Building

Table of Contents

Industrial IoT
The State of
01 Industrial IoT in 2024

Lack of Alignment and

02 Ownership of the IIoT Strategy

Systems
ROI Uncertainty Threatens
03 IIoT Implementations

Accounting for Cybersecurity

04 Risks is a Top Concern

in 2024
Enabling IIoT with the Ideal
05 Technology Protocol

IIoT Investment Pays Off With

06 Efficiency and Productivity Gains

Looking Ahead: Long-Term

07
IIoT Success

What’s driving and delaying the

business impact of IIoT?
 IIoT has significant business impact
Professionals agree that IIoT can

The State increase productivity, improve Overall

Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and

Of Industrial IoT
reduce overhead costs.

in 2024
Stakeholder buy-in is critical
Top challenges to implementing IIoT
systems include leadership support,
lack of budget and uncertain ROI, and
cybersecurity.

If you don’t have an IIoT strategy you’re

Industrial IoT is fueling improved productivity and efficiency for organizations in
falling behind
manufacturing, transportation and logistics, automotive, and energy worldwide. As 74% of the companies surveyed have
technologies advance, more companies are executing IIoT initiatives to minimize already deployed or are in the process
downtime, reduce costs, and become more agile to respond to changing market of developing an IIoT strategy.
conditions, making IIoT essential to long-term competitiveness.

The time is now to integrate IIoT data

Digital transformation and deployment of IIoT projects need alignment, ownership, for AI and ML
and support to be successful. A staggering 80% of IoT projects fail to scale due Nearly half of respondents are
to the complexity of integration and the inability to support scaling systems. If integrating Machine Learning and AI
these challenges are not adequately addressed and accounted for at the onset, the applications and services into their
implementations are destined to fail. IIoT strategy.

What can companies expect when implementing an IIoT strategy that can scale to MQTT continues to lead as the
the data demands of the business and prove ROI quickly? HiveMQ partnered with IIoT industry-standard protocol
World on a survey of 350 IIoT professionals to delve into the challenges they are facing, 60% of respondents have deployed,
which technologies they are adopting, and how they plan to show the business impact plan to deploy, or consider MQTT
of IIoT in 2024. These are the key themes that emerged. as their protocol of choice for IIoT
systems.

1
Lack of Alignment “People and processes must shift to capture the benefits of
the data-driven insights IIoT can generate and maximize the

and Ownership of the technology’s value. This requires the commitment of leadership
to ensure that IIoT is not simply an IT or OT initiative but, rather,

IIoT Strategy
an organization-wide effort.”

-McKinsey

The success of any business-wide project starts Who is leading your IIoT Strategy?
with alignment and ownership. Determining who
should own the IIoT strategy can be a complex Staff from OT It’s no surprise that
Other
decision. Is it the realm of the Executive team, the Outside professionals across industries
Consultants Staff
Operational Technology (OT) team, the Information from IT view the implementation and
9% 9%
Technology (IT) team, or a collaborative effort? 7% ownership differently. Several
13%
factors come into play when
The answer is not so straightforward for many
25% making this choice, ranging
organizations. A quarter of survey respondents Executive
from the industry’s regulatory
believed that executive leadership (25%) 23%
Project team
environment to the specific
should own the project while nearly a quarter of 14% from OT/IT business objectives.
respondents (23%) believe that a project team
combining both OT and IT expertise should
spearhead the IIoT strategy. Product R&D

Here are some factors that can influence who should own the IIoT strategy:

Business goals and objectives Supportive executive leadership Collaboration between IT and OT Regulatory compliance
Align ownership with the primary The IIoT strategy may rest with IT is often responsible for connectivity, Industries with strict regulatory
business goals. If the objective is to executives, such as the CIO or COO, data management, and analytics, requirements, such as healthcare,
improve operational efficiency, it may who oversee both IT and OT. Executive while OT focuses on operations and pharmaceuticals, or utilities, might need to
make sense for the OT team to take support is critical to success and 38% control systems. In many successful consider compliance a top priority. In such
the lead. The IT department might play of survey respondents said leadership IIoT implementations a cross- cases, the ownership may be driven by the
a more significant role if the goal is to vision and management support was functional team or project group is the team responsible for ensuring adherence
leverage IIoT for data-driven decision- a challenge to implementing an IIoT ideal owner of the strategy. to industry-specific regulations.
making. system.

2
 ROI Uncertainty Threatens IIoT
Implementations
With clear ownership of the initiative confirmed, the next challenge for implementing an IIoT system is proving
ROI. Over a third of respondents (31%) said a key challenge for implementing IIoT systems is a lack of budget and
uncertain ROI. What is the return on investment that the company can expect by introducing new technology and

“Half of
processes to the business?

companies
The key to showing ROI for any IIoT initiative is identifying the key KPIs, measuring the baseline before the project
starts, and then continuing to measure them incrementally upon deployment. Many teams fail to track the right

using IoT KPIs and start initiatives to “digitally transform” but without clear and specific metrics in mind to show ROI.

lack a clear To prove a financial return on the investment for an IIoT system, consider these KPIs:

business
case.”
Overall Equipment Downtime Asset Energy
Effectiveness reduction utilization efficiency
OEE is a metric that Measure the reduction in Monitor and optimize the Track and analyze energy
assesses the efficiency of unplanned downtime by utilization of industrial assets consumption to identify
-Beecham Research manufacturing equipment, and monitoring equipment health such as machinery to ensure opportunities for optimization
improving OEE can be a win and predicting maintenance they are operating at their and cost savings.
for any IIoT project’s ROI. needs. maximum capacity.

Quality Supply chain Cycle time Customer

improvement visibility reduction satisfaction
Monitor and improve product Improve visibility into the Monitor and optimize the Measure improvements
quality by using IIoT data to supply chain by tracking the time it takes to complete a in customer satisfaction
identify and address issues movement of raw materials, manufacturing cycle, leading resulting from improved
in real time, reducing defects work-in-progress, and to increased efficiency and product quality, delivery
and waste. finished goods in real time. market agility. times, or other benefits
facilitated by IIoT.

3
Accounting for Cybersecurity
Risks is a Top Concern
In the IIoT World survey, cybersecurity (35%) was cited as a key challenge rest to protect sensitive information from interception or unauthorized access.
for implementing a new IIoT system. Security breaches continue to make Encryption is particularly important for data transmitted between IoT devices,
headlines, and ensuring enterprise-grade security is paramount to winning edge devices, and cloud services.
customer loyalty and maintaining corporate responsibility. The security
risks for IIoT include practices such as device hijacking, data siphoning, Any hardware used in IIoT should be secured using hardware security modules
data breaches, and device spoofing. There are a few ways to bring the (HSM). Regular system security audits should be performed to ensure that
highest security standards to your IIoT strategy and maintain the integrity, system security is up to industry standards, especially in highly regulated
confidentiality, and availability of critical industrial systems. industries. Of note, IIoT messaging using MQTT is inherently secure because
there are no inbound connections, only clients subscribed to specific topics
Important features like device authentication and authorization should be receive the messages and use TLS encryption.
employed. Organizations should use vendors with strong authentication
mechanisms for devices and users accessing the IIoT network. This includes Consider how you will implement your IIoT strategy as you plan a security
the use of secure credentials, multi-factor authentication, and proper approach. Deploying in the cloud, for instance, has different risks than
authorization controls. Data encryption should be used both in transit and at deploying on-premise.

How have your implemented your IIoT strategy?

Not applicable Custom in house

development with
multi vendor
17%
32%
In house development
with solutions from
cloud
23%

26%

Custom solution using

System integrator/partner
4
Enabling IIoT with the Ideal Technology Protocol
MQTT continues to rise in popularity as companies seek a lightweight, reliable MQTT Sparkplug is still in its infancy but 25% of companies say they have
messaging protocol for device and data communication. MQTT has been deployed or are looking at using Sparkplug, while 35% say they need to learn
identified as a key enabler for IIoT projects and is rapidly complementing more about it. Sparkplug is an open-source software specification for MQTT
machine data frameworks such as OPC-UA and Modbus, while Sparkplug is an helping the manufacturing industry to seamlessly integrate data from their
up-and-coming data framework. applications, sensors, devices, and gateways.

While the technology requirements vary from industry to industry, survey

respondents indicated their strong preference for both MQTT and HTTP.

Which of the following data movement tools do you consider essential to

fulfill your IIoT strategy? What best reflects your experience with Sparkplug?

No matter the choice of technology, accurate and reliable data plays an

“MQTT has been gaining momentum as important role in the success of the implementation. Data collected from
IIoT devices must be useful and trusted for decision-making. Making use of
the protocol of choice for the last-mile approaches such as Unified Namespace (UNS) to create a single source of
connectivity of OT assets to IT/cloud truth for all data on the Edge and in the Enterprise is important for the success
of any IIoT project.
systems.”
- IoT Analytics

5
IIoT Investment Pays The continued focus on OEE can help companies learn why machine
downtime happens, highlight delayed changeovers or setup times, and

Off With Efficiency bring more visibility to productivity statistics. A company using OEE as
a KPI can then optimize processes - improving production on the same

and Productivity equipment, better allocation of resources, and identifying areas of surplus
capacity.

Gains OEE and productivity translate into other tangible business impacts
as well — in the form of reduced costs and increased revenue. When
As companies invest in and deploy IIoT projects, they are seeing IIoT is implemented for long-term success, companies can expect the
much-needed improvements and competitive advantages in the form optimization of data connectivity to save them up to tens of millions of
of efficiency and productivity gains. Automating manual tasks, for dollars and deliver hundreds of millions in revenue.
instance, turns into more time for highly skilled workers to allocate
to more strategic tasks. This boost in productivity was the top To realize these types of benefits and ROI, organizations need to combat
benefit survey respondents (29%) indicated they expect from an IIoT the most common IIoT challenges to ensure their deployments are future-
implementation. A close second to productivity was improved Overall proof and battle-tested. Let’s dive into some of those challenges.
Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) (23%).

“Smart factories are set to boost

the global economy by $1.5
trillion in five years.”
Capgemini Research

What best describes the greatest benefits you expect from

implementing IIoT systems?

6
 Looking Ahead:
Long-Term IIoT Success

New IIoT technologies are setting the market up for efficient, Another trend that will surely be talked about next year is Unified
optimized, digital factories fueled by data-driven decision-making. Namespace. The concept of creating a single source of truth for
After understanding how to overcome common challenges and which manufacturing data has caught fire and organizations that base
protocols to build an IIoT infrastructure on, take a look at the trends their infrastructure on a Unified Namespace plus MQTT are setting
taking shape in 2024. themselves up for long-term, future-proof success.

The resurgence of Generative AI (GenAI), an adaptable technology There is no denying the importance of implementing an IIoT system
can recommend ways to make production lines more efficient and with a lens toward the future. Scalability, reliability, and security will
with less waste. GenAI can even design new parts or products continue to be the tenets of success for any IIoT deployment. Aligning
to take a manufacturing business to the next level. By enhancing the business to understand what can be accomplished with IIoT,
manufacturing processes, GenAI can reduce downtime, improve bringing the right team together to steer the ship, and understanding
output, realize cost savings, and boost end-user satisfaction. how to achieve and amplify the ROI - all with security at the forefront -
will keep IIoT initiatives central to business impact.
It’s likely that digital twins, which refers to the digital replication or
representation of physical machines and processes in cyberspace, This report was written and sponsored by HiveMQ based on the data
will continue to be implemented at scale. Digital twins can be used from an IIoT World Survey. HiveMQ markets an Enterprise MQTT
for use cases like monitoring and analysis, remote control and Platform and to avoid influencing the survey results, was not identified
optimization, simulation, and scenario planning. as the sponsor of the survey.

7
About HiveMQ

HiveMQ empowers businesses to transform with the most trusted MQTT

platform. Designed to connect, communicate, and control IoT data under real-
world stress, the HiveMQ MQTT Platform is the proven enterprise standard for
Industry 4.0. Leading brands like Audi, BMW, Liberty Global, Mercedes-Benz,
Siemens, and ZF choose HiveMQ to build smarter IIoT projects, modernize
factories, and create better customer experiences.

Visit hivemq.com to learn more.

globe www.hivemq.com