We all are aware of the concept of turning on and off the lights with the mobile phone. For manufacturers, it is possible to achieve it with the help of IoT (Internet of thing). IoT is a very simple concept. IoT enables physical objects to connect with the internet and thanks to the connectivity to the internet, it distributes several digital ways to operate those physical products. Currently, IoT is being applied to security and health-related devices. In recent years, IoT has taken the world by storm. According to the global data, IoT market will reach $318 billion by 2023. IoT and its overwhelming functions are so useful that people have started changing the core functions of the IoT and making it appropriate for a different kind of industry. With this effort, a sister category of IoT has appeared in recent time which is called Industrial IoT.

Industrial IoT and its popularity 

 Industrial IoT is the same concept as the IoT. However, Industrial IoT is a broader term. In the industrial IoT, sensors, and actuators as a hardware part and mobile and web solution as the software part are used on the heavy machines of different industries like mining, agriculture, logistics, and aviation to enhance the data collection, data sharing, operation running cost, resource planning, and prediction. With the Industrial IoT, a legacy of believing that machines can’t take decision has ended. Nowadays, machines get the ability to collect, share, read and understand the data to come up with more rational future decisions.  The manufacturing industry is more impatient to add IIoT in their regular process as it will be helpful to double the production and troubleshoot any machine with ease. It is an estimate that the market of IIoT will reach 123.89 billion by 2021 and $14.2 trillion until 2030. This is a huge number for a technology. 

Why industrial IoT is the big deal in Industry 4.0?

According to Forbes, even only 1% advancement in worldwide industrial productivity can add $10 to $15 trillion to GDP of the world over the next 15 years. If this prediction is right, then we should start working on it, now. But without the IIoT it is not possible to streamline the logistic, mining and aviation businesses.

After the successful IIoT implementation, a business can gain 77% of the more growth and 75% of the more agility. It can also reduce the cost of operation by 44%. Additionally, with the IIoT, improvement in the business processes can be achieved by 37%. If we talk more, then 33% more employees productivity, 33% more competitiveness, 30% more customer experience and 30% more revenue can be achieved.

If reading this number trigger you then go ahead and read how major four properties of the IIoT is crafting the Industry?

Detailed advantages of IIoT with the example.

 1) Predictive Maintenance

 Few heavy industries majorly rely on the heavy machines they have. In the case of any failure in the machines, production cycle gets affected and the company has to tolerate fiancee loss. Size of the machine and the maintenance cost make it even more worst. A company might have to stop all operation for several days in the case of machine failure. Thus, it is very essential for a business to make sure there are minor chances for machine failures and even if such happens, it should be operational in no time.

With the predictive maintenance, the maintenance team can keep the close eyes on the possible future failures in the machines and necessary steps to not let it happens. This magic can be achievable with the help of IIoT.

How does it work?

Let’s divide this learning into two part. Heavy machines are equipped with condition-monitoring systems and maintenance team is equipped with a mobile app or web-based solution. Condition-monitoring systems, rather sensors, read the real-time data of the machines, run the algorithm on it and send the results to the maintenance team.  A team can see the result on their mobile or computer. This result includes the performance of the different part of the machines. Reading this information of the machines, the maintenance team can take necessary precaution before the major malfunction happens.   

2) Real-time monitoring      

Real-time monitoring opens the many doors of achieving 99.99% accurate and error-free operations. Monitoring data in real time allows employees to see each and every aspect of the different business process in a broader and much cleaner way. With real-time monitoring, companies become less dependent on the guts feeling and more dependent on real data in order to take any decision. Additionally, keeping an eye on real-time data decrease the chances of major errors as employees have the way to see and identify the best performing and worst performing business process and so, employees can improve bad performing business process before it turns into error and goes into the worst state.

Example:

The best example of real-time monitoring can be seen in the aviation industry, where to avoid the error, precise and real-time monitoring is needed. At a moment, almost 10000 planes are flying in the sky. To deliver the precise path to the planes, air traffic controllers should have the real-time data of each and every planes and their position in the sky. Until 2005, there was not a possibility to track all flights in real time. That time, air traffic towers were getting planes’ position and other data every 10 minutes. So, for every 9 minutes, there was complete blackout which caused so many fatal aircraft crashes.

To solve this problem, they have brought the aviation industry under the IIoT and opened the doors of real-time monitoring. There is an app in both IOS and Android PlayStore, named flight radar24 which shows the real-time data of each and every flight including altitude and speed of the planes. Of course, air traffic towers are using more advanced technology than a mobile app to get the real-time position of the fights, but still, for the general people, flight radar24 app is the best example of real-time monitoring. with the advance node.js and other mobile app development technique it also becomes possible to develop app that supports real time data. 

3) Resource Optimization  

A resource is the most valuable asset a company has. Proper resource management and poor resource management can make a big difference. After the implementation of proper resource management, companies are able to cut down their production cost and increase productivity at the same time. However, A poor resource management takes the company to the cliff the push it down in a valley of failure. To understand resource management or optimization, let’s take an example. Suppose, a company needs 5 persons to do one business process. Now, if you deploy more than 5 or less than 5 people for that one process, then it is called a waste of resource.

How IIoT helps in resource optimization?

Machines are equipped with the sensors and team members are equipped with the mobile or web solution. Machines collect data related to its operation and send to the team members. Reading that data helps team members to understand how many resources they should have deployed for that one business process. This is the one narrow use of IIoT in resource optimization, we will understand the wider approach of resource optimization by studying how FedEx is managing its resources.

Example:

FedEx is logistic companies and having an operational area in all over the world. For FedEx, the resource means the vehicle fleet and distances to cover to complete one delivery. In order to process thousands of parcels in a single night, FedEx is doing some sort of extraordinary resource management. FedEx relies on the data collected by each transport vehicles of it in order to decide the safest and pocket-friendly path. FedEx is saving a million of the dollar by making sure that vehicle covers the shortest distance to deliver the parcel in 24 hours.

4) Remote Diagnostics 

All heavy machines are manmade and any manmade product gets issue one day. That is normal. But what is not normal is you spend 2 3 days to find the issue and then more 2 3 days to solves that issue. The traditional way of diagnostics is time-consuming and more costly. But in the case of IIoT enabled machines, diagnostics of a machine without even touching it is possible. With this technology, a technician can find the problem of the machine and solution of it by just doing a few clicks on his mobile device. All IIoT integrated machines are having a network of sensors which share data with each other to find the problems and internet which is being used by technical to connect with the machine and command the machine in order to solve that problem remotely.

Example:   

Cars and trucks are coming with the inbuilt remote diagnostics system. This system generates several numbers of error code based on the data comes out from engine controller, transmission controller, and brake controller. After getting the error, the system reacts in two ways. Either system itself runs the error code action plan to perform diagnostics or it sends data to a person and follows his command to diagnosis. Oncommand Connection is the company which is providing a complete diagnosis system to the cars. It is offering an app to see the car’s health and more details like route reports, vehicle location, and Geofencing.  

Final words:  

Connecting heavy machines with the internet and making it intelligent is the unsurpassable achievement we have got. Imagine the future where all small and big physical objects are smart and can perform the operation and increase productivity without the interaction of human. Industrial IoT and IoT have the potential to transfer the way we, human work with the machines. With the same development, it is not a surprising fact that in the future, even the dust particles will have the IoT enabled technology!