Industrial IoT

COVID -19 has forced us into humanity’s biggest crisis. Although the viral threat has posed several obstacles, the world is combating it with courage and a practical approach to weeding the infection. Similarly, businesses worldwide are feeling pressure due to the current situation. They are finding ways to fight the temporary slowdown and distinct ways to handle the crisis.

As per PwC, about 80% of manufacturers assume that the pandemic will have an economic impact on their business. The research was done by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) recently. That is significantly higher than the 48% of cross-industry companies concerned about the same impact, based on CFO responses to a study by PwC. 

According to PwC, manufacturers are now reviewing their automation and contingency plans to face business during such times of difficulty. The Internet of Things (IoT) technology can support building powerful tools that can enable automation and remote management using the internet to stay connected to the IT, non-IT assets, and business operations of critical importance. 

In the contemporary situation of restricted people’s movements, supply chain encumbrances, and transportation disruptions, businesses are challenged with operations crises, especially those requiring humans to be on-site. IoT remote monitoring solutions can assist the challenge by handling repetitive tasks and using data to empower human intelligence anywhere, anytime, without being on-site.

The data from IoT solutions can play an immense role in tying the business mutually and managing the situation proactively for the operations and industry leaders. It can also help minimize losses that could be acquired due to disproportionate assets and enable the staff to stay updated on the operational spots without being on-site.

Remote Site/Asset Management to handle a crisis:

Why does a business need it?

Today, the word ‘remote’ has far more reason than at any time in the past. With social distancing and travel limitations in place, how can supervisors, administration heads, and industry leaders access their sites operating at various locations? The topic has been on everyone’s mind since things started getting severe. Daily technicians must also stay updated on the remote sites they have been assigned to and access data despite the physical distancing.

IoT Remote monitoring combines these dots and keeps the manufacturers updated on crisis planning and management.

COVID-19 has given us adequate reasons for businesses to understand the value of having access to data on fixed and moving physical assets from the comfort of home.

There are huge companies and facilities with a million dollars worth of assets located at various sites and require them to be up and running despite such challenges posed by a pandemic. 

For instance, let’s take huge telecom organizations requiring their cell towers to be operational at 100% uptime and efficiency. The solution can centralize these operations, access the far localities through constant and proactive monitoring, assist teams in scheduling maintenance on demand, and keep the managers on watch from the comfort of their homes. Similarly, a considerably different load pattern on the grid with commercial establishments shut down; however, the internal load is higher than ever because of the people staying at home. Power grid monitoring applications support proactive monitoring, instant anomaly reporting, and keeping teams prepared for discrepancies. This is a perfect case of how IoT can significantly regulate cities to become competent and ready for abnormal situations.

Furthermore, assuring the safety and protection of staff can also prove cost-effective because periodic maintenance drills now become maintenance on-demand. Similarly, proactive monitoring can help recognize breakage or shutdown. This can help avoid unnecessary downtime and losses due to it. 

Enterprise Continuity and digital transformation 

Companies must stay sustainable; despite the health crisis, organizations find ways to empower their staff through applications that can help them work from their home’s comfort and cater to customers’ demands even when the operations have gotten a bit challenging.

As far as established Business Continuity is concerned, most companies with IT operations in place are often equipped for remote support/working. All the staff has given essentials like e-mail ids, laptops, and cloud business suites to stay connected to their colleagues and customers. The problem arises for non-IT operations teams; how can they manage services that need humans to be present on-site? How are they combating the challenge of restricted movements? How is the section updated on asset health located miles away?

Purpose-built IoT Remote monitoring solutions can significantly help the business continuation needs of operations teams. Industries such as logistics for FMCG and essential goods are challenged with a limited workforce and a shortage of supply chain cohesiveness. Fortunately, these industries can leverage connected data and insights from the various IoT data points. With combined data, the supervisors and managers can proactively plan their operations with limited resources and be prepared for supply chain possibilities. In slight movements and cuts of supply from any specific region, the data-connected applications can help managers stay proactive, procure goods from other sources, and remain informed about sudden discrepancies during collections from one area to another. All this and more are due to staying connected using continuous data monitoring.

Also, in the case of managing large immovable assets such as HVAC, DGs, and other high industry machinery, how can facilities and admin teams stay proactive in preserving asset life cycle and engage in proactive maintenance activities while keeping the health and safety of their staff as a preference? This is where data intelligence can have a powerful impact on human intelligence! Remote site utilization driven by the Internet of Things can help teams scrap off the guesswork and move their services to digital and advanced forms so that technicians can automate the usual operations and step out only when required. This can be a vast spine for business continuity and disaster management for the organization and help make strategic moves that could benefit the business later.

This refers to operations managers at production units, facility managers at large buildings like airports and hospitals, etc., who can stay renewed on their remote works even during this lockdown period because of the leverage IoT has to offer from remote sites.

As white-collared operators stay connected to work and customers from their homes, IoT data and applications can enable field staff and blue-collared professionals to leverage data to stay connected and familiarized without stepping out. IoT, along with AI, automation, and remote management, can be a great tool to permit human intelligence and business operations with or without crisis!

To explore IoT Remote monitoring solutions for your business, write to info@bridgethings.com.