In case you hadn't heard, MPI released the results of its 2017 Internet of Things Study last week.
The results are astonishing.
We expected to see dramatic jumps in awareness of — and investment in — IoT initiatives among manufacturers around the world (we did). And we suspected that there would still be many manufacturers unsure of how to get started with the IoT — and at risk of falling behind (we saw that, too).
But the shocker is this: just two years after nearly half of manufacturers hadn’t even heard of the IoT, a majority are now making money off the IoT:
- 72% report increased productivity, and 69% report increased profitability, from application of the IoT to plants and processes
- 65% report increased profitability from sales of IoT-enabled products (e.g., embedded intelligence)
Wow.
That's terrific news for those leveraging the IoT. But it ought to be terrifying to those companies still on the sidelines. They risk permanent competitive disadvantage if they don't start at least experimenting with the IoT now.
Which begs the question: Why aren't executives at these firms investing in the IoT?
For the second year in a row, they tell us that their biggest challenge is simply identifying opportunities to implement the IoT. In other words: “I don't know where to start.”
Yet with more and more manufacturers already improving productivity and their bottom lines with the IoT, I-don’t-know-where-to-start is beginning to sound more like an excuse than an obstacle.
There are lots of great examples of IoT implementations among firms large and small. Next month, MPI will publish some of them in our 2017 IoT Profit Report. We’re still open to hearing YOUR great IoT story, so drop us a line if you have one — we'd love to tell everyone else about it.
There’s no excuse not to!
Find out more. Download the Executive Summary of the 2017 IoT Study for free.
