Manufacturing – Opportunities for Innovation
gases or the risky setting of underground mining. Such fundamental changes in design present opportunities to improve strategic capital expenditure decisions.
Furthermore, innovation in different domains of the IIoT will indirectly benefit manufacturers. The introduction of fitness and healthcare devices on the shop floor could help in monitoring the health of employees. The smart devices( e. g. spray masks or helmets) could enhance the safety of the worker. Energy management, facility monitoring solutions and quality management solutions could further increase efficiency.
IIoT will have an indirect effect on economies. Unlike a conventional product where enhancing the utility requires physical changes, the cyber element of the product can keep the machine upto-date longer. Any device having a cyber element could be updated with the new version of software or firmware. Today, if we roll out a medical device that measures pulse rate, tomorrow the cyber element of the product can be upgraded with new software that complies with new data collection regulation and thus increases the utility of the product. The rate of depreciation will also change. The cyber element will depreciate at a faster rate, driving ongoing investment to continue to advance technologically 2. This will compel companies to keep investing in the IIoT, bringing indirect value to the economy as computerization did in the latter part of last century 21.
3. IIOT IMPACT BASED ON EXPERIENCE
While discussing digital strategy with manufacturing firms, it has been observed that IIoT solutions help manufacturers increase productivity by adopting empowerment, intelligence and automation into their business operations.
Productivity is generally defined as the relation between output and input. As recommended by Stefan Tangen, the exact definition of productivity must be articulated by the industry 22. For this article, with its technology focus, the definition of productivity could be considered as follows 23:
Productivity =
Output Input( Capital + Labor + Energy + Material + Services)
The following paragraphs link productivity input and output factors to empowerment, automation and intelligence.
21
Roger W Ferguson, Technology, Macroeconomics, and Monetary Policy in the United States( December 2000), accessed 28 March 2016, http:// www. bis. org / review / r001212b. pdf
22
Stefan Tangen, Understanding the concept of productivity( 2002), accessed on 6 April 2016, http:// www. aipa. ca / wp-content / uploads / 2013 / 11 / pap _ Tangen2002-UnderstandingTheConceptOfProductivity. pdf
23
OECD, Measuring Productivity OECD Manual,( 2001), accessed 5 April 2016, https:// www. oecd. org / std / productivity-stats / 2352458. pdf
IIC Journal of Innovation- 51-