By Michael Rivera, PhD
If you’re in the manufacturing sector, then you know tons of data are generated in different stages of the supply chain. This data holds the answers to many of the challenges you face as a manufacturer. But unless you make meaning out of it, you’ll struggle to generate value at scale. For manufacturers, Thinaer enables the bridge between IoT big data and actionable insights, and Thinaer is a powerful enabler.
Thinaer’s IoT solutions are crucial to overcoming manufacturing challenges and helping businesses improve processes and results. Here’s how it works: IoT sensors on the factory floor collect raw data in real-time. Then, this data is transformed into impactful and value-adding solutions.
But collecting and analyzing physical and digital data can be tricky. The ability to collect lots of data is enticing, but the data becomes less valuable without the right strategy and platform.
Thinaer helps manufacturers take a data-centric approach to solving common industrial challenges. By leveraging Thinaer’s scalable cloud-based technology, powered by Microsoft’s Azure platform, production teams can monitor the supply chain, provide personalized experiences to customers, and build innovative business models.
Companies are adopting these sensors to collect data and communicate with devices to reduce unplanned disruptions, improve product quality, and transform the supply chain. With IoT devices, businesses can monitor energy consumption, products in transit, inventory in the factory, employee health, heat levels, and many more.
Here are three challenges the manufacturing industry faces and how IoT solves the problem:
Downtime
Unplanned downtime can lead to a loss of revenue, the need for expensive maintenance, and an increased risk of workplace accidents by 40%. Through advanced analytics, IoT solutions predict imminent equipment breakdown using heat sensors.
Thinaer’s sensors on manufacturing devices send maintenance alerts when machines begin to overheat or vibrate. They can also provide production teams with past data to help them predict when machine parts need to be replaced or repaired.
This can reduce overall manufacturing downtime by 30 to 50%.
Inventory and Supply Chain Management
Inventory distortion causes an estimated $1.1 trillion in losses worldwide. In addition, supply chain visibility is one of the foremost strategic priorities for companies worldwide.
Thinaer’s Sonar platform captures data from sensors placed on inventory items and factory floors. These sensors have unique identification numbers (UID) that have encoded digital data about the specific inventory item, such as batch number and model.
IoT-based inventory management solutions give manufacturers clear visibility into raw materials and components, production processes, and finished goods. This is achieved through real-time updates on the items’ location, status, and movement.
Efficiency in Manufacturing Operations
By using programmable logic controllers, manufacturers can capture data from equipment and processes to find the best way to be efficient. Instead of improving efficiency only when there is an issue, manufacturers can use real-time analytics from interconnected IoT devices to identify the root cause of a potential problem and solve it quickly.
By extension, this can also guarantee product quality control. Since Thinaer’s IoT solutions monitor equipment calibration and machine conditions, they can detect when sensor readings are at abnormal levels and will cause product defects. Hence, this monitoring system will alert management and suggest a mitigation action to curb the manufacture of substandard products.
Conclusion
IoT devices solve other manufacturing problems. For example, many countries are encouraging smart waste management and eco-friendly production. Smart sensors can use ultrasound technology to detect the fill levels in bins and containers. Then, they send the data to the Smart Waste Management System or the powerful cloud-based platform in use, such as Thinaer, to optimize waste operations. Thinaer’s team of business analysts, PhDs, and data scientists and engineers, in partnership with Microsoft, helps production teams leverage IoT technologies and data analytics to overcome day-to-day manufacturing challenges. Contact us today.