2020 is an excellent time to think about the future. With every passing year, we come across new technology and new and interesting ways to improve the workplace and increase efficiencies.
What is IoT?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as the network of various physical devices and objects which are embedded with software, sensors, and connected other technologies. The primary purpose of this setup is to connect and exchange data with other systems and devices over the internet.
Most of the time, these devices range from industrial machines to other household appliances and objects. Gartner reports that there were 14.2 billion connected things in operation in 2019 and that this is set to increase to 25 billion in 2021. Some of the best examples of IoT devices are home speakers, smart fridges, and smart bulbs.
In the present highly competitive industrial world, it has become a necessity to use IoT methods. Now, companies are looking to IoT-based solutions that will drive real value at reduced costs. According to ARC, one of the most significant use cases of IoT presently is predictive maintenance, where IoT devices will monitor equipment and using dynamic CMMS ecosystems will predict, in real-time, when maintenance is required.
Why should you go for IoT?
Seamless communication across smart devices and networks allows mass sharing, collection and analyzing of data without even a slight intervention of human beings. We now live in a hyper-connected world, and we can see a significant amount of cooperation between the physical world and the digital world, increasing daily. When it comes to predictive maintenance, IoT has allowed industries to predict potential failures and boost the production of highly critical assets. A really strong example of this is “Chevron,” who has used IoT to identify the corrosion and damage of pipelines.
A heat exchanger affixed with cloud-connected sensors. (Image courtesy of Chevron)
IoT devices are helping to drive efficiencies, focusing on empowering a safer, smarter, and more predictable working environment.
When we look back in the past, we see that the industrial revolution changed our lives in enormous ways. We see machines that were built by us and follow our instructions. With IoT, now the devices can also communicate with each other and follow each other’s instructions. Now, everything has become M2M. By the end of 2021, it is expected that there will more than 25 billion things connected worldwide through various internal and external networks. Thus, IoT can help us is going a step ahead when it comes to predictive maintenance. It plays a huge role in managing our tasks smoothly and effectively.
The good thing is that you don’t need to panic and rush out to reconfigure your entire operation on the principles of IoT. It is also not required to fix every asset. You can start taking small steps and provide your maintenance department or FM provider with a reasonable amount of time to adapt and install.
Conclusion:
The future of predictive maintenance lies in IoT. However, as IoT can monitor any aspect of any system, the use case for each installation needs to be clearly defined in order to assess definitive success metrics. The installation of these systems also requires a certain degree of technical expertise and a clear understanding of the assets being monitored. Sensors are only as intelligent as the Technicians who program them, you cannot simply purchase IoT sensors and expect them to replace your technical team, the idea is that sensors will allow your technical team to manage their time more efficiently and avoid system downtime, saving time and money.
