FEATURE SMART FACTORIES & AUTOMATION
THE POLITICS OF DATA FOR COMPRESSED AIR USERS
by Charles Joel, global IoT & data analytics director, Gardner Denver T
he steady growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has blurred the
boundaries between the digital and physical worlds. What once seemed to be the product of science fiction is now generating tangible benefits for industrial users on the ground, enabling preventative maintenance of networked machines, reduced waste and improved worker safety. It is estimated that more than 14
billion connected devices will be in use by the end of 2019, growing to 25 billion by 2021. These systems produce an incredible amount of raw data, which can then be analysed to provide valuable insights.
Clearly there is no one
single answer to making IoT become successful. But the IoT is not a single answer; in most cases, it is an enabler
However, both social and public
commentary on the IoT often focuses on what is happening to the data that our devices are producing and how it is being used. This is where the question of trust begins to arise. Just as consumers sometimes struggle to trust what companies will do with their personal data, businesses sometimes struggle to
18 SEPTEMBER 2019 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT
trust what will happen to the data produced by their equipment. In a tiered supply chain, we
consistently hear messages of, “That’s my data!” or “What do you want to know that for?” We also encounter negative automated responses from people involved in servicing end customers. Many individuals and organisations are instinctively protective of the data they control and, while this is a natural response, it is not one that helps to enable the benefits of IoT technology. It would be fair to say that the amount
of media and cultural attention dedicated to IoT technology has created many expectations. Among the most prominent of these are hopes that adopting IoT-enabled machines will generate significant revenue, or fears that they will result in the business – and its data – being hacked. Nevertheless, while a dashboard in a
web browser might generate data, it will not automatically use this information to help create cost savings, for example. Even with advanced AI or by creating auto-rules, human intervention is still required. Therefore, it is important to create trust between all parties involved in the IoT supply chain. Clearly there is no one single answer to
making IoT become successful. But the IoT is not a single answer; in most cases, it is an enabler.
OPENING UP INDUSTRY Countless sites across the UK use
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compressed air as part of their everyday processes. Most customers, over the years and various product lifecycles, will have purchased from lots of different brands. Indeed, even if a site is outfitted with identical equipment right now, there’s no guarantee that they will not switch to a different supplier in the future. As things stand, though, too many
Above: Charles Joel, global IoT and data analytics director at Gardner Denver
systems out there run on proprietary protocols and standards. This locks up their data in a way that makes it awkward and inconvenient to process, limiting the ways that machines can interact with IoT technologies. Gardner Denver believes that one of
the keys to unlocking the potential that IoT offers lies in making a concerted, industry-wide move from closed, proprietary mechanisms to open ones. This is one of the main ways we plan on boosting trust throughout the sector, and is why Gardner Denver has launched its iConn platform.
ENABLING CHANGE iConn is a cloud-based, air
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