Innovation: Fortive IoT Spotlight

INTRODUCTION

This may be one of the best times in history to be alive. As a collective human force, we are facing massive problems casting shadows on the future. If necessity is the mother of invention, there has arguably never been an age that surpasses this one in impelling us to innovate at scale – to tackle unprecedented challenges, seize exciting opportunities around us, harness new possibilities unleashed by modern technology, and create a better world. At our core, we are creators and innovators. That is how we’re built. Every one of us, each in our own way.

At Fortive , we embrace this 'call of our Age' to accelerate innovation at scale. We are guided by a shared purpose that is simple and profound: essential technology for the people who accelerate progress. We have a ferocious commitment to innovation inspired by customer success. Continuous improvement and learning are deeply rooted in our culture.

Internet of Things (IoT) is one of several essential technologies we are deploying with our customers to accelerate progress on some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of sharing the keynote opening remarks at the Washington IoT Council Biannual Summit in Bellevue, Washington. The Council, which was founded in 2014, includes many of the world’s preeminent companies who specialize in IoT, 5G, Edge Computing, and related areas – all coming together to foster collaboration and growth in this developing industry. It was a great reminder that most of the consequential innovation that the world needs require collaboration beyond any one organization.

This article shares a few reflections from the Summit about the current state and trends in IoT, as well as how our extraordinary teams across Fortive are deploying IoT with customers for large-scale impact across a wide range of applications.

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THE CURRENT STATE AND TRENDS IN IOT

There were four recurring themes in all the sessions at the summit.

First, IoT is now mainstream. We have moved past the “cool technology” phase, we’ve transcended the peaks and troughs on expectations, real applications are now interwoven into our lives, with strong secular tailwinds promising continued growth in IoT adoption

Second, IoT is now less about the technology and more about creating value across a wide range of settings. Across sectors and geographies, we are seeing a diverse array of applications from simple asset tracking use cases to digital twin use cases for prediction, scenario planning, and control. As IoT continues to evolve, we can expect the value it creates to continue to expand, leading to even more use cases and applications.

Third, the broad-based adoption and integration of modern technologies involve change and come with challenges, and IoT is no exception. There are several stories of IoT implementation failed experiments, pilot purgatories, and unfulfilled ROI promises. The successful execution of IoT use cases require overcoming hurdles in three areas: people-related change management and talent issues; economics-related cost and ROI issues; and technology-related interoperability, cybersecurity, and performance issues.

Fourth and finally, there is an emerging playbook for successful implementation of IoT use cases. Scalable and secure technology is crucial, but only as a piece of an operating model transformation. The playbook must include change management that paves the way for adoption at every level of the cross-functional organization and stakeholders impacted by the IoT use case.

?TAILWINDS AND OUTLOOK FOR IOT

There are any number of estimates and projections of IoT market size – mostly pegging IoT market at over US$1 trillion in vended market or economic value creation. Any way you look at it, here is what we know to be true – IoT is a large and rapidly growing market opportunity. There are several secular supply-side and demand-side tailwinds driving IoT growth.

On the supply side, IoT sensors cost a third of what they did a decade ago, even with supply chain challenges and cost inflation over the last 30 months. Computing and storage costs continue to drop. Connectivity continues to improve dramatically - ninety percent of the world has access to 4G networks already, and it is likely that a similar percentage will have access to 5G by 2030. While it is an evergreen battle, cybersecurity tools are rapidly improving. Most sectors have embraced the inevitability of a connected world. The necessary regulatory frameworks for privacy, data security, ethical AI and IoT are functional and developing.

The demand side looks equally promising for IoT adoption. Many industries are dealing with labor shortages due to aging workforces and other factors, and workforce expectations on location flexibility have shifted in the wake of the pandemic. As digital natives become a bigger share of the workforce, their expectations for “worker experience” raises the bar on technology enablement of workloads. The need for faster productivity growth to counteract shrinking labor hour growth in many western economies, and the increased focus on sustainability creates pull for solutions that enable remote diagnostics, interventions, and controls in place of truck rolls (and associated carbon and GHG impact).

These strong tailwinds favoring IoT growth are likely to endure, even with choppy and uncertain macroeconomic outlook.

FORTIVE IOT SPOTLIGHT

Like several of the preeminent technology organizations at the Summit, we at Fortive are at the forefront of unleashing the power of IoT to accelerate progress in our key markets. We made two strategic choices with respect to IoT – first, what problems do we want to solve in the world? Second, how do we deploy IoT to accelerate progress in solving these problems?

The problems we solve: Each of our 3 Segments at Fortive focus on workstreams with exciting opportunities for essential technologies to have transformative impact and make the world a better place:

• Our Advanced Healthcare Segment (through the work of our teams at Advanced Sterilization Products , Censis Technologies, Inc. , Provation , Invetech , Fluke Biomedical , LANDAUER , RaySafe ) focuses on providing solutions for the perioperative loop that keep healthcare professionals and patients safe in hospitals, health systems, surgery centers and physician offices serving over 5000 customers including all the top U.S. Hospitals
• Our Precision Technology Segment (through the work of our Teams at 泰克 , Anderson-Negele , Hengstler -Dynapar, Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Company , Gems Sensors , Qualitrol , Setra Systems ) focuses on enabling innovative product realization with precision-engineered measurement, sensing, energetics, and industrial control solutions underpinning much of the most exciting technology product experiences in the world – from your phone, to the electric grid, to your car, to the airplane, to vaccine distribution, to your dairy producer ?– our teams are behind the scenes
• Our Intelligent Operating Solutions Segment (through the work of our Teams at Gordian , Accruent , ServiceChannel , Industrial Scientific , Intelex Technologies ULC , Fluke Corporation , and Fluke Reliability ) focuses on solutions for managing facilities & assets, environment/health/safety in the workplace, and measurement & connected reliability solutions that keep much of the world running safely, productively, and sustainably. Our teams serve tens of thousands of customers in mission-critical workflows and have #1 position in electrical test & measurement, facility management software applications, asset lifecycle management software, and connected worker safety.

Every one of these workflows is aligned with strong secular trends – healthcare needs, product innovation cycles, and workplace & asset management shifts, labor shortages, new technological possibilities, safety, health and environmental regulation.

?How we deploy IoT to accelerate progress: Our teams across Fortive fully embrace IoT as one of several essential technologies we deploy for customers who make our world stronger, safer, and smarter. Across our 3 segments and ~20 operating companies, we offer our customers a vast array of IoT related solutions, including:

• Advanced healthcare solutions: Radiation monitoring and surgical equipment tracking, which is trusted by a vast swathe of the healthcare industry to keep healthcare workers and patients safe
• Precision technologies: Sensors for tracking precise temperature, pressure, particles, and other condition indicators in controlled environments. Advanced monitoring solutions for power generation & transmission assets. Connected motion control sensors, encoders, and recorders for a wide range of settings
• Intelligent Operating Solutions: Sensors and software that support remote monitoring of asset condition, with special depth in the vibration monitoring of rotating equipment, which informs predictive maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime. Energy management and occupancy monitoring solutions that can help optimize heating costs and improve employee experience. Connected gas detection solutions and EHS software aimed at eliminating workplace death and severe injury

I am super proud of the work our Fortive teams are doing to bring the power of IoT and other essential technologies to life in the real world. We are solving some of the most pressing problems of our age, thanks in large part to our Fortive Business System (FBS) – a powerful mindset and toolset that facilitates shared knowledge to drive growth, innovation, productivity, and leadership – and our Core Values, which form the essential building blocks for our continuous improvement culture and business success. We have our Fortive Growth and Innovation Conference next week and I am thrilled to see where our teams innovate next to elevate our industries and customer success!!

CLOSING

To be sure, we live in an age replete with challenges. Wars and geopolitical tensions. Macroeconomic jitters and pandemics. Inequality/healthcare/housing/education/crime/gun violence crisis. Increasing frequency and severity of natural/human-made disasters and planet health risks. Political polarization and erosion of key institutions. And more.

Our world does not lack challenges. And therein lies our opportunity and the "call of our Age" to accelerate innovation at scale. No matter how unprecedented our challenges appear to be, we should never bet against the collective creative, innovation & problem-solving capacity of our human force. That is all of us. At our core, we are creators and innovators. That is how we’re built. Every one of us, each in our own way. Let’s go!