A growing number of businesses across all sectors are pushing past proof of concept (PoC) IoT projects and platforms to real world business applications. The proof of that lies in the fact that IoT funding has increased by 44 percent across organizations, according to the Microsoft 2021 IoT Signals report. But just like any set of technologies, IoT, AI, cloud, and edge computing are only as useful as their ability to increase business asset visibility, innovation, scalability, automation, operational efficiency, and customer experience.

IoT breaks down to a series of integrated hardware and software connected to the cloud and the edge. But as we’ve established, that means little in the real world without applying to specific business needs and outcomes. As a CTO or business stakeholder, you need to know what IoT can do for your business in terms of outcomes as much or more than how it does it. This top ten list of most adopted IoT use cases is a start that shows the major ways in which businesses are using IoT for specific business outcomes.

#1. Read-only Remote Asset Monitoring:

This refers to any IoT connected remote asset where it can only read the data it produces, but it’s not possible to send commands back to that asset. Despite that limitation, this is one of the fastest growing aspects of IoT use. It grew rapidly during the pandemic across industries like manufacturing, telecom, energy, and supply chain, among others.

This is mostly because of its ability to provide real-time data of remote IoT assets that bypasses the need for personnel in the field to gather that data. It’s also one of the cheapest and easiest forms of asset monitoring to set up, which has also led to its high adoption rate among organizations. It’s become one of the highest growth IoT application segments with a year-on-year device shipment growth rate of 51 percent through 2024, according to a recent ABI Research report.

From fleet asset monitoring in transit to predictive maintenance and machine as a service (XaaS), countless organizations across sectors are seeing the benefits of read-only asset monitoring. This ability to remotely monitor assets provides more than just increased machine visibility beyond the manufacturing environment and far-flung telecom and energy assets. Its ability to reduce downtime through predictive maintenance and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) based on that data is only a start.

This is a major shift for service suppliers with remote assets where their B2B and B2C customers count on reliability, cost efficiency, and innovative service needs. The bigger picture is about changing these assets from a cost center to a profit center via the data remote asset monitoring provides. The ability to bundle additional services as part of an outcome-based solution can deliver recurring revenue streams. Just some options across varied industries include:

• Machine as a Service: The ability to monitor OEM systems and machines in purchaser/client operation or production environments
• Virtual Technician as a Service: the ability for highly skilled field and facilities management technicians to remotely assess, diagnose equipment problems across a wider geographic region and make appropriate plans for system correction, improvement and regulatory audits.
• Reliability as a Service: Like machine as a service, reliability as a service is most effective in the industrial internet of things (IIoT) sector where industrial analytics is used to assess remote assets from bearings to more complex industrial systems for proactive assessment and predictive maintenance. This service can be provided by the OEM or retrofitted to any asset within an industrial environment as a packaged service. 

#2. IoT-based Process Automation:

This takes formerly manual processes to automated process via IoT-based process automation everything from agricultural drone operation to assess crops and environmental conditions to remote well process adjustments, monitoring and control to risk management and service need assessments via smart cash points (e.g. ATMs) to real-time location of assets in healthcare are just a few of the ways that IoT-based process automation can affect efficiency, security and scalability among other attributes.

The industrial and manufacturing environment uses of this are clear with more advanced aspects of remote robotic control, repair and predictive maintenance and many of the possibilities already covered with earlier IoT use cases. Sensor data can predict manufacturing environment equipment failure to reduce maintenance costs by as much as 4o percent and cut unplanned downtime in half, according to a McKinsey report.

#3. Remote Asset Monitoring and Control (read/write):

The ability to send data to the asset as well as receive it is what “Read/Write remote asset monitoring and control” is all about. This asset management and monitoring is what most businesses envision when they think about the broadest use spectrum of IoT.

Many organizations need the ability to get real-time data from sensors connected to different parts of a remote asset or system and then send corrective or improvement updates to those assets directed at software and system hardware components. This is invaluable across any sector where assets are scattered across the globe or in remote locations.

Just some sectors and examples of many where this brings lower Opex, increased operational efficiency, lower maintenance and replacement costs, and improved uptime and customer experiences include:

• Energy, where remote grids and systems can take advantage of:

1. Remote assets monitoring and management
2. Process optimization
3. Grid balancing
4. Load forecasting
5. Smart decision making
6. Innovative power solutions

• Telecommunications for cell tower monitoring to enhance security, uptime, and operational efficiency that reduces Opex, and maintenance costs while improving customer experience and services.
• Using digital twins across countless industries (a twin of any type of system that mirrors its real-world system counterpart) for device/system management testing and system improvements without taking a device offline.

Remote site oil and gas production, manufacturing, and telecom among others use it to enhance uptime and control. This can happen via fine remote adjustments of diesel generators, rectifiers, inverters and battery/ backup transformer systems.

#4. Vehicle Fleet Management (track/trace):

We can vastly improve large and complex fleet management through remote geolocation of assets and every component from fuel consumption, engine and component wear, and road safety compliance to predictive maintenance.

#5. Location Tracking (e.g., GPS):

Location tracking is often part of fleet management and enables everything from real-time geolocation asset tracking to real-time route improvements that improve fuel consumption and delivery times.

#6. IoT for Asset/Plant Performance Optimization:

IoT for asset/plant performance optimization enables plants, buildings, and even smart cities to monitor and improve asset utilization and efficiency in real time using IoT gateways that transmit data to the cloud from the edge. software and AI tools can analyze that data to optimize and troubleshoot machines and systems across manufacturing and production environments processes, such as optimizing:

• Asset speed settings
• Material input settings
• Maintenance intervals
• Complex mixture settings
• City and municipal water system monitoring and billing

This has broad use applications across countless industries and sectors. 

#7. IoT-based Quality Control & Management:

IoT-based quality control and management also have extremely broad uses across almost every sector where manual visual or physical process detection, QA, QC, and uninterrupted process flow and security are nearly impossible. This is where IoT and AI platforms like Computer Vision come into play for everything from retail, quick service restaurants (QSR) and convenience stores.

Techolution has developed computer vision platforms for the latter to counteract minimal shelf life/ high turnover inventory replacement for increased sales and a 41 percent lower spoilage rate. But organizations have also applied computer vision solutions to building, campus, and facility security and process monitoring, along with many other scenarios. This all boils down to an ability to detect quality issues in real time during operations.

#8. IoT-based Goods Condition Monitoring in Transit:

End-to-end visibility of the supply chain across all sectors has become crucial to on-time fulfillment, optimal product quality, and unwavering product delivery. This all must take place in a supply chain where monitoring and management of assets must happen in real time, such as:

• Intermodal transportation
• Warehousing, storage, and throughput
• Cooling systems
• Batch, and individual product monitoring
• Unpredictable supply chain slowdowns

IoT-based goods monitoring in transit enables knowing the condition of products in transit from end-to-end of the supply chain. When paired with supply chain asset management and location tracking, it becomes a vital way to improve quality, delivery, warehousing theft, damage and loss that impacts the bottom line and on-time delivery.

#9. Predictive Maintenance:

We have referred to predictive maintenance throughout this top ten list of most adopted IoT uses because the ability to predict component and system failure or maintenance needs is crucial to manufacturing, production, fleet maintenance, and supply chain optimization among many others.

IoT, AI, AppDev, the cloud and the edge all converge to make downtime and maximized machine/system/asset life a means of lowering costs and downtime. At the same time, it serves to increase production, quality, and operational efficiency across sectors.

#10. On-Site Track and Trace:

Low-cost sensors and trackers have become crucial to the ability to track goods and tools at construction sites, ports, and even inside buildings. This is the building block that enables IoT combined with AI, gateways, edge, and the cloud to:

• Reduce operational costs
• Enhance warranty costs and services
• Shorten the time to market for new products
• Enable predictive maintenance
• Optimize system performance
• Improved user experiences
• Expand and enhance service offerings

When your organization plans for future expansion, it’s possible to start small ande scale up your IoT platform in ways that help you adapt to changing business, sector and market needs to stay competitive and profitable.

Conclusion

The key to these and many other business benefits of IoT depend on your organization and IT leadership to define the need and the desired business outcome. While this becomes the basis for an IoT platform and implementation plan, it often takes a partner that’s done a wide variety of IoT, AI and cloud projects across different industries.

Techolution has been a partner to countless businesses, industries, organizations across the public and private sector. It is here that innovation, customization, and standardization must all work together to move beyond the PoC stage to full IoT platform production. To learn more about how the Techolution team can help you reach your IoT goals, visit our IoT Solutions page.