Top 5 Things About the IIoT That You Need to Know
By: Phoenix Contact Usa
Tags: Smart Cities, IoT, Digital, Data, Iiot

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) may sound vague, but it affects us every day in surprising ways. It’s transforming our lives, but many people still don’t know what it is. Here are five of the most important facts about the IIoT that you, as a modern individual, should know.

1: It’s all around us

At its most fundamental level, the IIoT refers to a network of smart devices and machines. The network is connected to systems that monitor, collect, exchange, and analyze data flowing through them with the goal of enhancing efficiency and safety.

The umbrella under which IIoT lives and works is the Internet of Things, which includes connected, data-collecting devices that we use every day in our personal lives. Some examples are fitness bands, Wi-Fi-enabled vehicles, wireless printers, and those handy devices that we speak to in our homes to play music and tell us jokes on demand.

IIoT networks function at a more global level, working to enhance society’s efficiency in industries like utilities, gas and oil, health, and manufacturing. You may not see the IIoT, but it is transforming industries that provide the necessities of your daily life.

2: It’s all about collecting data

All those intelligent IIoT devices are connected, forming systems to perform a variety of tasks. The systems monitor and collect the data flowing through sensors, and then they exchange and analyze the data with seemingly magical results.

How does this look in a practical setting? Picture an automobile factory assembly line with robotic workers, all being monitored to determine when one of those machines might fail before it ever malfunctions. Managers receive that data and can schedule maintenance during a slow period, avoiding expensive downtime. That’s all made possible by data collection and analytics.

Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash

3: IIoT data is incredibly versatile

As you may have guessed, IIoT data saves businesses massive amounts of money by improving efficiency. There are countless examples of this, each more impressive than the next. Austrian automotive manufacturer Magna Steyr tracks its assets (tools and vehicle parts) using sensors and keeps tabs on inventory using Bluetooth-enhanced smart packaging to track components in its warehouses. The system then places the order for more when needed.

International Aerospace and Defense company Airbus touts its “factory of the future,” their initiative to improve operations and boost production through digital manufacturing. This initiative embeds sensors into machines and tools on the shop floor and provides the wearable tech, like “smart” shop glasses for their employees, to improve safety and gather data while also eliminating as much human error as possible.

The field of telemedicine is another industry in which machine-to-machine technology can have a significant impact. M2M communication can monitor a patient’s vital statistics in real time, dispense medication based on the data, and track assets.

It remains to be seen if the IIoT technology will create viable “smart cities,” urban centers that integrate data to improve the quality of life for residents. Public sectors such as transportation grids, air quality meters, and energy production are obvious targets for the use of the IIoT. A small step in that direction can be seen in Boston and Baltimore, where smart garbage cans emit data resulting in more efficient pick-up routes for sanitation workers.

4: Smart robots are taking our jobs (at least some of them)

Robots are already doing much of the physical labor in factories today, and the IIoT is extending the use of those robots in a variety of ways. Will all these smart, connected machines replace us in the workforce? It’s a logical question, one that is raised with each wave of new technology.

Robotics can and do replace humans today in industries like automobile manufacturing, as mentioned in an earlier example. But, in many uses of IIoT, the networks created by all these connected, smart machines are providing real-time data to humans who then make faster decisions and more efficient use of resources. Take, for example, a hospital. IIoT systems can process the data from a patient, diagnose the patient, and recommend a treatment. However, a doctor is a final decision-maker for the patient, and that doctor ultimately provides the treatment. The speed of the connections can be life-saving.

This “digital disruption” in the workplace can also lead companies to train employees on new processes to use all this information flowing into their place of business or factory. By reconfiguring systems, a business can earn higher profit margins, which leads to more efficient manufacturing. This, in turn, leads to growth and the need to hire more employees.

From a customer service perspective, the news has the potential to be positive too. Improved efficiency in production leads to faster delivery of products. Safety is enhanced when product failure (think about a part in your new car) is anticipated and corrected before it happens. Customers appreciate and remember service like this when it comes time to buy again, leading to higher sales and more workers in the factories.

As described by an expert in the field of disruption: “From a technology perspective, it’s about building the right systems that provide the right information and tools to the right people at the right time.”

Photo by Daniel Chen on Unsplash

5: The IIoT is the future

The IIoT is big business, and it’s not slowing down. It is predicted that by 2020, IIoT applications will generate $300 billion — twice the earnings from consumer IoT. The top three industries that invested in these connected technologies in 2018 are manufacturing to the tune of $189 million, transportation at $85 billion, and utilities with a focus on smart grids at $73 billion.

Accenture, a tech consulting giant, predicts that the IIoT will add $14.2 trillion to the economy by 2030, primarily thanks to companies that “design systems that adjust to people — not those who continue to expect people to adjust to systems.”

Stephen Hawking warned that artificial intelligence, another term for machines analyzing and then acting on the data being crunched, could be a threat to humanity. At a speech in Lisbon, Portugal in 2006, Hawking said, “Success in creating effective AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilization. Or the worst. We just don’t know. So we cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and side-lined, or conceivably destroyed by it.”

It isn’t likely that these connections and networks will disappear now that they are here and functioning. The Industrial Internet of Things, under the larger umbrella of the Internet of Things, is the latest wave of a revolution in how products are created and best used. And just like every great invention, it has changed everything.

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Published By Ira Sharp Jr