With stronger and increasing demand comes the need for increased production. The global supply chain has to manage the challenges and up the game to meet the customers’ expectations and encourage newer and better ways of production. For Manufacturing & Automation Industry to take the giant leap forward and enhance their operations, the Internet of Things is here as a solution. IoT for supply chain is transforming the business and taking it the digital way like never before!

IoT in Manufacturing & Supply chain is a process of implementing sensors and devices as a way to digitally transformation the way data is collected, stored on the cloud and analysed for decision making or further inferences. This process of automation helps gain valuable insights about the efficiency and working of the manufacturing processes.

IoT can be used across all manufacturing processes. The developments in technology could lead to improvements worth over $470 billion per year by 2025. The various applications that could be implemented with IoT Sensors and IoT trends are as follows:

• Monitoring Equipment Utilization – IoT applications for monitoring is estimated to increase productivity by 10-25% and earn $1.8 trillion in the next few years. This starts with collecting the data from various data points across the industry floor regarding the operating speed, product output, run time and so on using various sensors. This data is then transmitted to the cloud server, from where it is easy to analyze and obtain meaningful insights.
• Quality Control – With various IoT devices installed, equipment calibration, machine condition, and the environmental conditions are monitored in real time. This enables identification of various thresholds and a solution pointing to the source of the issue, along with an alert enables pre-emptive action to fix the issue.
• Safety Protocol – With heavy duty manufacturing plant machinery and other risky sectors, RFID tags and wearables track a worker’s heart rate, location and other parameters. This data thus collected is then analyzed for unusual behaviour pattern to prevent injuries and accidents among employees.
• Inventory Management – IoT driven inventory management system helps automate inventory tracking and monitoring, stock details in real time and optimizes lead time. Each inventory item gets an RFID tag and are tracked by scanning these tags. This helps in easy understanding of the inventory at all times.
• Preventive Maintenance – With continuous monitoring of the equipment, the data obtained is then run through a series of algorithms to create a pattern and isolate abnormal data based on recognized data pattern. This helps identify any failure or conditions leading to a failure in time to minimize losses and maximize productivity.

Clearly, IoT helps manufacturing businesses to maximize productivity by reducing costs and improving production uptime. This in turn helps in market forecasting and improved lead time, thereby leading to a better customer experience. With increased competition, the day is not too far where most industries would turn to the recent IoT trends!