From the machine-as-a-service (MaaS) model to Industry 4.0, IoT remote monitoring solutions are forging stronger relationships between OEMs and their customers.
Join the DZone community and get the full member experience. Thanks to capabilities like remote monitoring, IoT is opening up new opportunities for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Until recently, an OEM’s aftersales relationship with its customers was limited by visibility. The OEM would sell equipment and then perform maintenance on that purchased equipment according to a fixed schedule. If a mechanical or software issue arose between those service appointments, the customer would be the first to discover it. That customer would then either have to wait patiently until the service date or urgently call the OEM out for emergency troubleshooting and repair. Both of those situations left the customer looking to the OEM to respond. With IoT remote monitoring and analytics, OEMs can be more proactive. Rather than placing the onus on the customer to encounter and report an issue, OEMs can instead collect data from field-based equipment in real time and anticipate issues before they arise. They can then act immediately to improve machine performance and prevent failures. Another name for IoT-enabled remote monitoring of industrial equipment is machine condition monitoring, a term that captures the broader concept behind this emerging practice. In typical cases, the machines are outfitted with sensors.
