Most assets are massively underutilized. This fact is often discovered once assets are made smart & connected to the world of the Internet of Things.
Finding ways to increase the utilization of these often-idle assets is one of the biggest payoffs for an organization embarking on the IoT journey.
Underutilized assets like cars, offices, MRI machines, assembly lines, dishwashers, partially empty trucks on the road, conference rooms, & thousands of others must have their utilization optimized so they can earn their keep.
You wouldn't let employees spend 75% of their working time taking smoke breaks. Your machines & supply chains should be no different. These underutilized assets & processes must be put to work in a full-time capacity.
This phenomenon is reminiscent of previously-idle servers in data centers that had their utilization boosted via operating system virtualization. They were put to work so they could earn their keep.
Connecting assets to IoT systems & analytics in order to reduce unplanned downtime & increase their remaining useful life are important first steps on your IoT journey to reduce operating expenses.
The next step is to increase the incremental utilization of these assets by connecting them to IoT & Blockchain facilitated digital marketplaces where their spare utilization can be rented to others in order to boost revenues.
As Machine Learning gets better at forecasting the level of asset utilization, a futures market can be created where counter-parties can trade upcoming free utilization.
Share idle assembly lines in factories w/ partners. Share free hours of MRI machine time w/ patients at other hospitals & medical plans. Know where trucks are going & how full they are so we can fill them. Know where unused food & idle commercial kitchens are & feed the hungry.
To sum up: Connect your assets to keep them healthy, know their utilization, & reduce operating costs. Offer up the underutilized portions of your assets to digital marketplaces or other matchmaking engines to earn additional revenue & help others who need what you have.
