Industrial IoT: Powering Smart Manufacturing

Manufacturing challenges

The IoT industry is one of the fastest-growing markets in telecommunications, comprising multiple interrelated sectors, from consumer electronics to heavy machinery.

As a whole, the sector is defined by wireless communication between devices – everything from sensors in factory production lines to smart home products and self-driving cars. While most visible examples of the IoT are consumer electronics, in reality, these represent only a small segment of the broader industry. Much of the IoT sector is based around the Industrial Internet of Things, or IIoT.

In their 2022 survey of senior industrials executives, McKinsey identified two key concerns for the future of manufacturing:

• Decreased availability of materials and labor

• Out-of-date monitoring processes, including real-time visibility of their operations.

IIoT as the Solution

The IIoT directly addresses these issues through streamlined processes, predictive maintenance, and unprecedented levels of real-time data collection and analysis.

While the IIoT is constantly adapting to new use cases and serving new customer bases, usage can be broadly categorized into three subgroups:

• Connected machines and sensors: Embedded sensors within commercial machines.

• Data collection and analytics: Processors that monitor and analyze the data transmitted by the sensors.

• Cloud computing, digital twins, and AI integration: Automated processes that analyze and act on the data to preemptively identify issues and make recommendations.

Over time, companies can use this data analysis to improve nearly every aspect of their industrial operations, from employee safety to workflow optimization.

Currently, the discipline offers manufacturers four key advantages:

• Predictive maintenance (PdM): Using sensor data to forecast equipment failures and avoid downtime.

• Process optimization: Real-time analytics to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and optimize workflows. This guards against unexpected issues such as supply chain delays or mechanical failures.

• Energy efficiency: Monitoring power consumption for sustainability and cost reduction.

• Worker safety: Wearable sensors and automated alerts for hazardous environments.

The Downtime Problem

While addressing the data bottleneck is an existential threat for the IoT space, the IIoT sector faces several immediate challenges. One of the most costly is network downtime. The larger and more widespread a fleet of IoT devices is, the greater the risk of dropped connections, signal outages, and system failures.

In the automotive sector alone, Siemens estimates that a single hour of downtime in a large plant costs $2.3 million. The average manufacturing plant now loses 27 hours per month to unplanned downtime.

These costs are rising; downtime now costs manufacturers between two and four times more than it did last decade, due to increasingly interlinked processes.

With the industry on a precipice, manufacturers need to embrace new technologies that prevent avoidable losses and predict potential failures across production lines before they occur. The IIoT is crucial to achieving this.

The Connectivity Challenge

Despite experiencing rapid growth, IIoT faces many pressing challenges – some of which are unique to industrial applications, and others which are shared by the wider wireless industry.

One of the greatest challenges facing IoT companies today is one of their own making: the surging global demand for wireless connectivity. Through new technologies like 5G data networks and eSIMs, the IIoT continues to scale and develop into a truly sustainable industry. The success of the form has enabled other digital-first industries like smart manufacturing to grow.

However, as manufacturers scale globally, connectivity gaps between regions or networks can result in serious downtime, data loss, and operational inefficiencies – all of which threaten IIoT scalability.

Tech Enablers – Digital Twins and 5G

A clear example of the IIoT in action is the growing use of digital twins. In its basest form, a digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical manufacturing process, from simple spreadsheets to full 3D simulations.

Advances in AI and machine learning have further contributed to this transition: better IIoT sensors provide greater volumes of data, while AI analyzes the data to predict trends, pre-empt issues, and deliver insights.

Another driver behind the surging IIoT industry is the worldwide rollout of 5G data networks. Compared to 4G, 5G provides more reliable coverage at far lower latencies, which are ideal for ports or factories. This allows for faster transmissions, enabling sophisticated wireless operations and real-time analytics.

Private, self-contained 5G networks are increasingly common in industrial zones, while global 5G network providers like 1GLOBAL are allowing multinational IoT companies to scale at unprecedented levels while retaining reliable connections and limiting the risk of downtime.

Solving international IIoT concerns with 1GLOBAL

As the manufacturing industry continues to grow more interconnected, businesses need to incorporate scalable, sustainable IoT solutions into their industrial processes. Without this, mounting costs in downtime and rising competition place the viability of their business at risk.

Doing so requires a partner with deep industry expertise and a track record of delivering digital transformation success for industrial and manufacturing clients.

Since 2018, 1GLOBAL has provided digital-first IoT solutions that help industrial clients prepare for the wireless future.

• Global IoT SIMs and eSIMs: Enable remote provisioning, monitoring, and scalability.

• Private 5G networks: Ensure reliability, reduced latency, and continuous data flow.

• Real-time connectivity intelligence: Helps manufacturers prevent downtime and optimize operational performance.

1GLOBAL has deep expertise in supporting companies that need to automate, streamline and interconnect their plants and fabs at scale. Our IoT solutions enable the development of flexible commercial models that can evolve as device connectivity evolves, always ensuring that the right type of data the client needs is easily and seamlessly integrated.

Contact our team directly to learn how 1GLOBAL’s IIoT connectivity solutions can reduce downtime, improve safety, and accelerate digital transformation across your industrial operations.