ATLANTA, Nov. 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sensolus, a provider of industrial-grade asset-tracking solutions, found that about 1 in 3 tracked industrial assets in aerospace, automotive and equipment manufacturing did not move at all in a typical month over the past year. The finding comes from the first edition of the company's Supply Chain Velocity Index, released today. The index tracks how often and how long those assets move between suppliers and production sites in the United States and Europe, a flow no existing public dataset reports.
The index uses two measures. Movement is the average number of hours an asset moved in a month. Velocity is the share of assets that moved at least once in the month.
"Orders tell you what the market wants. Output tells you what was built. What happens in between, the physical flow of parts and packaging, is where stress shows up first," said Kristoff Van Rattinghe, CEO of Sensolus. "A returnable rack does not have a forecast or a target. It moves when parts move, and it sleeps when they do not. That makes it the cleanest signal a manufacturing chain has."
Jigs, stillages and tooling, some worth $50K–€250K, all unique to a specific build, move across several factories in multiple countries. When one goes missing, it isn’t just an asset lost; it’s a production line at risk. A single multimodal shipment can change hands four to six times, from road to rail, rail to short-sea and back to road, and spend 30 to 70% of its transit time in places no one can see: rail sidings, port stacks, vessel holds.
Supply Chain Velocity Index findings include:
- Steady movement: Across both regions, tracked assets moved an average of 10.6 hours a month, compared with 10.4 hours a year earlier.
- Fewer active assets: Velocity fell to 64.8% from 69.7% a year earlier, and more packaging sat idle.
- U.S. gains: In the U.S., velocity held at 69.4%, and movement rose from 10.1 to 12.8 hours a month.
- Europe idles more: In Europe, velocity fell from 69.8% to 64.6%.
- August split: European movement dropped to 7.5 hours a month from 9.9 in July, a summer slowdown that also appeared in August 2025. U.S. assets kept moving at 12.8 hours, up from 12.6 in July.
Today, the closest public measure of how fast goods move inside the supply chain is a survey. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) asks purchasing managers about delivery times rather than tracking individual assets. In August 2026, ISM’s supplier deliveries index stood at 59.3, indicating purchasing managers reported slower deliveries. That reading signals a strained supply chain but cannot show where the delays are or how many hours they cost. Official output data typically arrives two to six weeks after a month closes and is revised later. A change in asset movement shows up in tracking data within days.
The U.S. rise in movement lines up with strong equipment demand. Machinery orders rose about 15% year over year in August, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, and U.S. shipments of central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps climbed 20% in July, according to the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute. Other sectors are less steady. U.S. aerospace output fell 1.2% in August, according to the Federal Reserve, even after the Federal Aviation Administration cleared Boeing in May to build 47 of its 737 jets a month. The automotive sector shows a similar gap between demand and output. New light-vehicle sales ran at a 16.8 million annual pace in August, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association, while U.S. vehicle assemblies slowed to 10.4 million. S&P Global Mobility forecasts North American vehicle output will fall 1.6% in 2026 as tariffs reshape production footprints.
Asset movement also needs context. An asset that does not move is not always a warning sign. Many tracked racks, stands and containers carry expensive, often unique parts, so each one is dedicated to a single part. Some parts pass through several manufacturing steps at different sites, and the packaging that carries them can travel nine months or more before the part is finished. Some idle time is built into the production process; some may reveal unused capacity. Where packaging waits also matters. Longer waits at suppliers may point to missing parts upstream, while longer waits at the receiving plant may indicate slower production.
"Tracking packaging with IoT does not build engines," Van Rattinghe said. "It does not add machine capacity or raw material. It makes sure the parts that exist reach the line as fast as possible, that empties come back on time, and that fewer replacement containers get bought because utilization is finally measurable."
A heat pump manufacturer boosted the utilization of its 1,600 logistics cart by 5% and paid back its IoT investment in just over a year. And a leading MRO company tracking more than 600 GSE (ground support equipment) across 72 countries saves 2 hours daily thanks to Sensolus trackers. Together with its partner Alps Alpine Sensolus also tracks nearly 1 million rolling cages for Deutsche Post and DHL to manage up to 11 million parcels daily across 119 centers in Germany.
To measure these patterns, the index uses tracking data from 111,000 assets managed by 30 Sensolus clients in the United States and Europe. Assets are included only for months in which they were in service for the entire month. Movement is measured using both the tracker's motion sensor and changes in location.
For the full Supply Chain Velocity Index, visit www.sensolus.com.
About Sensolus
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia with global HQ in Ghent, Belgium, Sensolus is an industry leader in industrial grade tracking solutions for the industrial manufacturing, reusable packaging, logistics and environmental solutions industries.
Media Contact:
Amber Good
LeadCoverage
amber@leadcoverage.com
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