platforms. Rather, it augments them—feeding more accurate and timely data into existing systems like Restaurant365, Fourth, or Subway’s Subventory.
The Business Case
Wiliot estimates that companies adopting ambient IoT in their QSR operations could realize annual savings of $15–50 million by improving inventory accuracy, $2–10 million in better condition monitoring, and $5–15 million through labor optimization and workflow improvements.
“This is about going from blind spots and guesswork to full transparency,” Casavant concluded. “We’re not just talking about tech—we’re talking about building a more resilient and profitable QSR supply chain.”
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Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.
