The Industrial Internet of Things, or IIOT, is revolutionising the way industries do businesses. Firms have to embrace automation and new technologies in order to keep up with a dynamic globalised environment.

By adopting IIOT at an early stage, it prevents a firm from lagging behind its competitors. Late adopters may see a rise in installation costs to implement these new technologies.

Current Practices are Outdated

From an industrial standpoint, many oil & gas refineries are still utilising traditional data analytics such as spreadsheets to analyse processes, as well as relying on past data to make operational decisions.

Refineries store millions of databases and thus it becomes a challenge for engineers to extract information from a cesspool of data. Additionally, for the sake of organising data, the organization may make use of foreign information systems that are not user-friendly.

As a result, refineries are considered to be data-rich but in hindsight, information-poor.

Using traditional data analytics, engineers often find themselves stranded with missing data. Typically, one would rely on past experiences to solve their engineering woes and make “informed decisions.” Just ask any engineer working in a refinery and they might just confess to using this prehistoric technique!

Refineries of The Future need to change how they organise data.

IIOT can help engineers analyse and compare their data in real-time. Vital parameters such as the temperature of a heat exchanger, flow rate of a valve or pressure of a pump can be monitored on the spot.

Advanced data analytics can perform audits and identify data correlation among statistics. If a deviation of results were to occur, the engineers will be notified immediately, in real-time. For instance, it is common for an instrument’s pressure reading to fluctuate. This could also be due to ordinary circumstances such as a spike in production. However, emergency situations such as pipe leakages could also cause abnormally low pressure readings. 

Engineers are able to justify these values with predictive analytics and thus determine the root cause.

Easier Said than Done

Adopting new technology is not without its challenges. In order for all the varying hardware to get connected, it has to comply with a single universal format that allows data to be unified. This might be expensive if you intend to hook up existing hardware to new technologies that may not be compatible.

How can PICS help?

With Phoenix Contact’s revolutionary IIOT Connectivity Solution (PICS), we eliminate the hassle of consolidating hardware with new technology. Furthermore, get everything assembled within seconds!

PICS combines new technology to drive your controllers and sensors and affixes them with your legacy equipment. This enables compatibility with our software, so that you can read your data the way you want it.

Who says IIOT technology needs to be expensive and complicated?

With PICS, you’ll have the ability to convert your backward refineries into Smart Refineries of tomorrow.

Don’t believe us? Request a free trial of PICS by leaving us an email at marketing@phoenixcontact.com.sg and experience what IIOT can do for your company today!