Why Internet of Things (IoT) is Important for Remote Monitoring?
In the industry, maintenance is a very important topic. Just like the motorist, companies fear the fatal breakdown, the one that immobilizes their equipment. The technicians must then find the fault, order the corresponding parts and repair as soon as possible. It is as much a source of stress for the company that operates the machines as the one that repairs them.
IoT and Big Data: tele-monitoring in full transformation
With its many advantages, tele-monitoring has gained popularity in the industry as much among plant managers as service companies. With the advent of the Internet of Things, this technology is entering the era of remote control. Connected services not only allow you to view equipment status in real time, but also reduce downtime, repair time, reduce costs and the risks of a malfunction.
What is remote monitoring in the connected industry?
Remote monitoring is born with increasingly intelligent and communicating equipment. In concrete terms, this allows them to be monitored remotely. Thus, one gets to know their operation, one receives reports of diagnoses, notifications during problems. These features are particularly interesting in the field of IoT and service. Remote monitoring can notify a failure in real time. The company in charge of the repairs is even able to react before the users are aware of the problem.
Moreover, one can predict, or even predict future failures through information reported by different types of sensors. We then have a continuous vision on a set of assets that can be spread over a given geographic region. Finally, it facilitates the comparison of a group of assets to other groups and thus knows which are the most efficient machines and optimize, improve those who are lagging behind.
How important is the relationship between IoT and remote monitoring?
Remote monitoring is not a recent technology. Historically it was used on equipment of large sizes, very complex and very expensive. For a long time there have been problems of maintenance and logistics costs. Spare parts did not arrive until several months after the breakdown and expert repairers had to systematically take international flights to repair these machines on the other side of the world.
With IoT we use the same type of technology at much lower costs. The reduction of sensor costs, communication with Sigfox or LoRa, embedded computers and infrastructures facilitates the emergence of this type of solution. Let’s add that the Internet of Things is a technological whole that favors convergences. As such, an IoT monitoring solution can be directly interfaced with other systems. This is extremely important in order to make the link between the availability of assets and the order book.
Who do you think needs remote monitoring services?
Previously, remote control involved companies that deployed high-cost assets. Today, there is more talk of reducing the downtime of machinery and equipment. Thus any company that encounters problems of unavailability of equipment due to a breakdown or other phenomena has an interest in installing an IoT tele-monitoring solution. Companies that are not in this case also have this type of solution. Through the data records, they better understand the operation of the machines, which optimizes the production phases.
For their part, service companies that offer a remote control solution can improve customer service, better understand these needs and offer additional services with high added value while changing their business model.
Finally, service companies that have to respect maintenance contracts have every interest in setting up a solution of this type. Remote monitoring makes it possible, in particular, to respect the instructions given by their customers and thus not to pay high penalties. Risk management is thus refined.
