Innovating Maintenance

I recently read this article about the need to place a higher value on maintenance an a lower one on innovation.  And it got me thinking.

The basic premise, for those of you who do not like to click on in-line links, is that the drive to innovate is all well and good, but it has less direct impact on our day-to-day lives than proper maintenance of our infrastructure.  That often innovation does not take into account the effort needed to maintain the new technology or idea.

They take it a step farther and blame the drive to innovate and entrepreneurship on the increasing gap between the haves and have-nots.  Because we all want the latest and greatest, the fastest and fanciest, we reward those that create them disproportionately to those that then have to fix those new products when they break through their performance envelope.

While I do not disagree with the authors (they have fancy, unassailable letters after their names), I do think that they are missing a few things.  Read on.

Internet of Philosophy: Enterprise

Last week I started in on a series of articles around three implementations of the Internet of Things: Municipal, Enterprise and Consumer.  I covered off on the Municipal side of things within that opening article and this week I want to dive into what Enterprise or Commercial IoT is all about.

Enterprise Internet of Things

The Basics

When the government is installing an IoT system, they are doing it under the auspices of better serving their constituency.  Business installations are different.  They are all about maximizing return, whether that is for the business owners or for the shareholders.  While there is certainly a cost saving side to governmental IoT, that's all that there is for businesses.  If it won't increase profits, why do it?

Profits, then: the difference between expenditures and earnings.  IoT can help the businesses increase profits in two ways: lower costs per unit produced and lower liability.