As the ubiquity of communications and the underlying hardware and software continue to advance, so do opportunities to apply the Industrial Internet of Things, a.k.a. Industrie 4.0, solutions.

In a CIO Review article, IIoT Business Drivers and Investment Priorities, Emerson’s Bob Karschnia highlights opportunities for process manufacturers and producers to improve overall performance. He cites a GE/Accenture white paper describing some business drivers for IIOT technology adoption:

…data created by industrial equipment such as wind turbines, jet engines and MRI machines holds more potential business value on a size-adjusted basis than other types of Big Data associated with the social web, consumer Internet and other sources.

Bob references the top five fears companies have from delaying IIoT implementations:

1. Loss of market share
2. Inability to recover and catch up
3. Loss of qualified talent to competitors
4. Losing confidence of investors, and
5. Products/solutions cannot be competitively priced.

These business drivers in turn create focal areas for IIoT investments. He cites the top five investment priorities for industrial end-user companies:

1. Increase profitability through improved resource management
2. Gain a competitive edge
3. Improve environment safety and emissions
4. Gain insights into customer behaviors, preferences and trends, and
5. Gain insights into equipment health for improved maintenance.

Bob shares examples including pump health monitoring, where:

…installing wireless flow, pressure, level, temperature, vibration and other transmitters can help industrial facilities gain insights into equipment health for improved maintenance.

These measurements allow continuous online monitoring of pumps to replace manual preventive maintenance practices. This change provides earlier failure indications and helps avoid unnecessary maintenance.

Other examples of IIoT-based solutions that Bob cites include steam trap and flare gas stack monitoring. He concludes the article:

The theory of IIoT is well accepted across industry at the highest levels of most every major company and real-world implementations are rapidly being put in place to meet IIoT investment priorities.

You can connect and interact with other IIoT, Industrie 4.0 and wireless experts in the Wireless group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.