HALEWOOD, UK—Auto parts manufacturer Industrial Automotive Components is rolling out a range of industrial IoT projects at its plant here that may serve as a model for the $4.4 billion company’s other factories worldwide.

In 1886, Josephine Garis Cochrane patented her design for the first automatic dishwasher. In 1908, the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago introduced the first electric-powered washing machine. In 1913, Fred W. Wolf’s invention of the first commercially viable electric refrigerator in the United States hit the market.