Smart Industry Solutions: How they can transform an industry into a smart industry
Introduction
Industry 4.0 is at its peak. Every industry in the market is evolving into a smart industry. With the induction of smart solutions in business processes, organizations are leveraging the benefits of IoT and elevating their business to the next extent. According to IDC’s recent report, IoT will uplift the industry profit ratio by $1.7 trillion by 2020. Now that’s a huge amount!
If we talk about the Internet of Things, it is becoming a fast adopting and even faster-evolving technology at the present time. As a result of the massive availability of sensors, affordable connectivity, scalable platforms, process and storage capabilities of enormous structured and unstructured data, IoT has become a trustworthy and efficient tool for business success. Technology companies and service providers are increasingly bombarding companies with innovative solutions on how they can connect things to Internet to radically change their business operations.
The foundation of a smart industry can be laid upon three pillars;
1. Smart Factory
2. Smart Asset Monitoring
3. Smart Connected Worker
These solutions can a business into one of the most efficient businesses in terms of better operational processes, better co-ordination amongst employees and better results. So, let’s have a look at these smart solutions one by one.
Smart Factory
Since we are in the midst of Industry 4.0, we are quite familiar with the coined term — ‘Smart Factory’. It can be defined as an environment where machinery and equipment are able to improve the business processes with the help of automation and self-optimization. The benefits span from just physical production of goods to functions like planning, supply chain logistics and even product development. However, despite having an automated factory environment, most manufacturers fail to push manufacturing productivity to the max and meet customer demands.
The key challenges faced by industries today are:
- Lack of real-time data and disparate data systems
- Keeping abreast of regulations and managing compliance
- Implementing procedures that allow faster time to market
- Balancing maintenance with throughput
- Ensure customer satisfactions
Dealing with the above challenges, organizations were finding it hard to cope up with market growth and demands from the customers.
Solution
Whether its recent job stats, periodic report updates or data to monitor operations on the production line, a handy system that can explicitly perform and manage all these tasks is a major advantage for the factory. Features like quality control and statistical analysis of a smart factory solution are compatible with almost every station of a production line. With a smart factory, supervisors get real-time, continuous and standardized task level data to have a detailed analysis of the performance of the factory. With a better knowledge of their production lines, supervisors can easily make out the problematic areas and take accurate decisions to meet the dynamic demands of production lines.
Smart Asset Monitoring
Smart asset monitoring solution is creating a whole lot of buzz in the present scenario. With the attributes and features the solution offers, it is considered as the ‘X-Factor’ for acquiring the competitive edge. Industries that are majorly asset-driven are gaining most out of the solution. The matrix of industries includes manufacturing, industrial machinery, power and utilities, mining, oil & gas and many more. An asset drives the success of an industry and a broken, lost or an incorrect asset may hinder the ultimate goal of the business -the profit margin.
Case Study
Our client is an industry leader in data management services that creates platforms to help businesses manage and monitor their assets more effectively.
Key challenges faced by industries in present are;
Prior to smart asset monitoring solution, organizations were facing challenges like-
- Tracking asset performance
- Limited control over assets
- Loss of assets
- Separate silos of IT and OT
- Scheduling an effective maintenance plan
- Data driven decision-making
Solution
An IoT enabled smart asset monitoring solution not only helps in gaining better control over the equipment and machinery of the business but also provides proficiency by increasing efficiency and productivity, reducing operational costs, increasing customer experiences, etc. With the help of smart asset monitoring solution, businesses can get a deeper insight about health, availability, productivity and location about the assets. What makes the solution so popular is the ability to monitor all the prior mentioned attributes from a single point of view. Also the feature of keeping the record of every active asset, eliminating any ghost assets and providing intact information on how assets are being utilized in every process adds the cherry on the cake for a smart asset monitoring solution.
Connected Worker
One of the toughest challenges businesses are dealing with today is ensuring a field worker’s safety. Apart from the safety of a worker, tracking and monitoring its activity in the field is also a challenge organizations have to deal with. Industries are in a hot pursuit for a solution that can efficiently and effectively meet the required parameters. Organizations are also willing to improve the overall efficiency of the worker by reducing the time consumed in non-productive work and offer them a safer work environment.
Key challenges faced by the industries are;
- Unexpected accidents in the field
- Improving worker performance
- Enhancing employee experience
- Tracking workers
- Reducing the risk of errors
- Improving data accuracy
- Creating visibility in the process work status
Solution
Connecting the industrial workers, in addition to having a fully-connected system has now become a feasible solution to achieve better operational efficiency and to ensure worker safety and productivity. Along with connected assets and machinery, connected workers can help a company gain better regulatory compliance and get a real-time glance at a worker’s activity and health.
Why industries need these smart solutions?
We now are aware of the three solutions that can transform an industry into the smart industry. But, why should an organization go for these or any other smart industrial solutions? Why do they need these high-tech solutions? And, last but not the least, how will these solutions impact on the business and business processes of different industries?
Well, these automated solutions are designed and developed to cut down the complexities involved in data collection, insight generation and provide better decision making parameters. When implemented correctly, these smart solutions bring major business benefits, including boosted productivity as well as a competitive advantage. Besides enabling organizations to utilize their business infrastructure and assets in innovative ways, smart industrial solutions offer new services and deliver additional revenue. Business can make the best of a number of benefits that these smart solutions have to offer.
Benefits
Improved Operational Efficiency
Smart industrial solutions use real-time data from sensors to monitor and enhance process efficiency, reduce human intervention and energy costs. All data obtained can be utilized to minimize downtime due to maintenance, inventory, as well as time to market.
Better Safety and Security
Besides resolving situations faster by coordinating with multiple teams, these solutions allow businesses to improve workplace safety and guard against physical threats using sensors and video cameras that help monitor equipment.
Faster Decision Making
Organizations can use real-time operational insights to make faster and smarter business decisions and reduce operating costs. These IoT enabled solutions help distribute intelligence and prioritize all business decisions.
A new level of business intelligence
Smart solutions can serve as a forecasting tool for a better decision-making by constantly monitoring, aggregating and analyzing data from various sensors installed across the factory, assets or deployed to the entire employee staff. These sensors help the supervisors to collect real-time data which in turn allow companies to obtain insights into various operations and initiate preventative actions.
Conclusion
To be in the league of growing business, getting smart can be the optimal solution for your business. By incorporating smart industrial solutions in a business, enterprises can convert real-time data into actionable insights which in turn can help in better decision-making.
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Originally published at www.softwebsolutions.com on December 4, 2017.
