The Power of Knowing: How IoT Gives You Up-to-minute Insights on Your Assets

By Jordi Torné, 2024-04-22

In the modern business world, we’re surrounded by data. But for many companies, the most valuable data of all—the real-time information about their physical assets—remains out of reach. You might have a great system for tracking where your inventory is or who has a specific tool, but what if you could know more? What if you could know how your assets are performing, if they’re about to fail, or if a critical part is wearing out?

This isn't about guesswork or reactive management. This is about using the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) to gain up-to-the-minute, actionable insights that can save you a fortune, prevent disasters, and fundamentally change how you do business.

You might hear the term "IoT" and think of smart homes and connected refrigerators. But in the world of asset management, IoT is a powerful tool that transforms physical assets from silent objects into a source of intelligence. In this article, we’ll demystify this technology and show you how it gives you the ability to listen to your assets, understand their needs, and make smarter decisions.

What is IoT in the World of Assets? A Simple Breakdown

At its core, IoT is a network of physical objects—your assets—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet.

Think of it like this: your assets are currently "mute." You only know about their condition or location when you physically inspect them or when something goes wrong. An IoT solution gives them a voice.

1. The Voice (Sensors): A sensor is a small device that can be attached to your asset. These sensors are designed to measure specific things. For example, a vibration sensor measures vibrations in a machine's motor, a temperature sensor measures its heat, and a location sensor (like an RFID tag) can tell you where the asset is.

2. The Message (Data): The sensors constantly collect data. This data is the "message" from your asset, telling you what's happening to it right now. It could be a simple number, like a temperature reading, or a complex signal, like a vibration waveform.

3. The Receiver (Gateways/Readers): The sensors transmit this data to a gateway or reader. These are the devices that collect the messages from all the sensors in an area and send them to the "brain" of the operation.

4. The Brain (The Platform): This is the most crucial part. The data arrives at a central platform (often a cloud-based service or an on-site server), which processes the raw numbers and turns them into valuable, easy-to-understand insights. This is where you can see trends, receive alerts, and make informed decisions.

The magic of IoT isn't just in the data collection; it's in the ability of the platform to turn that data into a strategic asset.

Bambeo: Getting the Full Picture of Your Assets

When it comes to understanding your physical assets, you need to know more than just their location. You need a comprehensive understanding of their role in your operations, their current condition, and their entire lifecycle. This is where the Bambeo platform excels.

Bambeo is a solution focused on the identification, tracking, traceability, and management of assets and people within production processes. It's the "big picture" tool that helps you understand where everything is and how it relates to your business.

How Bambeo Uses IoT for Insights:

• Real-Time Traceability: Bambeo utilizes IoT devices, such as RFID readers and barcode scanners, to collect data on the movement of your assets. This eliminates manual data entry and provides an accurate, real-time view of your inventory and equipment. You can see not just what you have, but where it is at all times.

• Process and People Tracking: Bambeo goes beyond just assets. It can track the movement of people and other components within a process, giving you a comprehensive view of your entire operation. This allows you to identify bottlenecks, optimize workflows, and ensure reliability and agility in your production processes.

• Information Consolidation: Bambeo acts as the central hub for all your asset-related data. It consolidates information from various IoT devices, providing you with a single source of truth about your physical assets. This makes it easier to manage everything in one place.

In short, Bambeo is the foundation. It tells you where your assets are, what they’re doing, and how they fit into your overall business. It provides the crucial context for the more detailed insights you can get from condition monitoring.

Avibana: Listening for the Machine’s Voice

While Bambeo gives you a complete view of your assets' location and status, Avibana focuses on a different, but equally critical, aspect: their health.

Avibana is an asset health condition monitoring platform. It’s designed to answer the most important questions about your machinery: Is it about to fail? Is a part wearing out? Is it running as efficiently as it should be?

How Avibana Uses IoT for Insights:

• Continuous Data Collection: Avibana uses IoT-enabled sensors (and other offline readers) to continuously collect data from your machinery. This could be scalar data like temperature and pressure, or more dynamic data like vibration and ultrasound signals. This constant stream of information allows you to monitor the health of your assets 24/7.

• Predictive Maintenance: This is the core benefit of Avibana. Instead of waiting for a machine to break down (reactive maintenance) or performing maintenance on a fixed schedule (preventive maintenance), Avibana enables predictive maintenance. By analyzing the data from the sensors, it can detect subtle changes that signal a potential failure before it happens. This allows you to schedule maintenance proactively, preventing costly downtime and extending the life of your equipment.

• Advanced Data Analysis: Avibana provides powerful tools for analyzing the collected data. For instance, it can perform vibration analysis, which is a key method for diagnosing problems in rotating machinery. It automatically calculates derived parameters, like crest factor or overall RMS, which are crucial indicators of a machine's health.

• Customizable Dashboards and Alerts: The platform translates this complex data into easy-to-understand visuals on customizable dashboards. You can see trend charts, waveforms, and spectra. When a sensor reading crosses a predefined threshold, Avibana sends you an alarm notification, ensuring you are aware of any potential issues immediately.

How Bambeo and Avibana Work Together

While they are powerful on their own, Bambeo and Avibana are designed to complement each other, providing a complete solution for dynamic asset management. Think of them as two sides of the same coin:

• Bambeo is the operational and logistical brain. It tells you where your assets are, who is using them, and how they flow through your business processes.

• Avibana is the health and maintenance expert. It tells you about the internal condition of your machinery, its performance, and its likelihood of failure.

Together, they provide a holistic, up-to-the-minute view of your assets. You not only know that a certain piece of equipment is in the right location, but you also know that it’s operating at peak performance and isn't at risk of a sudden, costly breakdown.

Making the Switch: It's Easier Than You Think

You don’t need to be an expert in IoT or data science to benefit from these platforms. The solutions we provide are designed to be user-friendly, translating complex data into simple, actionable insights. Furthermore, our solutions are highly flexible and scalable.

• Start Simple: You can begin by implementing a basic tracking system with Bambeo for your most critical assets. This allows you to quickly see the value of real-time visibility.

• Expand as Needed: As you see the ROI, you can expand your system to include more assets and begin adding condition monitoring with Avibana for your most vital machinery.

• Flexible Deployment: Our platforms can be deployed as a cloud service or on specialized industrial equipment, giving you the flexibility to choose the right solution for your environment.

The days of relying on manual inspections and reactive repairs are coming to an end. By embracing IoT, you can empower your business with a new level of intelligence, transforming your assets from silent tools into a source of continuous, up-to-the-minute insight. It’s an investment in your future, ensuring your operations are more reliable, efficient, and profitable than ever before.