08 April 2022

By Sandeep Raithatha, head of strategy & 5G IoT at Virgin Media O2 Business

When we look at IoT use cases for UK enterprises in 2022 and beyond, the manufacturing sector has emerged as one of the clear front runners

When it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT), ‘smart cities’ and ‘smart homes’ tend to dominate much of the discussion. But it’s in industry – particularly manufacturing – where we’re seeing some of the biggest on-the-ground benefits.

Research estimates that the productivity gains of 5G-enabled manufacturing could equal £2.6 billion – with faster, low-latency networks to connect up multiple IoT devices that can help make production more efficient, more accurate, safer and more secure. In short, connected factories are set to become the UK’s IoT trail blazers. But how?

Understanding productivity in a complex environment
Ultimately, introducing IoT (backed by the right level of connectivity) can unlock the potential for even more innovation in industry. Using connected, smart sensors and cameras, manufacturers can gather large amounts of data from their existing machinery – and then apply AI (artificial intelligence) technology and algorithms to monitor the production process and ‘learn’ how it works.

In this sense, in a factory setting – where equipment is expensive, downtime is costly and production is high-value – IoT offers the chance to be more precise: to understand exactly how machinery is running, and to make improvements where necessary. It can also allow manufacturers to get ahead of potential faults. This predictive maintenance is one of the major benefits offered by connected factories.

Predictive maintenance sees manufacturers combine data captured by IoT sensors on machinery with AI learning to understand exactly at what point a given part needs maintaining or replacing – even before it breaks. One example is using highly-accurate sensors to monitor the sharpness of blades used on the production line, and identifying in advance when they are becoming blunt enough to impact on product quality.

Anticipating faults before they happen removes the need to halt production for reactive fixes, and avoids unnecessary works on machinery that doesn’t need it. It means manufacturers can cut costs from outages and still maintain their mission-critical equipment.

A live view of factory assets
The production environment is busy and fast-paced, and not knowing where a key component is can lead to a costly shutdown. Managing dispersed operations spread out over a large site area has traditionally meant sending teams of people out to find and maintain equipment, which can be time- and labour-intensive. One value-add IoT offers for industry is knowing where important assets are at any given time.

Fitting IoT sensors (connected by a 5G or 4G private mobile network) to machinery or components – like individual pallets – means manufacturers can track their location in real time, in some cases down to the nearest centimetre.

Automating for better health & safety
Using IoT in industrial applications can also help remove some of the risk for the people involved. This is because it opens the door to smart tech that can take on difficult tasks. Take British Sugar, for example. As part of its major ‘factories of the future’ upgrade, the company has introduced a 4G private mobile network – connecting multiple IoT devices, and enabling them to introduce future innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), automated production lines, robotics and drones.

The new private network has been designed to be future-ready and easily upgradable to 5G where necessary, as British Sugar looks to introduce more complex processes that will benefit from the higher speeds and lower latency of 5G. This includes connected drones that can cover a large area and can monitor tall structures such as silos and lime kilns remotely and safely.

Using IoT to carry out high-risk tasks has a clear health and safety benefit for manufacturers. It also means they can enable processes to run and self-optimise without human intervention – using technology to create new ways of working. Another example of this is using IoT cameras to monitor compliance for anyone working with machinery, reducing risk for people on the factory floor.

Cutting waste to cut carbon
As we’ve seen, introducing IoT into industry operations paves the way for tech that can monitor and track how things are running, and even predict maintenance and potential downtime in advance. This, in turn can reduce disruption, cut down on wastage and therefore deliver energy savings – helping avoid unnecessary emissions from the production process.

As British industry strives to reduce its carbon footprint and contribute to a greener future, understanding and monitoring operations helps make sure factories are running as efficiently as possible.

Industry 4.0
Investing in IoT will be an important part of the manufacturing sector’s digital transformation. It will take us one step closer to Industry 4.0, and will also help British manufacturing keep pace with the rest of the world. Whether it’s smart production lines, connected machinery or health & safety drones – it’s time to switch on the factories of the future.