Benefits of the Industrial IoT

revised by Rafael Guedes

The management of a company with physical environments and / or machinery - be it a farm, a factory, a plant or a car dealership - is known to be a daily challenge, given the range of problems demanding solutions that stand in the way of the dream that started it all , the success in generating income and jobs in the performance of the final business activity.

Lighting park, production park, energy and fluid supplies, refrigeration and ventilation. There are many systems that involve the manager's daily life, often still tied to paper reports and inaccurate and slow to calculate data.

Fortunately, today we have “internet of things” solutions (widely known and hereinafter, simply IoT) capable of facilitating the management of a manufacture, lighting and even a city, allowing access to information in real time and providing speed of decision. Where before it took a few days to gather information and choose a path, with IoT the decision can be made in a few minutes.

The figure above shows several solutions that communicate with each other, thus generating a network of connectivity using the same management platform to thus monitor in detail the equipments with total security at different levels, thereby generating direct and indirect savings.

Have you ever imagined, for example, renewing the lighting of your company with most advanced technology, allowing remote control with total precision and paying for all this without having to allocate resources for that, using only the energy and maintenance savings that will be a consequence of such a process? Yes, there are solutions capable of interacting with the lighting grid, in this way generating more savings for your company.

These and several other achievements can be realized quickly and efficiently when using IoT in the business environment, be it an industry, a farm, a plant, a car dealership and many other business environments. According to Accenture, investment in IoT applied to industry will add a total of USD 14.2 trillion only to a few countries (USA, UK, Germany and China), meaning a lift in real GDP by 1.5 percent in 2030, over trend projections. This is true to any other country that adopts such a technology.

The Positive Impact of IoT on Productive Processes

In a factory, from the youngest apprentice to the partners, everyone knows that a stopped machine means loss. Especially if the occurrence happens suddenly, in the middle of a production shift. Every minute without operating represents unattended customers and possibly expenses with maintenance, replacement of parts and, perhaps, even the need to replace the whole equipment.

According to a recent study, unplanned downtime can cost some companies as much as USD 260,000 an hour. This analysis also found that 82% of participating companies faced stopped machines.

What causes a machine to stop working? The question seems obvious, but it is precisely for this reason that the analysis is worthwhile. We have more than a century of information in our contact with industrial equipment to know the most common causes of the so-called downtime, the time when a machine is stopped:

– Operating instructions poorly prepared;

– Misuse, due to several factors (among them, the previous item);

– Unplanned maintenance;

– Lack or excess of maintenance, especially preventive;

– Delays in adjustments and configurations;

– Human errors of operation or failures of the machine itself;

– Lack of adequate monitoring of the equipment.

Knowing what is causing the machine downtime is the first step towards more continuous operation and the preservation of the company's assets, including its most precious asset, time.

Thus, the well-structured IoT consists of applying sensors and actuators to industrial equipment, then virtualizing them in a cloud system. This allows the monitoring of several data on a single platform, accessible from anywhere with complete cyber security, thus generating a more effective and real-time control of the entire process.

With such a system, the so-called predictive maintenance becomes a reality, that is, due to having precise data on the use of a certain machine, the calculation of wear parts reaches a level of accuracy that allows to predict when it will be necessary to change them. Therefore, the maintenance and adjustment measures of the equipment can be programmed, but without the imprecision that the so-called preventive maintenance causes, as this often leads to premature substitutions and interventions, with less cost-benefit.

The efficiency brought by IoT to the production process may also involves safety measures, preventing or even avoiding labor accidents.

Anyway, the best method today for an innovative management of the production process is in IoT and in companies that offer truly accessible and practical solutions in this segment, with an agile, safe and reliable setup.

IoT Cloud Management of Electricity, Fluids and Refrigeration

Electricity consumption is one of the highest costs in industrial activity and one of the inputs of which little is known about quality, due to the lack of adequate and accurate instruments for its constant measurement. It is not uncommon for energy fluctuation to cause machinery to stop, since not only can excess load interrupt equipment, but instability wears it out more quickly in its electrical systems. All of this represents a certain loss for an industry.

IoT appears, then, as an effective way to monitor and control the electricity consumed, bringing the power of digital data to the company to deal with its supplier or even with the energy produced off-grid. The detailed analysis made possible by IoT allows an informed decision in real time, avoiding unnecessary expenses of this precious asset, which also helps in controlling the ecological footprint of the business.

Other issues that are often essential in an industrial environment involve fluids and refrigeration. Liquids and gases can be directly connected to your company's core business, but it has always been difficult to control them, let alone take action on them quickly. IoT is your ally to obtain total control of fluid handling, avoiding waste due to leakage before very difficult detection without a complete examination of the circulation network. With digital sensors in remote management system, this task acquires precision and extreme speed, which allows management in real time.

Lighting Modernization

Have you ever imagined having the power to control point-to-point the lighting of your installations, no matter how far they are? Managing the lighting park with precision and speed certainly brings huge savings in both electricity consumption and maintenance costs. This was previously carried out extensively, requiring checking of several points to detect the defective one. Now, with the IoT it becomes absolutely accurate and equipped with remote management (remote control of lamps, being able to measure voltage, power, consumption and efficiency) automatic elements that warn you before anyone else about faults in a specific point of light.

Remote management paves the way for the installation of the so-called IoT devices, the lighting grid often being the starting point for this process. On top of that, it is possible to install this state-of-the-art in the lighting grid, completely renovating it, often without even having to separate resources for it, as the savings of about 80% with electricity consumed by lighting can afford such modernization by itself.

So, what are you waiting for to do all of this in your business?

Talk to me, I can help you find the right solution for your company's needs, be it an industry, plant, farm, dealership, hospital, etc.

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