According to the World Economic Forum, 85% of industrial equipment remains unconnected to the IoT, which means it’s being monitored through a combination of manual observation and reacting to something that has already broken. But if you’re reading this, you’re probably already aware of this frustrating situation and considering your options.
Before putting your time, money, and resources on the line, use this checklist to evaluate the equipment monitoring vendors who have already made your shortlist.
5 Crucial Considerations When Evaluating A Monitoring Solution:
What sort of infrastructure is required?
- Does the vendor hard-wire complex sensors into your machinery or install small monitoring devices externally?
- Do they require a centralized monitoring system or is data collected in the cloud?
- Can the solution scale or evolve as your business needs change?
Are specialized technical skills needed at any point in the process?
- Does the solution require specialized technical skills to install and set up?
- How about later, when utilizing and maintaining the solution?
What does deployment look like?
- What is their average time to launch?
- Are their specialists required to install each device or can your internal resources manage the process?
- How extensive will the training be, in order for your team to be successful?
- Does the vendor provide both initial and ongoing support for the product and the system overall?
Can the solution accommodate remote equipment?
- Can they accommodate remote equipment?
- Do they have the capability to gather data wirelessly from your remote equipment?
- Are the monitoring devices built for outdoor use, able to withstand changing weather conditions?
- How are the devices powered? (i.e. battery, solar, electric)
How much does the solution cost?
- Does the solution come with high upfront costs?
- Do they charge for each additional monitoring device?
- Will you need to hire new staff to manage this new monitoring solution?
- What kind of downtime and human resources will be pulled away from usual operations during setup?
- Do the projected savings of your new equipment monitoring solution offset these costs?
Conclusion:
You’ve already taken the first few steps towards improving your equipment monitoring strategy—acknowledging it’s a priority and asking hard questions. Choosing a partner for this task is no small matter. There are many high-powered (and expensive) options on the market, but sometimes, less is more.
Curious to learn more? Pick a time and let's meet!
