Checklist8 min · 20 points · no sign-up
Factory IoT readiness checklist
Most failed factory IoT projects were decided before anyone bought a sensor. This is the list we walk through in a discovery call, written so you can run it yourself first and arrive with the answers.
01
Decide what the data is for
- Name the decision the data will change. “Visibility” is not a decision; “stop the line before the bearing fails” is.
- Name the person who will act on an alert at 2 am, and check they have the authority to stop production.
- Write down what today's answer costs: hours of downtime a month, scrap rate, overtime, a lost customer.
- Agree the one number the project will be judged on before you start, not after the dashboard exists.
02
Audit what the machines already expose
- List each machine, its age, its controller, and whether it exposes Modbus, OPC-UA, a PLC tag or nothing at all.
- Check whether the machine maker's warranty forbids tapping the control panel — this catches people late.
- For machines that expose nothing, decide what can be measured from outside: current draw, vibration, temperature, optical counts.
- Identify one representative machine for the pilot — the one that hurts most when it stops, not the newest.
03
Check the plant network honestly
- Is there Wi-Fi where the machines are, or only in the office? Measure it at floor level with the machines running.
- Does IT allow new devices on the plant network, and who approves that?
- Is there an air-gap requirement? If yes, say so on the first call — it changes the architecture, not the price.
- Confirm whether data may leave the premises at all, and whether the answer differs for a cloud in India.
04
Plan for the shop floor, not the demo
- Dust, vibration, wash-down, temperature range, EMI from drives — specify the environment the device must survive.
- Decide where power comes from, and whether battery devices are acceptable given the maintenance that implies.
- Agree who installs: your maintenance team, the vendor, or both, and during which shutdown window.
- Plan for the operator: if the system needs them to do anything daily, assume it will not happen.
05
Set the commercial frame before the pilot
- Fixed price for the pilot, with a defined device count and a defined end date.
- Written answer on who owns the firmware, the cloud code and the data. The answer should be you.
- Agreed exit: what you keep if the pilot does not clear the bar.
- Ask for the rollout cost per machine before the pilot, not after it succeeds.
If you want a second pair of eyes
We will walk through this with you, free, for thirty minutes.
No deck. Bring the specifics and we will tell you where the risk actually is — including when the answer is that you should not start this project yet.
- GSTIN 09CPBPD9064H1ZS
- Lucknow, India
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