As previously published in ReadWrite by Jason Andersen
One of the great parts of my job is talking to industrial technologists from a wide variety of businesses. I had an interesting conversation recently with some people from a large dairy. Forget whatever image you may have; today’s large commercial dairies are extremely sophisticated enterprises that are always looking for new ways to leverage technology to enhance their production efficiency and their profitability. So when I started talking to the dairy people about how the industrial internet of things (IIoT) dramatically increases the applicability of data generated throughout the plant, they totally got it.
While many enterprises today are focused on using data to drive predictive analytics for maintenance, the dairy was looking at an even higher level of value. They were looking at data and the IIoT as the keys to a complete rethinking of their supply chain.
Consumers value the cloud and IIoT because they can access anything from any device, anywhere. But for the enterprise, the real value is having visibility across the entire supply chain—in the case of the dairy, from the farm to the fridge. Instead of data residing in disconnected silos that no one else can see, the IIoT and the cloud connect all those dots, creating a new level of visibility for every player along the chain.
Commercial Dairy & IIoT
Why is this important to commercial dairy? It enables them to be far more agile and, therefore, more profitable. One day, cottage cheese is flying off the shelves and so the dairy can quickly allocate more of its milk to the cottage cheese plant. But maybe the next week, the weather changes and consumers are stocking up on ice cream instead of cottage cheese. By having access to real-time information, the dairy is able to quickly reallocate its milk and sell it to the ice cream factory down the road. And if there is a product quality problem at any point along the supply chain, the dairy can respond rapidly to limit any potential recall—a critical priority for protecting public safety, as well as the dairy’s valuable brand.
Read the full article by heading over to Readwrite below!
