In a changing world, is the Industrial Internet of Things essential to industry leaders’ survival? Let’s find out more.
Advances in technology have changed the way industry works from top to bottom. In many instances, traditionally successful companies have seen their positions crumble due to disruptive threats from smaller, nimbler companies. They are also at the mercy of global economic events, not least the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
However, traditional industry leaders are leveraging the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) as a way of dealing with disruption. In this article, we’ll look at two ways that IIoT helps manufacturers navigate challenging situations.
Digital disruptors
Smaller, younger companies are often the first to leverage new technological advances, as they are nimbler, less bogged down in doing things the way they’ve always been done. They can also react faster to changes in the market and customer demands. Digital disruptors putting industry giants out of business (Netflix and Blockbuster, Amazon and dozens of brick and mortar stores) is the business trend of the century so far. In manufacturing, digital disruptors have used innovations such as AI and cloud computing to gain an edge over industry leaders.
But, large-scale manufacturers have an in-built advantage when creating next-generation Smart Connected Products (SCPs) that set them apart from the crowd. They can incorporate IIoT into new products to feed user information back and incorporate IIoT into the manufacturing process to achieve marginal efficiency gains. For example, large companies with factories spread across the world can utilise IIoT to monitor their machines from one central hub, making service operations easier and reducing downtime.
Global economic events
When you run a company, you only control what you can control. So many things can affect you that you can’t predict, that you just have to deal with as they happen. For example, companies are currently dealing with the aftermath of a global pandemic, material shortages and transportation issues. In manufacturing, these events can cause downtime at your facilities, problems with staffing and more.
As well as helping manufacturing industry leaders find marginal gains in efficiency, IIoT can help future-proof your business against these global economic events. Digital transformation enables you to lower your operating costs, so you have more room to manoeuvre when events happen (as they always will).
IIoT helps you create Smart Connected Operations (SCO), linking industrial machines globally, unlocking insights into performance and machine health. No matter how complex your production lines are, IIoT can help you keep them running with real-time data and predictive analysis. It all boosts your resilience to unforeseen events.
Opportunities for industry leaders
Larger industry leaders are in an excellent position to leverage the opportunities of IIoT. They have the budgets to invest that their smaller competitors don’t, while they also have bigger benefits to gain through digital transformation.
Losing your industry-leading position to digital upstarts doesn’t have to be a certainty in today’s technology-driven world. The innovative thinking that made you successful before can bring continued success.
