The Top 5 Industrial IoT Use-Cases

With the projection of 40 billion connected IoT devices by 2025, the internet of things is not just a distant concept but an amalgamation of devices that ensure effectiveness and efficiency in our everyday life. The Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) is a field of technology that uses interconnected sensors, instruments and other devices networked together for streamlined operations. IIoT devices are industry-scaled cyber-physical assets that keep the critical business infrastructure running smoothly. IIOT creates growth opportunities for asset users and manufacturers and increases revenue with the aid of new business models generated from reading and understanding data collected from smart?

assets. IIoT smart assets provide many benefits which we will explore in this post.?

1. Operational efficiency?

Efficiency in output has always been a vital factor in the industrial world. With the aid of IIoT, users can monitor the condition of industrial equipment, reduce maintenance issues, forecast potential failures, and use existing assets to save time and resources efficiently. IIoT allows machines to act autonomously, thereby reducing the risks associated with system failures, human error, system downtime and human injury.?

2. Workplace Analytics?

The real value of IIOT is its data, the knowledge and business insights that can be gleaned from the data would help both users and manufacturers of the assets. Leveraging wearable sensors, IIoT helps to track and report employees’ location and health. With more IIoT devices in place, organizations will have access to more workflow data. Analysts can make use of this to aid work output efficiency.?

3. Energy Optimization?

Taking into consideration that the industrial sector accounts for about 33% of total energy consumption in the US, manufacturing might be the common target for IIoT configured improvements. IIoT use has been seen to prove energy consumption reduction effective. To achieve substantial energy savings, organisations must implement additional technologies with IoT sensors, without mechanical upgrades, energy optimization can only go so far.?

4. Connected Production Quality Control

Users can detect deviations in equipment performance which may affect the quality of products., It provides stakeholders visibility into the production process using real-time data from IIOT devices. The quality of resources, products and environmental conditions can be monitored in real-time. Chemical processing plants or pharmaceutical companies can use IoT sensors to monitor the quality of products. Since they provide faster and more cost-effective solutions regarding pollutants, there is the advantage of quicker and more effective responses. Real-time alerts prompt faster responses, mitigating accidents that could ruin production processes, this is very effective as opposed to the traditional human protocol that happens via word of mouth. Organisations might however need to develop proprietary technologies to tailor metrics relevant to them and this can be expensive.?

5. Asset Tracking

Assets can easily and quickly locate as they move through the supply chain. This can be done with the aid of GPS, sensors and RFID tags. Logistics companies often use location services to track shipments and reroute drivers when obstacles present themselves. Manufacturers can also use location-based IIoT technologies to show workers where materials are. Real-time location feedback is necessary for eliminating the confusion of delay in transit or otherwise, however, facilities need consistent and reliable connections to support real-time data across multiple assets. Incorporating this?may however incur extra costs.?

As IIoT adoption increases, it will become more accessible, secure and versatile. Two major challenges associated with IIOT are network security and privacy, and communications protocols. To address this, IIOT assets must be able to communicate with each other and autonomously take action. An incompatible communication protocol would be cost-prohibitive for both manufacturers and users in the industry. It is therefore necessary to build software that can ease communication between all components.

Network security and privacy are imperative for IIoT assets. IIoT is reconfiguring the landscape and ushering in the next phase of industrial innovation where cyber-physical assets sense their world, and generate and share data on what is sensed both to each other (device to device) and to the humans who depend on them. By utilizing business intelligence and analytics to collate data, business owners can gain insights into their operations, allowing access to new markets with a competitive edge while creating more sources of revenue for their companies.