Are you unfamiliar with the Internet of Things (IoT)? Although it sounds like a buzzword, IoT is essential for many businesses because it provides so many benefits.
It’s even more prevalent in specific industries, like asset management and food technologies. Why is that the case? Continue reading to learn how IoT has contributed to so much success.
Benefits of IoT in Efficiency and Productivity
IoT is one of many modern businesses’ biggest boons to efficiency and productivity. That’s partly due to the specific benefits the Internet of Things offers.
IoT might be your solution if you need an edge in your industry. Its benefits center around efficiency and productivity, and this section will explain what that can look like for your business.
Streamline Operations
Your business can be more productive and efficient with IoT. For example, consider all the tedious processes and tasks you and your team carry out daily. Imagine what you could do every day if you automate those tasks.
IoT tools can help you realize that. These tools’ functions range from document editing to network management—in and out of the office. You can even employ IoT to facilitate big data analytics, giving you more insight into the overall efficiency of your business.
Optimize Resource Use and Predictive Maintenance
Cost optimization is crucial in business. Resources cost money, so finding ways to minimize them is important. This is where IoT’s interconnectivity and predictive maintenance come in.
You can reduce power usage and maintenance by leveraging IoT sensors. However, the benefits go beyond simple optimization. With predictive maintenance, you can take resource management to the next level by doing proactive maintenance before failures happen.
Monitoring equipment parameters like temperature, vibration, speed, and rotation is also possible. Data can be analyzed to identify deviations from normal operation, allowing for timely intervention. The result is improved efficiency, reduced downtime, and optimized asset utilization throughout its entire lifecycle, surpassing traditional preventative maintenance approaches.
The benefits of predictive maintenance extend to suppliers, OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), and SI (System Integrators). By selling maintenance services, it opens up new revenue streams. This also makes it more likely that suppliers’ spare parts and labor will be used. Printing devices notify users when toner is low and offer a seamless way to order directly from the supplier. It’s a win-win situation for both the supplier and the consumer.
Enable Data-Driven Decision-Making
We already touched on big data analytics in this section, but its importance must be considered with IoT. It can provide insight, but the next step is to use it to make decisions.
The perspective you get from big data analytics through IoT can help you make those decisions. With that insight, you can see which processes and tasks are lending to your success and which are losing money.
Industry-Specific Applications
Explore use cases and examples of IoT improving efficiency and productivity in asset management, food tech, and EV energy.
IoT can help businesses in any industry, but it works best in specific applications. From electric vehicles to assets, IoT can drastically impact a range of industries. Here are three of the best industries to incorporate IoT technologies and why they work so well:
Asset Management
Asset management has been using IoT increasingly for years, and this trend doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
If you’ve never used IoT for that purpose, you might wonder why. The answer’s simple, though: automation and optimization.
That might not be surprising, but the outcomes could be. For example, IoT can monitor, detect, and alert you to specific problems and bottlenecks; this keeps the supply chain moving smoothly, which is only sometimes possible by automating interconnected processes.
Food Tech
The food industry will keep growing alongside the global population, meaning more opportunities and innovations. People are more conscious of food safety and where their food comes from. IoT lets consumers track everything across the supply chain.
However, food safety is just as important as provenance to the average consumer. IoT lets food producers and manufacturers monitor the production process in real-time. That translates to quicker responses in case of any issues because IoT can also alert team members to any problems. In the food industry, a situation like that could otherwise become a matter of public health.
EV Energy
The electric vehicle market is more influential than ever. Still, the manufacturing process is more established than traditional engine manufacturing.
At least, it’s still catching up in terms of efficiency and cost. So it only makes sense that IoT would be right at home in the EV energy industry.
Any business process has the potential to hemorrhage money through inefficiency. Still, a new approach like EV production is even more volatile. The benefits discussed in the previous section come into play here. IoT can reduce costs by streamlining and optimizing the production process, especially for new businesses in the industry starting with a blank slate.
Implementation Strategies
IoT implementation may vary across industries, but the process should follow a basic format. Without a framework, your Iot implementation might not make it off the ground. Here’s a basic breakdown of the process and some things you should know beforehand.
Collect Data
The first step in the IoT implementation process deals with your business and its data. First, figure out what you need to digitize. Depending on your business, that can look like anything from energy usage to the physical location of products. From there, you can digitize the relevant data.
Analyze
What does the data mean? You want to answer that in this step, which requires context. Numbers are meaningless without that, so determine what they mean to you and your team. Next, decide where you want to store your data. You may need the most efficient processing, so you want to store it on the edge. Keep considerations like that in mind.
Implement
Once you process your data, you can finally do something with it. This step is where you distribute data and information to relevant team members, which is crucial. Then you can keep track of any action taken, enjoying a clear view of operations.
Key Considerations
Not all IoT technologies and solutions are made equally. That’s the unfortunate truth, but that doesn’t have to be detrimental to your business. Still, shopping for anything involving IoT can feel overwhelming if you need help figuring out what to look for.
If that’s the case, consider a few things before deciding. Any of these factors can determine whether an IoT solution is ideal for your business, so don’t gloss over any of them.
Simplification
IoT simplifies and streamlines your business operations. However, integrating multiple systems can be a hassle, leading to productivity bottlenecks. Integrating data and data management systems can be tough if your company uses multiple systems.
Still, there’s a solution. Conduct preliminary investigations and choose an IoT solution that works seamlessly with your existing infrastructure to ensure a smooth integration. You can simplify your operations and maximize IoT’s benefits by putting time and resources into integration.
Data Security
If your data isn’t secure, your business and all its assets are also at risk. Since IoT works through the internet, every process can expose a company to new threats. That’s why data security is essential when adopting IoT technologies. Although this is more of a general internet problem than an IoT problem, it is still a significant concern.
Since IoT devices deal with business data, they’re prime targets for hackers and other bad actors. If your IoT technology doesn’t provide sufficient data security, your and your customer’s data are at risk. To avoid that reality, ensure your IoT solution provides data security through protocols like encryption and authentication.
Scalability
Your business should keep growing if all goes according to plan. That’s a win in itself, but scaling up also brings its own set of challenges. When you bring IoT devices into the equation, you have a continuously growing data stockpile. Make sure your IoT system can keep up.
Not only should IoT technologies be able to handle your data right now, but they should also be able to scale as your business does. Refrain from neglecting this to leave your operations at a standstill after unsustainable growth, spelling disaster for your business.
ROI Analysis
ROI drives some of the most critical decisions in any business, including yours. This is why it shouldn’t be ignored. Of course, that was easier said than done in the past, but now it can be simple with IoT technologies.
Since IoT can give you insight into business processes at every step, you can analyze efficiency in detail. At a practical level, that looks like any other ROI. So make sure your IoT solution allows for ROI analysis. The alternative is not knowing whether your business decisions are making or losing money.
Future Trends
The Internet of Things spells increased efficiency and productivity for anyone who adopts and properly integrates the technology. If this trend continues, IoT should become an even more effective tool for businesses.
However, growth doesn’t need to stop there. IoT can analyze vast amounts of data in real time using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Edge computing is enhancing the IoT’s capabilities. It reduces latency and improves efficiency, unlike traditional cloud computing. It’s a response to the drawbacks of cloud computing, like the high costs and latency.
As fog computing has gained traction, some computation is moved to the edge while cloud computing handles Big Data, ML, and AI. You can improve search engine optimization (SEO) and provide additional educational value by including terms like Big Data and Fog Computing. Consider incorporating these concepts into your writing, but keep it concise.
Boost Your Efficiency and Productivity With IoT
IoT technologies provide businesses with ways to improve their businesses like never before. You can use IoT to optimize resource management, streamline operations, or enable data-driven decision-making.
Automation and integration paired with IoT can improve your business, resulting in more time and resources you can use elsewhere. Now is the perfect time to adopt IoT technologies.
