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Alain Louchez Connects the Data Dots for Manufacturing

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“Given the low cost of sensors and the large demand for process optimization in manufacturing, very high adoption rates of the Internet of Things are possible,” Alain  Louchez, Managing Director, Georgia Tech Center of Development and Application of Internet of Things Technologies, explained at his Sept. 30 Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute Brown Bag Seminar. “Perhaps 80 percent to 100 percent of all manufacturing could be using Internet of Things applications by 2025. This would lead to a potential economic impact of $2.3 billion.”

The reason the Internet of Things is so important to manufacturing and other industries is that change comes from data, and data will come from “things” as more and more companies incorporate sensors and track information on processes, products and services. But what exactly is the Internet of Things? According to Louchez, it is “a global infrastructure for the information society, enabling advanced services by interconnecting physical and virtual things based on existing and evolving interoperable information and communication technologies.”

In other words, it is the link between human and non-human things such as personal devices. By 2025, said Louchez, there will be at least 50 billion “things” connected to the Internet.. There are currently 6.8 billion mobile phones on the planet, and “we will see 1.4 billion smart phones in use on the planet by the end of the year – and probably two-thirds of those will be connected to Facebook,” Louchez noted. 

To advance data exchange and gathering, in June 2012, the world was introduced to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), “which changed the magnitude of the Internet by many, many levels,” Louchez said. “We moved from 4.3 billion Internet addresses with IPv4 to 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses available on the Internet with IPv6.”

The Internet of Things is a vision of society where we regroup the technologies behind everything we do – a movement toward a hyper-connected society. By 2025, with 50 billion “things” connected to the Internet, on average, there will be more than 6 objects connected to the Internet per person on earth, and the sensors in those objects track everything you do. “It’s going to be big and it’s going to touch everything,” said Louchez. “Manufacturing will be a big part of that.”

Many companies already have a corporate focus on the Internet of Things but use different names. GE, for example, uses what it calls the Industrial Internet. Bosch has the Internet of Things and Services, while Ericson talks of a social Web of things and networked society. But, Internet of Things technologies have not yet reached its peak. According to a recent study by Gartner, it will take 10-15 years to reach the "plateau of productivity." Right now, said Louchez, “We are taking all the ‘things’ and elevating them to the level of people. It’s a revolution, and a revolution does not take place over night.”

For manufacturing, Internet of Things will create the manufacturing plant of the future. It is the core of future manufacturing. It will also provide direct contact with what is going on in the supply chain. In fact, Louchez said, “Over the next 10 years, advanced manufacturing will become globally linked as automation and digital supply chain management become the norm across enterprise systems.”

Internet of Things initiatives are being put in place around the world. According to Louchez, China is far ahead of the United States. Internet of things took a prominent role in a 12-year strategic plan in this country. Today, more than 40 China universities offer a degree in the Internet of Things.

Germany launched an initiative called Industry 4.0. The goal of this initiative is to recreate manufacturing so that Germany is more productive and more efficient. The initiative lays out plans to “shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” explained Louchez. “And it will all be driven by Internet of Things technologies (e.g., cyber-physical systems). In other words, the factories of the future will optimize and control their manufacturing processes largely by themselves, so we need to be looking toward the future.”

If there is one thing Louchez wanted participants to take from the presentation, it is this: “The Internet of Things will have a bidirectional impact.” It will impact manufacturing processes through greater automation, tracing, optimization and human interaction. And on the end-product side of things, manufactured goods will be embedded with Internet of Things technologies that will transform the socioeconomic fiber, including marketing, sales, information management, business models, city life, and more, explained Louchez. He added, “Internet of Things-embedded goods will transform society.”

Louchez’s presentation was part of the GTMI Brown Bag Seminar Series, which takes place each Monday between noon and 1 p.m. in the Manufacturing Research Building, Room 114. Students and faculty are invited and are welcome to bring their lunch to the meeting. If you have questions or you want to be added to the reminder list for these events, please contact Tina Guldberg at tina.guldberg@gatech.edu.

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  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Tracy Heath
  • Created:11/11/2013
  • Modified By:Fletcher Moore
  • Modified:10/07/2016

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