When it comes to the deployment of connected technologies across industrial applications, we are well past the stage wherein we discuss its pros and cons. It’s high time that organizations accept its inevitability, especially after the shop floor lessons taught by the pandemic. If Industry 4.0 was slowly heating up the market in an endeavor to popularize industrial automation, Robotics, and other data driven technologies like AI, ML and IoT, the pandemic soon became a powerful catalyst in the process.

Today, the need for connected technologies, especially Industrial IoT, is more critical than ever before and it’s most certainly the only way for the manufacturing industry to recover from the catastrophic effects of the pandemic. Be it redeploying employees, re-strategizing production, or a scaling of your business, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which refers to the extension and use of the IoT in industrial sectors and applications, is essential in making the recovery possible.

The concerns of small-scale manufacturers are largely around “whether it would suit my business and make a difference”, not to mention the need for affordability of deploying IIoT. In truth, the IIoT technology has become so advanced today to fit into operations of any scale and size. IIoT couples Information Technology (IT) with Operational Technology (OT) and adds intelligence to manufacturing equipment, processes, and management, and it’s a sure bet to improve your business regardless of its size. The benefits include improving machine and human performance in real-time, predictive maintenance and hence better lifecycle of equipment, deeper analysis of and insights out of data, minimizing downtime and costs, and much more.

The evidence is plenty to suggest that IIoT is a crucial aspect of the future of Industrial operations and it has already become a basic requirement to even participate in the cut-throat market competition out there. This issue is an endeavor to shed more light on this inevitability.

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