Companies that operate a wide range of machinery daily are rushing to embrace digitization across the operational landscape. The realization is setting in that depending on legacy hardware machines often ends up costing them a fortune in unplanned shutdowns for maintenance, creates unpredictable production schedules, results in time, effort, and material wastage, and much more. By adopting smarter machines and devices powered by the Internet of Things (IoT), such companies are seeking nothing less than a transformational change in their market outlook and operational landscape.
Studies estimate that the global market for IoT in manufacturing will reach a staggering USD 452.27 billion by 2032. The warehousing industry is not far behind in IoT adoption as studies point to a global market size of USD 34.68 billion for IoT-powered solutions in the sector as well.
Businesses across sectors that depend on a sizeable inventory of machines and equipment to achieve a range of operational outcomes have immense scope to embrace IoT. The use cases are adding up and success stories are growing. However, this is also a space where there is a lot of confusing information out there, and it can get hard to separate the hope from the hype. That’s why decision-makers in these sectors need a clear understanding of how IoT can help them unlock more value, lower the cost of operations, and drive efficiency levels high up. Knowing this will be the essential first step to achieving better business prospects.
IoT’s contribution to making machines more effective and efficient
Predictive maintenance
Through a combination of intelligent IoT-enabled solutions, sensors and devices integrated into equipment, maintenance engineers can ensure better productivity and performance for the machinery they use. These sensors and connected devices will constantly capture operational parameters, usage patterns, and performance data from machines and supply them to smart systems for analysis. For example, the speed of rotation of a motor powering a machine, pattern of vibrations on the machine surface and internal components, the time taken for a machine to complete one work cycle, the degree of heat emitted by the machine, levels of gases or other chemicals in the exhaust cycle of machines, etc. could be captured. These would then be analyzed intelligently.
Such insights can help pinpoint the conditions associated with any performance drops. They can also detect signs of wear and tear in complex machines early in the cycle. As soon as signals are spotted, maintenance cycles can be initiated to ensure that technical issues do not escalate and cause any disruptions to processes. In other words, it becomes easier for engineering systems to predict when a machine could fail or productivity levels would drop before the actual scenario happens. This helps to minimize downtime and ensure further cost optimization with timely maintenance.
operations. Key stakeholders need to understand the realistic opportunities they have at their disposal to transform industrial automation with AI.
On this note, let us explore some of the key areas where AI can go beyond the hype and offer real-world practical applications in the industrial automation scene:
Optimized resource allocation
We have already seen how various IoT sensors constantly monitor machine operations and capture various operational data. This data is used not just for predictive maintenance but can also throw light on resource utilization patterns of machines. For example, engineers can understand how much fuel or electric power is consumed by machines in a particular work cycle in specific environments. This helps them adjust conditions or operational cycles to ensure that machinery works at the right conditions while consuming optimal resources.
Similarly, integrating demand and other business data into the automated IoT-enabled operations allows for intelligent scale-up or scale-down of work cycles to match demands thereby eliminating wastage and ensuring higher production efficiency.
Lower human errors
An IoT-powered machine ecosystem can operate intelligently with data-driven controls. This ensures that machines do not get over or under-utilised.
An IoT-driven machine environment has sufficient controls and oversight established. It can enable autonomous operations governed by data collected and analyzed. With lower errors, machines can improve their throughput significantly and eliminate performance bottlenecks. This streamlines overall operations leading to long-lasting and sustainable performance. This can help in controlling the cost of operations also.
Smarter workforce training
While automation is a major game-changer for enterprises, the human element is always important. Many core operations are ultimately executed or overseen by human workers. Bringing IoT into the mix can also help workers get better control over operational cycles that involve machinery.
By combining data acquired through IoT integration with technologies like AR/VR, workers can be provided a more comprehensive and systematic training experience to use machines optimally. IoT-enabled machines can be used to build virtual models called digital twins of each machine or routine executed by a machine. These digital twins can be used to train workers for tasks such as routine maintenance, operational configurations, optimized operations, etc. Better work practices lead to higher efficiency in machine efficiency thereby helping companies in the long run.
Towards a sustainable future for machines with IoT
IoT will be a pivotal framework to enable enterprises of all sizes to spearhead digitization efforts across day-to-day operations. Driving value from such hardware-driven operations was once considered impossible, as manual operations often lacked the flexibility and data-driven decision systems to lower risks and streamline workflows. With IoT, everything changes, and businesses can run their machines more efficiently and effectively with lower risks for a longer time.
What’s important for them to pick the right IoT tools, processes, and ecosystem for better efficiency in their machine landscape. This is where an experienced IoT solutions partner like CSI can be a major asset. Get in touch with us to learn more.