IOT is Internet of things, humans use internet to
communicate with each other. We send files, forms, replies, and instructions
etc what would happen if the “things” start communicating with each other and
start doing the same with no human intervention. This is what Internet of
things precisely is.
The things like
machines, pumps, appliances etc when they start sending information about their
functions ,performance, state of operations, its health status to another thing
that will take certain decision based on the communication is what internet of
things basic logic. Two things communicate so that they work better.
Now, how does that help us?
Imagine none of your office staff or site staff could
communicate by any means not even by speaking to each other and they work with
that lack of communication, what will happen? Yes, there won’t be any work done
until they communicate or some other person passes the message or they
themselves try to do everything as they could not communicate.
Currently same thing happens to all your machines, tools, equipment’s
and gadgets on site, in office and your buildings.
Now imagine another scenario where your power tool tell the
central system of maintenance ( a computer) that it has functioned for 5000
hours so far and it seems that the temperature is rising erratically from last
24 hours there might be issue with carbon
brush or coil is heating up that leads to a automatic intimation to maintainance department and store saying this might be a problem you have to resolve and in this particular time when the equipment is not utilized. Also if the required material or component is not available it will generate an auto requisition to purchase with all technical details and when and where it is needed. All this with out human intervention.
Or your water pump/diesel generator tell the next dependent equipment
something that will trigger the next dependent action without humans telling them.
Or a CCTV camera finds a truck load coming from the main
gate and automatically informs the person who is concern with unloading or
checking the inflow of goods on your site. Also if equipped with image recognition
and AI the truck load is scrutinized by the CCTV camera and tell precisely whose
vehicle has come, send real time picture on the whatsapp of all concern people
and also mention the other details like if truck was half load, full load or
over load. If same IOT solution attached to weigh bridge may also confirm few
details directly with the software and also register without human
intervention or judgement.
You may ask is it
needed? yes and no. It will not be needed if you feel you have a small and manageable
site where you your self-visit each and every day and see all the necessary attributes
and know everything that happens on site.
But if you have multiple sites, it is impossible for you to
know and see everything that is important and can’t be done personally by you
or any person incharge due to nature of the work.
Now that’s one way of taking or consuming IOT based on ease of
business scale and your busyness,availability or involvement.
Second way to look at it is the data that you gather-if intelligently
analyzed and gives you superb insights saying that certain operations are
lacking behind schedule due to following reasons.
Imagine, the machines and equipment’s on your site will have
zero downtime because they had communicated with the system and were taken care
before something went wrong.As out sites will be more driven by machines and
tools more the need for IOT arise. As with labour flow and labour utilization if
the entire site is made pro IOT,it is quite possible to measure the workers
work pattern his travel with in site his lean time, his performance time, his efficiency and no of
hours put to use and where. This is not a far fetched imagination,we have it now
at out figure tips. Companies like Intel and IBM are in forefront making the
IOT kits readily available we just have to work on integrating the mini computers
to the equipment or machine and create a software that gets all the data and
processes it to the next possible action.
There are lot of things I can mention here but to conclude
IOT is not just confined to some home automation playful luxury, it is much
more intense and can impact you bottom line directly and can become a tool to
save in time and efforts that may bring in substantial savings.
Whether we implement it or not the change is happening,one day
or the other it will be common in all the sector. Winners will be those who
adapt and implement ahead of time and become the master of IOT rather than
clients of IOT. When you do something when everyone is doing there is actually
no edge over them it is just a must have expense.
I would like to end it by adding IOT is basis of INDUSTRY
4.0 a huge revolution that is happening in the manufacturing sector because of IOT.
If we could start taking IOT seriously many delays ,quality issues, quantity of
material/stores etc can be impacted immediately and more than that the data that we will get to study will give us mind-blowing
insights about our own site and business.
Hope you found IOT interesting I will write more about IOT
in office, IOT for your projects and IOT for home later. Till then you can find
some interesting stuff on INDUSTRY 4.0 on the internet.
Thanks
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