Internet of Things Archives

Internet of Things Page 5

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the way companies design, manufacture, and service their products and manufacturing floors. ‘Service’ is one of the most notable areas to be impacted by this wave of technology and connected devices. Monitoring assets in the field and on the shop floor gives service technicians access to usage, error, and predictive analytics prior to a repair. As companies continue to adopt the IoT, more organizations are satisfying the prerequisites to easily deploy augmented reality for service.

With the convergence of the digital and physical worlds, manufacturers are using augmented reality as a tool to help improve their service capabilities. Augmented Reality (AR) can deliver the right information at the very moment that it’s needed on the manufacturing floor so that field service technicians and other factory workers can reduce errors, enhance efficiencies, and improve productivity. AR also allows for content to be presented in arguably the most contextual way possible. When accurate information is presented over real-world devices there is little room for error and misunderstanding.

If field service technicians aren’t available to be on-site for a critical situation, then technicians can remotely assist customers with the help of AR. Customers will be able to observe service manuals with interactive 3D animations to disassemble components or work on equipment with which they’re unfamiliar with. If the users need further help, then the experienced field service technician can walk users through instructions while steaming the user’s device view in real time.

Augmented Reality Barriers to Entry

Your service and parts information have to be accurate and up-to-date in order to fully benefit from an augmented reality investment. Making sure your organization has a reliable Service Lifecycle Management system in place is the first step to digital transformation. Without accurate information on parts and equipment, field service technicians could replace the wrong part or be confronted with an outdated, undocumented design.

In order to be labeled a “smart connected enterprise,” a company should have a strategy to connect all of their assets and data; this includes technical publications. Connected technical illustrations have the power to show the current status for every part and piece of equipment. For example, if a mechanic could see a 3D representation of a vehicle’s carburetor and view critical metrics it would help them understand the potential for repairs or future failure.

Your organization needs to be IoT ready – meaning that there needs to be a strategy in place to input sensors on products and equipment. The Internet of Things allows products and assets to send alerts to a maintenance system that assigns a field service technician to perform a repair. Without the sensors that relay information about the status of those parts, and accurate 3D representations, augmented reality devices would be useless because there would be no relevant or up-to-date information to leverage in the field.

The IoT and Augmented Reality are transforming service and enhancing the field service process. Check out EAC’s solutions to see how you can start using AR today.

Here’s how connected products are changing service.

Connected products optimize business processes

Lets face it, business is all about efficiency – taking costs and time out of products and processes. This is exactly how connected products optimize business processes.

Connected products provide organizations with access to real-time data that is combined with existing system information to increase efficiency.

For example, you could provide data about your products condition in the field. By doing so, your technicians can be better prepared to troubleshoot. This can reduce the number of onsite visits because technicians have the right instructions or tools required to quickly repair an asset.

Implementing a connected product strategy can improve your first-time fix rate, decrease truck rolls and service calls, and increase the efficiency of your delivery model.

Connected products improve customer experience

Connected products also positively impact customer experience.

Customers recognize more service value when issues are resolved in one call or service visit. Connected products arm your service team with the information necessary to quickly and effectively address service requests and increase customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction correlates to service renewals.

Connected products differentiate offerings

With the use of a connected product platform, your organization will be able to increase the pace of product and service innovation, proactively diagnose and service your products all while increasing the speed of your service delivery.

For instance, if your hardware was a commodity or under heavy competitive pressure, improving the software, applications, and service that came along with your products could help differentiate your offering and help you outpace the competition.

Connected products drive new revenue streams

Connected products help drive new revenue streams by unlocking new business models, reducing customer downtime, meeting SLA’s, and by providing offerings such as “product as a service”. Would your company rather wait for occasional service revenue to come in, or would you rather intelligently monitor, maintain, and update your products for a consistent recurring fee?

Information will fuel the future of products and services. Data can be used to improve, differentiate, and optimize your business. The impact the Internet of Things has had on service delivery and customer experience is staggering. Delivering connected products is the first step to realizing the benefits of a connected product service strategy. We’d like to help you realize your strategy, implement industry-leading solutions, and support your implementation and deployment. Let’s connect.

This is a guest post from our friends over on the PTC blog.

This week in Chicago, IoT business and IT leaders from multiple industries came together at Bosch Connected World to share best practices and case studies around connected products, services, and solutions.

During the conference, the emerging trend of using augmented reality in manufacturing was explored in a keynote on Wednesday by PTC CEO and IoT expert and visionary, Jim Heppelmann, where he shared a research-driven framework for how companies can capitalize on the convergence of the physical and digital worlds.

Heppelmann emphasized the experiences and opportunities augmented reality is creating for competitive advantage in the IoT.

With the number of smart, connected products increasing each day, the volume of data generated continues to grow, presenting both challenges and opportunities. More data is being created than humans can possibly consume, which creates the need for new processes and applications to address this challenge. The ability to make this information more digestible, while also being able to identify what is valuable and requires action, will become a key competitive advantage. Data analytics is one way to take this large amount of data and condense it to a smaller actionable amount, but AR presents another level of opportunity to redefine the way we as humans absorb and learn from this information.

The excitement over AR’s ability to change the way we consume and communicate information is getting a lot of attention. Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook weighed in on his view that AR will be bigger than VR in an interview with ABC, saying, “…my own view is that augmented reality is the larger of the two, probably by far, because this gives the capability for both of us to sit and be very present, talking to each other, but also have other things — visually — for both of us to see.”

Last week, an article in The Huffington Post also addressed how AR can offer tangible benefits by providing a more immersive form of education and training. As evident in Heppelmann’s keynote at Bosch Connected World, this can be very valuable in a business or manufacturing setting.

Using AR to ‘educate’ in a business setting opens up a vast amount of possibilities for addressing the many challenges that manufacturers across industries face in the age of IoT, including:

• Being able to better understand IoT data and make it actionable

• Marketing and selling smart, connected products

• Overcoming the manufacturing skills gap by optimizing training through simulation, which leads to better retention of information

• Changing the way service information is consumed and the way smart, connected products are serviced

The use of AR in enterprise will continue to grow. It is not only changing the way we interact with things, but also holds a lot of promise for increasing our understanding of information and improving the way we work.

There’s a lot of buzz around the Internet of Things (IoT) these days and the phrases getting manufactured and tossed around are confusing a lot of my friends.

I’m going to take a stab at clearing up some of the confusion and providing some context for the terms that may be showing up in your social feeds.

First, though, a couple of observations on how we got here.

Some of what is now known as the IoT isn’t new; it’s the Machine to Machine (MTM) and publish/subscribe connectivity protocols (MQTT) that have been around helping factory equipment talk on internal networks since the 1990s.

Other parts have been around for quite a while too; the concept of Application Programming Interfaces (API’s), Representational State Transfer (REST) calls and even the basics of Universal Resource Locators (URL) on the internet.

Add in what I call ‘Pervasive Connectivity,’ which is the idea that wired, wireless and mobile networks are almost everywhere and most people have devices to access these networks in their pockets.

It’s no wonder manufacturing and product development professionals are jumping to take advantage of what appears to be the 4th industrial revolution.

While a lot of the underpinnings are not new, the availability and acceleration of their alignment makes

for something new– and awesome!

Given that backdrop, at EAC we look at the IoT through 3 basic lenses; Smart Connected Products, Operations and Enterprises to see tangible benefits that roll up to trillions of dollars of associated annual impact.

All 3 approaches entail devices which contain a sensor network or data and connectivity of some form with the intent of pushing data to a platform for ingestion.

The platform (at least a good one) makes it easy to ingest from disparate systems and transform it into informational dashboards that help regular people, in regular roles take action and do their jobs more efficiently. It may even help companies create new jobs or whole new sources of revenue.

There’s also a layer of analytics that could happen at either the device (Thing) level or at the platform and cloud level– sometimes both. This is where we’re all headed, but it really boils down to the business case that makes sense of the strategy.

Tackling this new landscape requires not only ‘Things’ and ‘Platforms,’ but the right strategy.

Without understanding a business case, companies are likely to embark on ‘science projects’ that may, or may not result in effective change and growth.

So back to the point, here’s the short version of how I’d define these three approaches to the IoT:

1. Smart Connected Product (SCP)- one product in many places.

This is where a single product, with sensors and connectivity, would be produced by the 1000’s and end up in lots of places in the world.

As it functions, it pushes data to a platform.

The data is turned into information for the producers, service agents, owners, consumers, etc.

This way, the products functionality, performance, location or even the features being used can be tracked and reported to make the next version better, keep the current version going, or ensure timely refills or replacements, just to name a few uses.

2. Smart Connected Operation (SCO)– many assets, typically machines, in one place.

This is the factory setting where millions of dollars’ worth of equipment are already on the books of a

company and they’re trying to get as much from their investments as possible.

Connecting the control systems that are already inside of these machines to a platform grants operations access to the data that is already available, but previously unseen.

It is enlightening and even accelerating to provide direct access to the right information to the right role at the right time.

This can provide real-time and actionable information ranging from a holistic plant view down

to an explicit operation on a specific machine.

3. Smart Connected Enterprise (SCE) – real-time access and visibility to existing silos of data and information.

Think ‘Wrap and Extend’ rather than ‘Rip and Replace.’

This is truly the place we’re all imagining.

It’s the ability to keep in place many of the systems that have developed and grown up in our organizations and weave them together to quickly build role-specific dashboards and mashups that look into separate, and currently existing silos of data and information.

It also provides the ability to weave in new streams of data from newly connected products and even subscribe to existing data readily available in the public domain; weather, traffic, economic forces, etc.

Now integrate that with the ability to quickly and simply provide customers, partners, vendor and service providers with the information they’ve always wanted in relation to your product.. then you’ve really got something.

A smart connected enterprise weaves together the entire enterprise with ways to access the right information in the right place at the right time.

Think mobile mashups, autonomous integrated systems, Augmented Reality, and the list of awesomeness goes on.

This may have gone a little deeper than originally planned, I’ll blame my excitement behind the buzz.

There is truly a massive tangible benefit to getting started down this road.

Note that I said ‘started.’ This isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. The 3 lenses of the IoT should be implemented strategically over time.

And if you’re speculative or apprehensive, I get it. But I’d challenge you to stuff the skepticism and get started – your competitors already have.

Give us a call and we’ll get you going quicker than you could imagine.

If you’re already on the path and have hit a few speed bumps, we can help.

We’re in the business of transforming the way companies design, manufacture, connect to, and service their products and enterprise, and we don’t let the speed bumps slow us down.

It is not too bold to say the Internet of Things (IoT) is just about everywhere. Some even say that IoT will have a greater impact on business and productivity than the introduction of the Internet itself.

Whether you embrace it or attempt to look past it, the wave of IoT has already started disrupting many industries.

So what exactly is the Internet of Things? Well, if you haven’t read the HBR article by Michael Porter and Jim Heppelmann, I encourage you to do so.

I am referring to the concept that our physical and digital worlds, in which we have always compartmentalized into separate realities, have begun to converge into a single new reality.

This new reality with the IoT has started to change the way we do business.

Our strategies have begun to take our physical products, parts components and factories, and connect them to our digital systems.

This has allowed us to collect data, analytics, performance measures and much more.

Although there is so much that you can learn about IoT, Here are 10 things you need to know about the Internet of Things.

1. IoT Can Fuel Your Existing Business Initiatives

The Internet Things should not be thought about as something separate and distinct from your business strategy, but rather as an opportunity filled with unlimited capabilities.

This revelation could possibly be the exact catalyst needed to meet your existing business initiatives.

No matter what your business is specifically looking to achieve, IoT can be a real game-changer.

Some businesses have used smart connected operations to discover efficiencies while reducing risk.

Others have integrated smart connected products by modifying and creating new assets and services to increase revenue.

I have also seen companies incorporate smart connected solutions to quickly bring products and services to the market.

Despite your industry, an IoT strategy can be shaped to help fuel your existing initiatives.

2. Everyone Over Designs

Moving from IoT strategy to value is complex.

There are lots of distractions and rabbit holes to go down.

Achieving your IoT initiatives requires focus.

By this, I am referring to the importance of strategically mapping out the innovation that you are looking to drive.

Before deploying an IoT strategy, make sure to ask yourself if the concepts you are looking to implement match to the strategies you are pursuing.

3. There Is No Time Like The Present

Don’t over think it, just get started.

Your company has a chance to take part in one of the greatest economic value adding opportunities of a lifetime.

This is your chance to embrace change and see all it has to offer.

Companies that are able to identify the opportunities and quickly bring to market solutions with IoT will be the leaders of decades to come.

4. Think Wrap/Extend, Not Rip/Replace When it Comes to the Internet of Things

The idea behind integrating the IoT into your business strategy should evolve around bettering your processes, not replacing what you have done so far.

This is your time to pro-actively use the IoT to drive growth and optimize your current business operations.

5. The IoT Stack is a Huge Help

The IoT stack is a handy way to break down any IoT project into manageable chunks. Think about it this way.

Before adopting innovative technologies your company must establish frameworks, protocols, and standards that are consistent with your business strategy.

Your framework should revolve around the problems your business is looking to solve.

By breaking down your IoT solution into 5 layers you can better understand the business technology tradeoffs that are needed at each level and the system as a whole.

6. Zealots and Laggards Are Everywhere. Beware.

It’s easy to get distracted by the daily grind and to put off getting started.

Change is a scary thing for all of us, so it’s easy to procrastinate.

Doing nothing is one of the biggest threats when it comes to the Internet of Things.

The reality is, big change is what can define success.

Don’t let your company develop a reputation as a technical laggard in the IoT arena.

7. Avoid The Simple Small Tool Sets

If you’ve ever heard the saying “go big or go home”, it defiantly applies to an IoT strategy.

So often I see companies who are hesitant to make a big change, resorting to small easy to adapt ideas.

If your company wants to see real results, you must avoid wasting your time on the small and simple projects.

Running test pilots to assess potential value is not how you will reach your real strategic initiatives.

To see change, you must make a change. This is when you need to roll up your sleeves and make a connection to your real business issues.

8. The Control Engineers Are The Key to Success

On IoT projects, get to the Controls engineer — this is who has the keys to unlock the room or path to data that might already exist.

Who is your control engineer? This is the person that brings together disparate systems within your network.

A good control engineer knows how to design, develop, and implement the systems that will control your specified applications, networks and machines.

9. IoT is a Big Concept and Many Have Different Views

After introducing the concept of the Internet of Things to many different companies; it has become apparent there are many diverse views of IOT along with its purpose and benefit.

It’s important to remember that two people who seem to differ on the topic of IoT may simply be looking at opposite sides of the same spectrum.

IoT solutions offer limitless capabilities that can easily be tailored to your specific business needs.

This means what IoT can offer for your business, may be completely different than the purpose and benefit it can offer for another.

10. There Is Always a Way To Do Something with IOT

The Internet of Things can be applied to just about every business strategy that exists; it’s just a matter of working at it.

For example, IoT has been used for the complex systems of products like John Deer’s Farmsight to optimize the farm, to simple examples like the Babilat tennis racket that provides data about a player’s performance.

Device connectivity and data analytics enable a closed-loop, real-time digital thread that can connect your people, systems, and equipment across the entire supply chain.

With the rapid creation and developments of new IoT applications, any organization can connect, manage, and optimize complex sets of disparate systems.

See how IoT goes beyond connecting products and has expanded to enable manufacturing and service processes by reading these case studies from PTC.

When it comes to IoT, there is always a way to do something.

What if a bartender knew exactly when one of their kegs was about to tap out just by looking at a volume meter on an app on their phones? Their bar back could switch out the keg before impatient patrons demand more. What if liquor shelves had weight sensors that measured when someone adds or removes liquor? Or an app on a phone existed that notified management when and what liquor is moved? Or better yet, a storage system that communicates with the front bar, knows which liquor is being moved, and manages inventory according to actual usage? Inventory would be a lot more accurate and there would be less time spent trying to figure out what needs to be in the next order.

When smart connectivity allows for a smoother restaurant or brewery experience, you’re most likely going to have a better time without realizing it had anything to do with the Internet of Things (IoT). For businesses, IoT solutions are creating more opportunities to connect products with the Internet. And for the average consumer, IoT solutions are creating easier access and control of products through smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

Leaders are investing in an IoT strategy as they plan the future success of their products and services. You can add smart connectivity to your products – even if you’re in the beer industry.

Here are a few industry leaders that leverage the Internet of Things to drive their success.

Deschutes Brewery

Headquartered in Bend, Oregon, Deschutes Brewery has been making craft beer since 1988. You may be familiar with their rich porter Black Butte created with hints of chocolate and coffee or their Fresh Squeezed IPA brimming with grapefruit enriched hops.

The Deschutes team partnered up with a consultant group and Microsoft last year in efforts to improve their brewing process. With a total of nine brewing phases, each phase has to be closely watched to maintain the quality of their beer. Machine learning is the application of artificial intelligence that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being programmed. Deschutes has implemented machine learning and predictive analysis to automate and improve their fermentation processes. When pairing IoT sensors with the Cortana Intelligence Suite, Microsoft’s predictive learning software, the analytics tool determines the percentage of beer fermented in each batch and predicts when it’s time to switch to the next phase. The Deschutes team can now accurately schedule the nine brewing phases accordingly to ensure the quality of beer is consistent with all of their batches.

Connecting the beer tank sensors with machine learning gave Deschutes an IoT solution and allowed them to improve their brew processes. Deschutes reduced their fermentation process by 24-48 hours. They are now able to focus more time on creating new brands and maintaining the quality of the existing ones. Deschutes is looking at furthering the use of this smart, connected technology by looking into using it for preventive maintenance for their equipment so that brewers would be alerted if parts are due for service or replacement.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Buffalo Wild Wings, headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, is a popular sports bar that has an average of 24-32 beers on tap. Due to major growth of the company and being one of the top 10 fastest-growing restaurants in the U.S., BWW needed to keep up with the growing demand of their customer’s needs. The company faced two major challenges. Both challenges prompted the need to leverage technology and the Internet of Things for an improved operational efficiency.

The first challenge was that they needed to eliminate the product loss that results from comping drinks, excessive or bad pours, and generous bartenders that give beer away without entering the sale in the system. BWW implemented a system called BeerBoard that monitors beer flow data from IoT sensors in the taps to Mulesoft, an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), where managers can compare beer output to sales information pulled from their Aloha point-of-sale systems. Restaurant managers can accurately determine whether they are running an effective beer operation with the help of the IoT solution found from linking the sensors to BWWs data management systems.

Their second challenge was managing the demand of the assortment of beers for each location all year round. BWW used BeerBoard’s new SmartBar beer management platform to switch and assign new beers corresponding to tap lines. Pour data and sales data would be captured through the platform where all BWW restaurants would have access to the reports to measure performance of each beer. The ability to gain beer preference insight brought a powerful competitive advantage to Buffalo Wild Wing’s brand and reputation.

By working with a few different companies that provided the IoT flow sensors and a software solution to manage their data, BWW started to accurately predict preferences and optimize inventory planning. The company now leverages the Internet of Things to accurately track beer consumption.

How to Bring Your Products to Life with the IoT

Race up the learning curve and find a partner that’s driven to find and implement the right IoT solution for your unique business. Make sure they have the engineering expertise necessary to bring your products to life. EAC Product Development Solutions is a company that transforms the way companies design, manufacture, connect to, and service their products. EAC is on a mission to help companies innovate, optimize, and win in the marketplace by selecting the right IoT solution — like PTC ThingWorx. With ThingWorx allows organizations to connect their products to the Internet and give customers the tools they need for easy access and control.

Ready to dive in? Our team of specialists, engineers, and developers would love to help you bring a working proof of concept to life. The demo application image below is an example of how our engineers can use ThingWorx to pull together data from many sources and deliver data to your fingertips. The demo shows how a local brewery can use the app to access plant conditions, truck tracking, order tracking, weather forecasting, collaboration, and beer tasting — all in real-time simulation.

Watch our Connect Services video to see how our engineers can connect your products with the Internet of Things!

Knowledge is power. Keep track of your data if you’re not doing it already. You’re bound to learn something from it. Better yet – apply smart connectivity to your process. Contact our Design and Engineering Services at EAC Product Development Solutions to realize your product potential and to find your IoT solution.

Download our free Connect Services Brochure to see how you connect your products to the internet for a smarter technology solution.