IIoT is driving disruptive transformation in the Indian manufacturing industry. Manufacturers are looking for ways to advance to Industry 4.0 while obtaining a competitive edge and driving better revenues with IIoT. However, there is still a lot of confusion as to what IIoT is and how to implement it. While few of them have already embarked on the journey, they are unable to extract results and value from it.

GS Lab | GAVS conducted a webinar on Industrial IoT and the different stages of IIoT implementation to bring some clarity and remove any apprehension. This blog captures some key discussion points and takeaways from the webinar titled “Demystifying Industrial IoT.” The link to the entire webinar is available at the end of the blog. In this webinar, Industrial IoT expert Mandar Gadre, Director of Engineering (IoT) at GS Lab | GAVS delves deeply into what Industrial IoT is and how manufacturers can implement IIoT to achieve Industry 4.0. Mr. Kunal Shah, Senior Marketing Manager at GS Lab | GAVS, moderated the session.

The fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, helps integrate everything from vendors, supply chains, manufacturing processes, distribution, all the way up to the end customer. This horizontal integration has enabled data distribution among different parties to work together in harmony. Another aspect of Industry 4.0 within the organization is the vertical integration of various departments, including production and design, maintenance, finance, HR, and sales and marketing. These integrations help drive Industry 4.0.

The Internet of Things has been about the evolution of machines from understanding basic commands to having “smart” controls connected as they get introduced to newer technology. Since 2010, there has been a steady rise in the number of devices connected to the internet, paving the way for more commercial and domestic utilization of smart devices.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is prevalent across healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, and process industries. Within IIoT, there are two types of IoT-ization – product and process. While product IoT-ization, in both large and small companies, can monitor the product being used in the customer location, process IoT-ization is about automating some of the processes within the factory floor.

One of the most promising use cases of IIoT is manufacturing process IoTization. Given below is a classic example. In the process industry, the conductivity and humidity of some of the raw materials affect the thermal processes down the line. To tackle the situation, a factory instituted a connected solution where the conductivity of the incoming material was measured at the supplier site, and this information was relayed to the factory floor ahead of the shipment. With this information in hand, combined with relevant weather data, the company was able to successfully arrive at a model to adjust the process temperature. This helped the business save both time and cost as they were able to make necessary adjustments to the processes based on available data.

Simply put, IIoT is about utilizing the internet to the fullest extent possible in an industrial scenario.

Broadly, IIoT is used for monitoring devices, running diagnostics, inferring future problems or bottlenecks using predictive capabilities, and offering prescriptive measures to resolve issues. Here are the four stages of IIoT implementation:

Stage 1 – Monitoring – Create a flow of communication between machines and system components through sensors and connectivity
Stage 2 – Diagnostics – Ensure operational efficiency by ensuring processes are running smoothly with context awareness through data processing, correlations, and event handling
Stage 3 – Predictive – Introduce an integrated, proactive-preventive approach to operations enabled by integrating business applications and monitoring
Stage 4 – Prescriptive – Expand business value offerings and newer business models through machine learning and predictive analytics

Having discussed the many facets of IoT and its usability, it might seem like everyone can connect ‘Things’ and call it IoT. However, it is not that simple. IIoT is not about connecting multiple devices or assets. Unless there is actionable value, connected devices cannot add meaning to the process. Businesses looking to adopt IoT must be able to truly leverage the internet. To that end, start the process of integrating IoT into the organization with small baby steps. It is not necessary to do everything at once. Similarly, while adopting IoT, it is important to choose the correct use cases to get Return on Investment (ROI). Businesses thinking about IoT should understand that there is no size limit on who can adopt IIoT. All businesses, irrespective of size, can go for IIoT.

You can find more information here on how our IoT offerings can help you in your IoT journey.

This blog offers only a high-level gist of the webinar. Here, you can watch the entire discussion, including the poll questions and the experts’ take on audience questions. GS Lab | GAVS periodically organizes insightful webinars with its tech leaders, the leadership team, and industry thought leaders to explore current and emerging trends. To watch all of our webinar recordings, please visit https://www.gslab.com/webinars.