The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) should not be confused with the Internet of Things (IoT); they have completely different business implications and impact. IoT is consumer-based and works toward making your world a better place – by telling you when your washing machine needs service, controlling your home systems while you are away, and indicating your peak hour of sleep during the night or heart rate during a workout.
The Industrial IoT is working to make the collective world a better place – by improving the monitoring, control, safety, reliability, and operational excellence of the massive industrial systems that power everything around us. Greater visibility and control into operations not only benefits the infrastructure, security, energy production, transportation, and medical systems powered by the IIoT that we all rely on, but also improves decision making on the plant floor and across the industrial organization.
Every production facility has thousands of sensors that power the IIoT. Each asset, including every pump, valve, motor, and generator, will generate accurate data to provide a holistic view of operation performance. This will allow manufacturers to identify when individual assets are running below efficiency and determine how the inefficiency will impact the entire plant. And not all assets are created equal, and as a result, they are prioritized across the facility and organization. Under ideal circumstances, the IIoT will highlight whether critical assets are running below peak efficiency – allowing plant managers to apply smart technology to the correct equipment and immediately schedule maintenance and repair – before all operations grind to a halt.
It’s always challenging to put theory into practice. With so many sensors and connected assets, the IIoT generates overwhelming volumes of data from equipment assets, and there is no room for oversight when it comes to managing asset maintenance and risk. All operators understand that asset failure could result in injury of people, the environment and business investments – therefore it’s crucial to have the technology needed to flag potential risk and proactively avoid it.
