Do you want to improve your business operations? Are you wondering how to achieve those improvements? Read through the discussion below to learn how you can vastly improve business operations in ways you might not have considered.

These ways include the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning, 2 of the most disruptive technologies being used today. Their use together is natural, with IoT sensors providing data that would not normally be collected, and machine learning using that expanded data. Discover how you can use these 2 technical advances to overhaul your business operations.

Workplace Inefficiencies

Around one-quarter of businesses today use IoT devices to collect data about their business processes. This figure will only grow, as business leaders find ways to use the resulting data to improve their operations. Those ways include machine learning, taking this increased data, and using it to make or recommend improvements.

For example, IoT and machine learning could discover that an excessive amount of time is consumed in performing a certain process. Machine learning might then suggest an improved workflow to accomplish the same task. Management may not have realized that this was a problem area.

Machine learning programs can take data directly from IoT sensors. These programs can find important connections between data points that managers may not notice and use these connections to suggest modifications. These suggestions can be made much earlier than when using traditional programs and with improved accuracy.

Automation of Business Processes

The combination of machine learning and IoT can be used to automate routine tasks. This means the combination can perform work otherwise performed by personnel. As the use of IoT grows, the combination often becomes even more effective at saving time.

Automating processes like scheduling and record-keeping frees employees to do other, more valuable, work. Probably, errors will also be reduced as these tasks are performed by machines rather than by persons.

Business process automation can be used to do things more advanced than simple tasks. It can be used to communicate with customers, run marketing campaigns, and plan and schedule events. As the use of IoT expands, it produces data from a wider area of the business and becomes ever more versatile.

Use in the Supply Chain

The supply chain is one of the most valuable areas for the implementation of the Internet of Things. Think of the value of data from shipping containers or other vehicles involved in the supply chain. Critical information such as location and environmental factors could be available to machine learning algorithms. Your business could be transformed.

With machine learning programs making use of this data, personnel can receive advance notice of shipping delays and prepare accordingly. Supply chain delays can therefore be handled more efficiently. A program known as Orion has saved UPS approximately 10 million gallons of fuel a year by adjusting routes on the fly. These accomplishments come from real-time measures of traffic and weather conditions.

Management of Risk

IoT devices can provide business leaders with data used to measure aspects of risk. Machine learning can then take it a step further to help assess and manage that risk. Leaders might otherwise overlook this important underlying data.

IoT devices can be used to measure points in the workplace or customers’ behavior. For example, Progressive insurance has used IoT devices to measure customers’ driving habits. These measurements are then used to adjust customer insurance rates. The rates are based on the customer’s actual driving behavior.

IoT devices could be used to detect the condition of air conditioning filters, and thus detect when to change the filters. Also, machine learning could conceivably be used to detect the presence of hackers or malware in internet networks.

Reduction of Waste

One of the principal areas for use of IoT sensors is in eliminating waste. For example, it is estimated that about 2/3 of the energy used in business is wasted. The use of IoT sensors combined with machine learning algorithms could conceivably eliminate a considerable portion of this energy.

IoT devices combined with machine learning algorithms could be used to detect and suggest workflows or procedures that could be less wasteful of time and effort. IoT devices provide data that cannot be denied, and combined with machine learning algorithms, could help provide significant improvements in our flow of work.

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