As themes of digital transformation continue to top boardroom agendas as we come out of the pandemic, manufacturing enterprises have been looking to IoT technology to pave the path toward Industry 4.0. The fourth industrial revolution driven by IoT technology has illustrated the initial ability to improve the productivity and reliability of physical assets. Furthermore, IoT ROI in the manufacturing industry as part of Industry 4.0 can be reasonably straightforward, as the value of product or manufacturing downtime easily justifies IoT investments.
However, despite IoT being broadly labeled as the door opener to Industry 4.0, the reality is that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach for Industrial IoT (IIoT) that works. While the growing demand for more on-demand insights into manufacturing operations is undoubtedly a testament to IoT’s various capabilities, manufacturers need to have a clear understanding of what they hope to accomplish with transitioning into an Industry 4.0 environment. This means an application-specific mindset towards IoT is required to make Industry 4.0 a reality.
