物聯網產業（IIoT）是智能制造的關鍵推動者，或工業4（第四次工業革命），結合大數據來提高生產自動化，減少浪費和能源消耗，提高工廠的靈活性。智能制造和IIoT可以使企業提高生產力的關鍵績效指標，設備正常運行和產品質量。公司可能熱衷于利用現有的機會，但不太確定如何改變，而不會造成不可接受的中斷或浪費他們的投資在現有的設備。目前的機器可以代表一個顯著的資本承諾，業主可能不準備從事批發更換，或升級項目，可能涉及重新編程控制器，如PLC。PLC程序可以是復雜的，即使有足夠的已知的當前程序的成功修改是可能的，PLC本身可能沒有足夠的額外資源，以支持額外的功能。

　　Adding Smart to existing facilities

　　To address these concerns， some organizations have explored approaches to introducing web connectivity as an add-on to an existing installation. This can help to lower the cost of entry to smart manufacturing， especially in cases where the installed equipment may contain large numbers of sensors that are used for basic process control. Although rich data may be collected， the lack of external connectivity prevents the organization from realizing its full value.

　　The Industrial Internet Consortium （IIC） has published the Smart Manufacturing Connectivity Testbed， which proposes a solution for extracting data that normally flows through an I/O module to the PLC. This testbed replaces conventional I/O modules with a gateway that sends the data to an IT system through an additional communication channel using the industry-standard OPC Unified Architecture protocol. By using open standards for communication and a common device model， the IIC proposal enables users to configure and manipulate the sensors via the IT system.