Enabling the Development of Value-Adding Internet of Things Applications in the Manufacturing Industries

Abstract

Reducing the costs of computing power, connectivity, and electronic components will create the potential for a wide range of product and service innovations. Industrial manufacturing enterprises need to innovate to maintain their competitive advantage in today’s globalized markets. The development of Internet of Things (IoT) applications is a major option for these innovations because IoT applications allow for the automatic generation of meaningful information about the physical world and its objects. De- spite the high potential of digital technologies, current value-adding IoT applications are scarce, and developing them is a major design challenge for industrial manufactur- ing enterprises. This doctoral thesis aimed to foster the development of value-adding IoT applications in industrial manufacturing enterprises by conducting four studies to answers three main research questions: (1) What inhibits the development and de- ployment of IoT applications in industrial manufacturing enterprises and thus prevents potential innovations? (2) How can IoT applications enhance value in an industrial con- text? (3) What tools, methods, and mindsets support and accelerate the development and realization of industrial IoT applications? The studies showed that business and organizational inhibitors are the most relevant, and they include three IoT applications that deliver added value in an industrial context. Agile development practices are ca- pable of addressing the main challenges of IoT application development, and a smart camera approach can serve as a universal component that can cover data-processing functionalities of an IoT application, which can be used to monitor industrial processes. Knowledge and experience were developed during the course of this doctoral thesis that can help develop value-adding IoT applications in the manufacturing industries. These can be transferred to applied development practices and engineering education.