How Internet of Things (IoT) Transforms And Creates Value – Ideas For You!

We are now more than a month into 2018, Internet of Things is continue to be the hot topic. It has sustained the momentum past years and we are seeing the true value of IoT now. The perceived potential and the hype created over the years generated attention, investment and development of innovative solutions. The learnings from early adopters’ turned into business value for the then fence sitters. The integration and convergence for complementary technologies like AI, Machine Learning and Blockchain are creating an ecosystem of great value.

Now it is time to recall the famous quote -

Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects... the quality of the connections is the key to quality per se. - Charles Eames 

Traditional product manufacturing companies will have multiple business units with several business processes working together to deliver the end-product to the customer. With limited integration between the processes and business units, the feedback loop never exists. This limits the product improvement, business value creation, value added service opportunity etc. Companies with well-established process framework can take advantage of IoT and transform internal and external experiences in a big way. Most of the companies suffer from outdated infrastructure, redundant applications working in silos, serialized processes, bottlenecks in terms of facility, application and expertise, centralized decision-making and almost zero product customization. They also lack much-needed telemetry, to stay ahead and create the stickiness, a lost opportunity for services business.

The good news is transformation is not hard, if we establish a broader vision, execute in increments and integrate them for scale and value.

Manufacturing: IoT plays a key role in manufacturing transformation. By employing electronically identifiable unique ID, and IoT sensors the manufacturing process can be streamlined, and integration with rest of the supply chain processes can be achieved.

• Manufactured products should have tracking mechanism throughout the supply chain. It is recommended to make use of smart labels (ex. Thinfilm) to tag the products. This not only tracks the product through the supply chain, also opens up opportunity to create value later, for example proactive refill of the product. Since the smart labels carry only the “need-to-know” data, the security exposure on compromise is reduced. Alternatively products can further be protected by memory labels for one time use.
• Implement sensors and actuators to control each manufacturing line, for proactive load sharing, predictive asset monitoring and power management. This will increase the overall efficiency of the manufacturing operations.

Distribution: Introducing sensors and drones in the distribution floor will help collect operational data for predictive analysis. It will improve the floor management, and also help restructure the floor operations for better efficiency.

• Drones fitted with cameras to scan labels at the distribution floor will improve employee safety and floor management
• Proximity sensors to monitor movement of forklifts

Data analytics: Implementing analytics software at the edge and at the cloud, endpoints are managed for efficiency, than as a potential security hole in the enterprise. Analytics will ensure only relevant data collected towards improving operations. It will also help taking proactive actions, when there is a pattern suggesting potential compromise – for example, shutting down a specific segment or unit, before it becomes widespread. The data collected from the sensors is not only used for operational improvement, it can also provide useful insight into business process, infrastructure efficiency and any suspicious activity.

Re-configuring value delivery: By employing IoT technologies, the business model can be transformed into B2B2C, model. Companies can stay closer to the consumers, enhance the experience, and collect data to improve product and service.

• Integrating products with unique IDs and integrating to the back-end systems through a mobile application, consumers will be able get more details on the product - demonstration, future improvements, wait time, and expert help. The company can create personal experience by sending personalized messages, product enhancements and proactive refill. 

Edge and Cloud Computing: Bringing intelligence to the floor increases the risk of exposure and privacy concerns. Edge computing can be leveraged in the architecture to analyze the data locally and act. This not only accelerates decision making process for critical actions like shutting down the machines, when workers' life is in danger, diverting forklifts etc., it also increases the security and privacy posture of the environment. With edge computing capability every data need not to leave the facility, and can be completely walled off and can be discarded post the actuators acted on them. On the other hand, only send any relevant data that is useful for taking decisions on rest of the supply chain processes to the cloud through an encrypted connection.

By Applying digital lens to the existing products and services, and connecting existing assets across the organization and integrating them through the core IoT platform, companies can alter the business model and create value. It will open up new avenue to engage with the end customer directly, creating a long lasting loyalty, and at the same time enhances company’s relationship with traditional distribution channels. The potential, by having a well-established ecosystem, is huge.