It is often said that data is the oil of the third millennium. And in this “race” toward a new form of wealth, the manufacturing sector has a huge advantage: it can produce its own data on its own, powering its own intelligent systems and securing the advantage of increasingly effective and specialized analytical tools.
This is made possible byIndustrial IoT, or IIoT, whose main purpose is precisely to feed the enterprise data lake with readings from machinery, instruments and plants designed to use the information for both monitoring and deeper analysis.
Industrial IoT and the Internet of Things: let’s get some clarity
Internet of Things (IoT) is the general term for the connection of physical objects to the Internet, using sensors, microcontrollers and communication protocols.
Industrial IoT (IIOT) is a specific category of IoT and refers to its application in the manufacturing sector to improve the efficiency, quality and safety of production processes.
Let’s look at some of the characteristics that distinguish IIoT:
The level of criticality: industrial IoT requires greater reliability, security, and robustness of devices and networks. Failures, in fact, not only create disruptions but could cause damage to people, machinery or the environment. Consumer IoT, for its part, has less stringent requirements resulting from less criticality in applications.
Quality and type of data: industrial IoT generates and uses more complex, structured, and sensitive data, requiring advanced analytics, such as artificial intelligence or machine learning, and protection from cyber attacks. The consumer IoT produces and consumes simpler, unstructured, and less relevant data.
Scale and application context: industrial IoT involves more devices per user, whose readings must be aggregated and concerted. Although the overall numbers of consumer IoT are undoubtedly higher, it completely changes the management paradigms.
The main fields of application of the IIoT
Given its ability to collect and manage field data, the goal of industrial IoT is to improve the efficiency, quality, safety and sustainability of industrial activities through the use of sensors, machines, devices and integrated systems. There are fields where this technology is already being used successfully. Let us recall the main ones here.
Predictive maintenance
In this case, the IIoT supports the monitoring of the status and operation of machines and industrial plants to predict and prevent possible failures or malfunctions, reducing costs and downtime.
Traceability and Supply Chain Management
With industrial IoT, it is possible to track the path and condition, of products and materials, throughout the supply chain, from raw material to finished product, to ensure quality, safety and regulatory compliance.
Automation and intelligent control
Using advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence, it is possible to automate and optimize industrial processes, adapting them to the needs and less and less predictable variables of the environment, such as demand, available resources and their costs, climate variations, and so on.
Precision agriculture
With IoT technologies applied to the agricultural sector, it is possible to monitor and manage crops, livestock, soil, irrigation and other factors that affect the productivity and quality of agricultural products.
How Industrial IoT makes smart factories smarter
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is playing a key role in the transformation of traditional factories into smart factories, but its applications are only now beginning to show its full potential. Taking a cue from the publication “Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems” ¹, we discover some of the potential developments of this technology in smart factories of the near future.
CNC virtual machining enables smart factories to simulate and optimize CNC machining processes prior to actual production. This approach reduces setup time and production costs while improving the accuracy and quality of the final product. Using 3D modeling and predictive analytics, companies can predict machining errors and part deviations, enabling real-time corrections and minimizing material waste and job repetitions.
Asset tracking leverages IoT sensors and RFID technologies to monitor the location and status of machinery, tools and materials within the factory in real time. This system improves operational efficiency by facilitating asset management and maintenance and ensuring optimal use of available resources. In addition, complete asset tracking enables rapid intervention in case of breakdowns or maintenance needs, reducing downtime and increasing productivity.
Inventory management leverages IoT sensors to monitor stock levels in real time, automating replenishment and reducing the risk of overproduction or out-of-stock. This automation leads to reduced inventory costs and improved production planning, ensuring that the materials needed are always available at the right time, with no surplus taking up valuable space or tied up capital.
Finally, quality control benefits greatly from the IIoT, thanks to the use of sensors that monitor production parameters and detect anomalies in real time. This allows timely intervention to correct any defects, ensuring that finished products meet the required quality standards. Analysis of the data collected also contributes to the continuous improvement of production processes by identifying trends and predicting problems before they occur.
IIoT as an ally of the smart factory
As we have seen, the IIoT makes it possible to think of production systems capable of self-adjusting and dynamically adapting to the needs of the market and the environment, thanks to the analysis of data collected in real time. Smart factories, powered by quality data and processed with advanced algorithms, can anticipate the challenges of tomorrow by proactively reacting to changes, reducing waste and continuously improving product quality.
¹: Source. Science Direct – Internet of Things for smart factories in industry 4.0
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