The biggest hurdle for most manufacturing and processing facilities isn’t accepting the idea that connected devices and systems can improve operations and business performance. It’s the question of how to implement the necessary technologies and procedures within an existing facility populated with systems that pre-date the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 concepts.
To help companies better understand how to facilitate this change within their existing plants, Spencer Cramer, CEO, ei3 Corp. (a provider of IoT platform technology) and John Kowal, director, business development, B&R Industrial Automation (an automation hardware and software supplier) have authored a white paper for the Industrial Internet Consortium that explains how a concept from the 1970s, known as The Focused Factory, can be successfully applied today to create an IIoT “green patch” in a brownfield plant.
