Tackling the Industrial IoT’s failure rate

3 out of 4 IoT pilot projects fail. But what makes businesses pursue them, despite the high failure rate, is the massive positive effect they have on the organisation’s operational efficiency when they succeed. Manufacturers, in particular, have continued to form the core of their infrastructure around IoT; as is evident from the way leading PLC control panel suppliers in India  such as Indexel Engineering are attempting to leverage IoT.  In fact, it is predicted that the manufacturing sector would be the single largest contributor to the estimated $1.3 trillion global IoT spend in 2020. Investments in IoT, though, are still just calculated risks. It is thus crucial for enterprises to give themselves a realistic chance of leveraging IoT and reaping its benefits by trimming down the potential risk of failure.

Risk reduction

A variety of factors need to be considered when introducing a low-risk, IoT-based project in manufacturing. Firstly, IoT just for the sake of IoT will only meet one fate - failure. There needs to be a clear plan which outlines how the connected devices and the data they generate could be used to improve operations. Having clear, well-defined goals, and connecting only those devices that could support these goals, would ensure that an IoT project has a strong chance of delivering ROI.

The minimum cost, minimum disruption approach

For those who are taking to industry 4.0, there is practically no dearth of new IoT-enabled machinery. Suave industrial automation systems have thronged the market. Many enterprises already are or will be, choosing to replace existing equipment with their IoT-equipped counterparts. However, this overhaul might prove expensive as manufacturers have already pumped in huge sums of money for developing their existing infrastructure.

An alternative, cost-effective, and arguably better solution would be to add a connecting layer to the pre-existing equipment. Hardware designed to bring non-network-ready devices into a modern network environment, along with sensors that could possibly tap into data available through such legacy devices, could enable organisations to enjoy the benefits of IIoT without incurring those massive initial costs.

Carrying on with business as usual

By keeping away from ripping up and replacing the whole line of existing equipment, businesses could mitigate the risks of business disruption usually associated with the installation of new equipment. An IIoT layer could be added with ease and at pace while creating minimal impact on the daily activities of the organisation. This approach would also make IIoT projects increasingly adaptable and modifiable on the fly. You could tweak and refine an IIoT project time and again without affecting the core business goals.

Pruning the attack surface

Security is the greatest concern for manufacturers when they append their existing infrastructure with an IIoT layer. A network breach has a devastating impact on any business but its effects are amplified for manufacturing businesses.

Bringing network connectivity to existing legacy equipment could increase the potential avenues for attack exponentially but if the IIoT layer is implemented with necessary security measures then the threats could become highly marginal and insignificant. For example, technologies like industrial device servers could establish a connection between legacy equipment and the network with very strong data encryption standards. A device server minimizes potential attack points as it negates the need to pair each and every industrial device to a PC and then connect it to the internet.

These steps could help manufacturers of various industrial devices, such as control panel manufacturers in India or SCADA system suppliers in India, create an effective method for tackling the high failure rates for IIoT projects and get the maximum out of all the features and benefits that IIoT has to offer.

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