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IoT in manufacturing

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IoT adoption in manufacturing

Manufacturing companies are using IoT technology to improve their operations, reduce costs and increase productivity. InfiSIM’s IoT SIM cards enable a reliable connection, enabling your devices to have the greatest uptime, maximising the return you achieve from implementing IoT within your manufacturing systems. This new age of manufacturing has been affectionately known as “smart manufacturing”.

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Get started turning your manufacturing processes into a smart factory with M2M SIMs from InfiSIM

If you are looking for M2M SIM cards to connect your IoT deployments, InfiSIM’s unsteered SIMs deliver industry-leading multi-network connectivity and real-time sim management across your business. It’s never been easier to make informed decisions and increase profitability and turn your factory into an industry 4.0 facility.

Managing IoT devices within manufacturing

It can be difficult for businesses to monitor and manage smart devices that have been deployed throughout their organisation. With NOVA, our M2M SIM management software, you can manage all your connected industrial devices, from processing equipment to smart sensors in real time.

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Benefits of IoT adoption in manufacturing

IoT and connected devices are revolutionising the manufacturing industry, and here’s how:

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Improved margins

Having full visibility and control over the connectivity behind manufacturing processes enables businesses to reduce wastage and improve profitability, without having to sell more products.

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Higher quality products

Deploying IoT-enabled sensors and M2M communications enables businesses to monitor key performance statistics for their manufacturing processes, allowing them to refine their operations and maximise productivity/efficiency. This way, businesses are able to deliver higher quality products at a greater consistency.

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Better customer service

By delivering better quality products with improved margins, businesses have bigger budgets available to invest in training and staff development. This ensures your team are equipped to deliver the best service and support possible, leading to happier customers, more sales and repeat custom.

Examples of IoT in manufacturing

If your manufacturing process requires lots of different pieces of machinery to produce your products, it can be hard to monitor them all simultaneously to maintain efficiency. Implementing IoT smart monitoring will allow all machines to be monitored at any time, from any where in the world.

Condition monitoring provides operators with visibility of the conditions/environment within the manufacturing process. If specific thresholds on moisture levels or heat need to be maintained, this can be made much simpler and even automated with the use of IoT.

If your products or materials need to be stored or transported, especially valuable materials, it’s critical for a business to know exactly where they’re located. Using IoT to track your assets within a warehouse or on the road ensures that you have full visibility of their locations, often in real-time.

Improving the efficiency of inventory management through reliable monitoring of stock levels enables businesses to improve cashflow. By deploying JIT supplier management (managed by an IoT system), businesses can monitor raw materials and order them as and when they’re required. This significantly reduces the cost of stock storage and the risk of your materials spoiling. Some IoT systems are even sophisticated enough to understand buy costs and order more assets during periods when greater discounts are available.

One of the biggest issues manufacturing businesses face is the maintenance and repairs of their machinery. The saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure” could not be truer than it is in manufacturing. If there is equipment failure, it will be cost a business lost revenue. IoT systems can identify if there is any risk of failure within the system based on predetermined tolerances. As soon as a preventative maintenance threshold is met, the machine can flag that maintenance is required and even order the parts/repair automatically. This reduced machine downtime, coupled with maintained equipment efficiency, improves profitability.

In many instances, dangerous materials or processes are used to produce an end product. This can be anything from extreme temperatures being used in heat treatment to dangerous chemicals being used during processing. If there’s an issue, remote monitoring systems can alert emergency services or the appropriate sector of the business in order to prevent catastrophe.

Fleet management is critical to the success of a business with multiple locations or who are responsible for delivery. Once a purchase is completed, it’s important that it’s delivered to the right location, regardless of whether this is a B2B or B2C transaction. Managing the entire process not only allows the efficient planning of routes but also ensures customer satisfaction is maximised.

Challenges of IoT in manufacturing

In some cases, implementing an IoT monitoring system within your manufacturing infrastructure can be a hefty investment, especially for businesses that have huge manufacturing components of their businesses. However, in most cases, the increase in efficiency and productivity is well worth the upfront costs.

Implementing and adapting to your new IoT devices often comes with a steep learning curve. It can be challenging to learn the capabilities and limitations of your new manufacturing technologies, especially when it comes to the automated monitoring etc. Whilst it can take weeks to get up to speed, it is more than worth that learning period and temporary downtime for long term success.

Some members of staff will always be opposed to implementing a new monitoring process as it requires additional learning and greater accountability. This is natural, but in many situations implementing automation frees up your employees’ time, enabling them to focus on delivering greater value to the business (rather than worrying about simple job responsibilities that can be automated with IoT).

Looking to improve the profitability of your manufacturing facility by turning it into a smart factory?

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