People. Process. Data. Things.
People. IoT in manufacturing will improve business by connecting people to the right information, over the right device at the right time and span across company boundaries to include suppliers, maintenance partners, and distribution chains.
New mobile-ready software will allow plant managers to have access to data such as equipment efficiency, line efficiency, data visualization tools and alerts from any location at much lower costs than previous custom systems.
Process. In the first phases of IoT deployments, manufacturers will seek visibility into specific supply problems. As IoT becomes more pervasive, manufacturers will enable faster information flow, faster decisions, and greater market responsiveness by connecting devices into both operational and business software processes.
Machine to machine (M2M) communications will enable new levels of automation. For example, GM uses sensor data to decide if it’s too humid to paint an automobile. If the system defines the conditions are unfavorable, the automobile will be routed to another area of the manufacturing process, reducing repainting and maximizing plant uptime. This change alone saved the company millions of dollars.
Data. Mobility and the IoT will change the types of devices that connect into a company’s systems and these newly connected devices will produce new types of data. IoT will connect physical items such as sensors, actuators, video cameras and RFID readers – to the Internet and to each other.
Big data processing and analytics, either on-premise or in the cloud, will collect and analyze data from IoT-enabled devices. These solutions will turn data into context that can be used to help people and machines make more relevant and valuable decisions.
See also: How to Get Started with IoT and Make the Most of Your Investment
Things. The IoT world of connected devices is going to continue to grow at a rapid pace (50 Billion Smart Objects by 2020). Small and Mid-Market Manufacturers need to start planning for and executing their digital transformations to keep up and remain competitive.
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