IoT brings new possibilities

By OEM Update Editorial June 13, 2018 12:00 pm IST

Anand Prakasam,
Country Head, EOS India
IoT adoption within the industry is picking up pace and bringing in new possibilities that are rapidly redefining all areas of business operations.

IIoT: The next big opportunity
The key to smart factories and manufacturing is the integration of diverse technologies. This translates to the connectivity between all the equipment and machinery inside a factory, and even to the market that surrounds it. Industry watchers call this M2M (Machine-to-Machine) communication, but it is much more than that. As per this concept, every machine, tool and person in the factory can talk to each other and work together and improve the right collaboration between conventional and modern techniques of production.

Anand Prakasam, Country Head, EOS India, says, “IoT adoption within the industry is picking up pace and bringing in new possibilities that are rapidly redefining all areas of business operations. The forward-thinking companies who are laying the ground stone for their industry are now interconnecting and automating their complex physical machinery using analytics and bringing in unforeseen insights that helps in increasing efficiency and at same time contributing to improving the quality of their products and making room for advanced and strategic product development and innovation.”

Adoption of IIoT is expected to increase
According to global management consultancy company McKinsey, IIoT will unlock $6.2 trillion in potential economic impact by 2025. For the electricity sector alone, the World Economic Forum estimates $1.3 trillion of value can be captured with IIoT. Industrial sectors are embracing the Industrial Internet at different speed. Prakasam suggests, “At present the oil and gas and pharmaceutical industries are currently exploring how their organisations can leverage IIoT to increase efficiency, competitive edge, improve product lines and reduce manpower. Hence, adoption of IIOT is expected to increase in the year 2018.The traditional industries, such as the manufacturing has been trying to cater to the demand of offering differentiated products, are trying to embrace edge analytics to drive new revenue streams and retain their significant customer by improving their product lines.”

EOS India’s preparedness in the area of IIoT
Prakasam says, “A concept that we truly believe in is ‘The Factory of the Future’ or smart factories that will be hybrid in structure, integrating both conventional and additive technologies for the best parts. This is going to direct the manufacturing industry towards better quality of parts, increased productivity, quality control, size and scalability of systems, automation of processes and the integration of machines for faster output. From the technology perspective this means we are currently working/and will continue to do so in the future to work on the technology factors that are essential for serial manufacturing.”

The future also lies in cell-based manufacturing or modular manufacturing where there could be several systems working in a network with a single raw material supply of powder. This modularisation could also bring about the significant cost advantage. Currently, everything is being done only with one machine and if someone needs another machine, one must buy all the units again. This is changing, and EOS is pioneering this modular system concept.