The Industrial IoT Blog
IIoT Insights by Henry Costa
Tag: OEE
Overall Equipment Effectiveness is a metric used to measure how well a machine or process is performing. It combines availability, performance, and quality into a single score.
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Communicating Edge Contextualization and Unified Namespace to Leadership
Read more: Communicating Edge Contextualization and Unified Namespace to LeadershipThe team had a problem. Not technical this time. They needed to explain Edge Contextualization and Unified Namespace (UNS) to senior leaders who did not care about protocols or data models. The audience knew their factories well. Directors, VPs, plant…
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AI Meets UNS: Practical LLM Uses on Industrial Data
Read more: AI Meets UNS: Practical LLM Uses on Industrial DataA few years ago, if you told me we’d be using large language models on top of plant data, I would’ve said: “Cool demo. Not sure it survives contact with a real site.” Now I’m more convinced. Not because LLMs…
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Why Your OEE Is Probably Wrong
Read more: Why Your OEE Is Probably WrongI’ve spent decades working with plant data, and if there’s one thing I wish more people understood, it’s this. Inconsistent machine data quietly ruins your OEE, often before you even know there’s a problem. I’ve seen this at small sites…
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Building a Credible IIoT Business Case
Read more: Building a Credible IIoT Business CaseIf you’ve ever tried to pitch an Industrial IoT project to your CFO and felt like you were speaking a different language, you’re not alone. This situation comes up repeatedly in manufacturing organizations. The discussion often happens in small conference…
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Top 10 IIoT Use Cases to Watch in 2026
Read more: Top 10 IIoT Use Cases to Watch in 2026Every year, we see new IIoT trends, new buzzwords, and new “top use case” lists. But inside a plant, the reality is usually much simpler. People don’t come to work excited about Industrial IoT. They come to work hoping the…
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IT/OT Integration. Lessons from Pulp & Paper
Read more: IT/OT Integration. Lessons from Pulp & PaperI started working with industrial data integration in 2005, and one of my first major projects was at a large pulp and paper manufacturing site in Brazil. This was back in 2006-2007. At that time, nobody was calling it “IIoT.”…
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Beverage Manufacturing Connectivity Before IIoT Was a Thing
Read more: Beverage Manufacturing Connectivity Before IIoT Was a ThingBetween 2012 and 2014, I worked on two large manufacturing connectivity projects in the beverage industry. At the time, nobody called them IIoT projects. They were described as manufacturing intelligence or production reporting initiatives. SAP MII happened to be the…
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Closing the Loop: Agentic AI and IIoT in Self-Correcting Manufacturing
Read more: Closing the Loop: Agentic AI and IIoT in Self-Correcting ManufacturingIf you work in manufacturing today, you’re probably hearing a lot about “Agentic AI” and self-correcting systems. I’ve spent the last two decades watching factories evolve from islands of automation to fully connected, data-driven environments. We moved from PLCs talking…
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The Power of Storytelling with IIoT Data
Read more: The Power of Storytelling with IIoT DataIf you’ve been in manufacturing for a while, you know the plant floor is noisy—not just with machines, but with data. Every sensor, robot, and PLC is constantly spitting out numbers. But here’s the thing: all that data is just…
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What a Steel Mill Taught Me About Real-Time Manufacturing Intelligence
Read more: What a Steel Mill Taught Me About Real-Time Manufacturing IntelligenceIf you want to understand what real-time intelligence really means in manufacturing, spend a day in a steel mill. I learned more about data, people, and decision-making in that noisy, hot, and relentless environment than in any classroom or conference…
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Moving SAP OEE to a Modern IIoT Platform
Read more: Moving SAP OEE to a Modern IIoT PlatformI’ve been working with automated OEE systems for several years. Starting from early SAP MII implementations, I’ve built and supported solutions that collect real-time data from PLCs, calculate availability, performance and quality, and provide operators with live dashboards. These systems…
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Why UNS Is Important in an IIoT Journey: Real Lessons from the Field
Read more: Why UNS Is Important in an IIoT Journey: Real Lessons from the FieldLet’s get right to it: if you want to make your plant smarter, faster, and truly connected, you need a Unified Namespace (UNS). I’ve spent over two decades in digital manufacturing, and I can tell you — the difference between…