TECH TALK
I
f there’s a ‘quick win’ to be
had with the Internet of Things
(IoT) it’s in monitoring the
performance and maintenance of
industrial machines.
It was only a couple of years ago
when people spoke about the IoT
as if it were a mysterious superhero
for business—that would rescue old
traditional industries and set them on
a new prosperous path—but no one
knew how exactly it would work, or
how to use it.
We’d all talk about the moment, or
year, or use case when IoT finally
‘hits’ and goes mainstream.
Well, it hasn’t quite panned out
that way. Instead, slowly and
quietly, IoT has started to seep into
different parts of the manufacturing
process. And everyone from airplane
manufacturers to chemical companies
are experimenting with use cases
that advance the technology further.
Observing these use cases, we can
now extrapolate what IoT has in store
for manufacturers.
The holistic goal of enterprise
asset management becomes more
achievable through using IoT.
2. Guaranteed Performance
The next logical extension of asset
performance management is not just
to prevent failures, but to ensure a
certain level of performance. Selling
guaranteed performance/uptime is
an entirely new business model now
made possible by the IoT. It allows
traditional asset-based companies to
become service companies.
Here are four ways IoT will reshape
the supply chain for manufacturers: Smart sensors in IoT equipment allow
manufacturers to know what variables
are involved in a given process, and
affords them greater control over
those variables. Real-time information
can lead to proactive decision-making
that can fine-tune operations for
greater profitability.
1. Asset Performance Management 3. Industrial IoT Apps
If there’s a “quick win” to be had
with IoT, it’s with regards to the
performance and maintenance of
industrial machines. By equipping
industrial machinery with sensors and
connectivity, companies have been
able to gather real-time data to better
understand when certain equipment
breaks down or needs maintenance.
This has led to proactive maintenance
and the smart-scheduling of
workloads and workflow to optimise
output and reliability. The app market for IoT has a lot of
potential, not just for revenue, but
to make IoT accessible to all sorts of
industrial companies. Just like mobile
apps took smartphones to the next
level, making them incredibly useful in
ways far beyond their original design,
IoT apps will make IoT technology
customisable and tailored for highly
specific manufacturing functions.
IoT allows companies to use data to
answer questions like: What piece
of equipment is most likely to break
www.intelligentcio.com
down? How have various devices
performed in the past? How much
stress have they had? By correlating
breakdown instances with external
factors like weather conditions,
manufacturers can discover patterns
that can help them service equipment
early, and avoid costly downtime.
Already, several cloud-based
Industrial IoT platforms exist. As
more customised applications
develop, look to see these platforms
become centralised data hubs that
unify what were once disparate parts
INTELLIGENTCIO
83