Many manufacturers are aggressively incorporating intelligence into their production assets. Our recent MPI Manufacturing Study found that 10% of plant equipment (median) now has technologies embedded that enable machine-to-machine or machine-to-IT system communications (a much higher average figure of 23.7% highlights how extensively a few manufacturers are investing in Internet of Things capabilities).
So, is the Internet of Things (IoT) really taking off? Not hardly and not yet, for a couple of reasons.
First, digitally lacing together machines is a prerequisite for the IoT. But it’s not as if equipment is suddenly going to become self-aware and start producing goods and satisfying customers on its own, à la Skynet in Terminator 3. There has to be a plan — a strategy for leveraging all those smart devices — and that’s where most manufacturers are just getting started. Only 5% of plants have an IoT strategy, and another 6% are planning an IoT strategy. Some 46% of plant executives say they’ve not heard of the IoT.
Second, even where there is an IoT strategy, that’s only the start of optimizing IoT capabilities. How companies secure these operations networks, wade through the rivers of data, and ultimately use that information to boost the bottom line — improving quality, reducing energy consumption, lowering cost of goods — will require new manufacturing talent. That’s right: a smart IoT needs smart people, with skillsets that are only now being defined, to leverage smart equipment. John Connor would agree.
— George Taninecz, VP Research, The MPI Group
