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Factory IoT Saves Intel $9 Million

Posted by samzenpus on from the passing-on-the-savings dept.

jfruh writes Want a good way to sell someone a new technology? Prove to them that you believe in it enough to use it yourself. Intel has been trying to get customers to buy into the concept of the "Internet of Things," in which tiny distributed networked sensors would improve manufacturing processes. To prove its point, they implemented such a system in one of their Malaysian factories, and claimed $9 million in savings.

4 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. THAT IS NOT AN IoT CASE! by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's a LANoT.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  2. The Internet of Things, aka by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the next giant leap in ubiquitous mass surveillance.

    I just can't wait for all the devices that surround me to snitch on me and report all my life habits to their corporate or state masters 24/7...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:The Internet of Things, aka by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is just simple equipment monitoring with networked devices.This has been done for decades. Just a PR puff to get some brand names out.

  3. Re:uh huh... by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    $9 million in savings in a large production plants is shit. They have single machines that cost more than that. To take a gamble on a large change like this, the savings need to be insane. Cut my costs in half and it might be worth the risk. Saving $9 million when my costs average $300 million and, yes... that's nice... but its not worth the risk of new tech.

    Actually $9million is $9million regardless how how you cut the pie. Just because a business turns over several orders of magnitude more means they should stop factoring in potential savings as *small* as $9million?

    I ask you, what is a gamble? How are you gambling when you monitor your equipment? What is the risk when it goes wrong? Back to potential $9million outages? Oh calamity!

    The only reason people are up in arms about this is because someone used the phrase "Internet of Things". If this article was started with "Lean Six Sigma", "Kaizen", or "a Continuous Improvement Project" no one would bat an eye. I am a reliability engineer and creating this type of monitoring is my day to day activities. Sometimes they pay off really well, sometimes they produce no benefit and we wasted a few $100k, but all of a sudden when someone says it's an "Internet of Things" project rather than project everybody shouts about risk?

    Get a grip. Oh and I work for a plant that turns over approximately $4bn in product annually, yet if I could save $9m I guarantee there would be prizes, parades, and all sorts of untold honours directed my way. Never under-estimate how hard it is to squeeze the last bit of financial efficiency out of a place.