May 11, 2019 - 256 views
|It’s eminently doable to convert IIoT signals into business outcomes that improve operational performance and deliver value. Here's how.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), as well as conventional IoT deployments, often remain in “pilot purgatory” because they fail to deliver significant business outcomes. Part 1 of this series revealed that to succeed, manufacturers should utilize IoT to reshape key operating processes and experiences into end-to-end journeys that unlock trapped business value.
As history has shown, when IoT is used to simply automate dysfunctional processes and experiences, it only accelerates customer dead ends or unintended operational outcomes. While sensor data from IoT-connected operations and products has the potential to transform most core processes (from one-off tasks such as equipment maintenance, through full business model change), consuming this data for informed decision making requires substantive integration of this data into processes and critical customer interactions that truly matter.
To get there, workflows need to be orchestrated in an event-driven environment. By combining intuitive design with effective process automation, manufacturers can ensure they’re on the path to IIoT-fueled business value. Here’s why.
What if you could …
Delivering these kinds of outcomes with speed and scale is not science fiction – especially when linked to the core of your operations, experiences and primary transformation objectives.
Here’s our five-step proven approach for delivering a faster path to IIoT value.
Leading global manufacturers like industrial equipment majors, marine and energy equipment conglomerates, automotive OEMs and a range of their industrial peers have followed this approach to turn their operational and product signals into redesigned end-to-end processes, experiences and outcomes at scale.
For example, we’re assisting an industrial manufacturer to close-loop field service maintenance processes with connected products and a contact center. Event-based signals triggered from product performance data (generated by an installed base of more than half a million) is distilled for preventive, predictive and service call maintenance. The orchestration of a success repair event is dependent on service completion.
This orchestration – all the way to the field service representative’s task scheduling, deployment and integration with the contact center – has led to productivity improvements of over 20%. The next step is to orchestrate updates with fIrmware over the air (FOTA) and software over the air (SOTA) as more advanced software-defined products are launched.
As this example demonstrates, it’s eminently doable for manufacturers to convert existing IoT machine and product signals into business outcomes and enhanced next-best actions that simultaneously improve the operational performance of connected assets and products – and contribute to the realization of IoT-driven business models.
Architecturally, industrial leaders are marrying their existing IoT/IIoT platforms with an automated case management capability that connects and orchestrates equipment sensors, people, process and data to get work done and to make critical decisions – and sometimes both.
Gartner has coined the term “Trough of Disillusionment” when referring to the painful “Hype Cycle” phase in the long journey to mainstream adoption of new technologies. IoT is no exception. As noted in Part 1 of this series, meeting or exceeding expectations from the business transformation promised by IoT remains a work in progress. Over time, interest tends to wane as experiments and implementations fall short of the promises.
But for manufacturers, getting past disillusionment is much more likely when they pair existing IoT investments with in-flight automation and operational process digitization efforts that leverage the finite capacity and skills of existing IT and business talent. By following an approach like the one we’ve suggested here, existing investments in people and technology can serve as the catalyst to the connected future your organization has committed to – without distracting from other priorities.
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