In the good old days (two facility engineers talking).
Engineer 1: “The conveyor in the southeast corner is making that noise again.”
Engineer 2: “The grinding noise or the squeak?”
Engineer 1: “The grind. I hit it with the wrench yesterday afternoon and it was fine the rest of the day, but it’s making the noise again this morning.”
Engineer 2: “Better order what you need to repack the bearings before is seizes up again.”
Enter the IoT. . .
Engineer installs sensors on 127 mission critical areas of the facility measuring rotations, temperature, noise levels and power consumption.
Engineer has to convince IT department to invest in a server to store all the data that the sensors are collecting – outside of the DMZ, so the consultants can access the data real-time.
Wireless gateways are installed throughout the facility to communicate with the sensors and send the data to the new server.
Data is collected.
Data is modeled.
Predictive analysis algorithms are developed and tested.
And then, in the brave new IoT world. . .
A sensor monitoring noise attributes starts logging higher than usual levels.
An order is automatically placed for replacement parts.
The engineer receives a work order for preventative maintenance to repack the bearings.
The question is: Is it all worth it? And how to we prove that it is (or it isn’t)?
