Earlier this summer, I found myself in Madison, Wisconsin at the headquarters of one of our customers, Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero is the leading brand of built-in refrigeration and in 2000, acquired the Wolf line of cooking appliances. Both are the dream brands for anyone undertaking a kitchen remodel or dreaming of one (including my wife!). The Sub-Zero facilities are gorgeous, particularly the kitchen showrooms where they showcase innovative shapes, sizes, and models for all sorts of consumer needs, kitchen styles and décor.
I was particularly struck at how these appliances- truly the most beautiful and technologically advanced of their kind, are designed and built in the heartland of America (with engineering in Wisconsin and manufacturing in Arizona). The Cisco team and I, along with our partner from Librestream, were there to profile how Sub-Zero used the Internet of Everything, in this case, innovative mobile video collaboration to re-engineer and streamline their new product design, manufacturing and installation processes. Find out more details on their use case and business outcomes Sub-Zero experienced from my colleague Chet Namboodri’s blog on Sub-Zero Innovates with the Internet of Everything
To me, Sub-Zero’s use of innovative solutions clearly embodies the theme of a recent Industry Week article on how small to mid-sized manufacturers can use transformative technology to level the playing field. In many cases, I think smaller firms actually have the advantage- including more flexibility to pilot and deploy solutions in perhaps unusual ways. What do you see as some of the possibilities for IoE in your engineering or production environment?
Adding a detachable tablet with a proprietary app that compliments grocery deliver services, etc. is becoming very inexpensive for these companies to intergrate into their products. It could even very easily turn into a revenue generating stream that continues to bring in cash for these companies long after the appliance has been sold.
Regards,
Nicholas Lee Fagan
Nicholas,
Fully agree with your comments from the end user standpoint and just in the past few days there have been some great articles with Google and Amazon looking to get into this area. The focus of SubZero in this case is around product development and product releases. I can not speak for SubZero with regards to future products and possible link ups outside of the blog I have written.
Security will always be a concern from a consumer standpoint, and the IoT world is starting to see this need and reacting to this. No longer is it enough to just plug in your TV (Refrigerator, stove, etc…) and turn it on. Now you need to be aware of any and all connections that this device may have and ensure you are connecting to the outside world in a secure and safe manner.
Regards
Doug