IoT is taking smart manufacturing a step forward enabling demand-driven ‘smart supply chains’. IoT systems are being built on top of a solid technology platform including cloud, analytics, big data and mobile. But to fully implement smart manufacturing technology, businesses need to establish an integrated fabric of devices, data, connections, processes and people.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) – the internetworking of physical items embedded with the software and connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data—creates a fourth industrial revolution, smart manufacturing is making waves across all industries. More than ever before, smart manufacturing has the potential to arm factory operators with data, to optimize plants, and to control inventory with disruptive global technologies that will create new levels of productivity. Eight leading experts in IoT, representing industries ranging from business consulting to film animation to strategy development and infrastructure planning, have come together to explore the trends currently defining this space.

• The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

IIoT, which is the use of IoT technologies within manufacturing, has the potential for implementation on factory floors ensuing in the immediate benefit of production speed, efficiency, and quality.

• Cloud Computing

The immediacy of the data uploaded and shared from beacons, sensors, and other such systems, has drastically impacted the ability to anticipate system needs, obtain inventory and supply-chain information, and thus reduce downtime between machines, suppliers, manufacturers, and customers. Without cloud computing to distribute and keep critical information, the IIoT loses its greatest leverage: its ability to share critical updates in real time.

• Artificial Intelligence

The huge influx of big data generated by IIoT systems generates the essential need to be able to extract meaning, trends, and predictions from this data. Machine learning and artificial intelligence offer the ability to distill patterns, anticipate relevant information, and point out anomalies in the information generated by IIoT systems, further refining and enhancing productivity.

• Smart Sensors

Sensors are a critical component of recording, generating, and relaying information regarding everything from packaging to individual parts of a machine by recording it and uploading it to the cloud. More accurate sensors, measuring everything from temperature and volume to time and usage, create the flow of information that acts as an underpinning of the IIoT.

I was part of a panel discussion in identifying top IoT trends for smart manufacturing. You can download he outcome of panel discussion below.

http://info.convetit.com/hubfs/Top_4_Trends_in_IoT_for_Smart_Manufacturing.pdf

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The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity

As we approach a great turning point in history when technology is poised to redefine what it means to be human, The Fourth Age offers fascinating insight into AI, robotics, and their extraordinary implications for our species. “If you only read just one book about the AI revolution, make it this one” (John Mackey, cofounder and CEO, Whole Foods Market).

In The Fourth Age, Byron Reese makes the case that technology has reshaped humanity just three times in history: 100,000 years ago, we harnessed fire, which led to language; 10,000 years ago, we developed agriculture, which led to cities and warfare; 5,000 years ago, we invented the wheel and writing, which lead to the nation state.