How real is IoT?

By: Prerna Sharma & Charu Murgai

Indian enterprises are in the early stages of understanding the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on their business, but the potential is huge. IoT is gaining popularity among Indian enterprises, government and consumers, but security concerns and the lack of relevant business cases may limit adoption in the shorter term.

According to Mckinsey, the digitization of machines, vehicles, and other elements of the physical world is a powerful idea. Even at this early stage, IoT is starting to have a real impact by changing how goods are made and distributed, how products are serviced and refined, and how doctors and patients manage health and wellness. But capturing the full potential of IoT applications will require innovation in technologies and business models, as well as investments in new capabilities and talent.

In India, the potential for transformation using IoT is huge as in the energy and utilities sector, there are segments such the state electricity boards, transmission and distribution companies, and private power producers that are adopting smart grid technology, not only to manage power supply and demand, but also to study customers’ power usage behavior. A few companies in the Indian oil and gas industry have initiated IoT pilot projects for cost-effective remote monitoring and maintenance of pipeline networks. Similarly, in the FMCG industry, a few companies are experimenting with IoT technologies to manage supply chain, inventory and warehouse, and to improve marketing effectiveness and in-store experience for consumers.

Looking at the huge opportunity and potential for IoT among Indian enterprises, Dataquest identified such leading companies that have scripted their success stories using IoT.

HPCL: Automating Processes

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, commonly known as HPCL, has the second largest share of product pipelines in India with a pipeline network of more than 2,500 kms for transportation of petroleum products and a vast marketing network consisting of 13 zonal offices in major cities and 101 regional offices facilitated by a supply & distribution infrastructure comprising terminals, pipeline networks, aviation service stations, LPG bottling plants, inland relay depots and retail outlets, lube and LPG distributorships.

With expanding business, the need for deploying right kind of technology was the top concern for the management, so that right and timely decisions are taken. Starting from mobility to IoT, HPCL have enjoyed the benefits from these emerging technologies. Among all its tech initiatives, the major two IoT projects that have changed the rules of the game are: The vehicle tracking system helps us to monitor the movement of trucks to ensure that the products are delivered as per the logistics plan and we are able to ensure the quality and quantity of product that is delivered to our customers.

In all these systems, sensors installed in field units capture state information like temperature, pressure, flow rates, density, product levels, GPS coordinates, state/condition of devices, speed, and such physical attributes. These attributes are captured and used for both monitoring the processes as well as controlling these systems.

These systems enable us to operate our facilities efficiently and provide real-time visibility of the status of the condition of these systems. For instance, retail outlet automation systems help in monitoring the performance of the outlets in real-time and pro-actively attend any issues.

“One of the biggest challenge is to integrate the existing solutions available in the market. It limits the opportunities of exploiting the rich information captured by these systems in other use cases. I believe that the vendors should address some of these concerns by adopting open standards,” added ST Sathiavageeswaran, Executive Director, Information Systems, HPCL.

Apollo Hospitals: Monitoring Vital Health Data

With more and more digital operations in healthcare gaining efficiency, IoT is becoming a very logical choice. As healthcare requires a lot of efficient management, IoT is expected to make its way in this space and add benefit to the overall healthcare delivery model.

Considering the plethora of benefits IoT can offer to healthcare, Apollo Hospitals started their journey and is using IoT in a number of areas like vital collection, monitoring the foetal heart rate, preventive wellness, tertiary care monitoring, IoT for medication monitoring or to monitor the sensors around mobility of patients, etc. In collaboration with AliveCor, the hospital tackled the growing problem of heart arrhythmias by providing a mobile device to improve access to cardiac screening tools for patients across India. This AliveCor heart monitor will wirelessly record, display, store, and transfer heart rate
and single-channel electrocardiogram (ECG), the electrical activity of the heart. With the device, patients will now have access to a mobile, affordable and clinically proven cardiac device that provides a complete picture of their heart health.

Another key IoT implementation by Apollo hospitals is the health monitoring device which provides users with essential health information at any time and place by collecting key vital data such as non-invasive blood pressure, pulse, blood oxygen level, body temperature, blood glucose, hemoglobin, cholesterol level, etc, via a compact and portable device and sending the data to the HNG Health cloud. The cloud then connects to the Apollo network of doctors, physicians, etc, to provide quality healthcare to individual patients—anytime and anywhere.

CIO, Arvind Sivaramakrishnan says, “We are constantly striving to innovate solutions and through the integrated use of various technologies.” He further believes that the pace of adoption is indeed not as high as it is in the retail or FMCG sector, but there is a good demand and clearly a movement forward for adoption. The factor which needs to be rationalized further is the cost and if the cost will cut down, it will add more to the productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the healthcare operations, clinical excellence and would be a good stride forward.

TVS Motors: Getting People with Right Skillsets is a Challenge

What are the fundamental aspects of your IoT strategy? How would you describe your IoT strategy and what does it encompass?
The fundamental aspects of TVS Motors’ IoT strategy is to bring automation, process control, and traceability in the manufacturing area. We believe that the visibility drives analytical ability and that in turn converts tacit knowledge into science for better control and management.
What challenges did you face in your IoT journey?
The first challenge is the presence of heterogeneous equipment which took over a decade to be built. New generation equipment are digitally enabled. The second challenge is the availability of desired skillsets and its maintenance. These IoT projects can be deployed but maintenance in the long run is a challenge as it may impact production stoppage.
Please share some examples of the top IoT initiatives undertaken by your firm that have created huge business impact.
There are many examples that can be shared. To name one is process parameters in paint shop numbering around 70 are effectively monitored and fine-tuned to avoid rejection; and traceability helps in optimizing process parameters. Another one is automation that helped in increasing productivity.
How have these IoT initiatives helped? Can you give us some measurable statistics that show the benefits (increase in market share, improvement in efficiency, etc)?
The first objective in IoT is to produce defect-free vehicles effectively. We have significantly achieved our targets in this. This will further pave way for better customer satisfaction and improved marketshare.