INTERNET OF THINGS
IOT
RPA or Robotic Process Automation is a technology that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to handle repeatable tasks that previously required humans to perform.
The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet .
Together, RPA and IoT can enable organizations of all shapes and sizes to optimize management processes as well as employee productivity.
One of the challenges of getting the most out of the IoT is the sheer volume of data that its devices produce. RPA can help with this. Software robots (“bots”) can make sure this data gets into the right processes in the right enterprise systems and trigger actions that manifest in the physical world.
In other words, RPA can sit at the interface between the data from IoT devices and various enterprise business processes.
- Performing predictive maintenance: IoT sensors can pick up on key performance indicators for, say, jet engines, and note when a particular set of data is out of bounds. By catching problems before they occur, two positive benefits accrue: business continuity improves—you don’t have to ground an aircraft or ground it for quite as long—and you save money by only doing repairs when needed by a component, as opposed to doing it on a generic schedule.
- Improving operations. Sensors allow you to collect data on inventory stock (its quantity, weight, temperature, etc.) and bots can feed that data into enterprise systems that perform real-time analysis and correlation to data related to real-time customer demand. This in turn allows you to do proactive replenishment of inventory—either raw goods or finished products—so you never run out, and you never have too much of it.
- Ensuring compliance: By monitoring conditions in real-time, compliance with federal, state, or industry regulations that have been established for your type of business is never an issue. Compliance in such cases is critical, as you can be charged significant fines and penalties if you fail to meet sanitary conditions for, say, food or pharmaceutical manufacturing activities.
- Sending automated alerts: Rather than having to keep an eye on the tens of thousands of devices in a factory, for example, bots could act in the place of human foremen or forewomen. If an IoT sensor notes that a manufacturing line producing widgets has slowed considerably in the last hour, a bot can trigger an alarm for a factory worker to perform triage to determine what the problem might be, and fix it before an important customer order deadline is missed. More sophisticated AI systems might even be able to analyze the problem and fix it without human interference.