Plain-English definitions of the terms South African operators meet on an IIoT, water or mining project — without the jargon. Each term links to a deeper guide where we have one.
The use of connected sensors, edge devices and software to bring industrial equipment — machines, meters, instruments — online for monitoring, analysis and action. The foundation of digital transformation in manufacturing, water and mining. Learn more →
The shift from running on gut feel and lagging paperwork to running on live, trusted data. In practice, a sequence of small, proven monitoring wins that compound — not a single big-bang platform project. Learn more →
Processing data on a device at the site (the edge gateway) rather than in the cloud. Enables real-time response and keeps logging and alerting through load shedding and dropped connections. Learn more →
An edge device storing readings locally when connectivity is lost and uploading them when it returns, so an outage causes a delay, never a gap in the data. Learn more →
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition — an on-site system that supervises and controls a process in real time. Distinct from an IoT platform, which adds visibility and analytics across sites; the two usually work together. Learn more →
Programmable Logic Controller — the industrial computer that controls a machine or process. An IoT platform reads data from PLCs (often without replacing them) to provide visibility. Learn more →
A modern, secure, vendor-neutral industrial protocol carrying structured, self-describing data — ideal for getting meaningful information out of modern PLCs and between systems. Learn more →
A simple, near-universal industrial protocol for reading registers off PLCs, meters and sensors — especially older equipment. Minimal and ubiquitous, with no built-in security. Learn more →
A lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol built to ship data efficiently over unreliable or low-bandwidth networks to a platform — well suited to remote IoT and South African connectivity. Learn more →
A long-range, low-power wireless network for small amounts of data over kilometres on battery — ideal for remote, distributed sensing such as water and agriculture. Learn more →
Narrowband IoT — a low-power cellular technology for small, infrequent data with good coverage, run by mobile operators. A common choice for metering and remote monitoring. Learn more →
An ultra-low-power, low-data wide-area network technology used for simple, infrequent IoT messages. One of several connectivity options to weigh per site. Learn more →
Securing operational technology when connecting it to IoT — read-only edge access, no exposed PLC ports, network segmentation and encryption, so you expose data without exposing control. Learn more →
A standard measure of manufacturing productivity combining availability, performance and quality. Can be measured even on old lines without replacing the PLC. Learn more →
Continuously watching an asset's health signals — vibration, temperature, current — to detect a developing fault before it causes failure. Learn more →
Using live condition data to intervene exactly when an asset needs it — catching faults weeks ahead — instead of running to failure (reactive) or servicing on a fixed calendar (preventive). Learn more →
Reading the vibration signature of rotating equipment to detect bearing, imbalance, misalignment and looseness faults long before failure — the workhorse of condition monitoring. Learn more →
Water a utility produces but earns no revenue from — lost to leaks, illegal connections, faulty meters and unbilled use. A major, costly problem for South African municipalities. Learn more →
A defined zone of a water network whose inflow is metered, so water entering can be balanced against water billed — localising leakage zone by zone. Learn more →
The lowest flow into a zone, in the early hours when legitimate demand is near zero. Whatever still flows is mostly leakage — the most powerful leak indicator a utility has. Learn more →
Monitoring and reducing network pressure to the minimum that meets service — cutting both background leakage and pipe bursts, with a disproportionate effect because the relationship is non-linear. Learn more →
The South African Department of Water and Sanitation — the regulator for water use and effluent discharge, whose licence conditions drive much water-quality monitoring. Learn more →
DWS performance programmes assessing wastewater treatment works (Green Drop) and drinking-water systems (Blue Drop) in South Africa, putting municipal water performance in the spotlight. Learn more →
Wastewater discharged from a process or treatment works. Its quality must be monitored and reported against a water-use licence. Learn more →
A measure of the organic pollutant load in water — a central parameter for effluent compliance and wastewater-treatment performance. Learn more →
The cloudiness of water from suspended particles — a key drinking-water safety and treatment indicator, and a common discharge parameter. Learn more →
The oxygen available in water — the heartbeat of biological wastewater treatment (too low and treatment fails) and a measure of river health. Learn more →
Wastewater Treatment Works — the plant that treats sewage before discharge. Real-time monitoring keeps it running and compliant between samples. Learn more →
The Mine Health and Safety Act — South Africa's mining safety legislation, including collision-prevention (8.10.1) and person-location (16.7) requirements. Learn more →
Mobile mining machines (LHDs, dump trucks, utility vehicles) that aren't rail-bound — the focus of MHSA collision-prevention requirements. Learn more →
The intervention level of the EMESRT control hierarchy: a collision-prevention system must detect, warn and automatically intervene (slow and brake the machine), not merely alarm. Learn more →
The system on a mine vehicle that senses nearby people and machines and triggers warning and intervention — built from radar, UWB, RFID, LiDAR or a fusion of these. Learn more →
A system giving each underground worker an intrinsically safe device for last-known-location, so people can be accounted for and rescue directed in an emergency (MHSA 16.7). Learn more →
Monitoring and managing the workplace health hazards — dust, gas, DPM, noise and heat — that cause harm over time, increasingly done in real time. Learn more →
Fine soot from diesel equipment, a regulated carcinogen of particular concern in confined underground spaces. Learn more →
Matching underground airflow to where people and machines actually are, instead of ventilating the whole mine flat-out — cutting a major energy cost while maintaining safe air. Learn more →
Tailings are the waste left after extracting minerals; a Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) stores them behind a dam whose stability must be monitored. Learn more →
The Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, created after the 2019 Brumadinho disaster, raising expectations for tailings-dam monitoring, traceability and escalation. Learn more →
An instrument measuring pore water pressure inside a dam or embankment — a primary stability indicator in tailings-dam monitoring. Learn more →
Scheduled rolling power cuts in South Africa. The reason IoT here must buffer at the edge and, for remote sites, run on solar — so monitoring keeps recording through outages. Learn more →
The automatic measurement and wireless transmission of data from remote or inaccessible points — boreholes, reservoirs, dams — to a central platform. Learn more →
addanode's in-house Industrial IoT platform — connecting sensors, instruments and PLCs into one live dashboard with alerts, reports and APIs, engineered for South African conditions. Learn more →
Not sure which of these you actually need? Tell us the problem in plain terms — we'll translate it into the smallest project that solves it.