What industries can use IIoT sensors?

Any industry that uses or maintains equipment can make use of Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) sensors. A few of them include:

• Agriculture and farming
• Healthcare
• Restaurants and hospitality
• Manufacturing
• Construction
• Home and vehicle
• Fleet management
• Oil and gas
• Retail

Agriculture

Agricultural settings may use sensors in the following ways:

• Weather stations containing multiple sensors that allow farmers to plan crops and yields
• Smart irrigation and sprinkler systems
• Livestock and crop monitoring
• Equipment monitoring, such as on tractors, balers, and other equipment, to track fuel and functionality, manage maintenance, etc.

Healthcare

Medicine and healthcare can benefit from IoT sensors in several ways:

• Remote health monitoring, also known as telehealth
• Virtual medical hardware monitoring to make sure critical emergency equipment is always ready
• Tracking for inventory, staff, and patients

Restaurants and hospitality

Restaurants and other food services rely on various forms of equipment, meaning there are many uses for IoT sensors:

• Stock management, such as monitoring the amounts of a beverage used
• Kitchen equipment monitoring
• Utilities and energy management

Manufacturing and construction

Manufacturing, construction, and other industries that use heavy equipment have many uses for IoT sensors, including:

• Equipment monitoring and condition-based maintenance
• Automated production and building processes
• Safety and compliance, such as by triggering fail-safes and automatic shutoffs

Home and vehicle

For those who work on homes, serve homeowners, or repair vehicles, IoT can perform a number of functions:

• Home security, with motion sensors and locks connected to remote monitoring stations
• Automated heating and cooling
• Vehicle telematics tracking to track location, fuel usage, speed, etc.

Fleet management

To reduce the costs of managing a fleet, IoT can fulfill these roles:

• Tracking fuel usage and managing refueling stations
• Vehicle health monitoring for maintenance planning
• Driver behavior tracking using various onboard sensors

Oil and gas industry

Oil refineries and similar industries use IoT sensors to manage their equipment.

• Predicting breakdowns on remote, hard-to-access assets in the field
• Detection of leakages and other safety hazards
• Tracking moving equipment such as trucks and other vehicles

Retail

Finally, IoT sensors also see use in retail:

• Equipment monitoring, especially for food product storage and management
• Vehicle tracking and route optimization for efficient fulfilling of inventory
• Foot traffic monitoring to improve customer service

Implementing IoT sensors

IoT sensors require some upfront costs, so they’re best used to handle critical processes or equipment.