Going back to usual daily life has raised concerns on how IIoT adoption will take shape in 2021

A lot of concerns were raised in the past years over industries adopting IoT at a slower pace. Manufacturing and healthcare companies were slacking behind in introducing intelligent technologies to its forefront. But 2020 was one hell of a year that changed everything. The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown that followed jeopardized the working system. However, in order to comply with necessities, manufacturing houses embraced Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to help them in the hectic times. Now, most of the world is coming back to normal. Going back to usual daily life has raised concerns on how IIoT adoption will take shape in 2021. 

The IIoT, sometimes called Industry 4.0 is radically changing how businesses, especially industrial companies operate. When companies avail digital transformation, it creates a void between physical and digital assets. Industrial IoT provides the link between the two. IIoT refers to the vast numbers of machines and devices or things a business uses that are now connected to the internet. Industries saw dramatic changes in 2020. Starting from the way products are produced to the way they are planned in offices, and marketed and supplied to customers, everything took a digital twist. But why are we discussing it now when 2020 is long gone? We are indeed in 2021 and things have changed a lot since the pandemic’s initial days. Most importantly, people are returning back to their normal lives. Does that mean industries will go back to the pre-pandemic scenario in 2021? The answer is ‘no.’

The digital world has adopted a term called ‘new normal’ that represents the changes happening in 2020, which won’t go back in time. Companies that deployed IIoT solutions in the past year went right from 2019 to 2025 and are reaping big benefits from it. To further accelerate the digital transformation, emerging futuristic technologies like 5G, augmented reality, 3D printing and machine learning are also stealing the stage. According to a recent study by IndustryARC, the manufacturing industry will be the highest revenue-generating segment for IIoT market in the forecast period. Estimates suggest that the IIoT market will be worth over US$992 billion by 2021 and Accenture predicts that the technology will add over US$14 trillion to the global economy by 2030. As IIoT benefits jumped out of the tech industry into manufacturing, healthcare and other sectors, let us have a look at the major advantages that the world will enjoy by unravelling the technology.

Enhancing operational intelligence

Operational intelligence is one of the critical things that manufacturing houses need to achieve. IIoT intelligence enables end-to-end visibility of the supply chain and manages a

specific plant’s equipment and assets, down to the operator and work cell-level. The shift in mechanism mitigates hectic issues like non-digitised historical information, tribal knowledge and lack of industrial connectivity into assets.

Reducing errors and improving safety

IIoT facilitates manufacturers to automate and optimise their operating efficiency. This transformation helps the company manage errors as robotics and automated machineries work more effectively and accurately, boosting productivity and helping manufacturers streamline their functions. Remarkably, the maximum use of machinery in place of humans for dangerous tasks improves the safety of employees.

Improving product design and quality controls

Manufacturing products without knowing the customer's preference is out of the league today. Companies make products that are on the necessary list of customers. This is possible only with the help of IIoT sensors that are used to collect aggregate product data and third-party data associated and perform analysis on it.