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The industrial IoT has over 50 years of development history since its inception, but until a few years ago, there was no suitable term to describe it in the industrial sector. Industrial organizations connect a large number of sensors to various devices to better collect data and analyze the recorded data, which is the main purpose of industrial IoT. Today, many organizations are leveraging the latest industrial IoT developments to gain substantial benefits.
However, for other organizations, the daily task of an “industrial IoT strategy” is to maintain equipment operation and ensure production runs smoothly. The following explores five factors organizations should consider when adopting a successful industrial IoT strategy, providing supporting examples to illustrate how industrial IoT can improve efficiency and save costs.
1. Peripheral Applications of Industrial IoT
In the past, the industrial sector connected sensors and actuators to dedicated systems, usually connected to safety-critical devices. These systems control hazardous operations, sometimes even very high-speed operations, and any changes to wiring for adding sensors become costly due to safety concerns. The cost of installing a sensor could be as high as $20,000 due to wiring and change control processes.
The difference today is that industrial organizations can apply industrial IoT to areas that were previously not cost-effective. Industrial IoT benefits from reduced costs, consumer-grade sensors, lower cloud computing ownership costs, and user-friendly analytics capabilities. For organizations that may be concerned about the higher costs of adding sensors to control networks, the cost of adding industrial IoT sensors that can collect external data has significantly decreased.
2. Consider Using “Shadow Sensors” to Save Costs and Downtime
In most factories, sensors have traditionally not been applied to non-critical equipment due to their high installation costs. Especially in cases where existing control system sensors might be present, information and analytics systems may not be able to utilize them because they are part of embedded devices.
Rather than complicating access to embedded devices, it is more cost-effective to add low-cost parallel industrial IoT sensors (known as “shadow sensors”).
Shadow sensors have become a cost-effective metric, such as downtime. For example, consider a highly mechanical packaging line that produces products at a rapid pace. If the packaging line packs 10 boxes of yogurt per second, and the yogurt labels sometimes jam, requiring 10 to 30 seconds to fix, the operators do not want to manually record failures. However, adding shadow sensors next to built-in sensors can provide better visibility for tracking and diagnostics, especially with reduced costs. If organizations can install more shadow sensors and connect them via Wi-Fi to log downtime, then the cost is worthwhile.
3. Consider the Benefits of Supplementing Non-Critical Equipment
Imagine a pesticide and fertilizer manufacturer that may have implemented industrial software at their main plants but has not deployed it at their testing farms due to the high costs of implementing and deploying hardware and software, and they do not have engineering and IT personnel equipped at the farms.
However, deploying low-cost cloud management solutions using industrial IoT sensors may be a cost-effective way to gain supplementary information. In this way, manufacturers will be able to remotely track indicators such as soil moisture and temperature, managed, deployed, and maintained by personnel with expertise in the factory.
Before the emergence of more low-cost sensors and cloud computing technology, collecting this supplementary, non-critical information was impractical. Such information might not be critical because the factory could still produce products, but having this information can be very helpful if obtained in a cost-effective manner.
4. Consider the Full Potential of Cloud Computing in Reducing Ownership Costs
If organizations can economically capture data through industrial IoT without the personnel and technical infrastructure previously required, they can achieve the main benefit of adopting cloud computing technology: cost savings. This applies not only to initial deployment but also to overall ownership costs. Hosted cloud services may provide better value.
For example, a multinational organization may have an extensive software stack and employee infrastructure in North America and Western Europe but lack technical infrastructure and personnel in Eastern Europe and Asia. However, using cloud-based solutions makes data collection for analysis and reporting easier. This is a great example of how cloud computing simplifies and optimizes operations while saving costs.
5. Do Not View Industrial IoT as an Either/Or Choice: Consider Hybrid Deployments
Many organizations already have extensive on-premise systems, making it difficult to consider switching to cloud-based industrial IoT tools and capabilities. However, hybrid options between on-premise and cloud platforms are an ideal compromise, allowing organizations to gain more accessible information benefits without sacrificing existing capabilities.
On-premise systems can only be accessed by personnel in the control room. However, for those who may now need to work remotely, cloud-based systems are needed alongside these on-premise systems to securely access data in the control room, allowing engineers and plant managers to visualize data and collaborate remotely.
It is important to recognize that hybrid cloud options have a place in today’s successful industrial IoT strategies. At the most basic level, industrial IoT can allow organizations to access more information in a more cost-effective manner and engage more users. Most importantly, industrial IoT should make industrial operations easier, helping organizations connect, improve processes, and enhance business decisions.
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(Source: D1Net)
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