Why’s — Industrial IoT?
A few months ago, I plunged into the Industrial world of the Internet of Things or, as like say, Industrial IoT. In this short article, I want to precisely discuss what distinguishes Industrial and NON-industrial projects of the Internet of things.
First, a little about — what is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
In my opinion, it is a system of interconnected computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals, or people, which are provide unique identifiers and the ability to transmit data over a network without requiring human-to-human interaction or human-machine interaction.
Everything is very similar to traditional or general IoT if we talk about Industrial IoT. Still, it seems to me that there is an entry threshold and standards for such projects in the world of Industrial 4.0.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connects machines, cloud computing, analytics, and people to improve the performance and productivity of industrial processes. With IIoT, industrial companies can digitize processes, transform business models, and improve their productivity while reducing scrap. These companies, operating in manufacturing, energy, agriculture, transportation, and utilities, are working on IoT projects that connect billions of devices and deliver value in various use cases, including quality prediction and maintenance analytics, asset health, monitoring, and optimization of processes.
A typical industrial plant has thousands of sensors that generate data. Manufacturers using Industrial IoT can integrate machine data from a single production line, factory, or site network. Manufacturing plants, assembly plants, and refineries improve productivity by identifying potential bottlenecks, failures, gaps in production, processes, and quality issues before they happen. Agree, this is crucial information for such capacities — after all, any business is about money, and no one wants to lose it. Combining this data from a network of sites can also lead to better material flow management, early detection, identification and elimination of production or supply bottlenecks, and optimization of machinery and equipment across all sites.
Why is this important? Why integrate these methods in Industrial 4.0? I often get these questions from a business owner, and that’s okay. I will try to answer as briefly as possible and in numbers.
Manufacturing industries realize 20% to 30% of the value of their data. Yes, little data is used internally in production, but the remaining 80–70% is NOT used and not even stored. But by consistently capitalizing on the value of their data, manufacturing companies can cut product development costs by up to 50% and operating costs by up to 25% while increasing their gross margins by one-third. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will leverage data to connect machines, field assets at the edge, cloud computing, analytics, and people to improve the performance and productivity of industrial processes. With IIoT, industrial companies can digitize processes, transform business models, and increase productivity while reducing waste.
To improve the productivity of its factories and save billions of euros. The decision was made to integrate IIoT at scale and partner with AWS, according to Volkswagen Group head of production Gerd Walker. The 124 Volkswagen factories have been integrated into the Industrial Cloud and have become a key lever to increase plant productivity by 30 percent. That is one of a million examples where this kind of integration has helped the business processes of production and the company.
Now you see that most industrial customers are looking for a solution to free up operational data at scale with near real-time visibility. This data visibility through dashboards and deeper analytics such as ML/AI helps customers understand the causes of micro stoppages in production, increase productivity without sacrificing quality, and understand trends that lead to optimal quality parts. In addition, customers want data visibility at the factory, production line, machines, process, and product levels, which is not possible today because the data is locked in these factories.
Another essential point is that I would like to migrate old technologies to a new technology stack and the cloud. If you look at the image below, you can see this remarkable migration of increase to cloud infrastructure.
In total, I want to say that IoT and IIoT work in the same way. These both connect devices to the Internet and make them more intelligent. The difference is that IoT performs to make life easier for consumers, while IIoT operates to improve safety and efficiency in manufacturing facilities.
I hope this first article of the Industrial IoT article series motivates you to look at the fantastic Industrial world and the symbiosis of equipment and new technologies. In the following articles, I will show the real problems in Industrial IoT and how my team(Promwad) solves them.
