by Gary Mintchell | Jun 27, 2017 | Automation, News, Productivity
Siemens holds its Automation Summit this week in Boca Raton, FL, and it kicked off its media program with a round table discussion with the Financing group.
Siemens Financial Services exists as a sales support group to assist customers who perhaps require assistance financing a project. This could involve helping with cash flow or giving the customer some operational flexibility. This often helps smaller businesses as they adapt to the changing business and technology conditions they are facing today.
“Siemens is a one-stop shop.”
They brought back memories of my early sales training on solution sales when they mentioned that Siemens Industry is getting adjusted to solution sales (rather than product sales) and the Siemens sales teams are learning that financial can be a key component of a solution sale.
Siemens is not the only company in this space, by the way, adjusting to a new way of life beyond “selling boxes.”
ROI
Where can Return on Investment (ROI) be found in a digitalization project? Siemens suggests several ways:
• Increase manufacturing productivity
• Reduce energy consumption
• Reduce downtime
• Shorten setup and changeover times
• Improve quality
• Improve planning and forecasting—which leads to
• Reduced inventory
• Reduce waste
What are Industry 4.0 financiers offering that supports this new mindset?
Industry 4.0 Finance can:
• Embed financing options into the initial value proposition, opening a wider range of affordable digital transformation possibilities
• Flex financing periods to suit the pace at which each manufacturer will reduce costs or increase sales as a result of the company’s digital transformation
• Cover the total solution and total cost of ownership (hardware, software, services), allowing manufacturers to secure digital transformation at a guaranteed and sustainable monthly cost
• Employ machine data to ensure finance is based on usage or outcomes, aligning technology capabilities with their resulting commercial benefits
• Use cost-saving or money-making outcomes to fund enabling technology, making digital transformation
• cost neutral
• Build in technology upgrade options so manufacturers do not become trapped in technology obsolescence in a world of quicker innovation cycles
• Bridge the cash-flow gap between technology investment and the resulting benefits to make digital transformation more financially sustainable
Adding fincining assistance as part of a solution sale to help customers overcome a potential obstacle to implementing digitalization and reaping the benefits seems like good business sense.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 26, 2017 | Leadership
Listening is a vastly underrated leadership skill.
We all know people who must fill in every gap with sound. It is as if a lull in the conversation might cause people to lose interest in them. There is a guy who hosts a technology podcast that is a round table discussion with two to three invited guests. But he talks right past his guests. Claims his early career in radio causes that. There can be no dead time in radio.
When you are in a conversation, where is your focus?
Are you focused on the other person; or are you focused on your response?
Leaders need, indeed good ones crave, input. We need all the ideas and insight we can get. Meanwhile others on the team need validation as a valued member of the team.
When you listen, you focus on the person. You watch their facial expression, posture, movements. Listening involves more than your ears.
Do you need to respond?
A good habit involves allowing a short break at the end of the other person’s speech. Pause, breathe, activate that switch between what was said and what you need to say. It’s like a timer in a control circuit.
What you say now has more impact.
Listening has always been an important leadership skill. Working with today’s workforce listening becomes an essential leadership skill.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 26, 2017 | Automation, Wireless
Remember the wireless wars of about 10 years ago? No? Good.
But Emerson was the leader of the WirelessHART camp. One or two other companies led the ISA100 camp. The technologies are quite similar with just enough differences to make them incompatible. A movement to converge the standards faltered.
Then the entire issue went away. Just as I told them all at the time, the market will decide. And it did.
Both wireless technologies, and products supporting each, still exist. So, Emerson has released a new product to bridge the gap.
Emerson announced a new dual-mode wireless gateway which supports both IEC 62951 WirelessHART and ISA100.11a industrial wireless communications standards. This latest addition expands Emerson’s wireless portfolio and provides customers an easy way to take advantage of WirelessHART technologies from many suppliers.
“With our new dual-mode gateway, we’re excited to give ISA100.11a users an easy path to the improved operating performance they are seeking,” said Bob Karschnia, vice president and general manager, wireless, Emerson Automation Solutions. “WirelessHART has proven in 10 years of successful deployments around the world to provide the highest reliability and most robust self-organizing, self-healing network, for the lowest cost.”
With more than 31,000 WirelessHART installations worldwide and over 9.1 billion operating hours, Emerson leads the automation industry in wireless networking. Emerson’s wireless portfolio helps customers extend their automation ecosystem for improved operating reliability with sensing, monitoring and control technologies such as temperature, pressure, level, corrosion, flow, acoustic, gas and vibration, plus wireless adapters for valve positioners and digital valve controllers.
Serving as the backbone of a wireless infrastructure, wireless gateways and access points increase the amount of real-time information available to automation systems, applications and analytics tools to help organizations improve responsiveness and decision making. Critically, they must possess robust, “always-on” security to limit network vulnerability. When deployed efficiently, they can require the least hardware necessary to keep costs low while operating reliability high. Lastly, customers consistently seek ease-of-deployment as a key consideration.
A future release of Emerson’s dual-mode wireless gateway will be integrated into the Cisco 1552WU, a combined WirelessHART and WiFi solution for industrial hardened wireless, and will seamlessly integrate into Emerson’s industry-leading security and network management tools, including Emerson’s Plantweb Insight applications for Industrial IoT which help industrial facilities improve operations and maintenance by simplifying asset monitoring.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 23, 2017 | Leadership
I learned a leadership lesson about collaboration and design this morning.
The store where I buy birdseed is on a corner. Think small streets, not like a busy city intersection. The primary street has been dug down to dirt, and the contractor is in the process of laying cement pavement, walks, and gutters. The little store built from an old grain elevator has a drive built from pavers.
As Bruce was watching work progress, he noticed that they had raised a manhole three inches. Sure enough, they raised the sidewalk three inches. That meant that if they laid the pavers back where they were, there would be a three-inch drop from the traffic entrance/sidewalk to his drive.
When the engineer came one morning to look at progress, Bruce went out and asked him about that. The contractor said, no problem, I can build that up, make a grade and replace the pavers.
So Bruce asked, what about my neighbor’s drive?
Hmmm. They had built themselves a problem that snowballed as they looked down the street.
Who designed this? Bruce asked. I did, the city engineer replied. Well, guess you messed up, Bruce replied.
If only the engineer had gotten up from the CAD station, walked the one block to the site and asked people about the design, he would have avoided what might be a costly mistake.
The same concept applies to mechanical design, hardware design, and software design. Oh, and to leadership.
Get away from your desk. Wander around. Ask people for ideas and feedback.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 22, 2017 | Automation, Technology
When I travel to various conferences, there are certain technology themes that are strengthening connections the Internet of Things for manufacturing. We witnessed several of these this week. Here is a quick outline of some important announcements.
Why should we invest in IoT products and technologies? I hear this often. Like as not the answer will be predictive maintenance.
Augury has developed a unique technology for sensing situations that can predict upcoming failures. It must be solid technology with a solid management team. Why do I say that? Take a look at the funds investing in the company this week.
Augury Secures $17 Million Series B Funding Round
Augury, an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology company, announced that it has closed a $17 million Series B funding round co-led by Eclipse Ventures and Munich Re / HSB Ventures, the venture arm of Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) and Munich Re. Augury will use the funding to strengthen Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) relationships, develop strategic partnerships and further establish itself as the leader in mechanical diagnostics.
This round of venture capital funding for Augury comes after a successful Series A raise completed in August of 2015. Additional investors in the current round include Sound Ventures, First Round Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
“Augury is by far the leading provider of mechanical diagnostics in the commercial and industrial sectors,” said Lior Susan, Managing Partner, Eclipse Ventures. “This investment perpetuates the commercial application of IIoT technology into what will become an inevitable part of predictive maintenance technology. We are confident that Augury will continue to redefine and lead the future of diagnostics in the Industrial Internet of Things.”
Augury’s existing OEM relationships include Grundfos, Armstrong and PSG Dover. Additional industry-leading customers include Johnson Controls, Trane, Carrier, Mueller, Aramark and AECOM. As they expand their market reach, Augury will continue to exponentially grow their mechanical malfunction dictionary, thus improving their diagnostics capabilities. This injection of capital will help to solidify Augury’s market leading position as a real-time, intelligent Predictive Maintenance (PdM) solution.
“We are building a long-lasting company with the goal of diagnosing everything that has moving parts, effectively creating the mechanical nervous system of the IoT,” said Saar Yoskovitz, CEO of Augury. “Equipment manufacturers and other market leaders in the industrial sector are increasingly turning to PdM as a critical component for their IIoT strategy. This funding will enable Augury to become a driving force towards the connected era of tomorrow.”
“Insurance companies are playing a significant role in the deployment of IIoT solutions,” said Jacqueline LeSage Krause, Managing Director, Munich Re / HSB Ventures. “This investment in Augury further strengthens HSB’s leadership position in IoT and insurance.”
Cloud and the Edge
The cloud is a consistent topic of conversation. Sophisticated technologists are now discussing connectivity and bandwidth and edge computing/cloud relationships. Here is an interesting take.
Vapor IO, the next generation platform for edge clouds, announced Project Volutus, which enables cloud providers, wireless carriers and web-scale companies to deliver cloud-based edge computing applications via a network of micro data centers deployed at the base of cell tower sites. The company also announced today that Crown Castle, the nation’s largest provider of shared wireless infrastructure, has made a minority investment in Vapor IO to accelerate the project’s development and deployment.
Project Volutus is a “data center as a platform” service, powered by Vapor Edge Computing. Project Volutus offers fully-managed micro data centers at the base of cell towers, literally at the true edge of the wireless network. It combines Vapor IO’s patent pending hardware and software technology with the nation’s extensive network of cell towers and dense metro fiber to build and operate self-driving, distributed edge data centers in major metropolitan locations.
“Zettabytes of machine to machine communication and new application types will require a shift in how the industry thinks about data centricity and the delivery of edge services,” said Cole Crawford, CEO and founder of Vapor IO. “Project Volutus is the most cost-effective way to deliver cloud applications that benefit from last mile wireless proximity and sub 10-millisecond round trip latency. By locating Vapor IO’s technology at tower locations and connecting to dense metro fiber, we will provide the fastest, most economical way for cloud providers, telecom carriers and web-scale companies to deliver next generation edge services in every major US city.”
In addition to supporting traditional cloud applications, Project Volutus allows carriers to incorporate virtual Radio Access Networks, including those based on Intel Corporation’s FlexRAN reference design, for speed and scale when upgrading their networks. By cross-connecting the radio network directly to edge services and the internet, Project Volutus eliminates multiple network hops and facilitates a new breed of low-latency edge applications.
Eye Tracking Research
OK, eye tracking technology can be creepy if the company sneaks it in on you during your browsing sessions. But research into how people look at and interact with their various screens is valuable in the development of improved HMI and other visualization screens. Here is a company taking it into virtual reality for research.
Tobii Pro, the global leader in eye tracking research solutions, announces a new solution for conducting high-end, eye tracking research within immersive virtual environments (VR) – Tobii Pro VR Integration.
The research tool, based on the HTC Vive headset integrated with Tobii eye tracking technology, comes with the Tobii Pro software development kit (SDK) for research applications. Researchers can collect and record eye tracking data from a VR environment with pinpoint accuracy and gain deeper insights on human behavior.
Eye tracking research in immersive VR is transforming how studies can be conducted and opens up entirely new possibilities in psychology, consumer behavior, and human performance.
Through VR, researchers have complete control over a study environment which allows them to run scenarios that previously would have been too costly, risky or difficult to conduct in real life.
“Combining eye tracking with VR is growing as a research methodology and our customers have started to demand this technology to be part of their toolkit for behavioral studies. The Tobii Pro VR Integration is our first step in making eye tracking in immersive VR a reliable and effective research tool for a range of fields. It marks our first major expansion of VR-based research tools,” said Tom Englund, president, Tobii Pro.
Tobii Pro VR Integration is a retrofit of the HTC Vive business edition headset with a seamless integration of Tobii eye tracking technology. It is capable of eye tracking all types of eyes, collecting binocular eye tracking data at 120 Hz (images per second). The solution allows study participants to move naturally while wearing the headset without compromising the user experience or the output of the eye tracking data.
