by Gary Mintchell | Feb 28, 2017 | Podcast
A podcast about connections. When I left magazine media, I thought about where the industry was heading. It’s all about connections, I thought. So, I found a domain name The Manufacturing Connection. Last week I was at the Industry of Things conference in San Diego. Organized from Berlin, Germany, they still attracted an outstanding speaker lineup and attendance at 2-3 times that of typical media conferences in the space.
They work hard at it, and they have cultivated lots of connections.
This podcast discusses the idea of connections from that conference. It also explores the idea of “sources go direct” where anyone can take a message to the public these days. You don’t need a gatekeeper. Maybe you connect with people like me to reach a broader audience. Individuals and marketers with energy and ability can build their own audiences and avoid getting misquoted by reporters or having a 60-minute interview boiled down to a sentence in an article.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 27, 2017 | Automation, Networking, Wireless
The “Wireless Wars” are long over. We just don’t hear much about wireless sensor networks anymore. They work. People use them. However, one of the dreams of these included the thought of spreading low-cost sensors around the plant so that managers, operators, and engineers could have more knowledge of the status of the plant.
Dave Smith (CEO) and Chuck Micallef (CMO), a couple of gentlemen I’ve known for years, stopped me at the ARC Forum a few weeks ago to tell me about a new, lower cost wireless sensor system.
Wireless Industrial Networks (WIN) announced a cost-effective wireless process sensing and condition-based monitoring solution. The wireless products include a Gateway, Universal Transmitter and selection of measurement sensors. WIN’s wireless solutions are designed to change the way the industry thinks about industrial wireless.
The products are simple to select, easy to use and have a significantly lower price than most other alternatives. Wireless applications are easier to justify and faster to start-up than wired. The communication transmission is industry standard 900 MHz, is license free, and has a range of 5,280 feet. The self-configuring communication network is “plug & play” and will be working in minutes rather than hours and requires no prior wireless experience. The complete price for a single measurement starts at just $1,300.00!
“Our products are designed to address the general purpose, condition-based monitoring applications which make up a large percentage of all automation applications,” says Smith, CEO and Owner of WIN. “Our cost-effective wireless solutions give you everything you need and nothing that you don’t! Not all applications require expensive explosion-proof devices so why pay for what you don’t need? Our customers want simple, easy-to-use, cost-effective wireless measurement solutions to address the ever-increasing need for additional measurement without the high engineering and wiring cost.”
The WIN wireless solution consist of 4 items:
- Wireless Gateway – a small, lightweight, 900 MHz communication gateway with standard Ethernet output and supports 200+ transmitters located 5,280 feet away.
- Universal Wireless Transmitter – battery (replaceable) powered transmitter accepts up to 3 universal sensor inputs, mix of any sensor measurement types, 900 MHz, IEEE 802.15.4 standard radio, frequency-hopping, auto configure and AES 128-bit industry standard encryption in a small light-weight NEMA 4x enclosure.
- Sensors – a complete line of measurement sensors using our V-Bus patented technology uniquely characterizes each sensor with a pre-programing calibration curve eliminating the need for on-site calibration, Sensors include temperature, pressure, 4-20 mA, current voltage, humidity/temperature, dual temperature, vibration, discrete, proximity and more.
- DataManager and Web Dashboard – these PC-based software applications are included with the gateway and provide a clear, simple to understand status of all network sensors and is an intuitive navigation tool used to access sensor details and measurement history. Features include: scaled engineering unit, alarm settings, bright easy-to-see measurement status indicators, measurement groups, email/text message for alerts and more.
Common applications include: motor temperature and current draw, pump vibration, bearing vibration or temperature monitoring, conveyor vibration monitoring, exhaust and cooling tower fan monitoring, filter monitoring and many more. The products are flexible and reliable.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 24, 2017 | Automation, Internet of Things, News, Operations Management, Safety, Software, Technology
Connections, services, augmented reality. Three technology directions and three companies that contacted me last month to point out some cool things going on, often beneath the radar. One of them just raised a bunch of VC money, though. I think you’ll be hearing more.
Now that I’m catching my breath from a couple of intense weeks with the ARC Forum and then the Industry of Things Conference, I have time to look at some new directions.
Knowledge Connected
Omnity uses the tagline Knowledge, connected. It accelerates the discovery of otherwise hidden, high-value patterns of interconnection within and between fields of knowledge as diverse as science, medicine, engineering, law and finance.
More than 2,500 scientific papers and 2,200 patent applications are published every day. Just the last five years of most scientific and engineering fields have produced on the scale of 100,000 documents. Reading these one an hour would take 50 years, a professional lifetime. Pair-wise comparison of these documents at three minutes per comparison would take more than 9,000 years, nearly the length of recorded human civilization. It is impossible to stay current in any field, much less the boundaries between two or more different fields, where most innovation occurs.
Omnity enables research and development professionals in all fields to rapidly and efficiently detect otherwise hidden patterns of relevant document interconnections. Whether for basic research or advanced product development, Omnity allows real-time insight into complex document sets, enabling research and development professionals to efficiently and systematically answer a wide range of questions. Read more here.
I heard about it on the podcast/radio show Tech Nation.
Augmenting Field of Vision
Safety Compass overlays information on your smartphone camera view, enhancing your field of vision. Warnings when and where you need it most—it is with you at work whenever and wherever you are, with coverage for the entire team. Simple, clear functionality with interactive hazard information suits any workplace size.
- Sign in and Select Your Site
- Supervisors can add a site or specific area on site within minutes.
- Adding hazard information is easy, simply follow the prompts to identify issues quickly.
- Workers can then sign in with secure login details and select from any number of relevant worksites.
- Scan Your Location for Hazards Using Augmented Reality
- The Safety Compass uses intuitive augmented reality to communicate hazard information to users in the field.
- Using the phone’s GPS and accelerometers the app superimposes real time information onto the camera view that adapts and compensates for worker’s field of vision.
- View Hazards Site-Wide
- By accessing the worker’s physical location, the app presents vital information on present dangers straight to the worker’s phone, avoiding the necessity of bulky safety manuals to locate and manage risk.
- A worker’s position is shown in relation to hazards, and workers can zoom, tilt and pan across a detailed site map.
- Access In-Depth Safety Information
- Workers receive critical site information well before they enter a hazardous area, allowing them time to prepare for safe work practices and overcoming the challenges of reading large volumes of complicated text in dark, shifting, loud or crowded environments.
- Additional safety information including video content can be added for more detail.
Frameworks of Applications
MuleSoft Agility starts with an application network according to MuleSoft. Mobility, Cloud services, the Internet of Things are creating incredible opportunities for business — but they’re raising customers’ expectations. MuleSoft builds application networks: seamless frameworks of applications, data sources, and devices connected by APIs, whether on-premises or in the cloud. They speed up app launch and modification cycles, make it easier to secure and manage access, and ultimately enable companies to do more — and faster — with less.
Leverage the power of API-led connectivity for a complete connectivity solution for digital business. Connect and orchestrate data on IoT devices, across devices, or with back-end applications. Leverage open standards and developer-friendly tools for speed and productivity. Connect to devices using out-of-the-box transport protocols like Zigbee and MQTT. Adapt Anypoint Platform to fit IoT architecture, not the other way around. Achieve full flexibility with a hybrid architecture and extensibility to connect future technologies.
MuleSoft recently received a large investment. Look for more from it.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 23, 2017 | Internet of Things, Manufacturing IT
The afternoon stream I moderated at the Industry of Things World conference focused on connected vehicles—Construction Equipment, Trucks, Airplanes. I also interviewed a farm equipment manufacturer about some perhaps surprising uses of data-driven decision making in agriculture.
But first, a thought from another keynote address:
From a NASA study—If you want to employ a creative genius, you’ll have 98% success employing a 3-5 year old; if you hire an adult, you probability of success drops to 2%.
Data-Driven Agriculture
I caught up with Alexander Purdy of John Deere between sessions. He’s not an engineer or IT manager like many of the attendees and speakers (he had a later keynote). He on the business end. How can John Deere grab a competitive advantage and serve customers through connected data? After a career as a consultant, he loves actually doing things.
His group deals in guidance systems and digital solutions. Guidance systems essentially link a GPS to large farm equipment. Not only does this ensure the rows of corn are nice and straight, the digital decision making increases coverage and yield.
Deere’s digital solutions include online JDLink, JDonline, and an ops center. A farmer can sit in her office and plot out planting regimes setting up everything before going into the field. There is even a way to collaborate on methods and local information.
Let’s take seeding for example. Sensors connected back to the system can feedback soil conditions. This helps the planter decide for each seed in a cornfield the optimum x, y, and z (yes, they measure depth of planted seed). The idea is to get each plant to grow at about the same rate.
Connected Construction Equipment
Kjell Jespersen, Caterpillar, spoke on huge construction equipment. Customers have been using the large amount of data generated by construction equipment mainly for improving maintenance. However, they crave better productivity data to manage their business. Developing the systems for gathering and analyzing all the data will become crucial as a competitive advantage—or failure to do so could force a company to exit the business.
Connected Trucking
Turning to the long-haul trucking business, companies are turning to truck suppliers such as Volvo and Mack Trucks to provide connected vehicle technology to provide data for improved customer support. According to Evandro Silva, Manager Connected Vehicle Services, Volvo Group Trucks North America, a telematics solution was used to develop a connected service that enables quick diagnosis of issues, proactive scheduling for repairs, and confirmation that needed parts are in stock and ready to install—all while the truck is still on the job.
Airplane Digital Twin
Robert Rencher, Senior Systems Engineer and Associate Technical Fellow, The Boeing Company, took the discussion to a new level—literally. From equipment that stays firmly on the ground, Rencher discussed the role of a “digital twin” throughout the lifecycle of an aircraft. A digital twin is defined within a system representing the characteristics of the object and the virtual environment in which the digital representation of objects and their physical equivalent, vice versa, are represented digitally and co-exist such that the object’s past, current, and future capabilities and can be assessed and evaluated in real-time. As an object progresses through each phase of its lifecycle, various systems interface with the digital twin.
Next Year
Look for information about next year’s conference and all the other conferences. Next year will be about the same time of year in San Diego. Details are still being worked out. Check out twitter conversations at #IoTClan
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 22, 2017 | Internet of Things, Operations Management, Software
I moderated a track on innovative business solutions based on the Internet of Things. Seven sessions. Good speakers. The Industry of Things World event is one of the better conferences you will attend. It is organized from Germany, and still draws top speakers and more than 400 attendees. Sounds as if it is outgrowing its venue at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego. Oh, if only other conferences in our industry sector faced such a problem 😉
The basic difference between European-oriented conferences and American lies in some of the speakers. Even though the organizers do not do this on purpose, many of the keynotes were from supplier/sponsor speakers. A few basically gave company presentations rather than talking about their technology or solutions.
My votes for best keynotes went to Alex Tapscott (first) who spoke on blockchain. I believe that blockchain and Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) are the two technologies most likely to disrupt the industry. The second keynote was from Jim Davis on Smart Manufacturing. I have not heard from him for a couple of years, and this was a good update. More on both below.
Sugar Creek Packing case study by Edward Rodden, CIO. Empowering workers was a key part of the IoT strategy, according to Rodden. Both IT and OT came together under him, and they built a single network and IoT platform to further unify the disciplines. Using a converged network infrastructure was a benefit in addition to implementing a software defined data center. They built in a DMZ between the enterprise and operations segments. They found appropriate planning to be the key to success. They consider a ratio of 80/90% planning to 10/20% execution. Main problem they had, which was not expected nor in the plan, was not vetting wiring contractor who used many people not properly trained for this type of IT wiring. Rodden sees IT as change agent in the business.
David Riddle, Director of Information Technology and IoT Development at ThermoFischer Scientific, described business models for connected, mobile controlled substance test devices that help police identify substances quickly and effectively. New chemistry profiles can be downloaded effortlessly or the device can be sold on a per use basis instead of an up-front capital cost.
Yves-Gorat Stommel, Director of Business Development and Innovation at Evonik, discussed how to do the first step of a Big Data analysis journey. He pointed out, “Somebody needs to start, why not you?” As you talk to people around the company, with every new discussion you will reach people who can become supporters and drivers. You may find talent and existing projects that help
There is more coming. This was an impressive gathering.
