The industrial internet of things, or Industry 4.0, is no longer a quirky distraction for those wanting to explore innovation. It’s a mainstream approach changing both the manufacturing and retail sectors.
By Peter Howard.
A competitive edge
The IIoT is no longer a quirky distraction for those wanting to explore innovation. It’s a mainstream approach changing both the manufacturing and retail sectors; hence it being called the fourth industrial revolution. The pace of progress in robotics, sensors, data mining and AI, coupled with the freedom enabled by cloud computing means intelligent factories and pinpoint-accurate marketing strategies will soon become the norm rather than the exception and those choosing to ignore the opportunities presented will quickly be left behind.
Making sense of things
Today’s sensors can monitor and measure to an extraordinarily high level of precision, making them suited to almost any application in the most demanding environments. What’s exciting for manufacturers looking to increase their level of automation is that where there are sensors, actuators and other independent low-level devices in their current factory automation processes, it’s an easy step to upgrade and replace using off-the-shelf IIoT enabled devices.
Read more in the July issue of Retail World.
