An Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform aims to facilitate integration and enable digitalisation across a whole operation, said expert Freddie Coertze. It is typically positioned as a middleware layer between an operation’s industrial equipment and enterprise systems.
“To understand where an IIoT platform will fit into your current operation, it is important to understand its role,” said Coertze, National IoT Business Development Manager for ifm Australia. “The platform is responsible for collecting data from sensors and machines, processing and analysing the data, and providing insights and control over the industrial processes. It facilitates the value of this information by enabling communication and integration between different systems.”
According to Coertze, an IIot platform will enable integration with enterprise systems such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems), and CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Systems). It will also act as a conduit for existing SCADA (Supervisory control and data acquisition) and PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) layers in an industrial organisation’s architecture.
“This enables complete visibility into a factory or plant’s operations. Normally, the layers of these systems are not integrated. In fact, it can be costly to achieve that integration,” explains Coertze. “This is what an IIoT platform solves. These systems can pull data and insights out of the one platform.”
Notably, an IIoT platform uses a common language of communication that can connect different systems, including legacy equipment.
“This communication within the operational architecture is key,” said Coertze. “The platform enables the communication between legacy equipment that uses different communication protocols. It can also integrate with newer equipment that uses standard protocols such as MQTT and OPC UA.”
IIoT platform integrates security and governance over data
Additionally, an IIoT platform can act as a sentinel over industrial data.
“It can provide an organisation with security and governance over their data. An IIoT platform ensures the data is protected and compliant with the relevant regulations and standards,” said Coertze. “It can simplify this aspect of a business, which is becoming increasingly complex for operations to manage.”
He said the “complexity that digitalisation poses” prompted ifm to build its IIoT platform, moneo.
“We designed this to act as a middleware that can fit into existing systems and one that is self-service. Our goal with moneo has to been to simplify the digitalisation process for industrial operations – regardless of their size or requirements – and provide a platform that can enable the communication and integration necessary for transitioning into Industry 4.0,” he explains. “It is practically a plug-and-play platform that can help companies reap the benefits of qualified data quickly and without the need for analytics or data science experts.”
To summarise, Coertze said that an IIoT platform should now be considered a critical component of industrial architecture.
“If an operation tries to build a system more traditionally, they simply won’t get the transparency and flexibility needed to support digital operations and gain the visibility they need to improve and remain competitive,” he concludes. “An IIoT platform will provide the connectivity, analytics, and control required to optimise operations. It is fundamental to the digital transformation of an industrial operation.”
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