Survey Reveals Machine Health as an IIoT Driver

Bsquare surveyed more than 300 senior-level IIoT influencers and decision-makers across the manufacturing, transportation, and O&G industries for their 2017 Annual IIoT Maturity Survey and found that IIoT has progressed well beyond being just a catchphrase to a technology that is driving measurable business value.

Smart manufacturing acceptance level by plant managers and executive management has grown by leaps and bounds over the last three years, as sensor costs continue lower and manufacturers see the successful implementation of pilot projects involving cloud solutions. Even applications without cloud solutions, such as better data transparency projects for operators and maintenance (O&M) are taking hold.

Some of these statements above are revealed in a recent survey — November 2017 — from BSquare, called the “2017 Annual IIoT Maturity Survey” for manufacturing, transportation and the oil and gas (O&G) industry. The research includes more than 300 senior-level IIoT influencers and decision-makers across the manufacturing, transportation, and O&G industries.

Efficient Plant has been documenting IIoT trends, such as edge computing in the oil and gas industry — Third-Party Predictive Maintenance via Edge Computing. Edge computing is a “reach application” for many industries right now but the survey shows that ends users are positive on future spending on IIoT, see below:

85% of transportation and 78% of manufacturing respondents expect to increase their investment. Slightly less than half of O&G respondents expect to increase spending, possibly due to their more nascent adoption.

Also, the emphasis on machine health cannot be denied in this survey and in the field. The report says, “logistics-related items and machine health are the top business challenges manufacturers target with their IIoT solutions, indicating that maintaining and optimizing equipment and operational parameters are closely tied to supply chain efficiency.

The report says, “logistics-related items and machine health are the top business challenges manufacturers target with their IIoT solutions. (Source: BSquare)

Other highlights include:

· Twelve percent plan to implement a solution this year, bringing the total of respondents who either have or plan to have one to nearly 100%.

· Adopters | Companies want better visibility into their business-critical equipment as
evidenced by more than 90% of adopters citing device health-related goals as top drivers for IIoT adoption.

· Only about 3/4ths of O&G respondents felt that their solutions were very or extremely
effective, likely due to the relatively recent uptake of IIoT in their industry

For the entire survey, visit “2017 Annual IIoT Maturity Survey” for manufacturing, transportation and the oil and gas (O&G) industry.