Why IOT Matters?

If you think that the internet has changed your life, think again. The Internet of Things is about to change it all over again!
- Brendan O’Brian

IOT & WHY YOU SHOULD GO FOR IT

Internet of Things (IoT) is about creating a robust network of physical objects connected online for real-time monitoring. The sole purpose of online connectivity is to remotely monitor an object’s status, analyze collected data, & take the right decision to boost productivity targets. IoT relies on smart microsensors compatible with any machine that ensure online visibility. Its popularity can be judged from the fact that there are more than 30 billion IoT devices around the world in 2020. Every second 127 IoT devices are getting added online! In 2025, this figure is estimated to be 80 Billion.
The average growth per year for IoT is 33%, that’s a mammoth growth!! Talking about business growth in 2019, the total IoT market was 465 Billion USD, which will grow to 1.5 Trillion USD in 2030.

World markets are raving to adopt IoT due to its ease of use, cost savings, production efficiency, and compatibility with the latest technologies like ML, AI, Blockchain, and Microsoft Azure.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN MANUFACTURING

The state of manufacturing is continuously changing due to the dynamic forces of supply-demand, technological, economic, environmental, and policy changes. The best practices implemented last year might not work this year. This is clearly evident during covid-19. Closed factories, loss of wages, workers migration, absent manpower, and huge business loss were the main reasons that led to the underachievement of production and millions of Dollars of business loss. As you can see, digital transformation in manufacturing is not only about automating the manufacturing shop floor. It’s about changing a business mindset to solve crippling age-old problems transparently and effectively. We bring you ShopWorx, a popular IoT solution that works on solving your manufacturing woes. ShopWorx helps in the smooth conversion of traditional factories into smart factories. You get smart data management & decision making at the palm of your hand.

Our solutions offer in-depth plan to perfect the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) score. This is done through our unique production monitoring and predictive maintenance systems.

 PRODUCTION MONITORING SYSTEM

IoT in industry 4.0 is here to surprise you.

Wait no more for

• Traditional methods of data collection
• Reasons behind production delay
• Puzzled over multiple errors
• Never-ending wait for action Plan

ShopWorx offers real-time production monitoring of machines with their live online status.

The production manager sitting at a remote location checks in-depth machine performances on the manufacturing shop floor starting from

• Working status of machines (Uptime/Downtime)
• Tracking real-time production
• Real time machine usage analysis

All this is done through the seamless connectivity of devices. Sourced data is monitored, analyzed using graphics, pie charts, SMS, and email alert systems.
Sounds exciting for business? Yes, it is!!

IOT PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE

You would be glad to know that IoT can successfully tap over the unwanted noise coming from industrial equipment to understand their health. To avoid unexpected breakdown and outages, IoT predictive maintenance enables real-time health analysis of noisy equipment. One can ask about the business problems that predictive maintenance can solve.
It can be

• Employee dependence for manual inspection of equipment
• Calling the authorized service personnel for equipment maintenance
• Sudden equipment failure, hitting production efficiency
• Absence of visibility on the health of equipment

IoT helps a lot in chalking out a solution like

• Raising automatic tickets for maintenance
• Using a vibration sensor to detect equipment noise
• Feed sensor data to Microsoft Azure (Cloud Computing service)
• Predict possible problems based on sensor data

Benefits of IoT predictive maintenance

• Automated dispatch of service
• High uptime of equipment

You would be excited to know that predictive maintenance has saved 5 – 7 Billion USD for Oil & gas, healthcare & transportation sectors.

Industrial IoT Applications

According to PWC reports, 90% of manufacturers believe that they will get long term benefits from digitizing the production process.

Here are the Industrial IOT applications:

• Increasing utilization rates of industrial machines
• Ensuring real-time production visibility
• Continuous monitoring of variables affecting productivity
• Monitoring environmental conditions in industrial space
• Automated monitoring of inventories
• Optimization of Supply chain
• Plant safety improvement
• Quality control

IOT IN MANUFACTURING

There are number of successful implementations of IoT in manufacturing industry.

• Digital Twins: It represents the digital replica of similar products.
• Smart Pumping: IoT devices turn off pumps according to pre-defined metrics.
• Self dependent systems: Creates self healing automated systems to regain control on downtime.

We at ShopWorx have some of the biggest success stories of implementing IoT in manufacturing.

We are only a call away to boost your business productivity & efficiency Contact us now.

CONCLUSION

IoT technology adoptability and connectivity is expanding at a rapid rate. It has vast potential to boost the availability of information and transform the way manufacturing is done. The world is waking up to the new industrial revolution. We should make sure, that we are not left far behind in the transformation.

by ShopWorx

Plastic component manufacturers deriving benefits from Industry 4.0

Pune, India 20 October 2020

Digital transformations in manufacturing are being witnessed and with the advent of Industry 4.0, plastic component manufacturers may even produce small batch sizes’ economically.

The convergence of Industry 4.0 and the industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) has directed smart factories’ development. Today, the cyber-physical systems leverage IIoT technologies to monitor physical manufacturing processes and build virtual copies of the physical world to perform analyses and automate decision-making. To execute these extensive processes, enormous data gets generated, which has pressed upon the need to move towards cloud management. 

With its sheer effectiveness to improve competitiveness and productivity by leaps and bounds, plastic manufacturers understand the need to embrace Industry 4.0. 

Plastic manufacturing w.r.t Industrial revolution 4.0 signals an era of better visibility and improved performance of a plant. It also assists in the interlinking of internal processes and departments of a plastic component manufacturing unit i.e. overall supply chain management. 

What are the immediate benefits of 4.0 on plastic processing? 

If you’re looking to learn about significant opportunities that Industry 4.0 may bring for the plastic component units is as follows:

• Customized parts
• Quick production of individualized parts
• Shortening of development time
• Reducing setup and startup times

These core capabilities altogether equip the manufacturers with an opportunity to produce batch size 1 at the same cost as mass production. Let’s now learn the in-depth benefits of adopting Industry 4.0.

Benefits that plastic component manufacturers derive

1) Production Monitoring & real-time Insights

Introduction to Industry 4.0 assists manufacturers in creating a cyber-physical environment by converging operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). 

Intuitive cloud-based software replacing manual inventory control effectively assists in automated inventory monitoring, conclusively improving overall plant performance. With the implementation of such modern systems, the plant throughput can also be monitored conveniently. These software and tools are designed to automatically keep track of inventory purchase and optimization of the processes. Also, if any connected tool demands repurchase or repair; the cyber-physical system would send a notification automatically for the same. 

Implementation of such systems not only eliminates repeatability and human errors but also improves production monitoring. With these systems installed at their plant, manufacturers can monitor an extensive range of parameters, including downtime quantities of raw materials, production errors, repair time, and much more remotely!

2) Maximum Productivity 

Embracing Industry 4.0, along with digital manufacturing, comes with a myriad of benefits for plastic manufacturers, including operational performance, agility, and flexibility. 

In any plastic manufacturing unit, machine uptime is crucial to achieving maximum productivity. In case any machine breaks down, the output would slump. The traditional process of maintaining machines includes scheduled maintenance by third-party vendors, but they’re prone to human errors and are NOT effective in predicting production halting issues. 

Industrial IOT applications make condition-based and predictive maintenance possible. Further, IOT predictive maintenance benefits in monitoring machine health in real-time. Multiple sensors installed help in identifying any specific trend or issue alerts before the failure of equipment. This will help in reducing any bottleneck effect during the production process. Thereby increasing plant productivity.

3) Smart IT Integration

Integrating ‘Smartness’ in a plastic component manufacturing unit will make it more connected, agile, transparent, optimized, and proactive. 

Getting a Smart factory lets a manufacturer gain a flexible system that’s capable of self-optimizing performance across the plant. Moreover, it can self adapt to newer conditions in real-time to run the entire production process. 

Not to forget, smart IT integration will help ease the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) reporting by displaying real-time KPIs on the screen to spot any irregularities in the system. 

4) Digital Transformation 

Industry 4.0 serves manufacturers with an opportunity to empower employees, optimize production, transform products, connect consumers, and add customized experiences.

It is not just plastic manufacturing units, but the digital transformation has become critical for the success of any other business in the production field. Predictive maintenance with these cyber-physical systems will ensure manufacturers have a future within the industry. 

Technologies such as IoT, machine learning, advanced analytics, and cloud computing make significant transformations in the manufacturing industry. Moreover, they’re reliable and can be installed at lower costs in companies of all sizes. 

So, is there any reason left not to consider embracing cyber-physical systems as an option for your plastic component manufacturing plant? We don’t think so.

Conclusion 

Leveraging these cyber-physical systems (CPS) and other modern technology-based tools or software to boost any plastic manufacturing plants’ efficiency and productivity is no longer an advantage, but a necessity. 

Without the introduction of Industry 4.0, traditional plastic manufacturing plants may struggle in mitigating their productiveness and monitoring problems. Production monitoring systems and IOT in manufacturing can optimize the plants to develop a responsive framework that can serve in boosting overall profitability and productivity. 

by ShopWorx

The harsh realities of COVID-19 on Manufacturing: Moving to a more digitized India

Pune, India 11 June 2020

Manufacturing in India contributes to nearly 15% of GDP as we are home to some of the largest manufacturers cross-domain. From Cement manufacturing to the likes of Tata Motors, Asian Paints and Amul, spread across the country - we produce everything domestically, from electronics to automobiles, and from pharmaceuticals to durable goods.

We are not just capable of meeting domestic demand, but also international.

India has rightly been coined as a manufacturing powerhouse, resourceful and ready for the ramp-up to Industrialization 4.0.

How will the COVID-19 crisis change the way manufacturing occurs and takes place at scale?

In 2017, India took over France to become the sixth-largest economy in the world. India is predicted to be a $1TR manufacturing economy by 2025 owing to the large domestic markets, significant FDI’s and a large and growing populace of semi-skilled labour. According to IBEF, around 24 per cent of India’s total employed population was working in the industrial sector in 2018. 

Manufacturing in India is an industry that is supported by the Government and public policy. The goal, to enhance output and productivity. From upskilling labour to ‘Make in India’ that was launched in 2014, till ‘Vocal for Local’ that is being campaigned in 2020 - India is a lucrative market for domestic and multinational manufacturers. 

All of the efforts from the Government and its people are working towards stimulating growth and GDP. India as a global manufacturing hub is no longer a dream.

COVID-19: India’s biggest hit in 15 years

As COVID19 ensued, headlines such as “Manufacturing at a halt” and “Manufacturing factories lie empty” were seen plastered on all news channels. It’s true and yet shell shocking that the IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 27.4 in April, from 51.8 in March, which was the steepest decline India has seen since the last 15 years.

While India and the world were undergoing the wrath of this communicable disease, there were some lessons to learn and take away. India was not prepared for this economic downturn caused by a virus.

On the brighter side, India has strength in numbers and capability. We outdid ourselves within the realm of PPE kits. An essential item for everyone on the frontlines, battling COVID-19 and fighting to save lives. 

India went from manufacturing 0 to 4.5L PPE kits in a day, in just 2 months, with Bengaluru coming out as the front runner of production.

The two things that were evident from the global crisis for the manufacturing industry were:

1. The need to diversify manufacturing hubs as the danger of centralizing within China were felt. Some of the contenders are India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Ethiopia.
2. Digitization of processes and workflows could’ve led us to not a complete shutdown, but a slowdown. Had this been in place, a certain level of manufacturing could’ve taken place with minimal human contact
3. As the world trust shifts away from China, the supply chain and manufacturing of essentials might take place/go via other countries

The smart factory with digitization

As the world changes day by day, India must evolve and adapt.

If India is to compete on a global scale, it is imperative we take into account the benefits of digitization as we walk towards Industrialization 4.0. Digitizing brings in not just efficiency but also volume. As markets become more dynamic and competitive, smart factories, IoT and even robotic process management will be the need of the hour.

What is a ‘smart factory’?

Smart factories are paperless factories that have data coming from all sub-systems and integrated into one central system. Smart factories can be built with the help of technologies like ShopWorx who is offering apps for advanced production planning, real-time monitoring and alerts for production / processes failures, preventive & predictive maintenance, advanced traceability and more to ensure good production quality and optimized production efficiency.

From digitizing shop floors with technology, to digitizing distribution channels till digitizing supply and demand - companies must use the technology available if they want to compete. After all, India’s sweet spot lies within the power of digitization combined with the low cost of labour to create a competitive advantage for us. 

The curse to this blessing lies within the lack of data. Currently, which is traditionally stored and used is inaccessible. This data is often not available in real-time. Data has the power to give backing to qualitative and quantitative information which has the potential to bridge the gap between company goals and India’s goals.

In the instance of ShopWorx, enabled real-time data from the factories, accessible remotely even when away from the factory. This has allowed a much more in-depth analysis of the factory floor, ensuring it’s well managed and prepared for run time. With ShopWorx, we’ve seen a 8-10% month on month OEE improvement and a 92% reduction in excess/unplanned downtime in factories we service.

With ShopWorx we enable Indian manufacturing factories to have a heightened awareness of their factory floor, through data and smart algorithms. 

Post-COVID India: Digitized

The Coronavirus has over time highlighted various critical gaps in the manufacturing sector. It has shown us the importance of digitization and the importance of technology as a supplement to success. Therefore, it is fair to state that the COVID-19 crisis has acted as a catalyst to the transition to manufacturing digitization globally. 

Companies have now realised for business continuity to ensue, it is imperative that they take on digitization as an initiative. The size of the manufacturing plant does not matter here. COVID-19 had the power to make everything stop in its tracks.

Some of the reasons why digitization must be of top priority as we recover from the damages: 

1. Data as a business bloodline: In a post-Corona era data its usage was taken with a pinch of salt. Now, data is going to be a key factor in decision making for manufacturing. It can be large scale data of global manufacturing trends, or macro level at the factory in terms of efficiency. How we collect, store, analyze and data will change manufacturing as an industry, for the greater good.
2. A remote/decentralized workforce: The COVID crisis has forced everyone to embrace ‘work from home’ as a part of their jobs. For manufacturing, unfortunately, that meant a complete shutdown; now, business people are going to focus on the safety element as an answer to ‘why digitization’. If a process can be done with lesser human interaction, it should.
3. A shift to online first: In an online first set up, it is extremely tedious to have physical records and business workings. It is almost essential that digitization takes place so that records are accessible when offsite, and online behaviours and activities are tracked

As India prepares for recovery, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged total spending of Rs 20 lakh crore as a stimulus to the economy, especially for industries and MSME’s along with working-class and middle-class citizens. The package is aimed at helping MSME’s fight the liquidity crunch and has available emergency credit and accessible loans.

According to an Economic Times report, in the beginning of June, Public Sector Banks sanctioned loans worth Rs 17,705.64 crore under the 100% Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme starting June 1. This is targeted towards MSME’s who were hit hard due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

The overarching goal of this 20L CR package would be to help Indian manufacturers resume business, reignite supply chains and be able to substitute imported items with local ones.

Challenges of a digitized India post-COVID 19

India is indeed on the path of digitization, and COVID-19 provided a unique opportunity for us to accelerate acceptance and penetration of digital interfaces.

However, India faces two challenges to become ‘truly digitized’

1. The rural-urban digital divide
2. Dearth of cost-effective and reliable internet (data/broadband)

India is a country of 1.3B people in total, out of which a mere 504 million were recorded as active internet users according to the Hindustan Times. Moreover, India faces a rural-urban split in mobile users. Data suggests that for the first time, in 2019, rural mobile users outnumbered urban, with a 10% margin, according to a study by YourStory.

With the cost of 4G data in India being the cheapest worldwide, at just $0.26 per 1GB according to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report, we should’ve seen a higher 4G penetration, but that number stands at 88%. 

When the data was further dug into, ⅔ of India’s Internet users were between 12-29 according to IAMAI. By just looking at the numbers, you can see that the working population amongst this is around the age bracket of 23-29, which further pulls down the number.

Rural India faces a multi-dimensional challenge with data - their main issues lie within connectivity, quality of service and affordability. 

With the COVID-19 situation, reports by Ericsson ConsumerLab showed that the average time spent on 4G went up by 2.2 hours per day during COVID-19. This resulted in a 20-50% increase in mobile usage for a quarter of Indian consumers during the period.

Adjusting to change in a post-COVID world:

Manufacturing has taken a deep and hard hit due to the COVID crisis, as we have seen. Everything was at standstill for 2-3 weeks, only essentials were in service. India battled with the COVID situation bravely, and is slowly coming out of the dark side.

Companies like ShopWorx, amongst others have now started using the ‘Netflix Subscription’ model for their businesses. This is a win-win for both the company and the end user. 

Pay as you go, is a simple concept to lower upfront costs, and gather revenue over a larger time span.

This was also done to aid manufacturing to get back on their feet, steadily and without too much debt/struggle.

India is fighting the Corona epidemic, together, as one.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I leave you with this quote from mark Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners and the father of emerging markets, “The sectors in India that have already moved into digital transformation of their business models will do better in recovery,” he said.

The Government reforms are working in the right direction for its citizens. Opening new avenues of growth, enabling investment opportunities and in turn bumping up production, all to reach the end goal of ensuring labour is occupied meaningfully.

Lastly, and on a positive note Deepak Sood, ASSOCHAM secretary said , “India stands a very good chance to emerge as an alternative to the global manufacturing hubs. The nation has the advantage of a vast pool of highly skilled, skilled and semi-skilled manpower. 

A note from the CEO of ShopWorx

I see India as a land of opportunity and potential. I see Indians as a resilient force - we aren’t giving up, and we are fighting this battle, step at a time. We will surely defeat this epidemic, when we all join hands - the Government, policy makers, providers, suppliers and users. It’s highly likely we will come back stronger, more self sufficient and much more digital-first.

More power to India.

by ShopWorx

Five Use Cases to Take Advantage of IoT in Manufacturing

Pune, India 03 January 2020

The manufacturing industry is getting competitive with each day. Consequently, adopting modern technology is one of the sure-shot ways to achieve unprecedented success. IoT has already created a buzz in the technological space, and with the count of connected devices reaching 200 billion, it's natural for manufacturers to reap its numerous benefits. Connecting several hundred smart devices in an intelligent network might help the manufacturers modify their operations and build enterprise value in the process.

Here are five tips on how you can leverage IoT in manufacturing to benefit your business, starting from customer services and experiences:

1. Advancing Customer Experience and Service

In order to make your business profitable, 'customer service' is undoubtedly a critical factor. Modern IoT based technologies such as smart trackers and mobile card readers are used to enhance customer experiences. The latter can be connected to smartphones to handle transactions smoothly, whereas the former can assist the consumer in monitoring their products. Conclusively, technology such as IoT can do wonders in improving customer satisfaction levels.

2. Boost Productivity Levels and Improve Proficiency

IoT is a double-edged sword for manufacturers, as it can help them in boosting productivity and competence to assure profitability in business. IoT devices are a perfect medium to assist manufacturing business sectors in accurately evaluating the demands.  As a result, they can resourcefully maintain a diversity of production stages by enabling real-time tracking of machinery parts and in-hand raw materials.

3. Empowering Device Software Applications

Across all the businesses and industries, smart devices have become firmly more accepted. There will be further growth in device applications in a wide range of business areas supported by IoT, including sectors such as entertainment, education, hospitality, and healthcare.

4. Supporting the Business with Data

Data is unquestionably becoming the most effective weapon for every other industry. The automobile industry, for instance, is prolonging more and more towards IoT technologies for enabling vehicles to flawlessly collect and track data to interact with smart city solutions. Such efforts in the automobile industry are possible with IoT and taking the industry in the direction of data-driven business models.

5. Analyzing Consumer Behavior

Analyzing the behavior and preferences of customer are essential for achieving success in any business. Leveraging IoT predictive maintenance and other advantages in companies will enable them to track, retrieve, monitor, and analyze data gathered from social networking, video surveillance, the web, and cellular usage. The scenario, as mentioned above, provides essential insights to forecast business trends and consumer preferences. The data collected can be further utilized for accomplishing more healthy engagement levels and offer personalized services or products.

The Future with IoT

IoT solutions are outfitted to create consistent impacts in the domain of each business or its niche. The adoption of IoT solutions may bring about huge benefits and profitability for companies.

Compared to other emerging technologies, IoT has reached the top of demanded expectations. Though IoT can provide great value, companies are needed to prevail over some notable challenges such as data and data management issues, lack of interlinked technologies, and privacy issues.

by ShopWorx