Once more devices become incorporated into the Internet of Things (IoT), the possibilities for companies to transform will increase. Manufacturing businesses have their own reasons for preferring a coordinated system where everything is connected, as long as they have the means to access all important mainframe information easily. In the best case scenario, the IoT could benefit companies that need to maintain high levels of safe production.
According to information from the American Society for Quality quoted by Industry Week, more than 80 percent of manufacturers considered as part of a recent survey said that using IoT helped them increase efficiency. Drawing from this and other sources, there are a few possible uses of IoT that businesses can expect as these changes become more frequent:
- Better security: While more devices with internet access could create vulnerabilities, it also stands to link existing security measures together. An article on Manufacturing.net states that some companies can use local data storage rather than a large cloud to limit the chances of a breach.
- Greater organization: According to Stefan Ferber of Bosch, companies that run self-correcting machines can waste less time and get more out of their hardware with the IoT. "The Internet of Things allows for a new way of organizing industry production: by connecting machines, warehousing systems and goods, we can create smart production systems that basically control each other without requiring any manual intervention," he told Industry Week.
- More information: In a general sense, the data gathered from manufacturing devices, even if it doesn't have a direct application, can help companies learn about their operations and make better decisions as a result.
As many devices utilize a simple telnet terminal interface for communications, it can be useful to have a strong server solution like Flynet Viewer that polls and interrogates devices intelligently, wrapping access in web services or providing web-based device terminal emulator access.