Smart Machinery: The Time‑Saving Edge Businesses Need Today

Some companies are eager to embrace new technologies in a bid to stay as advanced as possible. Others are less enthusiastic about digital disruption, especially considering how some trends turn out to be little more than buzzwords. As smart machinery adoption rises, many may ask these questions about IoT connectivity.

Consumer applications outpace business IoT adoption, likely because some companies are hesitant to invest in the technology. Companies need evidence of economic benefits before they funnel money into these projects. Many people and publications have made lofty claims about smart machinery, but how much time and money can it actually save?

Savings Through Efficiency

The primary way smart technologies save time and thus money is through increased efficiency. Connected devices automate data-heavy tasks that employees would otherwise have to perform manually. Many of these jobs aren’t value-adding but are time-consuming, so automating them can lead to considerable improvements.

For example, University of Florida scientists implemented a drone and AI-based system for counting orange trees. This solution takes just 10% as long to complete its count as the manual alternative. Researchers can perform other value-adding tasks while this system works, further improving efficiency.

Smart machinery’s efficiency benefits are particularly evident in repetitive work. Computers tend to be better at these tasks than humans, yet 40% of surveyed workers spend at least 25% of their time on such work. Smart applications can automate these tasks, giving people more time to work in other areas.

Savings Through Error Reduction

Smart technology also reduces errors in some areas, saving time that would otherwise go toward rework. IoT devices include sensors that continually monitor relevant data points. This information influences automatic adjustments that make these machines less prone to error than alternatives.

Intelligent paint kitchens, which are smart sensor-equipped automated paint mixing rooms, are excellent examples of this accuracy. These systems adjust paint flow and pressure based on sensor readings, leading to more consistent final products. Fewer errors mean less time spent fixing issues, saving businesses time and money.

In some industries, mistakes can cost as much as $9,000 a month. It’s unrealistic to think that smart machinery will eliminate all of these, but even a small improvement is considerable. Preventing half of them at this rate is still a $54,000 annual improvement.

Savings Through Accessibility and Interoperability

Any workflow, whether entirely human or automated, works better when employees or machines work together. Smart machinery provides more interoperability than traditional technology with both other devices and human workers. This means less time between stages and fewer disruptions.

IoT sensors make critical workflow data wirelessly accessible. Workers can instantly see updates from their phones or other devices instead of having to check things in person. They can then respond more quickly to unexpected circumstances or save time inspecting data.

Smart machinery also improves interoperability between automated processes. Connected machines can sense when another in a different part of the workflow slows or breaks and adjust accordingly. Outages last an average of four hours and cost $2 million, so mitigating these disruptions’ impacts can save millions of dollars a year.

Savings Through Improved Maintenance

Smart machinery can save time and money through optimized servicing. IoT sensors enable a practice called predictive maintenance, where machines analyze performance data to predict when they’ll need repair. These analytics prevent costly breakdowns and avoid time spent on unnecessary upkeep.

It’s not always evident when a machine might need attention, so breakdowns can seemingly come out of nowhere. Predictive maintenance takes a data-based approach to identify these less visible scenarios and prevent malfunctions. Since machine learning algorithms are so adept at making connections like this, it can lead to substantial savings.

Predictive maintenance can improve equipment uptime by 20% and reduce maintenance costs by 10%. For some companies, that can translate into millions of dollars and days of availability in savings. Even the most effective preventive maintenance plans can’t consistently reach those figures.

Smart Machinery Unlocks Businesses’ Potential

Overall, smart machinery can save days’ worth of work hours and millions of dollars for businesses. While results will vary from situation to situation, historical cases show consistent improvements among adopters of this technology.

These monetary and time savings enable companies to reach their full potential. Adopting smart technology may be costly at first, but the returns on investment are impossible to ignore.