In IoT, sometimes it's those small changes that make the greatest difference.

In the world of IOT and Industry 4.0, any hint of changes to the processing facility often brings with it a picture of massive overhaul and huge investment in new infrastructure. This would be true if we are talking about a completely new build, where the sky is the limit and everyone has bought into the idea of smart factories. Where production and maintenance schedules are built around the insight gathered from data points and the ability to view the real-time usage of utilities such as gas, electricity and energy consumption via an asset management dashboard.

In reality, most of the cases for IoT deployment are within existing plant and infrastructure. The need to prove efficiencies and the ability to make sense of the data being captured (and the correct data at that) usually leads to a phased approach, which in the grand scheme of the new megatrends can lead to lower level tech deployments and trial scenarios before any major investment is committed too. But it's these lower level technologies which can bring in great rewards and cost savings. It all just a question of application.

In the next couple of weeks, we are going to focus on a few new proof of concept application studies, which are being tested at our own Nuneaton distribution centre.

The first of which in reality is a paging system, in essence, a call to action request via an SMS. The product we are looking at is called Spur from Continuum Bridge, an intelligent call to action device and service. 

Spur enables facilities management, leisure and retail businesses to quickly deploy new services, streamline their legacy processes and improve customer response times; without the need for significant capital investment in replacing old equipment.

It really is very simple to install, just three set up steps are required.

The main aim of this product is to help streamline existing facilities management and through a number of application scenarios, it's being put to good use in RS Nuneaton.

These include;

1) Request for replenishment

The Spur button provides a two-way interface between the user and recipient, in the trial at Nuneaton, these are set up to provide an interface between the operations and the packaging department. Once the pallet of jiffies reaches a pre-defined level the operator presses the button to activate a request for refill, this request details the location and the size and quantity required. This is then received by the packaging department, upon which they release the refill and send a confirmation message to the exact location.

Within warehouse the size of Nuneaton knowing the correct location to send replenishment is critical. Normally the packaging department would carry out a floor walk each day to build a list of the replenishment needs. Now with a few simple call to action buttons, the process becomes more automated, allowing for greater efficiency and more importantly a constant supply of packaging materials in the right place at the right time. This process alone has provided cost savings of over £4000 in man hours.

2) Fault report

Another scenario for this Spur button is to report a fault and generated a works order. In particular, Nuneaton are installing the Spur buttons to monitor the lifts within the warehouse. In the unlikely event of a fault occurring the Spur button identifies the lift and the location for the engineer to go to.

3) Request for manager

Within the operations area, each sector has the implemented the Spur button to call a manager to the correct location. Should an issue arise the Spur button sends a message to the manager's phone, indicating the location and incident type required to be resolved. With over 10,000 parcels being processed daily any hold up can impact customer service levels greatly. Now a simple and cost-effective system for troubleshooting can be achieved using the Spur button, a fast easy to use and effective solution.

These are only three solutions in which the Spur button is being used. There are potentially hundreds more that could be considered, for an effective cost-efficient solution to asset management it's certainly worth looking at Spur from ContinuumBridge.

Here is a little more on how Spur works.

• CONNECTIVITY:
• Spur wirelessly connects to a local bridge (supplied) which sends information about each interaction to a central server via a mobile network or the local area network
• APPLICATIONS:
• Single or multiple layer call to action implemented using single and left or right button presses
• RANGE:
• Each Spur can be located up to 300 metres line-of-sight and up to 3 floors of a typical office building away from the local bridge
• BATTERY LIFE:
• Up to 5 years under normal operating conditions
• REPORTING:
• Using a webpage, or delivered via emails, SMS and a web API, to a third party process automation database or system
• SET-UP:
• Simple webpage or API
• SECURITY:
• State-of-the-art end-to-end security
• DEPLOYMENT:
• Self or fully-managed solution

Find out about Continuum Bridge and Spur here