By Michael Rivera, PhD
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has several uses in the manufacturing industry. But asset management is one of the most important. This is because asset theft is a big problem for manufacturers.
More than 30% of businesses eventually go bankrupt due to asset theft. So, manufacturers face a huge challenge that threatens business operations and continuity.
Fortunately, IoT solutions can help track and manage assets.
What Is Asset Management?
Asset management involves monitoring the information and physical assets of your company. Physical assets can refer to machinery, IT equipment, tools, or vehicles, depending on your business.
Before the advent of industrial IoT for asset tracking, manufacturers used legacy systems, such as handwritten lists and Excel sheets, to track asset information.
These systems are inefficient and highly prone to errors. Since they’re largely dependent on employees, information can be easily altered.
Asset theft can lead to many problems for manufacturers. This includes personal information leakage, account hacking, daily operation hindrance, and inability to afford asset replacement.
To combat this problem, manufacturers have begun harnessing the benefits of the industrial internet of things.
How IoT-Enabled Asset Tracking and Management Helps Manufacturers
Asset management software is an excellent improvement on legacy systems. However, IoT-enabled asset tracking adds automation and intelligence to the mix.
Many types of sensors can be used on the factory floor for different purposes. This includes temperature, pressure, humidity, acceleration, and proximity sensors. Ultimately, it’ll depend on the specific use cases the manufacturer needs.
These sensors are attached or embedded in assets to gather data, which is then sent to a cloud platform. Next, the data is analyzed and transformed into valuable insights.
Use Cases for IoT-Enabled Asset Management
With the gathered and analyzed data, IoT-enabled asset management solutions can offer manufacturers real-time alerts on machines and equipment, predictive analytics for early maintenance, automatic reporting, data insights, and more.
As a manufacturer, here are some use cases for IoT-enabled asset management sensors:
- Locations: IoT solutions can provide automatic location data and geofencing solutions.
- Usage Tracking: With IoT sensors, asset managers can track usage hours for machines and know when they’ve reached threshold values.
- Warehouse Inventory: To combat asset theft, IoT-enabled devices track warehouse inventory in real time. This helps asset managers know the number of assets currently in the warehouse.
- Machine Condition: IoT-enabled devices can help manufacturers monitor machine conditions, offering real-time alerts before issues occur.
- Material Flows: Besides tracking warehouse inventory, IoT solutions can also help manufacturers monitor and report asset movements in and out of the factory.
Conclusion
Using IoT-enabled sensors to track and manage assets can save manufacturers money lost to asset thefts. Adoption is limited to heavy-duty appliances due to high costs. However, IoT-enabled asset management saves money in the long run. Thinaer can smoothen IoT-focused digital transformation for your enterprise. Do you want to learn more? Contact us today.