14 Trends Driving Smart Manufacturing

Jari Haiston in Blogs on January 23, 2023

About Jari Haiston

Jari Haiston is part of the growing digital marketing team at Symmetry Electronics. Jari comes from a background in technical writing and event coordination. In her current role, she specializes in content creation and social media management. Jari's focus as a writer is to create interesting content that is accessible to any audience.

Did you know that the industrial manufacturing industry has the highest adoption of internet of things (IoT) technology among all industries? Smart manufacturing is the integration of physical and digital within factories, warehouses, and other supply chain functions to optimize supply/demand requirements. Manufacturing is made intelligent through the utilization of IoT technology like sensors, cameras, and other connected devices. IoT implementation in industrial settings is one of the pillars of industry 4.0 and stands to revolutionize the global manufacturing market.

14 Major Reasons to Adopt IoT in Manufacturing

Valued at $249.56 billion in 2021, Fortune Business Insights predicts that the global smart manufacturing market is expected to grow to $658.41 billion by 2028. Smart manufacturing practices have helped factories achieve productivity gains of 17–20% but Microsoft’s recent report, IoT Signals, has outlined the top 14 reasons companies are adopting IoT in their manufacturing processes:

Quality & Compliance
Industrial Automation
Production Flow Monitoring (Discrete Only)
Production Planning & Scheduling
Supply Chain & Logistics
Plant Safety
Product-as-a-Service (Process Only)
Connected Field Service/New Business Models
Condition-Based Monitoring & Service
Worker Safety
‘Connected’ Product Engineering
Condition-Based Predictive Maintenance
Process Optimization
Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Levels of Smart Manufacturing

According to Microsoft, 27% of the manufacturing companies they surveyed still see IoT integration as too overwhelming and complex to integrate. However, there are multiple levels of automation integration in smart factory processes that can be gradually implemented to ensure a smooth transition into industry 4.0 standards.

Level 1 begins with connected data. This is the level where sensors, signals, machines, and other connected devices enable real-time capabilities.

Level 2 focuses on integrating the benefits of analyzed data gathered from the connected devices in level one to into preventive insights to help companies reduce downtime caused by equipment failures. This practice is known as predictive analytics.

Level 3 incorporates machine learning (ML) technologies with predictive analytics from the previous stage into prescriptive analytics. Prescriptive analytics can help isolate variables and settings historical production data to optimize overall production optimization.

Level 4 involves artificial intelligence (AI) driven automation functions to actually recommend and deploy actionable insights that it analyzes from production data. Talk about removing the guesswork. Full AI-Driven automation is still in development but is the ultimate goal of smart factory manufacturing.

Developing a Smart Manufacturing Environment

If you’re interested in propelling your manufacturing process into industry 4.0, our team of Applications Engineers is available to guide you through the complex path of automated integration. Our Applications Engineers are experts in connected devices, wireless technologies, and IoT solutions and can provide you with invaluable insights into developing intelligent manufacturing practices. Consultation is free and available throughout your entire design cycle. Contact Symmetry Electronics today!