Top 8 IoT Use Cases In Manufacturing

The Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) is quickly becoming an essential component of today's cutting-edge production processes.

Businesses will be more robust, inventive, and adaptive as a result of the technical developments brought about by Industry 4.0. These technologies, which include 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and wearables, are generating revolutionary Internet of Things (IoT) application cases in manufacturing and guaranteeing large returns on investment.

IoT presents firms with several chances to improve their operations and get a competitive advantage. The following eight illustrations show how manufacturing companies may use IoT technologies:

List of Top 8 IoT Use Cases in Manufacturing

1. Predictive Maintenance

Predictive maintenance allows professionals to monitor equipment status and replace components just when needed, therefore reducing the chance of failure rather than replacing machinery parts at regular intervals. 

2. Energy Management

Manufacturers may see energy use per unit of equipment or plant 24/7 holistically with the aid of an IoT-enabled energy management system. Wearables, sensors and other IoT devices may gather energy data throughout all the production processes, and depending on these insights, manufacturing businesses can lower transformer losses and standby loads and prevent peak loads. More importantly, since automated data collecting and reporting enable industrial companies to simplify energy audits.

3. Digital Twin

In manufacturing, digital twins are virtual depictions of the production operations. Real-time production data—including asset color, thickness, and temperature—collected by a multitude of sensors placed all around the shop floor lets engineers modify production processes and maximize assembly in almost real-time.

4. Real-Time Product Enhancement

IoT-enabled sensors let producers remotely monitor product performance and adjust settings even after the product leaves the manufacturing plant. Furthermore, manufacturers may remotely calibrate software and firmware via IoT, therefore performing over-the-air upgrades even long after the device has been introduced. This allows them to increase the capabilities of the solution, repair problems, or add features without really touching the product.

5. Supply Chain Optimization

A specialized IoT solution helps manufacturing businesses to maximize supply chain management. Products or equipment fitted with RFID/NFC tags or QR codes will enable companies to monitor their items from raw materials to manufacturing phases. More importantly, IoT-enabled asset monitoring solutions allow one to monitor and spot variations between real and projected stock levels. You can get in touch with an IoT solution development company to take the best IoT software development.

6. Quality Assurance

IoT-powered sensors let manufacturers keep an eye on critical production floor variables such pressure, temperature, and humidity to make sure products satisfy specified quality criteria. Organizations may significantly raise product quality by autonomously analyzing it during the manufacturing process rather than at the end of it, therefore saving time and money.

7. Safety Improvement

Manufacturers can find any possible safety risks in almost real-time by arming machinery and personnel with specialist sensors. Manufacturers, for instance, can rapidly spot dangerous chemicals or excessive temperatures in a production setting and respond to guarantee worker safety. Furthermore, maintenance planning can be set off automatically should sensor readings indicate a machine is broken.

8. Data-Driven Decision Making

The great volume of data produced by IoT devices allows businesses to better grasp client demand and the manufacturing process. 

Examples of IoT in Manufacturing

Tenaris

Tenaris, a worldwide manufacturer of steel pipes, has teamed up with ABB, a multinational manufacturer of automated electrical equipment, to simplify the maintenance of around 400 electric motors running rolling mills at their Italian site.  On every motor in each plant, ABB fitted smart sensors that feed performance data to a dedicated platform so the Tenaris engineering team could keep real-time monitoring of all motor conditions. Furthermore, the system automatically notifies the maintenance staff when some measures exceed the set threshold. Tenaris Maintenance Engineering Director Ettore Martinelli said ABB's solution performs a fantastic job in identifying too high motor vibrations, which is usually an indication of failure. In the same vein, smart sensors have shown success in identifying voltage abnormalities suggesting a possible short circuit.

Unilever Case Study

Unilever and Microsoft started working together in 2019 to create a digital replica of their factories. Consequently, thanks to an Internet of Things (IoT) network, most machinery in Unilever plants is now continuously delivering data, giving engineers full control over the operations. As an example, engineers can improve the production process by analyzing data collected by the digital twin to determine the time required to make a bottle of shampoo. The digital twin also aids in controlling the soap-making machine's moisture levels, which allows Unilever to maintain consistent product quality. Reduced energy usage and greater productivity result in $2.8 million in annual savings for Unilever when they adopted a digital twin at their Brazilian site.

Volkswagen

With an annual production of 11 million vehicles, the Volkswagen Group has been a pioneering European carmaker for more than 80 years. In an effort to update its logistics and production procedures for automobiles, the Group and Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently created the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud. Using AWS IoT services, the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud unifies data from over 120 manufacturing facilities' worth of equipment, plants, and other systems. There is a chance that the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud may save €1 billion in supply chain costs, cut production costs in half, and increase productivity by 30%.

Sealed Air

Protective and specialist packaging for consumer products and cleaning solutions is manufactured by Sealed Air, a multinational producer. In an effort to boost energy efficiency and customer compliance, the firm sought fresh information on one of its products. Their SoftCare soap dispensers were outfitted with an Internet of Things solution created by ThingLogix. The adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) soap dispensers allows cleaning crews to track employee soap consumption and know precisely when devices are running low on soap. A decrease in human participation during restocking and an improvement in staff hygiene compliance were the results of this.

IoT Implementation Challenges and Best Practices

Challenge/inefficiency	Solution
Focusing on a single application	Industrial IoT systems, in contrast to many other technologies, may only show their true efficiency when used for a variety of purposes. Rather than concentrating on a single promising technology, it is preferable to employ a variety of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. Importantly, this doesn't imply you have to implement every conceivable Internet of Things use case all at once; rather, you may accomplish it in stages.
Lack of change management	Treating the Internet of Things (IoT) digital transformation as an IT-only effort is a typical pitfall for industrial businesses. Many employees will need to make significant changes to their work processes and, more significantly, their outlook on the job, in order to accommodate the first use cases. For this reason, prioritizing change management should be high on the list of things to do before starting the road to IoT transformation.
Overpreparation	Any digital transformation project is a fresh start for most industrial firms. Having all the necessary tools, personnel, capital, etc. on hand at all times is an understandable and appealing goal. Although much of the planning should be around creating a specialized transformation team that employs tried and true transformation management techniques, it is really much more practical and efficient to dive headfirst into the transformation process, making mistakes and learning from them.
Lack of security	A specific degree of security is necessary to safeguard the integration of IoT solutions into the production process from outside interference. This necessitates the implementation of thorough access control measures, the monitoring of all data transfers, and the use of secure authentication procedures when devices are connected. It's equally important to test and upgrade these security measures often.

Popular IoT Platforms for Manufacturing

AWS IoT

With AWS IoT, you can take use of a plethora of services that make it easy to link devices to the cloud and conduct safe, worldwide data processing. You can get your linked solution up and running fast with AWS's user-friendly interface.

Azure IoT

For the safe connection, management, and analysis of data from millions of devices, Azure IoT provides an enterprise-grade cloud platform that covers all the bases. Complete Internet of Things (IoT) solutions that work in both the cloud and on the edge can be built using Azure IoT.

What is the Future of IoT in Manufacturing?

The integration of digital twins, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and linked devices and systems is where the Internet of Things (IoT) will take manufacturing in the future. When it comes to optimizing manufacturing processes, increasing productivity, decreasing waste, and improving safety, manufacturing organizations of the future will depend increasingly on data-driven insights and automation. With the help of the Internet of Things (IoT), businesses will be able to build new services using the real-time data collected from linked devices, which will allow them to generate more income.

Conclusion

The Internet of Things (IoT) offers promising expansion prospects in the industrial sector, and some prominent companies are already investigating specialized technology to maximize the advantages of digitalization.

When fully implemented, this exciting technology has the potential to lead the industrial sector to new heights of excellence.