Transforming factory operations: How IIoT revolutionizes system integration

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has changed what’s possible for the machines that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators build and install in factories and plants.

IIoT capabilities that are designed into systems make them easier to implement, more beneficial and a giant stride into digitalization. Some data may not be cost-justifiable for a more traditional programmable-logic-controller or distributed-control-system platform using 4-20 mA wiring or I/O bus technology.

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Digitalization lets OEMs create digital-twin simulations, giving insight into process performance and the foresight to predict what will happen next. It also gives the ability to share data between operations, maintenance and resource planning.

Hargrove Controls & Automation is a Mobile, Alabama–based system integrator, certified by the Control System Integrators Association. Hargrove’s Alan Polk and Heath Stephens explain how IIoT has affected the system-integration delivery they do in this article from partner publication, Control.