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Three questions managers must ask to successfully adopt IIoT

There are three key questions your company needs to ask themselves before implementing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). These questions will drive you to your minimum system requirements. Understanding the problem and defining use cases, such as production efficiency, quality, and uptime, will be critical in identifying a right-sized solution based on your needs.

1. What problem are you solving and what data do you need to solve it?

  • This first question may seem obvious, but many companies don’t figure out what problem they’re trying to solve before they start working on it.
  • Look at what problem you need to solve on your line. Then look at what kind of data you’d need to collect to solve this problem—how could it best be collected? 
  • Data integrity is essential. It is important to understand how you can collect the data in the most consistent process and with the least impact to your line or workflow. Having this kind of view before adopting an IIoT solution can save your company a lot of time during the adoption and implementation process.

2. What technology is required to solve your problem?

  • Technology questions are worth taking the time to answer early in the adoption process.
  • These questions can help organizations figure out what technology they should adopt and what are the system requirements
  • Questions can include: What level of data security do we require? What kind of technology budget do we have? Will all the pieces of the system be able to work together? Will the installation be simple and quick or complex and time-intensive?

3. What employee skills will you need and how will adoption be driven?

  • Employees need to have the skills to adapt to new technologies and training needs to be implemented to ensure the employees are equipped to succeed.
  • IIoT requires cross-functional collaboration from IT and operations to be successful. This can allow insight into domain and application expertise, requirements for data, and line integration.
  • Key stakeholders need to be involved in the decision and implementation process to agree on budget, allocate resources, and most importantly, create buy-in.

Understanding the complexities of IIoT technologies can help take the mystery out of line management and give companies real-time data, allowing managers to be more efficient and profitable. Videojet is making connectivity an integral part of its equipment. With machines designed to be IIoT-ready, companies can easily adopt IIoT technology and have a connected production facility.

See how easy it is to turn data into action with VideojetConnectTM