Your guide to scaling IIoT projects: a webinar preview
In a few weeks, Jeff Smith serves as expert presenter for the Smart Industry webinar titled “Industrial IIoT—What Now? Scaling IIoT Projects after Initial Success.” Today the business development manager (Internet of Things) with Parker Hannifin chats with us about capitalizing on early wins, altering your strategy throughout the process, and the role of a team in scaling efforts.
Take a look…
Smart Industry: What are the greatest challenges in scaling IIoT projects after early wins?
Jeff: In my experience the next step after early wins is a big one. The construct of early wins places you in the Alpha or Beta phase. So scaling means you are now ready for this solution to be generally available. Areas that immediately get called into action include supply chain sourcing, IT support and the defined target locations for rollout.
Smart Industry: Should enterprises use early wins to validate wider efforts?
Jeff: Yes! I see no other way than being able to go through steps to prove the validity/value of your approach on a small scale. Preferably you’re figuring this out close to home.
Smart Industry: Should the strategy for initial efforts contain scaling components? Or is a "starter strategy" different than a "rollout strategy"?
Jeff: You should have all the game pieces on the board and know that the ones used in the starter strategy will be used to inform how you’ll use the pieces associated with the rollout strategy. For instance, if you have a gateway as part of your architecture, you should be working with your best few. As you progress past the starter phase what is needed will become clear.
Smart Industry: Is a team approach critical to success with IIoT projects as they scale out? Jeff: Yes. A base team is important. Most important is the value of the tribal knowledge from the first phases. It is critical to keep the key start-up resources on the project through the roll-out phase. At a minimum, you will need a program manager who has budget and management authority, a technical lead (he or she can come from IT) and a lead from operations (OT). From there you can build out the additional needed resource elements.
The sooner you get out of your PowerPoint slides and into the solution, the better off you will be. The answers you seek are outside the four walls of your office.