Monitoring Critical Assets in Times of Crisis

A pandemic is sweeping through our lives and economy with whole countries going into lockdown, and people staying at home to take the necessary precautions.

At the same time, others are asked to step up to the front line – doctors, nurses, police. I know this first-hand, because my wife is one of these.  They are working 24/7, not only to treat the severely ill but also take care of other patients and the elderly that are vulnerable.

These people depend on us to do the right things; stay at home, keep our distance, reduce the speed of spreading. But how can you do that if your job is to maintain the critical infrastructure for your organization? How can you reduce your travel to your facilities? How can you ensure the continuity and safety of your operations from afar?

There are ways to do this using the Internet of Things, integration and business transformation technology. Applied properly, they can help you to ensure business continuity in the most trying of times.

Sensors can work where people can’t

Your company will want to protect the people that have responsibility for assets – and now find themselves confronted with those assets located in restricted areas.

Workers helping to supply hospitals during the pandemic, for example, cannot get to many systems and facilities at these locations because of risk of infection. And hospitals cannot afford to run out of crucial live-saving supplies.

So, one of our partners helped to solve the problem of getting critical gases such as oxygen to customers by using IoT to monitor the fill level of the bottles. With real-time data on thousands of gas tanks and bottles deployed at their customer sites (both companies and hospitals), they get alerts on usage conditions as well as consumption. This allows automatic replenishment policies, ensuring the businesses do not run out.

By using IoT sensors on your assets you can monitor your equipment safely, remotely, from anywhere. No more on-site visits. No disruption to your business.

With remote monitoring of IoT sensors, you can check:

• Temperature: Ensure the temperature of key process equipment—like steam generators, industrial heaters and freezers—is monitored closely to avoid breakdown. Get alerts to potential issues based on current and historical trends to trigger automated responses that need no human intervention.
• Pressure: Whether it’s steam for equipment sterilization or compressed air for pneumatic processes, early warning of pressure drops allows you to avoid catastrophic consequences. Know when there’s a potential problem to act immediately. Be there without “being there.”
• Fill level: It is essential to know the amount of water, oils or chemicals in local tanks used by emergency units, in back-up generators or for local fuel supplies for you to ensure efficient and timely replenishment. Avoid critical levels and expensive last-minute call outs. Be out of range, but never out of touch.
• Vibration: Vibration is an essential indicator of the operational performance of motors, pumps and fans. With continuous real-time monitoring, you’ll know the instant your system stops running smoothly, ensuring that on-site visits are only conducted when necessary. This is the first step in predictive maintenance, which not only ensures your equipment is running properly, but also ensures staff need not make unnecessary visits to check equipment.

Remote IoT monitoring can protect your employees, and your assets. We all need to do what we can to ensure our loved ones and our employees can do their jobs while staying safe. Help us to help you look after your employees – and your assets – safely.

To get you started quickly in Europe, we are offering 100 free* autosen io-key IoT gateways, just pay for the sensors and data plan. Offered on a first-come, first-served basis, with remote monitoring from Cumulocity and autosen, you can monitor your equipment safely, remotely, from anywhere. No more on-site visits. No disruption to your business. European residents can opt in on our website to get the voucher code and start today.

*Available today in Europe. Worldwide later in 2020.

Be careful out there.