How IoT Influences The Manufacturing Process

Internet of Things (IoT) points toward a future where every little thing is connected to another via high speed internet connection. The idea of IoT revolves around the fact that not only humans should have the ability to communicate with one another through internet. Machines, devices or literally things should also be able to do that. Why should only humans have access to the internet? Why not the other things? When it comes to IoT, we’re talking about a world where the devices can communicate with one another and with the humans autonomously. Picturing that world is still as exciting as it was yesterday. Where a car can drive itself and find ways with GPS, where computers know when to turn on and when to turn off, a city where cabs know where to pick up the travelers, where there would be no barriers between physical and digital worlds.

However, the greatest impact of IoT seems to be on the manufacturing process that is moving toward automation. Needless to say, IoT has an important role to play in the industrial automation. The inception of IoT has gave birth to a new form of manufacturing called Smart Manufacturing. Smart Manufacturing renders a proactive decision-making environment and streamlines the entire manufacturing process.

Also read An Industrial Revolution Sparked By Machine Learning.

What Is Smart Manufacturing?

There was a time when the manufacturing process was all about hundreds of men working in dingy plants and workshops, repeating the same thing again and again till their hands got parched. Then came the mechanical devices and machines that extenuated the process to some extent. Post the introduction of mechanical and electrical machines, the process remained same for over centuries. And then computers took over. Today’s manufacturing industry is being ruled by the computers which has greatly elevated the production and alleviated the process.

With the advanced computers ruling the manufacturing industry, the next breakthrough came in form of IoT which further paved way for Smart Manufacturing. Smart Manufacturing, as already told, is all about setting up an environment where machines can communicate with humans and with each other in order to make the process fast and way more efficient.

To put this into terms, “Smart Manufacturing is a process that deals with fully-integrated and collaborative systems that automatically respond to the changing conditions in a factory, workshop or supply chain.”    

Role of IoT In Smart Manufacturing

Undeniably, IoT plays a major role in Smart Manufacturing and it won’t be inappropriate to say that it acts as a keystone for the entire process. Today, the manufacturing industries are using a lot of Smart Equipments like sensors, cameras, robots, automation systems, NC machines and dozens of other smart devices. But it gets messy as the number of smart equipments rise. This is generally due to the fact that these equipments generate massive pools of data on daily bases which further makes way for storage issues. It is practically impossible to store such massive amounts of data in absence of an efficient storage mechanism. That’s when IoT comes into action. IoT provides valuable means for data storage by leveraging the power of Cloud. The name IoT itself broadly defines what it does. Internet of Things or IoT connects all the physical equipments to one another in such a way that they can communicate seamlessly over the internet. This not only consolidates the network but builds the foundation of a system where everything can be done autonomously without the need of humans. This will save thousands of man-hours and will boost the manufacturing process to unthinkable speeds.