IoT in action: Technology-driven change that is driving new business value
One of the favorite aspects of my job is when I have the opportunity to sit down with our community to talk about the innovation they are driving within manufacturing. It’s an opportunity to understand the impact that technology continues to have on our industry and how we at Microsoft can continue to innovate alongside our customers and partners.
As part of a recent webinar hosted by Abbey Dean, editor for Manufacturing.net., Rahul Garg, Microsoft IoT Platform business lead, and I had the opportunity to hear from one of our customers and one of our partners, who shared not only how they are creating business value by using the power of the Internet of Things (IoT), but the excitement these advancements are driving with their customers.
And we don’t just discuss theories and models, we dig in deep to share specifics on real-life, cloud-based systems that are transforming data from smart devices into actionable business insights that truly impact the bottom line.
First, Greg Knowd, Solutions Architect at Cummins, shared how his company is using Azure IoT services for its Power Command Cloud solution to remotely monitor the company’s power generator systems. Looking to ensure continued customer satisfaction and stay ahead of the competition, Cummins wanted to drive new business opportunities, mainly around reducing solution cost, gaining greater visibility into how the products are performing, and having the ability to integrate legacy and new products. They saw IoT as the accelerant to enable these scenarios.
Azure IoT not only provided Cummins the integrated, secure platform they were looking for, but it also provides scalability to grow over time. The company can now connect all of its new and old equipment—some systems that are even 30 years old—and bring that connectivity together across its customers, dealers, and distributors in order to have real-time insight into system performance and faster problem resolution. Cummins customized their Azure solution by choosing only the functionality they needed. So they could keep costs low while building a highly capable system.
Greg says customers are thrilled to have in-depth data about their systems, as well as the ability to interact with their equipment from anywhere in the world. And Cummins dealers can now manage the systems in a way they never could before in terms of proactively anticipating issues and servicing equipment much more quickly and efficiently. Cummins is able to provide a hugely customizable customer experience and has valuable new insights to create and deliver more innovative products, services and new revenue streams.
We also heard from Peter Darragh, VP of Delivery from our partner Mariner, who discussed the solutions his firm deploys with manufacturers to monitor assets, conduct predictive maintenance, and optimize manufacturing processes.
Peter’s perspective was quite interesting. He dispelled any myth that IoT is only for big companies who need to support high value, global products. IoT is for all companies who have a business need to solve, regardless of assets or activity.
Peter shared four very diverse examples of manufacturers of different sizes who each had specific problems to solve: from reducing defects, to optimizing line speed, to maximizing efficiencies. No matter what the business need, Peter’s advice to manufacturers regarding their IoT implementation is the same: you must analyze and act on data. Using data to act differently every single day is what transformation is all about. And this is what the Azure IoT Suite helps you to do. Peter said with Azure IoT’s low up-front cost, Mariner is helping companies get proof-of-concepts up and running in around a week, with minimal investment.
IoT is a quantum leap for the manufacturing industry—the market potential by 2018 is projected to be $913B, according to IDC. It’s an exciting time as we see the powerful possibilities for manufacturers to use this technology to work smarter, generate new revenue models, transform traditional business models—and even disrupt entire industries.
If you missed the discussion, I encourage you to watch it on-demand here. Greg and Peter shared some really compelling best practices, insights, and advice that we all can learn from. Rahul and I would like to thank them again for a great discussion.
Go here to learn more: www.Internetofyourthings.com
Twitter: @sanrav
