Welcome to the November edition of TekNiche - this month, our guest editor is Lee Hibbert, Senior Content Director at Publitek. He gives his take on how connected technologies are shaping the factories of the future.

“This month’s niche
is IIoT”

Most of us operate on a policy of 'if it isn't broke, don't fix it' for the machines we use in our daily lives. So, when the tumble dryer or washing machine breaks, we suffer the inconvenience before begrudgingly paying out for a new one when finances allow.

But this reactive approach does not work in factory environments. If a piece of equipment suddenly fails, an entire production line can grind to a halt – at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour. 

That's where the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) comes in. Increasingly, manufacturers are deploying real-time connected technologies that allow them to spot abnormalities and anticipate when equipment will fail – meaning engineers can take preventative action before downtime occurs.

The underlying infrastructure for what is known as condition-based monitoring comes in three parts.

Sensors and data acquisition: Data must come from somewhere in data-driven enterprises. In factories, it's often collected via sensors measuring various parameters such as temperature, pressure, vibration, fluid levels and more. Increasingly, this data can be analysed in situ at the edge, but more commonly, it's transmitted through wireless networks to a central data storage platform.

Data analytics: Here, data analytics comb through the collated information to spot patterns, trends and abnormalities. This statistical information can be very revealing, identifying when a piece of equipment is starting to perform in an unexpected manner. Once a particular outlier is breached, engineers can be alerted to prepare to take remedial action.

Actionable insight: For maintenance managers, this information is presented in increasingly accessible ways - often via smartphones and tablets and displayed on intuitive dashboards where the data can be swiftly interrogated. From here, it's a case of working out what needs to be done, and when, before failure occurs.

That's a high-level explanation of IIoT-based infrastructure in action. And it's an exciting area for Publitek because our clients, such as Asus IoT, Infineon and Silicon Labs, are involved at every step of the way. From the systems and components needed on the shop floor through to the data acquisition and analytics software and maintenance, repair and operations, it's our clients' innovation and ingenuity that helps keep production lines running.

And IIoT is constantly evolving. As AI enters the mix, we will see ever-smarter systems and technologies. That progression will add to the requirement for technically inspiring content and comms to bring the story to life. 

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