Three Main Themes in the Industrial Internet of Things
1.
INTRODUCTION
The Industrial Internet is the application of the Internet of Things in industrial spaces, often
referred to as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). As IIoT develops, it is expected to
fundamentally change the business landscape across the industrial sectors. The ability to create
and execute an IIoT strategy becomes crucial to the continuing success of a business - increasing
its value to customers, improving occupational condition, work safety and worker productivity,
and enhancing its competitiveness in this shifting landscape.
Because the industrial sectors are broad and their operations diverse, the application of the
Industrial Internet is consequently diverse and complex. Great variations exist in operational and
regulatory requirements and in the maturity levels of various aspects (e.g. remote accessibility
and the level of automation) of industrial systems. These variations give rise to many possibilities
and options to apply the Industrial Internet concepts, practices and extensive capabilities to
these systems to fulfill their promised values. When a business starts to formulate their strategy,
devise its plan and chart its course to achieve the benefits that the Industrial Internet has to offer,
the stakeholders must consider a myriad of factors and options to quantify the value of their IIoT
investments and evaluate the best approaches to realize a return on their investment. Because
the Industrial Internet is at a very early stage of development, many of these factors and options
are yet to be well defined and present a high level of uncertainty. Moreover, we have few success
stories to turn to as guide to assess if the investment will result in transformational outcomes.
Therefore, it would be helpful to ease these challenges by recognizing some common patterns in
the application of the Industrial Internet across the industrial sectors. Despite diverse operations
and applications across sectors, we do see emerging common patterns for Industrial Internet
applications. In this article, we frame these patterns in three main themes to capture the essence
of Industrial Internet applications: Smart Maintenance and Operations, Global Optimization and
Local Autonomy.
IIC Journal of Innovation
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