The consumer Internet connects 5 billion devices. The Industrial Internet, however, will connect 50 billion devices. That will have a dramatic effect on how we do business and how we should organize our factories and companies.
The connected devices will range from energy plants to health care systems to transportation systems. These 50 billion devices will also drive a major flood of new, innovative, startups around the globe that will create new services using the data from these connected devices.
All companies will have to rethink their business models and will have to datafy their business; moving away from products and moving towards services. Services that are connected to the Internet and that will offer the owner as well as the manufacturer a vast amount of data that can be used to improve the business and the utilization rates of the connected devices. These services will change everything.
For example, they will impact the utilizations rates such as that of cars. As Michael Steinbauer, Siemens, tells in this video: today the utilization rate of cars is maybe 15%. Half of the time it is either in search for a parking spot or waiting in a traffic jams. Automated systems and self-driving cars will improve the utilization rates. He believes that the Industrial Internet can do the same for manufacturers: improving the utilization rate while driving down the costs.
The Internet has helped to automate a lot of the muscle work done in organizations, but the Industrial Internet will automate knowledge work. Smart algorithms will be able to help in decision-making and provide guidance in what to do. Of course this will have a major affect on the required skill set in factories; changing from blue collar workers to white collar workers as explained by Siby Abraham of Wipro in this video.
We are just at the beginning of the Industrial Internet, but it is going to be an interesting ride. What do you think would be the most dramatic changes thanks to the Industrial Internet?
