The Role Of IoT in Industrial Automation

December 28, 2022

Internet of Things in industrial automation is a game changer that will reap new benefits. It not only creates scope for innovation, but also helps solve problems at the micro level, enhance operations, and increase productivity. The main aim of industrial automation is to reduce the necessity of people in the manufacturing process and eliminate errors.

IoT in industrial automation can be achieved by mapping industrial processes, understanding micro and macro process, and their relations with machines to automate the process. This entire process involves the interconnection of sensors, instruments, and other devices over a common network to accomplish a task. 

Let’s quickly drive through detailed explanations, advantages, and the role of IoT in industrial automation engineering.

IoT in Industrial Automation

What Does IoT Do For Industrial Automation?

IIoT refers to sensors, instruments, and other devices networked with industrial computer applications, such as manufacturing and energy management. This connectivity enables data collection, exchange, and analysis, which may improve productivity and efficiency and have other economic benefits. The IIoT is a Distributed Control System (DCS) evolution that uses cloud computing to refine and optimize process controls.

This is enabled by integrating multiple technologies like cybersecurity, cloud computing, machine-to-machine, 3D printing, advanced robotics, big data, cognitive computing, etc.

Practical Advantages of IoT in Industrial Automation

  1. Scalability

Scalability in production is attained by increasing output, two goals that the digital industrial transformation facilitates and accelerates. Humans are sometimes the weakest link in production processes, which is unfortunate for the workforce. However, by removing humans from a process and delegating production to robots, businesses are able to increase their throughput.

  1. System uptime enhancement

Like production, uptime is limited by humans. People need rest, food, a safe workplace, and ethics. Machines don’t need breaks or food. Because of automation, many factory floors are safe.

  1. Operational efficiency

Operational automation means interconnecting and integrating systems to share information and improve operations exponentially. Computer logic lets systems respond to other needs. This basic application is everywhere now, from turning off lights to alerting global suppliers that a factory will soon run out of raw materials and need resupply.

  1. High-security access and control

IoT introduces many attack vectors to automation systems, but it also offers a solution. Automation can be used to defend against cyberattacks. It helps defenders make their entire network visible, adhere to a policy-based approach to system configuration, management, and security, and automate many low-level maintenance tasks while alerting IT teams of more serious breaches or attack patterns.

Role of IoT in Industrial Automation

  1. Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT concepts and technology are being explored and implemented in industrial automation. IoT helps create effective, affordable, and responsive system architectures. The goal is to create frictionless communications and interaction from manufacturing field input/output, including analyzers, actuators, and robotics, to increase flexibility and manufacturing. Industrial automation has used IoT in major applications, such as PLCs replacing banks of relays.

  1. Internet of Things Products and Devices

Internet-connected IoT devices and systems can collect and exchange data. These products have many forms and use. Some of the examples include:

  • Smart thermostats, security cameras, and light bulbs can be controlled remotely via smartphone apps.
  • Smartwatches and fitness trackers track a user’s activity and health metrics.
  • Connected cars can communicate with each other and with traffic infrastructure using sensors and other technologies.
  • Industrial IoT systems can monitor and control factory and warehouse equipment.

IoT products make our lives more convenient and efficient by allowing us to easily collect and access physical data.

  1. Internet of Things Gateway Devices

IoT gateways connect a network of connected devices to the internet. These devices are used in industrial IoT systems with hundreds or thousands of devices to connect and manage work.

IoT gateways are equipped with hardware and software to perform various tasks. IoT gateway devices have user-friendly interfaces that make configuration and management easy. This can include web-based interfaces, mobile apps, and other tools that make it easy for users to set up and maintain their IoT systems

  1. Industrial IoT Development Kits

Industrial IoT (IIoT) development kits include hardware and software to help developers create applications and solutions. These kits include sensors, actuators, and other physical components for building and testing IIoT systems, as well as software libraries and other tools for developing and deploying IIoT applications.

IIoT development kits can be customized to meet the needs of a specific industry or application. A manufacturing company’s IIoT development kit may include sensors and other components used in manufacturing, while a transportation company’s kit may include GPS and other location-tracking technologies.

A Quick Recap on Industrial Automation Engineering

The Internet of Things, or IoT, is a network of interconnected, data-collecting and -exchanging devices. By allowing machines to communicate with one another and with central systems, IoT-enabled devices can be used to increase efficiency and productivity in the context of industrial automation. 

In industry, for instance, an IoT system could be used to monitor the performance of individual machines and determine when maintenance is required, as well as to automatically adjust production processes based on real-time data. This can help to decrease downtime and increase operational efficiency overall.

Final Thoughts

Want to leverage the best technology for IoT industrial automation? Technosoft Engineering IoT Services will take your Industrial Automation processes to the next level of connectivity and intelligence.

Get in touch with us today for our industrial automation engineering.

MANUFACTURING PROCESS AUTOMATION

September 13, 2022

Employing manufacturing process automation involves having machines complete specific tasks. This helps you stay competitive in your sector while increasing productivity, efficiency, and cost savings. There is minimal or no human involvement in the automated manufacturing process. 

Automation in manufacturing is employed in areas-

Machine work like processing, inspection, and assembling

Compliance

Customer service

Distribution

Finances

Logistics

Procurement

Research

Sales and ordering

Manufacturing Process Automation companies are augmented by the Internet of Things (IoT). It has now become a global technology that has transformed entire industrial processes. IoT, in conjunction with computer automation controls, helps to simplify industrial processes and increase data automation. Automation aims to eliminate mistakes and inefficiencies, largely from people. 

Benefits of Automation in Manufacturing

Benefits of Automation in Manufacturing

  1. Quality Control of Product

Manufacturing Process Automation decreases the proportion of defect rate and is more compliant and uniform. This allows the top-quality products to reach consumers. It also reduces or eliminates the chances of human error. 

By involving IoT systems in the production line, the environmental conditions, equipment performance, location of inefficiencies, and consistent process, are all kept in check. These continuous data insights enable manufacturers to pinpoint the source of quality control concerns and confidently take action.

  1. Structured Inventory Management

Automation is rapidly transforming every aspect of inventory management. When manufacturing procedures are integrated with IoT, it enhances the supply chain and performance management. 

IoT uses different technologies like GPS and Radio Frequency ID (RFID) that aid in data collection. This supplements product tracking, improves logistics, identifies potential risk, and thus, makes inventory management efficient. 

  1. Effective Maintenance Schedule

Automated equipment maintenance enhances asset utilization, extends machine life, and optimizes field crew efficiency. Manufacturing companies use automation, data science, and IoT to determine equipment conditions and accurately predict when a failure might occur. 

This technology employs an in-memory database and real-time analysis to highlight areas of the machine that need repairing. This in turn reduces maintenance costs, enhances safety and compliance, and also refines the production line. 

  1. Workplace safety

IoT- based automation in the workplace has enhanced the safety of people. It addresses the large number of threats that can be prevented. This enables continuous monitoring of environmental conditions, the physical health of employees, can help limit employees’ risks, and exposure to prevent accidents from happening.  It also speeds up the progress of rescue operations and prevents fire accidents.  

  1. Asset tracking

Automated asset management ensures reliability, extended equipment life, proper asset usage, and best returns on assets. Automated asset tracking involves IoT devices that enable remote monitoring and management of assets’ positions and movements. 

It allows optimization of asset usage and performance with real-time data collection and helps generate valuable business intelligence. It supports the entire workflow by producing reports that notify when an asset needs to be served. 

  1. Cost reduction

Automation in manufacturing decreases the overall maintenance cost by using predictive maintenance fundamentals, ensuring worker safety during training and maintenance. It bridges the gap between floor staff and executives; detecting and resolving production bottlenecks.

It also provides insight into future changes and possibilities before the money is put into action. IoT lowers costs by prioritizing and minimizing the impacts of productivity bottlenecks through process optimization.

Bottom Line

The benefits of manufacturing process automation are limitless. As technology is becoming more accessible, automation is becoming more crucial. It leads to an increase in versatility, improves quality, helps gain competitive advantage, and focuses on work expertise. It can even enhance precision, consistency, and uptime. Now is the chance to leverage automated technologies to acquire a plethora of benefits, predictable schedules, and comprehensive budgets.

Trends in Industrial Automation Services

March 15, 2019

Finishing certain complex processes in factories is becoming simple and can be done without human interference. These processes such as assembling are monotonous to have humans work on it. Hence industrial automation services were involved in several assembling manufacturing processes. Every now and then we see certain trends emerging in this segment. Day after day, it is getting dynamic and more optimized to improve efficiency. There are some recent upgradations in the industrial automation space which could soon become a trending practice in all the manufacturing facilities. Here are some of the trends that are happening in this space.

Industrial Automation Services

Digital Twin Technologies

If you understand cloning, then grasping digital twin will not at all be difficult for you. For example, you have one machine which does a particular process and replicating the same process with one machine will not be possible. In that case, you can create virtual equipment like the original one and assign the same to perform operations in tandem. This way, your production increases and so does your efficiency. Several reports were surfacing saying how digital twin is disrupting Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Moreover, this has been widely used in healthcare and automotive industry as well quite widely.

Converging IT and OT

Integration is the new word in the tech world. For years, IT and OT has been two different domains. But there is a need to bridge both together. Under OT, one does monitoring and controlling equipment. On the other hand, under IT a lot of support management activities take place. But efficiency and productivity is said to increase only when both the operations are interconnected. A lot of research has been going on to converge both of these. By the end of 2019, we can possibly get to see manufacturing facilities with the convergence of both these operations.

Cobot Usage

Cobot or Collaborative Robots as they’re called is now emerging. In 2018, its worth stood at US$710 million and same is said to surge to a whopping market worth of US$12.3 billion. These collaborative robots are said to increase production lines, increase productivity and improve employee safety. It is considered to be more affordable that even SMEs can afford having one and keep improving their efficiency from time to time. Europe, APAC and North American regions are heavily investing in this technology and soon we can see a lot of upsurge in investments and usage.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is not an alien term, but the advancements it offers for your manufacturing facility is something new. In the manufacturing space, augmented Reality is considered to have impacted product lifecycle management. Right from monitoring process improvements to inventory management and new product introduction, AR does everything to make your manufacturing process simple and efficient. Experts even say AR could allow one to look into the product pointing to the problem area. This is said to actually improve your efficiency and let you go ahead. Also, AR is widely used in different industries for different processes.

Technosoft Engineering with an experience of two decades in the field of Industrial Automation Services offers impeccable solutions to simplify complex processes. Refer to this page to understand how the offerings of Technosoft are unique and how it keeps your ante up in the market. Most importantly, checkout Essential Processes to Make a Robust Robot Design.

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