The fourth industrial revolution is upon us and it is already transforming the entire industrial landscape as we know it.
With emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), industries are moving toward creating a more collaborative environment that facilitates greater exchange of data, reduced costs and increased productivity, also known as Industrial Internet of Things or IIoT.
Some industry leaders have implemented increased IIoT investments in the fields of manufacturing, transportation, utilities, and healthcare in recent years and for all the right reasons.
Surprisingly, less than a third of industrial decision-makers have implemented a well-articulated IoT strategy for their business and even less have a comprehensive road-map to make use of it in the future.
Here are a few ways that industrial decision-makers use IIoT to better manage business processes, increase overall performance and reduce costs:
*Asset Tracking: Mining industries, for example, are using smart sensors to check the air quality within and around mining sites. Whereas, the maritime industry utilizes IoT sensors to track ships’ locations throughout their journey.
*Inventory Management: Company inventories can be tracked and traced globally with the help of smart IoT devices on a granular level. Businesses have access to real-time data about the available material, work-in-progress and estimated time of arrival for new materials.
*Quality Control: Companies are using IoT sensors to help maintain aggregated product data and other vital data from various stages of the product cycle. By keeping deviations in check, business managers can keep strict quality control on their products and optimize costs.
*Product Packaging Optimization: Companies utilize IoT smart sensors on the packaging of their products and gain insight into various environmental and handling effects on the product and whether it has been tampered with during transit. Companies are starting to utilize IoT digital labels for product packaging optimization. Using these labels allows for use of real-time marketing activities such as coupons and discounts to better enhance the customer experience.
The Industrial Internet of Things provides access to the supply chain in real-time by tracking materials, equipment or products as they move through the cycle. By connecting plants to suppliers using IoT, all the concerned parties in the supply chain can track and trace dependencies, material flow and manufacturing cycle times to potentially reduce wait times and fulfill other capital requirements.
