Category: Construction

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The Importance of Data Interoperability: 8 Experts Weigh In

Data Interoperability

The Importance of Data Interoperability: 8 Experts Weigh In

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Across all industries, maintaining a competitive advantage requires more than simply finding ways to optimize operations and reduce costs. It’s about being smarter. The chief motivation for adopting IoT technologies is the interconnection of critical data from disparate systems and processes to make more informed and intelligent business decisions.

This week on the blog we’ve asked 8 experts to weigh in on the importance of data interoperability in their industry.

1. PremiseHQ

Adam Belnap, VP of Sales & Customer Relations

Data interoperability is extremely important for one simple purpose: growth. The fusion of multiple data points brings huge value for operational insight, power to make educated decisions and to create shared workflows for improved efficiency. Companies that view all of their data as a complete resource for growth, will scale quicker and have a faster ROI on multiple areas of their business.  

2. ioAirFlow

Matt Schaubroeck, CEO

There are a number of systems that exist in buildings, and unless we can understand how each of these systems affects the other, we won’t be able to unlock that building’s true potential. Data is only helpful if you are able to use it properly – an interoperable dataset helps to increase the value of that data between multiple systems, the sum of which is greater than each of its parts. That interoperability also helps identify trends in the data that may not have been evident through a single system – multi-variable data analysis can unlock new insights that we are not yet aware of. Any data collection system should take steps to ensure that their information can be easily shared, while maintaining user confidentiality, security and anonymity. That balance between data confidentiality and interoperability will unlock new insights for data-driven solutions, both in buildings and across a wide variety of industries.

3. WIKA

Uwe Scherf, Global Senior Advisor IIoT

Data interoperability in general and between systems is one of the most important must-haves for IoT ecosystems. Without it, exchange, as well as consumption of data with a clear explanation of content, context and meaning, is challenging. This has a major impact on IoT ecosystem providers and end-users. If data interoperability is not sufficient, it will hinder the provider and end-user from reaping all of the benefits that IoT has to offer. It is the foundation of data exchange and data-based decision-making.

4. WEPTECH

Wolfgang Esch, Head of Sales

Before the time of OMS, meter data was formatted and transmitted in a company-specific way. Thus, there were different protocols and each company had its own formatting. For utilities, this represented a major effort to decode the meter data and bring it to billing. With the introduction of OMS, utilities can now process meter data from a wide variety of meter providers in the same way every time.

In the process of digitalization, this is more necessary than ever, because now the meter data can come to one platform via the most diverse transmission protocols. There, they must be able to be processed in the simplest way. This is only possible if there is a specification that defines the data format.

In this context, there are efforts towards OMS over LPWAN, GSM or Bluetooth. Only the adoption of a specification and standard will lead to the success of these technologies. This also needs to exist in data processing.

5. MERO

Nathan Mah, Cofounder

Data interoperability is a topic that forward-thinking properties are engaging in. In order to fully understand your data and how it can interact together, you must first choose the data sources you need to operate your business efficiently as well as be able to build the foundation of open vendors and integrations. Architecting vendor solutions around a data interoperability strategy is a critical component of any smart building portfolio, but some enterprises are further along in the conversation than others. 

Commercial buildings represent the perfect site of ideal data interoperability; they are physically and geographically finite, the use cases can be tied directly to ROI, and there are not yet extensive regulatory or government requirements to consider when developing a data interoperability strategy. In the future, we expect a “blueprint” of vendors who have well defined data interoperability and share data openly to gain traction in the market as smart buildings continue to scale. Leveraging various sources of data to targeted use cases for buildings, managers, and tenants will increase the overall customer experience and lead to an improved future for all.

6. Connected Sensors

Simon Brunet, President

Data interoperability via sensors can offer unique insights into the correlated systems. Interoperability shows us how much we can gain when aggregating larger pools of data, such as broader insights, which can allow the user to make broader decisions on informed data. In addition, there is a chance for indirect analysis or insights gained from an unrelated use case. 

7. Losant

Nugeen Aftab, Senior Manager

Data interoperability is what enables IoT applications to be useful. Data and the decisions that are derived from that data are not isolated to IoT systems. The contents and context of data and what the data analytics provides to the rest of the business is even more important. An IoT application is not an end to a mean. It’s a decision that, paired with other support, enables an organization to actualize broader company strategies from intelligent data sources.

8. Agvolution

Andreas Heckmann, CEO

Interoperability of sensors, machines and data services is the key to high user-friendliness and smooth deployment of IoT technologies. Unfortunately, in agricultural applications there is still a very heterogeneous and historically grown system landscape. At Agvolution, we therefore focus on the open and flexible exchange of data. Our IoT technology in particular uses mioty and other open wireless IoT protocols to provide the perfect user experience.

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Smart Supply Chain Management: 4 Game-Changing IoT Applications

Smart Supply Chain

BehrTech Blog

Smart Supply Chain Management: 4 Game-Changing IoT Applications

Supply chain management (SCM) plays a vital role in every industry; directly contributing to a company’s success and overall customer satisfaction. In previous years, international trade disputes and natural disasters have disrupted supply chain management. These disruptions make a substantial impact – the outcome is expensive at best and catastrophic at worst. They affect a company’s ability to deliver product and drive revenue, and they can easily cause long-lasting brand damage.

COVID-19 has caused another unprecedented setback to supply chain management. 94% of the Fortune 1000 have reported experiencing coronavirus supply chain disruptions. This has created an even more complex challenge as supply chains have become a vital lifeline for distributing essential medical supplies, food and other key necessities where they’re needed most. Not to mention, with the massive shift to e-commerce, retailers are faced with an overwhelming production and delivery process to ensure a seamless online shopping experience.

Challenges in Supply Chain Management

The entire supply chain management process is complex. It involves coordinating across various disbursed, and commonly disconnected supply chain actors like producers, brokers, transporters, processors, retailers, wholesalers, and of course consumers. It often relies on outdated and manual processes to control and monitor a product’s flow from the procurement of raw materials and parts from the beginning of production through delivery to the consumer.

Monitoring and controlling the people, processes, parts and products as they transit through the SCM lifecycle is crucial in order to ensure efficiency, a strong reputation, and increased ROI. Despite the availability of several technological solutions, many companies still lack end to end visibility of their entire supply chain. A supply chain market report says that 63% of organizations have no tech systems in place for monitoring supply chain performance and 46% of supply chain professionals still rely on excel spreadsheets for their operations. This leads to inefficiencies such as missed key dates and milestones, contract lifecycle bottlenecks, issues with tracking deliverables, duplicate orders, failure to place orders and missed payments.

The pandemic has tested the resilience and flexibility of supply chain leaders globally and has highlighted the critical need for a system that is more robust, transparent, agile, and sustainable – but above all, digitally enabled. The Internet of Things (IoT) with new sensor and communications technologies is on the rise towards restructuring the entire process. The power of IoT lies in its ability to continuously monitor, assess and optimize real-time data on all people, processes, and things to provide unprecedented visibility into every process and transaction within the supply chain.

The Role of IoT in Smart Supply Chain Management

1. On-Road Asset Tracking

Supply chains have been transformed beyond recognition over the last year. Curbside pickup, BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup in Store), shipments to neighbors, smart lockers, as well as direct to consumer (D2C) deliveries by manufacturers have become commonplace. Even perishable goods are in high demand with the advancement of more robust cold chains solutions for categories ranging from pharmaceuticals to meal delivery services. This is creating demand for on-road asset management solutions.

Connected sensors can track items from “floor to store.” There are a variety of IoT sensors that can provide a coherent stream of real-time data on the exact location of an item, how long it took to move between different phases of the SCM lifecycle and even how fast a specific delivery truck is moving. This helps identify bottle necks, allow for contingency planning and determine alternative routes to speed up delivery. It also helps suppliers, manufacturers and distribution centers better prepare to receive goods, which reduces handling times, ensures the efficient processing of material and increases the precision of delivery forecasts for vendors and consumers.

2. Cold Chain Monitoring

Some goods like food and pharmaceuticals need to be stored in ideal conditions. With a smart cold chain, you can monitor, locate, and address any potential errors quickly. For example, environmental sensors can track ambient conditions like temperature, humidity, air quality, light intensity and other environmental factors inside a storage facility, cargo container or delivery vehicle. When a threshold is breached, alerts are triggered in real-time to prompt immediate mitigation and avoid any compromise to the product’s integrity.

3. Warehouse Management

Warehouse errors can be costly. Nevertheless, the absence of an effective inventory management approach is not uncommon. Many businesses still manually track their inventory using spreadsheets and paper-based methods. This approach puts data at risk as Marketwatch estimated that 88% of spreadsheets contain errors. This makes indoor wireless IoT solutions highly instrumental in warehouse management.

IoT can help reduce manual labor, errors, and help increase processing speeds and overall warehouse efficiency. Connected sensors can be used to monitor the movement and use of material, products and other assets inside facilities to maximize their effective use, prevent loss or theft, reduce search time and avoid out-of-stock scenarios.

Connected sensors placed on shelves and storage bins can also communicate stock levels in real time to identify usage patterns. This continual feedback helps streamline coordination between warehouse operations and various logistics providers and can help use space more efficiently.

4. Fleet Management

As the supply chain continues to grow, it’s even more imperative to ensure that all carriers—be it shipping containers, suppliers’ delivery trucks, or a van out for delivery—are connected.  IoT sensor networks can collect information about vehicle usage, speed, emission, location and more. Built-in sensors transmit key health and operational parameters of tires, hydraulics, engine and other components of mobile equipment to enable predictive maintenance.

Telematics sensors can pinpoint under-utilized machinery or excessive idling time to avoid wasted fuel and allow operators to make informed decisions about the optimal size and composition of their fleets. Unauthorized usage outside operational hours can be additionally detected to avoid any tampering or theft attempts. Operators can monitor exhaust emissions to ensure compliance with environmental and safety regulations. 

Sensors equipped with GPS can also give supply chain managers a more accurate estimation of delivery to help reduce wait times at destinations and improve the supply chain workflow.

Finding the Right IoT Connectivity

From location, temperature, humidity, light, movement, handling, speed of movement and other environmental factors, there are numerous IoT sensors that promise to deliver critical business insights for improving supply chain management. The challenge is finding reliable IoT connectivity to ensure this data is delivered accurately, in full and on-time.

Emerging IoT connectivity solutions like Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) are redefining the possibilities for SCM. Geared for low-bandwidth, low computing end nodes, newer LPWAN solutions offer highly power-efficient and affordable IoT connectivity for any large, structurally complex or remote facility along the supply chain from industrial campuses and warehouses to distribution centres and retail. No current wireless classes can beat LPWAN when it comes to battery life, device and connectivity costs, and ease of implementation. As the name implies, LPWAN nodes are designed to operate on independent batteries for years, rather than days as with other wireless solutions. They can also transmit over many kilometers while providing deep penetration capability to connect devices at hard-to-reach indoor and underground locations.

2020 has been a challenging year for supply chain management, but it has also presented enormous opportunities for change. Innovative IoT sensors coupled with robust and scalable LPWAN connectivity are enabling a new interconnected and informed supply chain ecosystem that improves operational efficiency, brings more transparency to the communication process, and increases precision planning.

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18 Essential Stats about IoT for Asset Management

IoT for asset management

BehrTech Blog

18 Essential Stats about IoT for Asset Management

From manufacturing, mining and oil and gas to construction and healthcare, businesses across all verticals work with vast amounts of machines, equipment and mobile tools every day. Effective asset management has a major impact on operational productivity and companies’ bottom line, and yet this has traditionally been plagued by poor visibility into existing asset use and conditions. The application of IoT for asset management opens compelling opportunities to optimize equipment efficiency and asset lifecycle management.

Asset Management Hurdles

The old-school way of managing assets incorporates visual inspections, handwritten lists and excel sheets to track the current status, location and performance of heterogeneous equipment. Without a doubt, this approach is labor-intensive and inefficient, while failing to provide sufficient asset information. As such, employees often waste hours searching for dispersed tools and parts or make redundant supply orders, which results in substantial costs and productivity loss. Due to the lack of visibility, valuable assets are also highly susceptible to thefts and vandalism attempts.

What’s more, poor insights into actual equipment health mean that devices are often serviced too frequently or too late, and spare parts can easily run short. When it comes to mission-critical machinery, a single failure could disrupt the production line partially or even entirely, causing expensive downtime and delaying product delivery. On the other hand, redundant, scheduled-based preventive maintenance that overlooks real-time equipment conditions, is inefficient while introducing extra expenses and waste. The challenge of asset management further amplifies at hard-to-access, geographically dispersed industrial sites with numerous unattended assets.

You might also be interested in: 20 Mind-Boggling Stats on Industrial Downtime

Benefits of IoT for Asset Management

With the Internet of Things (IoT) comes a new generation of low-power, wireless sensors that can turn normal physical objects into digital devices with communications ability. Attached to individual assets, these sensors capture and report detailed information about current asset conditions as well as where and how they are being used. Leveraging robust, long-range IoT connectivity, insights into even the most remote, isolated assets can be gathered at the control center and easily accessible by plant operators and technicians. By having a holistic, real-time picture of cross-site assets, they can quickly pinpoint underutilized equipment, diagnose impending issues and bottlenecks, and easily mobilize tools and parts. Ultimately, the application of IoT for asset management enables organizations to optimize maintenance activities and asset useful life, while eliminating error-prone manual records and excessive orders.

The infographic below captures 18 essential stats about asset management challenges across industries and how IoT can deliver tangible values in this context.

Asset Management

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IoT in Construction: Precise Management of Concrete Curing and Drying

IoT in Construction

BehrTech Blog

IoT in Construction: Precise Management of Concrete Curing and Drying

As the Internet of Things shakes up the industrial world, organizations will soon realize the adage “innovate or die” is more than just a marketing ploy. Even in the construction sector which has been rather conservative in adopting new technologies, exciting IoT applications make the necessity for change increasingly evident. A great example is the management of concrete curing and drying.

Temperature and Humidity in Concrete Curing and Drying

Curing is the hardening process of concrete where desired properties are attained through the chemical reaction called hydration between water and cement. Curing determines concrete durability and service life and is thus among the most important activities in construction and flooring industries. Humidity and temperature play a critical role in this process, as they regulate the reaction and curing duration, thus directly impacting the final quality.

How long to keep it moist depends on the desired level of concrete strength. Excessive moisture loss can cause the hydration process to end too early, leading to inferior binding quality and weak concrete structure. Similarly, keeping favorable and uniform concrete temperature is vital to achieve the intended reaction rate and avoid thermal cracking. For exposed concrete, changes in weather conditions can also make the water freeze or evaporate before the process is finished.

Following curing is the drying stage in which concrete gains its final form for use. Here, relative humidity must be lower than 75 to 80 percent to make sure concrete dries out properly and circumvent mold growth. It often takes many months for both stages to take place.

Eliminate Second-Guessing with IoT

Understanding concrete temperature, relative humidity and strength gain alongside real-time ambient conditions is key to achieving optimal quality at the lowest production costs. Nevertheless, this has remained a significant challenge. Traditional practices are nowhere near ideal as they are expensive, time-consuming and sometimes, even destructive.

For example, to decide the curing duration, field technicians need to cast and send test specimens to labs for analysis, assuming that strength gain rates of later placed concrete will resemble the test. During curing, measurement of internal temperature and humidity requires drilling a hole into the newly poured concrete, risking structural damages. Needless to say, neither is reliable enough and operators fail to attain round-the-clock insights into ongoing processes. Due to the lack of visibility, operators often have to schedule extra time for curing and drying, which increases costs and lowers productivity.

We all know that IoT excels at collecting previously inaccessible data, and concrete monitoring is no exception. Instead of second-guessing what’s going on, smart embedded sensors now capture and deliver critical concrete data on a 24-hour basis, giving a full picture of the hydration process and strength development rates. In parallel, environmental sensors monitor important changes in ambient and weather parameters during curing and drying.

Real-time, actionable sensor data brings enormous opportunities to optimize concrete production and construction work such as:

  • Accurate calculations of concrete maturity and real-time strength values to improve scheduling.
  • Effective monitoring of both concrete core and surface temperature to avoid thermal cracking
  • Timely reaction to adverse ambient conditions.
  • Efficient use of mitigation instruments like HVAC systems or insulation materials.
  • Better planning in installation of flooring products.

IoT in Construction

The Ideal Connectivity for Concrete Sensors

Battery-powered wireless sensors embedded directly into the concrete mass are the optimal choice for gathering concrete data. Attached to steel reinforcements right before the concrete is poured, these sensors are easy to install and require no cumbersome cabling or extra hardware. On the other hand, they impose critical connectivity requirements not to be overlooked: deep penetration capability for reliable data transmission through concrete and ultra-low power consumption to avoid battery replacement.

Bluetooth Low Energy is currently the most common solution, but it’s less than ideal. Due to the short range of BLE, field technicians have to walk around the placed concrete with an electronic device for data logging. On the other hand, Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) offer a viable option for automatic data collection, freeing up workers’ time for more important tasks. With a robust and scalable LPWAN solution, data from hundreds of concrete and environmental sensors across vast construction sites can be automatically captured at an on-site base station (i.e. data hub). It is then relayed to the preferred backend system and can be conveniently viewed from remote user interfaces.

As IoT applications and benefits start to manifest in the construction industry, scalable LPWAN connectivity enables easy and seamless integration of new sensors and devices into one unified communication infrastructure.

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