IoT is generally an interesting take when businesses pitch its implementation and benefits to their customers. Most companies lack the in-depth knowledge and skillset to leverage IoT in order to drive improvement in terms of productivity. IoT strategy for businesses is considered to be the capital intensive. The strategy must comprise of both short and long-term approaches to unleash the full capability of IoT. The long-term approach for an effective IoT strategy includes the attainment of detailed historical data along with the vision to plan the roadmap for the company, product line development as well as the service offerings. It is imperative that IoT enables the organizations to achieve their goals and follow their roadmap discreetly.
However, it is equally important to create a parallel strategy on account of the dynamic nature of the business as well as the technology landscape. The major objective behind this is to inculcate the capability within the organizations to adopt technical trends as and when they mature. For instance, in case of industrial IoT (IIoT) systems, the current processes do not follow a benchmark for performance. The manufacturing process of mechanical parts is likely to involve cold press systems, chemical composition of metals, dye casting, along with heating of the metals, furnace activities, and machining. Added to that, a certain company can manufacture more than a single part—the methodology may remain similar while the metrics change significantly in terms of engineering.
In the initial stage of the strategy, it would be wiser for companies to enhance the operational efficiency in order to achieve a higher ROI as compared to probing other areas without much research or information. The objective of the action must be agreed upon by all stakeholders.
Order management is required to be channelized adequately, because that would consequently streamline the demand generation and historical trend analysis. This further improves the demand-supply forecasting and the overall production planning process. Nevertheless, sudden machine breakdown can bring down production time. With IoT, machines stay connected and therefore, work in schedules, reducing the risk of collapse. Additionally, the system also assists service engineers with automation of calls while simultaneously monitoring the operations. The data gleaned in the process assists businesses in strategizing stronger production planning methods in addition to the better flow of raw materials to warehouses or end-consumers. Organizations should make use of the additional scopes such as research and development; offerings related to products or services and enhance profitability.
