A new industrial revolution -- often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 -- is taking hold across the world.
As part of this revolution, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and other companies are using Industrial IoT (IIoT) and other technologies to fundamentally transform their businesses by connecting operational technology (OT) assets, such as industrial equipment, with their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and other information technology (IT) systems.
With the data from these connections, they are creating IIoT applications that enable them to monitor, maintain, control, and optimize these assets – allowing them to increase their operational efficiency, reduce equipment downtown, gather insights on how to improve their products, and generate new revenue streams.
Five Real-World Examples of Successful Industrial IoT Use Cases
Companies that are using the IIoT to transform their business include firms manufacturing commercial washing machines, air compressors and rubbish collectors. Examples of these and other IIoT use cases include:
- Atlas Copco, which has expanded its air compressor customer service capabilities with its SmartBox solution. This air compressor preventive maintenance IIoT application enables Atlas Copco to deliver its customers the right spare part at the right time for faster fault resolution, lowering costs associated with breakdowns and production loss. The IIoT application also uses Sierra Wireless’s FX30 programmable IoT gateways, AirVantage IoT Platform, and Legato platform to collect the air compressor data it needs to provide customers with insights that allow them to manage their energy usage more efficiently, and increase their air compressors’ reliability.
- Axibio, which is using Octave, Sierra Wireless’s all-in-one edge-to-cloud solution, to connect its Gaïabox™ smart biowaste collectors to the cloud. With Octave, Axibio can monitor how much organic biowaste, such as food scraps and other compostable items, a city’s residents deposit in its Gaïaboxs. This allows it to deploy an “Earn as You Throw” business model that rewards residents for ecologically conscious behavior.
- Girbau, which has developed and launched a remote monitoring IIoT application that collects data on its commercial washing machines, is using Sierra Wireless’s FX30 programmable IoT gateways, Smart Connectivity service and Legato embedded application development platform. With the IIoT application Girbau is transforming its customer service capabilities using the machine data it collects to conduct preventive maintenance that allows its customers to reduce machine downtime, optimize its operating costs and increase profitability.
- MANN+HUMMEL, which has deployed Senzit, a predictive maintenance platform developed to increase uptime for industrial and agricultural vehicles. Senzit uses Sierra Wireless’s Smart Connectivity service and AirVantage IoT Platform to collect air filter and other engine health data from vehicles, and then analyze this data to determine when they will need maintenance. The platform is helping MANN+HUMMEL fleet manager customers reduce downtime and save as much as $4,200 per machine per year.
The Expertise and Solutions You Need To Make Your Industrial IoT Use Case
While these and other companies have been successful in using the IIoT to transform their businesses, many other companies have encountered roadblocks as they have tried to integrate the IIoT into their business. For example, in their recent report, “Why IoT Projects Fail,” Beecham Research conducted a survey of IoT adopters in which 58 percent of the respondents said their IoT project was either mostly unsuccessful or not successful.
One of the key reasons for these project failures? Building the infrastructure needed to support IIoT applications is complex. In particular, it requires a high degree of specialized knowledge in embedded device firmware, wireless connectivity, IoT cybersecurity, and cloud application development, among other areas. Acquiring all this expertise is difficult, and without it companies can end up making wrong decisions regarding the kind of device to cloud solutions they need for their IIoT application, or fail to integrate these solutions together in a seamless, secure, scalable fashion. The result? Slow, stalled, or otherwise unsuccessful IIoT projects.
With decades of experience delivering customers the device to cloud solutions they need to extract, orchestrate, and act on data from their industrial equipment and other OT assets, Sierra Wireless is the partner companies need to simplify to the IIoT. Sierra Wireless’s IIoT knowledge, combined with its portfolio of fully integrated device to cloud solutions, have made it the preferred IIoT infrastructure supplier for Atlas Copco, Axibio, MANN+HUMMEL, and the other companies mentioned above, as they sought to move forward quickly on their IIoT projects.
Start with Sierra today to learn more about how our deep IIoT expertise and broad portfolio of device, software, and service solutions can empower you to use the IoT to unlock value in the connected economy.
