Smart factories:
leveraging the Internet of
Things for improved
manufacturing
performance

Thailand is a manufacturing powerhouse, with major industries including automobiles and automotive parts, light manufacturing, cement, agricultural processing, and textiles. The automotive industry is crucial and Thailand makes around two million cars per year, most bound for foreign markets.

The benefits of IoT for manufacturing

IoT applications are ideally suited to manufacturing because of the industry’s longstanding use of automation and robotics. IoT takes this to the next level with smart sensors that monitor automated processes and provide detailed information to plant managers. This information can then be used to optimise processes, perform maintenance in less disruptive ways, and predict when intervention will be required.

Key ways that IoT is boosting manufacturing operations

• remote monitoring and management of manufacturing facilities
• maintenance improvements through condition monitoring and alerts when machines are operating outside the prescribed conditions such as heat, vibration, or dust
• process monitoring that highlights opportunities to reduce waste and costs
• inventory management including realistic quantity estimates and arrival times
• safety and security improvements through close monitoring of key indicators
• quality control by analysing data from various stages of the product cycle
• supply chain optimisation through tracking products from manufacture to end user.

To discover how Thai manufacturers are approaching IoT, Fujitsu conducted a study that examined Thai business leaders’ views and the state of cloud and IoT adoption in Thailand.