“Previous industrial revolutions liberated humankind from animal power, made mass production possible and brought digital capabilities to billions of people. This Fourth Industrial Revolution is, however, fundamentally different. It is characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.” – World Economic Forum

Today everything is connected. We see it more and more as thermostats, lightbulbs, appliances, etc. in our homes come equipped wifi-ready paired with a smartphone app.

“The resulting shifts and disruptions mean that we live in a time of great promise and great peril. The world has the potential to connect billions more people to digital networks, dramatically improve the efficiency of organizations and even manage assets in ways that can help regenerate the natural environment, potentially undoing the damage of previous industrial revolutions.” – World Economic Forum

The same is true with commercial equipment. With the shrinking cost of sensors, even older equipment can report data and systems can be put in place to maintain them. What if you could limit the downtime of your equipment, even if only by one hour a month? The implications could be huge savings in lost production and also longevity of the equipment’s life.