The German industrial IoT market will more than double in the next five years to around 16.8 billion euros in turnover in 2022. Condition-based maintenance will become enormously important for companies because it can speed up maintenance and service processes. It also serves as a data basis for forward-looking planning.

"It would be great if a machine could notify the service department itself," says Detlef Aden, IoT and digitalization expert at all4cloud, "for example when an anomaly or malfunction occurs." In this way, machines can be made ready for operation again within a very short time - without the main business being massively impaired. But who records and transmits the status data of the machine, system or façade element? Quite simply: sensors and counters. They report any deviations from the norm or faults without losing any time. When this happens can be defined in advance using stored rules. One such rule could be: "Dear sensor, please report immediately as soon as the vibrations of a machine exceed the defined standard level." In this way, sensors are already providing incredibly good service today.

Numerous plus points
On the one hand, maintenance is no longer forgotten because the machines report that it is due. On the other hand, maintenance and inspection jobs can be planned, initiated and assigned automatically - depending on consumption and condition. Predictive maintenance is therefore an IoT scenario that will become increasingly popular. Thirdly, service processes can be freed from time-consuming administrative tasks. Following a fault or maintenance report from a sensor, a work order is automatically sent to the technicians who take care of the matter. All data, such as the time required or the number of spare parts needed, is then automatically reported to the ERP system. If the maintenance is not carried out in-house, but as a service for a customer, an invoice can be sent and billed from the ERP system shortly afterwards. This means the process is almost completely automated.

Companies need four things for an IoT scenario of this kind:
1. sensors, meters & condition monitoring systems that provide values and data. This also makes old systems IoT-capable, without the need for major new investments.
2. a cloud-based enterprise asset management solution that can create and manage a digital twin of the plant or product
3. a cloud ERP, for example SAPS4/HANA or SAP Business ByDesign.
4. a cloud platform as an IoT cockpit.

Detlef Aden: "The digitalization of industry is progressing and is changing production processes, working methods and services. Almost 80 percent of processes can be automated. With the help of intelligent technologies, companies can now also operate their service or maintenance more efficiently than before. And all live in the system."

Digitalization therefore offers advantages to all parties involved: it speeds up processes. Customers are satisfied more quickly. Maintenance staff are freed from administrative tasks and can concentrate more on what they like to do: design, build and repair. And because well-maintained machines run for longer, with consistently high quality, investment costs for new machines are reduced.