What stalls manufacturing IoT projects — and the fix for each.
On a factory floor, the obstacles are rarely technical capability. They are access to the machine, agreement about what a number means, and whether the shift can act on it before the end of the day.
| What goes wrong | How you notice | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Retrofit assumed to need PLC access | The project stops at IT and controls approvals | Start with the least invasive route that answers the question — many losses are visible without touching the control system at all |
| Counting the wrong event | The system’s output disagrees with the operator’s tally | Count what the customer pays for, as late in the line as possible |
| Definitions differ between shifts | The same line reports differently depending on who is on | Write down the changeover, stoppage and rework rules once, and apply them everywhere before comparing anything |
| Data arrives after the shift ends | Nothing changes on the floor, only in reports | Put the number where the shift can see it during the shift. Information that arrives after the decision is history |
| Old machines treated as out of scope | The worst assets stay invisible | Age is rarely the obstacle. Current, vibration and simple stop/run sensing work on machines with no digital interface at all |
| Pilot on an easy line | The result does not transfer to the hard one | Pilot where the problem is. A clean line proves the technology and settles nothing |
| Maintenance and production measured separately | Both teams can show they are doing well while output does not move | Share one set of numbers. Availability is a maintenance result and a production decision at the same time |
The two we see most often are the invisible old machine and the easy pilot. Plants tend to instrument what is convenient to instrument, which is usually the newest asset with a network port — and then report that the data did not reveal much. The losses generally sit on the machine nobody wanted to touch, and reaching it is a sensing problem rather than an integration one.