Just a few years ago, we were in the beginning stages of learning about the Internet of Things (IoT) and the impact it would have on engineering. Now, we have moved past that initial learning curve and are starting to implement Industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions at a rapid pace. The 2017 Annual IIoT Maturity Study from Bsquare revealed that manufacturers are adopting IIoT products and solutions at high rates, but are still at the beginning stages of advanced analytics.
The Results of IIoT First Steps
Bsquare conducted the Maturity Study to determine how companies are adopting IIoT systems and how satisfied they are with the progress. Over 300 companies with annual revenues of at least $250 million participated in the study. The companies involved were from three major industry sectors: manufacturing, transportation, and oil & gas.
The survey results showed that while many companies are excited to start IIoT projects, the actual numbers of projects initiated are still small scale. Specifically, 86% of respondents are currently adopting IIoT applications. Most are in construction and transportation (93%), closely followed by oil & gas (89%), and lastly manufacturing (77%). Roughly 84% of them believe the projects are effective, and 95% state that the IIoT projects are having a significant impact on their business. The majority of the projects (78%) are focused on connecting devices and machines, either via Ethernet or cloud services, and 83% of the projects involve data visualization.
These projects, while promising in terms of adoption rates, are still low level in terms of an IIoT system’s overall capabilities. Only 56% are using real-time data monitoring, 48% of respondents are attempting advanced analytics from the data collected, and just 28% of them are implementing automation processes based of those analytics. The most promising number of the study is that 73% of the respondents plan to increase their investments in IIoT over the next year, with their sights set on expanding the complexity of IIoT systems.