SMART MANUFACTURING
“ As soon as businesses realise the full potential of IoT – from enabling efficiency savings to delivering the needs of individuals – they will transform everything from design to production ”
DAVID SIMS , SOLUTIONS SALES SPECIALIST , DYNABOOK EUROPE
How IoT is Being Used in the Manufacturing Industry
From wearable technology to digital twins and predictive maintenance , IoT can be deployed in a number of ways to help manufacturers make their operations smarter ; Okomoto lists some of the ways Ericsson has helped manufacturers enable IoT in their operations :
• ABB : digitalising their ‘ powertrain ’ has led to smart services , while remote monitoring has made workplaces safer and more energyefficient . Unplanned downtimes and operating costs have dropped by up to 70 % and 30 %, respectively , while asset lifespans and system efficiency have increased by up to 30 % and 10 %.
• Stanley Black & Decker : in conjunction with Deutsche Telekom , solar-powered connected water pumps have been deployed in rural India , resulting in a reliable and sustainable water supply that makes it possible for farmers to increase annual crop production by three times and sell excess solar energy to the government for extra incomes .
• WMF Group : with Swisscom , their connected coffee machines are bringing new values to all ecosystem players along the supply chain .
From themselves as the coffee machine maker to the machine operator to the venue owner and finally to us as coffee drinkers .
• Grundfos : Connecting their factory floors with private 5G networks as well as rolling out connected pumps around the world with cellular technology . With predictive analytics , Grundfos can determine not only when a pump may need to be replaced but also how to optimise the flow and delivery of water . These analytic capabilities have put them in a position to evolve their business from selling pumps to selling them with maintenance as-a-service .
“ IoT in manufacturing will continue its forward momentum with the proliferation of 5G ( public and increasingly private ), AI , cloud and edge computing , leading to new use cases – e . g . human-machine interaction on the factory floor and service personnel out in the field interacting with consumer / product end-users through AR / VR . We can also expect to see greater impacts of data analytics when disparate systems along the supply chain become more integrated , leading to truly seamless visibility across the supply chain ,” says Okamoto . manufacturingglobal . com 71