Internet of things or IoT represents an emerging concept where the objects and humans are identifiable, connected and can communicate over the internet or the wireless world. With IoT, everything can communicate anytime and at anyplace. IoT has many applications and one of the most important applications is the manufacturing. The IoT in industry sector, sometimes referred to as IIoT, is considered to be a very important factor in the introduction of the fourth industrial revolution. Major manufacturing powers around the world are already trying to adopt IoT in their production systems and lead the way in this new era of advanced manufacturing. A huge number of IoT devices are already being used and connected and it is expected that the number of these applications and devices will increase dramatically in the next few years. In this work, an overview of IoT in manufacturing will be presented. This includes a discussion of some of the advantages and benefits of adopting IoT in manufacturing in addition to the issues and challenges that accompany this IoT application. The discussion will also include the concept of smart manufacturing, how production processes and other related activities can be connected in real time and how this can be achieved by adopting IoT in manufacturing. Furthermore, the enabling technologies needed to realize IoT (whether it is to be applied in a new plant or in already existing machines that don’t have IoT capabilities) are shown along with the different layers or phases needed for this IoT adoption. Finally, some real life examples of factories that adopted IoT are shown.
Economic Analysis of Technology Infrastructure Needs for Advanced Manufacturing: Smart Manufacturing