These are the trends in the Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things is just one of the many modern technologies we like to watch and keep track of its developments. Technologies such as IoT will transform our society but also the way we manufacture. This tech trend has been around for a couple of years but is developing at a very rapid pace. We are now talking about a great scale of networking between computers and devices in every possible way. Nowadays we are connected and we share information digitally and globally. Our lives have changed since the start of the global covid-19 pandemic which not only affected our personal lives but also our professional developments. We might be limited in personal contact, but contact between devices is not. This year we have seen how online tools and devices continue to be connected and how we kept businesses running. This gave a major spike in the development of the Internet of Things and it became a necessity for many. But will we continue to see this trend develop at this rapid pace?

1. WFH, Work From Home Working from home has become the norm for many companies and it became a big trend not only focussed on manufacturing, but worldwide in all markets. Working from home became a lot more productive thanks to the possibility of virtually meeting each other, automated scheduling tools and many other applications to make our distant work easier. But how does this work for manufacturing, industrial and logistic companies like us? Thanks to IoT, Rompa Group has been able to monitor our production remotely giving us reassurance that everything was running smoothly while we were not physically there. Of course not all production lines are suited for remote monitoring and still need our physical presence. But we do see a great trend in monitoring our manufacturing lines remotely, thanks to IoT this became a whole lot easier. 2. M2M Automation Machine-to-Machine communication is also one of the biggest trends we have seen increasing last year. Smart trackers and sensors are installed in nearly all devices and manufactured products. This gives us the possibility to have the device communicate from machine to machine. And with the use of IoT systems we are able to automate any decisions that have to be made based on data. Decisions regarding demand, stock and warehousing, but also sales forecasting for a particular season for example. This all without human interaction and based on facts and figures. Rompa Group integrated the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning Software) communication system for our products and machines to implement M2M automation to capture the performance. With the data collected from the machines we can also monitor performance, predict for and seek improvements. 3. Product Design We have seen an increase in demand for easy access to our products and services. One of these services is designing. With our smart devices and sensors we are able to see how products are used and where we can improve the products for an optimal design. 4. Security Security is one of our top priorities for our employees, clients and partners. This is done through authentication for all our systems and applications and is critical to maintain a high level, for everybody's safety and privacy. 5. IoT Supply Chain Besides warehousing and stock management we also see IoT in our logistic service. Thanks to the IoT Supply Chain Analytics we can combine IoT and ERP to have a clear view on the current supply chain. Our trackers and sensor devices enable us to know the location of the goods at all times. This together with M2M makes every decision a smart decision based on the data that is being analysed. While these 5 current trends are very popular, we also know that they will continue to develop at a quick pace. We at Rompa Group make sure to follow every step along the way. But what other trends are there which lay ahead of us in the future? Below we give some of the trends that we predict will be important in 2022.

1. Employee safety At Rompa Group we do our very best to keep our staff safe but we also look for possibilities to make our production sites even safer for our employees. The concept of implementation of IoT in this topic is not new but we expect this to gain popularity in the upcoming year. Some of the ideas we see on the market regarding optimizing safety with employees are: Wearable trackers which monitor heart rate and blood pressure that can send a notification when it's dangerous to keep working. Sensors within the site that communicate the temperature level, air pollution, noise and radiation and also send alerts when it is dangerous. Predictive maintenance sensors to prevent possible dangers and faults. Fire sensors detect fire and can notify us when there is a big temperature change. 2. Visibility in Big Data thanks to IoT Most of the IoT trends are based on data and analytics. The industrial Big Data is becoming the lead in many new approaches for the concept of Industry 4.0. The overall idea is to manufacture only on precise data. But how do we gather this data? This is where IoT comes into play, with its trackers and sensors to communicate this data. With this all we will see an increase in data collection and more precise manufacturing.

What do you think will be the next IoT trend? Or would you like to learn more about this topic and how Rompa Group implements this in our day to day productions? Make sure to contact us! We like to connect with our readers, let us know what you think the future holds for us regarding IoT!