Everybody is talking about Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing and how to best benefit from them. But are they talking about what enables them? Do you know what tools you need to join Industry 4.0 today?

Of course, the tool we are talking about is an Industrial IoT Platform.

The right set of tools

An Industrial IoT Platform is a set of hardware and software tools designed to enable the digital transformation of industrial processes and machinery.

Some of its functions are:

• IoT data analysis
• Real-time monitoring
• Edge device management
• Connectivity
• Predictive maintenance
• Error detection, etc.

These intelligent platforms come in different forms, and they connect everything from manufacturing machines to robots, and assembly lines to cars, planes, and trains.

Let’s see how they work.

How do they work?

Security

An Industrial IoT Platform needs to securely and efficiently manage large amounts of data, so, the first job is security. Earlier, we wrote extensively about this topic, especially, in the context of the Zerynth Industrial IoT Platform. Learn more in our white paper.

Connectivity

An industrial IoT Platform must enable various devices to interconnect and communicate at scale. The type of connectivity depends on the environment the machinery and equipment are placed in, the resources available, how data-intensive the application is, and the desired result.

Most common types of connectivity are:

• Cellular
• WiFi
• Ethernet
• Bluetooth

Data collection and visualization

Once all the machines in the factory are connected, and the data is collected, often, the biggest challenge is to meaningfully analyze these vast amounts of data, and produce valuable insights.

This is why data visualization plays a key role within the IoT ecosystem.

The best IoT visualization tools help us understand the volume (and variety) of data, and see where improvements can be made. For example, good data analysis can help companies identify bottlenecks in the supply chain, predict errors and machine malfunctions, reduce energy consumption costs, and more.

Scalability

Scalability of an IoT project represents its capability to go from the prototyping phase to the production stage as smoothly as possible. But sometimes, going beyond the initial proof-of-concept is a big challenge for the company.

The process is intricately complicated because it involves so many parts: multiple hardware pieces from different vendors, cellular providers, different software, etc.

That is a reason why so many companies are choosing just one Industrial IoT platform and sticking with it.

Book your free demo with us

Would you like to discover how you can reduce your operating costs? Or reduce your energy consumption? Achieve optimized production efficiency?

Book a free demo with our team of experts and find out how we can get you connected in less than 1 hour.