Author: Arvind Rao, Director of Product Management and Digital Solutions, Rockwell Automation.
The rebound from the decline in consumer spending to the surge in demand after the pandemic has caught many manufacturers by surprise. The Wall Street Journal reported that although U.S. consumer spending on durable goods increased by 6.4% in 2020, the production of these commodities fell by 8.4%. In the next few months, how will it help the exhausted manufacturer? Digital threads that provide end-to-end connectivity are becoming a reality.
The Internet of Things (IoT) provides devices, equipment, and the interconnectivity of all corresponding operations that are taking over today’s manufacturing operations and playing a transformative role in industries around the world. This is critical because our global economy is coping with a surge in consumer spending following the upcoming recession and a historic labor shortage.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the application of connecting the Internet of Things in factories and process facilities, which raises efficiency, reliability and performance to a new level. It operates based on the concept of a feedback loop, where the heartbeats of machines, equipment and production systems continuously flow back to the complex systems and processes that produce finished products through the feedback loop. IIoT can provide manufacturers with new business opportunities, save costs, and improve machine monitoring and maintenance. IIoT solutions have provided endless benefits for modern manufacturers.
here has 10 advantages of IIoT deployment:
1. Production system awareness and monitoring: The core of the IIoT solution is the continuous communication between the system and the machine to ensure optimized throughput and real-time identification of machine defects.
2. Manufacturing process optimization: Machines and equipment equipped with sensors and managed through the IIoT system can monitor conditions, equipment, and work processes, such as machine performance, assembly line management, supply chain optimization, labor safety, or quality assurance processes for optimization.
3. Predictive maintenance: More than 75% of equipment and system failures occur without notice. With IIoT, preventive maintenance combines analysis to predict machine failures.
4. Optimize quality: It can immediately solve the problems on the production line, reducing downtime, productivity loss and product defects. IIoT devices are programmed to monitor material quality, analyze device performance in real time, and measure and test finished products.
5. Inventory and supply chain management: Data, analysis, insight, and contextual intelligence enable the inventory system to operate seamlessly to more accurately estimate the estimated time of arrival of available materials, work in progress, and new materials-which helps optimize the supply chain and reduce costs.
6. Customer service level and satisfaction: Sensor-equipped production systems and inventory enable customers to understand the progress of their orders in near real time. Sensors provide insights about customer usage, which can help manufacturers improve features, alert customers to problems and bottlenecks, and stand out from the competition.
7. Worker safety and health: Smart wearable devices enable managers to monitor the health and safety of production workers by tracking the history of illnesses and injuries, absences, near misses, mechanical or vehicle accidents, or life-threatening events (such as gas leaks).
8. Energy Management and Sustainability: Industrial manufacturing consumes 54% of the world’s electricity. Manufacturers using IIoT can significantly improve energy efficiency by optimizing energy consumption.
9. Service Provision and Orchestration: On-site service delivery supported by the Industrial Internet of Things is a value-based approach based on factors provided, such as the time, background, and participation of technical personnel for a given service activity.
10. Service contract compliance and performance: IIoT supports real-time data visibility, so both original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and users can be aware of risks and problems when they arise.
