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LIGHT UP YOUR INDUSTRIAL IoT DESIGN 6 TRENDS IN IIoT Looking at the global landscape, China has been particularly aggressive in implementing IIoT. In 2011, the Chinese government announced a policy of introducing IoT to promote modernization, actively implementing it in factories and the medical sector. After 2020, there are plans to optimize the procurement and management of resources and materials by leveraging 5G, the next-generation wireless standard that promises wide-band, low-latency communication over a wide area, together with AI and advanced camera systems for detecting areas and employee movement in logistics processes in real time. In Germany, where the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) was launched, many companies, including major organizations in the manufacturing and machinery industries, are working on IoT through public-private partnerships. At the same time, the US is spearheading efforts towards implementing Internet for the industrial sector, or Industrial Internet. The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), which is driving this initiative, is comprised of over 200 members, many of them prominent companies in the US, Europe, and Japan. And in addition to implementing the industrial internet using IoT technology, new values and services are expected to be created from open activities. What's more, in Japan smart logistics is one of the projects under the government's Strategic Innovation Program, which has begun research and development. The goal of this project is to achieve an efficient platform for collecting various data from manufacturers, logistics companies, and distributors and providing it to businesses who wish to use it. This project is expected to improve productivity in logistics and retail businesses by 20% over the current level by significantly reducing loss through sharing inventory management statuses within the supply chain and improving delivery conditions (i.e. addressing driver shortages, undeliverables, etc.). Figure 3: There are several advances to IIoT such as improved efficiency, enhanced traceability, and reduced costs. (Source: ROHM) IIoT PROVIDES MORE THAN SIMPLE CONVENIENCE Why is IIoT believed to provide a greater return on investment than consumer related IoT? Because consumer IoT is focused on convenience, while IIoT is implemented primarily to improve efficiency, enhance traceability, and reduce costs (Figure 3). To increase efficiency and traceability in factories, visualization will make it possible to investigate and track the 'what,' 'when,' 'where', and 'how' to facilitate quality and safety assurance. At the same time, to reduce maintenance costs, integrating sensors in equipment can be used to detect signs of failure and issue notifications and warnings to decrease maintenance frequency and prevent accidents. In addition, the expertise and knowledge of experienced engineers and technicians can be readily passed down to the next generation through the accumulation of information, image analysis, and other means.

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