Industry 4.0 Trends For Small Business
A few years ago IoT (Internet of Things) was like a bad movie where jobs were replaced by machines and robots were destined to take over the world.
While Moore’s Law predicted a doubling growth rate combined with a decrease in processing and technology cost, AI and the ubiquitous use of technology means the 4th Industrial Revolution is well on its way, ie. Industry 4.0 Internet of Things.
The ongoing transformation of data into smart technology can benefit any business today. With the combination of 5G, big data, ubiquitous device interaction and clean energy, tech analysts predict that in total there will be 41.6 billion connected IoT devices by 2025.
Building automation – like connected lighting – will be the fastest-growing sector, followed by automotive (connected cars and supply chain) and healthcare (monitoring of chronic conditions).
Here are some of our top choices of how to integrate IoT smart technology into your business in 2020:
Smart devices
Sensors are everywhere. Highly integrated devices interacting, communicating, predicting and managing everything. Smart locks and security have the ability to manage building access from any device. Wearable devices and RFIDs, with IPv6 IP addresses, means unlimited internet connectivity. From your utilities and smart meters to manufacturing and monitoring security. Devices and sensors will rule them all.
Managing Productivity and Costs
Meet smart offices and smart meeting spaces where we can efficiently coordinate and collaborate. Security, scheduling, and environmental management have already had a huge uptake. Everything can be tracked, monitored and scheduled from one device. Industry can now easily track equipment, product and real-time inventory. Sensors can automatically detect, diagnosis, and monitor for malfunctions.
Portable Card Readers
Square, Paypal etc making small business POS transactions easy, cashless (COVID-19 approved) and with reasonable processing fees. Sensors and tags can be read and payments processed instantly (Apple and Google Pay) from your watch. The pop-up cottage industry never had it so easy.
GPS Tracking
This game-changer means For real-time inventory supply chain management. From transportation and logistics to fleet vehicles - you always know where your vehicles are. Forward-thinking fleet management, are combined with supply chain solutions and automated electric vehicles for a truly IoT future.
Virtual assistants
Integrating Google Assistant smart devices into the office can help with many mundane tasks and anticipate what you need across your scheduled day. Use cross devices to control inventory, atmospheric controls, even music. Use bots for internal and external customer service. Online eCommerce with voice-based personalized recommendations are already the now with your home devices like Alexa and Google Home.
IoT Healthcare Devices
Constant monitoring of health signs, tracking the location of equipment, connecting medical devices (Glucose monitoring), ingestible sensors (medication monitoring) are now standard devices. Digital healthcare is now the standard instead of an exception to the rule.
Before the COVID-19, IoT and automation were seen as the enemy with robots, autonomous vehicles and other technologies were threatening to replace them. Today the question has become how can IoT, robotics, and automation help speed up business recovery and protect us from future pandemics?”
We’ll soon see.
We’d love to hear about how you are using IoT in your business and projects on the go.
