The entire survival of our manufacturing sector is threatened by the economic collapse in Sri Lanka. Our industries find it challenging to thrive and grow as a result of the numerous austerity measures the government has implemented in an effort to stop the downward spiral.
These measures have led to exponential increases in the costs of capital and raw materials and increases in the costs of fuel, electricity, and communications.
Certain unsustainable measures have triggered the following challenges for industries: rising costs of capital, goods and raw materials, supply chain issues (costs, delays and availability), rising costs of inward and outward transportation, rising costs of utilities (energy and fuel), rising cost of manpower, high skilled migration and rising cost of maintenance (spare parts, transport, manpower).
It was abundantly obvious during the Covid-19 pandemic that businesses which proactively adopted technology as an enabler were able to increase their resilience, operational performance, and in turn profits. Similarly, our industries can widely benefit from leveraging technology to sustain and thrive during the current crisis.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), a technology that connects machines to the internet enabling the machines to autonomously monitor without human intervention and send alerts when problems are detected. This is a proven technology that businesses adapt to aid in the early detection of impending problems thereby reducing downtime and operational expenses.
Another application of IIoT is monitoring of factory electrical energy consumption where actual energy consumption can be compared with predetermined standards. Immediate alerts can be sent if energy usage goes beyond the standards set so that timely corrective action can be taken.
– Sunday Observer Sri Lanka
, Business, ,