IIoT is the ecosystem that is created when we digitally transform a manufacturing facility. This is the process an industry 3.0 organization goes though when becoming and industry 4.0 organization. Industry 3.0 organizations do not make decisions with realtime data. Human latency is a key inhibitor to increasing productivity out here. In 3.0 data is shared in the conference room. With 4.0 data is shared though electronic networks. Industry 4.0 is about all areas of an enterprise making decisions with realtime with sharing information across the business stack with digital connections. Another way to look at is as a strategy to change the way organizations operate. Such elements of this is going to paper to digital with the addition of M2M (Machine to Machine) and a central data lake for machine learning. Everything should be connected to a unified namespace which is the structure and events of your business.
In industry 3.0 stakeholders and decision makers know how a plant is running with daily reports. Operations engineers only had basic knowledge of the state of a machine with stack lights. A warehouse manager only knew a machine operator needed more raw material via a phone call. Often the most powerful software was Microsoft Excel. Maybe, must maybe in a technology advanced 3.0 manufacturing center they might have an Andon Board which is a very large display meant to be read by humans, not quick acting automated control systems. Very helpful yes but these are humans reporting to other humans instead of machine intelligence correcting an issue before a human is even aware.
In industry 4.0 stakeholders and decision makers know how a plant is running with HMI's (Human Machine Interfaces). They might have a communication systems based on email, SMS, Slack, Zoom or Flow Software. Realtime reporting - OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)
- Connected
- Integrated
- Informed in Realtime
- Stakeholders Know Current State
- Future State (Machine Learning and AI)
- Predicted Scenarios
- Execute Innovation