You can’t escape the buzzwords. The Internet of Things. The Industrial Internet of Things. Edge Computing. Industry 4.0. Big. Data. Every practitioner has their own, slightly different definition of what these terms mean—a fuzzy cloud of vague meaning.
Digital transformation is a competitive technology and business strategy that leverages data gathering to drive business efficiencies, new revenue growth, and new business models.
“Remaining competitive” takes on many meanings, depending on your location in the world, but here are some thoughts on how American manufacturers can do it better today. By the time you finish reading this column, another entrepreneur will have figured out a way to make it happen for his or her company.
Every day I talk to customers who want to get off paper. They spend an inordinate amount of operators’ time manually capturing data on paper, and then often double-down when they have someone transfer those paper check sheets into a digital spreadsheet.
Disruption seems to be a very popular term in the media recently. Traditionally, something described as disruptive has a negative connotation. However, this new definition can be viewed as positive, depending on whether you believe in the status quo or not.
A friend of mine likes to quip that someday computers will make all our lives easier. He’s kidding (I think), but it seems to be a fact of modern life that every time we open our phones, tablets, or computers, or even check our watches, there are upgrades waiting to be installed for the apps we have, and new and improved apps on offer to replace those.
Now more than ever, it is vital for experts in quality and operations technology to work together to help manufacturing plants realize the full potential from the industrial internet of things.
The industrial internet of things (IIoT) is moving from a future promise to real-world strategy as manufacturers seek to transform sensor data into actionable insights. In fact, research firm MarketsandMarkets predicts that the worldwide IIoT market will grow to $195.47 billion by 2022.
It is said that “necessity is the mother of invention.” It is an idiom that has been adopted from the more specific insight of Greek philosopher Plato. In Republic, Plato writes, “A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem.”