Applying the IoT - Innovative Use Cases in Manufacturing

There’s no question that the Internet of Things (IoT) provides game-changing opportunities for innovation across a wide range of sectors – but what about the specific uses this technology has? In the manufacturing industry, an industry that is still recovering from the impact of the pandemic yet contributes around 6% to the GDP and provides 862,000 jobs, the pressure to drive growth is high. The focus is on becoming lean, more agile, and more productive – and the IoT is here to deliver it. Here’s how.

#1 – Remote monitoring and predictive maintenance

Using sensors to collect data from machinery, production lines, and other industrial assets, teams can monitor equipment usage, condition, and performance through a connected dashboard that tracks these metrics in real time. This allows you to provide remote troubleshooting and deploy service teams rapidly, adapt the design of your processes for optimal efficiency, monitor energy usage, and predict maintenance issues to minimise downtime. This is especially important for business continuity, allowing operations to be managed and overseen from any location, 24 hours a day.

Siemens Transformers Mexico is the world’s first factory that offers a live remote Factory Acceptance Tests system (FATs). Here, remote monitoring is taken to the next level, allowing clients to watch the FATs live from wherever they are in the world. Equipment manufacturer Caterpillar is using this tech more traditionally – though no less innovatively – saving millions each year by using sensor data to monitor fuel efficiency, streamline maintenance, and improve power usage on their fleet of ships.

#2 – Digital twins

Using IoT technology combined with 3D visualisation, cloud platforms and a combination of AI and machine learning, manufacturers can build virtual replicas of machinery, equipment, and processes. In this virtual space, you can run simulations, test changes, and optimise your operational design before implementation. From building virtual plants and simulating product development to testing new equipment, equipment modifications, and logistics, this is a low cost, highly effective planning and productivity testing resource.

One interesting use case of digital twins in in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Siemens and Atos implemented a digital twin to gather real-time data from the vaccine manufacturing process. Simulations and changes to the process are then run on the?digital twin to easily evaluate how any changes will affect the end product. This created opportunities to implement changes to the physical system that improved product quality, cut costs, and decrease time to market.

#3 – Quality control and customer care

Manual quality control isn’t just highly inefficient, it also exposes risks associated with human error. The IoT helps change this by utilising sensors to evaluate each product according to set metrics during its journey through the product line, and even using infrared sensors to develop quality control testing in packaged final products. While delivering a quality product is key to good customer service, this can be taken even further through the IoT. Gehring Technologies achieves this by letting customers see live data on their machines to ensure it meets their requirements for performance, energy use, and other important metrics before they place an order.

A good use case of this tech is from Primal Glass, producers of glass containers. Having previously used paper logbooks, making the switch to IoT sensors and cloud-based platforms allowed teams to get relevant information and real-time feedback reports on the manufacturing lines, leading to a 1% improvement in efficiency and 5% reduction in defects.

#4 – Automation and safety

By allowing improved insight into equipment performance, safety in manufacturing plants is improved by using the IoT, but there are further applications in this area for this tech. Automation takes monotonous, labour-intensive, and often dangerous tasks out of the hands of factory workers, allowing them to be redeployed in areas where the human touch is essential. It can also be used to connect tools with tasks, making them easier for workers locate and sending task instructions to the worker to complete.

A good example of this is the Factory of the Future from Airbus where the IoT is used to send the appropriate program directly to a tool depending on its location in the physical factory space. They also use smart glasses to support worker safety, and these glasses are integrated with the connected system to assess a task, communicate with operators, and send information to a robotic tool to complete the job.

The IoT may seem out of this world, but it’s already making a big splash and driving significant ROI in the manufacturing industry. The smart manufacturing plant is already here.