Pakistan has a vibrant industrial sector. To name only two, the Pakistan Plastic Association has 119 members on its mailing list and the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association has 255 proud members in its directory. Everywhere, industries have to automate, modernize and innovate to compete. A recent article in the Economist highlights that Covid has concentrated the minds all over the world and a recent survey by McKinsey found that two-thirds of global firms are doubling down on automation. Pakistan’s industry doesn’t only produce for Pakistan. The Pakistani firms in those member directories are well and truly integrated into global supply chains. Which means that they, too, need to invest into automation and data collection so they can innovate and compete in the future.

The macro-economic situation in Pakistan makes it a lot harder for companies to simply copy what businesses do elsewhere. But that doesn’t allow Pakistani companies to ignore it. I would like to share my observations from our discussions with companies who are courageous enough to talk about their ideas for industrial IoT, automation and data collection. There are a good number of companies that have heard about and even know about industrial IoT. They have seen it at Gitex or another fair around the world. They may have picked up a business card from one of the large companies like Siemens, Rockwell or Schneider. Why are they not buying?

The systems offered by the large international suppliers of automation and IoT are great. They are also big and expensive. But they may not even quote because their minimum project size is larger than the average project size required by Pakistan’s industrialists. Their offerings are therefore too expensive to consider. The result: Managers remain forced to forego innovation and continue to use manual labor where remote monitoring and metering will do a faster, better and more sustainable job. Covid has already shown that remote monitoring systems are able to keep you operating without having to put people in harms way. And it’s not all about replacing people with robots. The most important thing today is to know what is going on by collecting data. That data has to be worked with, has to be stored and managed for statistical analysis. The insights gained from the analysis will inform your strategic moves and it will enable you to innovate because you will know much better what exactly you need to change.

Linked Things designs and makes IoT solutions in Karachi for industries all over Pakistan. We are a home-grown supplier that can deliver customized small and medium sized projects to international quality standards. Linked Things is in business since 2016 and has shown that we can get things done in difficult circumstances. We have deployed a number of small and medium sized automation and IoT projects. We have set up the only private network of air quality sensors in Pakistan (check it out on https://www.data.linked-things.com/#/airquality). We are in the process of supplying the air quality monitoring system to do the same in Lahore.

If you are running a textile mill, an agri-food business, produce plastic or have any other kind of industrial process business, contact us today to discuss your requirements. Send us what you had wanted to discuss with one of the large international companies but couldn’t get done because it was prohibitively expensive. We are looking forward to hear from you.