From connected factories to smart fleet management, technology is driving a new industrial revolution. To stay competitive, industrial enterprises are building on the efficiency gains delivered by automation and other pillars of Industry 4.0 to adopt more advanced digital solutions for smarter, faster working.

But such rapid change is creating fresh challenges and priorities for technology teams. As companies expand their digital footprint with solutions such as cloud technologies and edge computing, teams are struggling to manage the explosion of data across multiple platforms and monitoring tools. Any outage can be detrimental to production and lead to breaks in the supply chain. To mitigate these risks, companies are investing in real-time digital operations management to keep a pulse on their tech stack and have processes in place to trigger swift, coordinated incident response when issues happen.

Optimize Operations With Smart Devices and IoT

Smart devices and IoT are already reshaping manufacturing and related industries. Using embedded sensors, companies can monitor everything from thermostats to equipment performance to create valuable business intelligence. This data enables operations teams to quickly detect and resolve quality issues, change production plans or even customize production to customer demands.

But sensor networks can only deliver real value if systems are available. That’s why system reliability has become a top priority for technical and business teams alike. PagerDuty comes with hundreds of integrations so that it can relieve the pressure on ITOps and DevOps teams by consolidating sensor networks into a centralized platform. Our customers are also using our platform to reduce alert noise by funneling notifications into a single system, which streamlines real-time response across the whole enterprise.

One such company is Good Eggs, a same-day fresh produce delivery company based in San Francisco. Good Eggs has integrated PagerDuty with Samsara sensors to monitor refrigerator temperatures and protect produce from equipment failure. If a sensor detects any major fluctuations in temperature, PagerDuty sends an alert so that the Good Eggs team can immediately fix the issue or transfer goods to a functioning cooler. This helps the team to reduce waste, save costs and ensure customers get quality goods on time.

Detect and Connect Supply Chain Workflows

Digital technology is also delivering benefits to supply chain management and production, providing end-to-end visibility across entire workflows. IoT devices can track raw materials from origin to delivery and help businesses respond in real time to any issues that might arise.

Many companies have begun turning to robotics and automation to cut down on manual tasks and free up staff for higher-value activities. From vehicle testing in the automotive industry to warehouse fulfillment in retail, businesses are bringing together man and machine to increase efficiency.

But adding extra layers of advanced technology tends to result in larger infrastructure and greater complexity, making systems even harder to manage. Ensuring system reliability and uptime is key to avoid any breaks in the chain.

SPS Commerce, a leading supply chain solutions provider, proactively anticipates and manages incidents to keep critical retail supply chain services online by using PagerDuty. Companies turn to SPS to streamline operations and support new order management models, such as the ability to ship directly to consumers, and as its retail network grew, SPS had to find a way to manage the increasingly complex collaborations between different customer backend systems and technical abilities. When incidents arose, teams had to scramble to triage and resolve with limited visibility due to the alert noise coming from various monitoring tools. SPS turned to PagerDuty to centralize all of their monitoring tools and teams for better visibility into performance and improved monitoring across their entire ecosystem of tooling and performance solutions. This removed friction from the incident response process and enabled SPS to maintain organizational velocity—all while enabling more efficient and faster incident response.

Intelligent Shipping and Logistics: Streamline Efficiency with Integrated Monitoring

IoT devices are helping shipping and logistics providers to track assets in real time and identify and resolve issues straight away. Smart tracking devices can collect and communicate information from exact location of assets to when the truck will next need a refuel, driving down cost and streamlining efficiency.

PagerDuty is helping businesses make the most of smart logistics solutions by coordinating systems and notifications across all points of the journey. For example, supply chain company 1-Stop Connections uses PagerDuty to help manage port logistics for global freight companies. With PagerDuty, 1-Stop can monitor its logistics products and warn support teams when customer-facing issues are detected. Digital operations management has improved cross-team collaboration and communication and helped to preserve the customer experience.

Ecommerce delivery management company Metapack is also using PagerDuty to mitigate business disruption and optimize the customer experience. Metapack provides personalized delivery management solutions to retailers and carrier networks. It uses our tools to reduce alert noise and increase team collaboration. PagerDuty helps Metapack reduce its mean time to recovery (MTTR), enabling staff to focus on providing better customer experiences.

Prepare Now for Future Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of being flexible and resilient in the face of rapid change. Industry 5.0 is imminent, and with the pace of digital acceleration across industrial enterprise, there’s no turning back. To make the most of tomorrow’s exciting technologies, it’s vital that businesses implement scalable digital operations management today. Learn more about PagerDuty’s solutions for IoT and Connected Industries in this solutions brief or start a free 14-day trial today.