There is a lot of growth toward implementing new technology innovations within supply chains, and the logical extension of the IoT to industrial applications has the potential to transform numerous industries, including transportation, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and energy. The disruptive power of the Industrial IoT will bring non-technology industries into the digital age by connecting machines, factories, and industrial infrastructures via sensors and other devices.
Here are just a few ways that IoT and analytics are expected to impact the industrial industry:
- Smart Parking Solutions—dozens of cities around the world are already turning to smart parking solutions to help drivers quickly and conveniently find available parking spaces
- Sustainable Resources—governments can use IoT to support sustainability efforts by providing transparency on the use of resources like water, energy, fuel, fertilizers, and pesticides, which could lead to less waste and more accountability through public policies and market pricing designed to incentivize compliance and good stewardship
- Manufacturing Efficiency—manufacturers are already using new software capabilities to improve operational efficiency through predictive maintenance, and achieving results such as savings on scheduled repairs (12%), reduced maintenance costs (nearly 30%) and fewer breakdowns (almost 70%).
- Fuel Savings—smart transmission systems are able to continuously monitor and analyze driver behavior to signal vehicle transmissions when to shift gears, resulting in less fuel usage and longer lifetime of truck transmissions.
- Digital Lighting—Philips has developed smart LED bulbs that are controllable via smartphones and tablets as well as wireless switches powered by kinetic energy—requiring no batteries or electricity.
- Crop Productivity—remote sensors and cartographic techniques are used to map farming fields by field shape, type of crop, crop yields, soil capacity and other critical metrics. By analyzing this data, farmers can better understand which seeds will grow best in which fields and under what conditions.
- Industrial Robots—as sensors, hardware and software continue to improve, robots will become more intelligent and autonomous in their capabilities while still working under human direction. Amazon operates one of the world’s largest fleets of industrial robots in its warehouses, where humans and robots work side-by-side, capable of fulfilling orders up to 70% faster than a non-automated warehouse.
Source: World Economic Forum, 2015