Leveraging the Power of Industrial IoT to Improve Business Operations
Published on : Tuesday 31-03-2020
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is rapidly gaining traction across the manufacturing domain. It delivers a significant opportunity for manufacturers where they supervise as well as automate intricate processes involved in manufacturing. Industrial IoT is identified as a key element of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). As IIoT depicts a variety of IoT applications, smart product design principles, and data-driven automation practices in the industrial space, it also gives access to businesses to drive more value to their customers. This, in turn, improves companies’ internal operations cost-efficiently.
The evolution of Industrial IoT is the most extensive advancements in the industrial arena, which is developed upon low-powered sensors and internet-connected devices. This helps glean and convey data to users quickly, informing routine and long-term decisions. IIoT is an integral part of automation that brings together cloud computing, AI and the internet of things in order to create intelligent, self-optimizing industrial equipment and facilities.
Industrial IoT encompasses a large area of technological advancements including sensors, AI, machine-to-machine communications, and the cloud. As the technology enables industries and enterprises to attain better efficiency and reliability in their operations, effective integration of it can have the potential to optimize the use of assets, foresee points of failure, and even provoke maintenance processes automatically.
The IIoT, in terms of Industry 4.0, is crucial to how cyber-physical systems and production processes are poised to bring transformation using Big Data and Analytics. Embracing connected and smart devices helps businesses to collect and examine greater amounts of data at a greater pace. The data collected from these devices and other sources will assist industrial equipment and infrastructures in their decision-making, expediting insights and specific actions. This will also boost scalability and performance, as well as tie the rope between the production floors and general offices.
The use of Industrial IoT can also be valuable for oil and gas companies to keep an eye on their hardware to check any sign of failure while reducing production costs. In the industry, the primary objective of IoT is to surge operational efficiency. This can be achieved by practicing the real-time data produced by IoT devices to attain enhanced production and oil recovery rates; innovation; fewer incidents like product spillage and emissions; amplified employee productivity and safety; and energy and maintenance cost savings.
Challenges
Industrial IoT has the ability to revolutionize how industries function. However, it also draws significant challenges of having strategies in place to propel digital transformation efforts while upholding security accompanied by increased connectivity. The implementation of IIoT is focused mainly on three areas, availability, scalability, and security. Though availability and scalability may be the second trait to industrial operations as they could already have been recognized or in the business for quite some time. However, security, where many can stumble when it comes to leveraging the IIoT into their operations.
There is also a challenge businesses can face while integrating industrial operations with IT. This requires both connection and information to be secured. In this process, it is said that the users’ data must be processed in line with applicable privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Additionally, it is essential that personal information must be segregated from general log data as data gathered regarding people plays a pivotal role in generating insights for the devices and infrastructures.
Still, the Industrial Internet of Things is in the initial phase, and I believe, as more companies seek digital transformation, the proliferation of this tech will rise. Also, adopters of IIoT need to consider security vulnerabilities as the use of smart and connected devices continues to increase rapidly.