M2M and IoT in Industry

M2M (short for machine to machine) refers to the technology where devices or sensors connected to machines collect information about the events and transmit this raw data over the internet network to applications that further translate this data into meaningful information. Based on this information decisions are taken or actions are carried out. It is pretty much like IoT as we know, and sometimes M2M and industrial IoT are uses as synonyms. Industries with their ever expanding capacity are embracing M2M because of various advantages it offers like - fully connected manufacturing process, efficiency in data collection, remote monitoring, status tracking, integration with robotics etc. Moreover data collected by various devices & sensors enable industry (be it in any sector) to provide direct and customized services to customers. Figure 1 is a simple illustration of M2M system.

Fig 1: M2M System (Source Ref. 1)

M2M technology plays a significant role for industry in analyzing market demand for the products & services. Information collected from sensors and devices act as input to identify and learn patterns from purchase preferences of customers, their preferred choices, frequency of purchase etc. Product and services provided to the customers can be localized and personalized based on their location, age, education, employment and tastes. The quality or effectiveness of information, about customer needs gathered by industries, is not only measured in terms "value-in-use" or "value-in-exchange", but is also measured by "value-in-reuse". It means information gathered is global and would be reused by different industry sectors to analyze customer behavior or preferences.

M2M allows businesses to create information driven value chain, it enables them to clearly understand the potential of their businesses. Today before starting up, enterprise generate reports to know the current and future scope of their business, predict the growth rate, future demands and scalability options using data from M2M. Figure 2 is a block diagram of how M2M work in different scenarios.

Fig 2: M2M is different scenarios (Source Ref. 2)

M2M has lot of advantages for both industry and customers. Let us take a couple of examples to conclude the article. Your smart phone can learn that after long journeys you prefer a cup of coffee and it starts to show you nearest coffee shops after your journeys. Similarly a food-chain business can learn that in one particular region a lot of people look out for a coffee shop and there is scope for business. Here M2M is benefiting three parties - customer, business and potential business. Big clothing retailers in malls can learn customers' preferences and choices from their buying and trial habits and could use the information to give customized services and stock only their customers' preferred choices.

By: Mr. Karan Bajaj - Assistant Professor (CSE), Chitkara University, H.P.

References

1. http://www.cloudhub.us/portfolio-item/m2m-technology/
2. J. Höller, V. Tsiatsis, C. Mulligan, S. Karnouskos, S. Avesand, and D. Boyle, From Machine-to-Machine to the Internet of Things: Introduction to a New Age of Intelligence. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier, 2014.