Do more with less. That’s the eternal process industry directive, and the goal of many industries, businesses and other human endeavors. However, these gains are often hard to achieve, and in process applications at least, improvements of just a few percent or even fractions of a percent are traditionally viewed as wildly successful.
Because incremental gains are the longstanding norm and double-digit improvements are rare, promises of multi-fold or orders or magnitude (usually 10 times) gains are seen as impossible illusions. Nonetheless, implementing today’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) software, networking, cloud-computing, models and digital twins, and data analytics can deliver these big benefits if users define and prioritize specific problems they want to solve, and use that knowledge to zero in on which IIoT tools will serve them best from among the multitude of choices available.
It’s also crucial to understand that today’s IIoT technologies aren’t the same as just two or three years ago. Many are easier to apply, and can gather data from wider and deeper sources, too.
The articles that follow provide the latest update on how to successfully solve problems with the IIoT.
Begin with the basics
Pine Brook Water District in rural Boulder, Colo., traditionally managed its natural water supply with manual rounds. After a couple of water tank overflows, it recently decided to migrate to an automated system to track where its water was going, detect leaks and create a high-level alert system to protect residents. Read more.
Down in the Internet details
Here's how CSIA-member Arthur G. Russell implemented and now uses the IIoT to integrate micro-processes inside machines for pharma and medical device clients. Read more.
Fleets of facilities
Energy Systems Network recently formed a partnership with Indiana, Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) IIoT group and the Emerging Manufacturing Collaboration Center to build a statewide, IIoT-based, energy-monitoring program, which can reportedly reduce power consumption by 8-15%. Read more.
IIoT grows up, users ramp up
Industrial Internet of Things tasks are getting easier as users get more familiar with implementing IIoT in their processes and plants. System integrator E Tech shows how it implemented IIoT to accelerate and expand applications Lake Cable. Read more.
Growing toward the data
Oil and gas midstream marketing and logistics provider ARB Midstream in Denver recently worked with system integrator INS Services in Richardson, Texas, to develop a SCADA system in just six months for a newly acquired, 900-mile, crude oil pipeline with 37 sites and 950,000 barrels of storage in Oklahoma and Texas. Read more.
IIoT: The gift that keeps on giving
Beyond its accelerating talent for getting data where it needs to go, IIoT can provide similar benefits in several other areas. Maverick Technologies shows how IIoT’s circle of advantages can widen. Read more.
Putting all the things together
There are many basic components in the IIoT, while others are less obvious. Here’s a partial list that’s likely to grow. Read more.
Focus on data tasks to define IIoT
Experts from AspenTech, Emerson, Honeywell, Novum Automation, Phoenix Contact and Rockwell Automation weigh in on IIoT essentials. Read more.
