As technology evolves it expands its reach. First it was the office, then it was the home, more recently, it was in your pocket, and now it’s in factories, refineries, fields, and satellite critical infrastructure sites. What does it all mean and how can conventional and mature industries take advantage of it? The answer lies in three letters: “I – o – T”. Let’s talk What You Need to Know about Industrial IoT.
What is IoT? It stands for: Internet of Things. What is that? Well, if you’re reading this you know what the internet is. What “things” are we referring to? It’s up to YOU! Things can be your washer and dryer at home that now have mobile apps to help you customize the audible signals when your laundry cycle is complete. Things can be your pickup truck app that allows you to see your oil life, gas level, lock/unlock status and controls, and even remote start. Things can be industrial equipment, too. In short, IoT adds connectivity to things that were initially “not smart”. By adding network capabilities to your systems, you can monitor, manage and gather data that empowers you to make better management decisions.
Where are the tools and pieces of equipment you need when you need them? When was the last time they were inspected? Do any of the critical components or moving parts need preventive maintenance? IoT can be leveraged to connect sensors to your systems and provide you with these answers when you need them most. Clipboards and paper logs may provide a bit of information after the fact, but who proactively reviews them? Where are they stored? What happens if they are impacted by moisture or weather? When you connect your systems to technology, this data can be accessed anywhere, anytime and securely stored and backed up to provide the security and reliability needed.
Consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your assets today. Do you know what that figure is? How much does it cost to operate? This includes: power, gas, water, or other necessary resources. This also includes: overhead to run the asset, maintain the asset, and compliance with regulatory requirements. In short, IoT can reduce your TCO. By adding sensors (or connecting sensors that are already in place) to detect potential failures, you can prevent costly repairs and downtime. By prompting necessary tasks and maintenance to be completed when necessary, and only when necessary, valuable time can be saved.
Here is a very basic example: an unstaffed donation drop center. When should it be serviced? What is optimal? Only when it’s full? When it reaches a certain threshold? What happens if it’s overflowing or becoming an unintended dumping site? By adding a few sensors or cameras you could be fully aware of the state of these drop centers, only dispatching trucks to those worth the trip, and escalating illegal dumping issues to prevent it from impacting the influx of valid donations.
What sensors do you already have that you could benefit from having visibility to at any time? Or, what about what alarms would you generate if you could to indicate a potential failure or safety hazard? What trends would you want to measure so you could proactively influence specific performance metrics or outcomes? In addition to asset management, IoT can be very impactful for ensuring a safe work environment, mitigating risk and protecting what matters most. Emissions, temperature, humidity, water levels, all capable of being tracked and generating a notification when they reach a certain threshold.
If you are ready to consider the opportunities of incorporating IoT into your operation, start with defining your end goal. Whether it’s capturing data and accessing it on a useful dashboard, or providing safety managers with timely and critical updates on the status and whereabouts of workers, or streamlining asset management; there is great potential in cost savings, risk mitigation, downtime prevention, and operational optimization.
Not sure where to start? CBT will begin with a deep dive into your work outputs, processes and people. We build technology around the needs of our clients, generating a meaningful return on investment. Our focus is on delivering high-quality, sustainable and scalable solutions that create value when they are implemented and as our clients grow and expand. We provide the tech and the assurance that it is updated, maintained and reliable by providing value-added services for the near and long-term.
Set up a meeting and find out how IoT is going to revolutionize the way you work.