by Gary Mintchell | Dec 29, 2022 | Edge, Internet of Things, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management
This announcement relates more to IT than operations. ZEDEDA has established a spot in a technology called edge orchestration. As edge compute has become a hot thing finding ways to manage and orchestrate edge devices assumes importance.
This release concerns building automation, but the technology is more broadly applicable. ZEDEDA has delivered a scalable edge solution for Switch Automation, a global technology company for digitizing and decarbonizing buildings, enabling the company to provide innovative edge solutions for digital buildings.
Switch’s comprehensive smart building platform integrates with traditional building systems and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to analyze, automate and control assets in real time. During early deployments and without a fully formed management tool, Switch ran into scalability issues for hundreds of appliances.
ZEDEDA provided solutions and technical expertise for managing Switch’s edge devices – including the OS, the edge apps, and the network — and delivered a completely stable network device to allow Switch to achieve best-in-class uptime and a more robust support infrastructure.
Since leveraging ZEDEDA, Switch has reduced its overall maintenance hours typically consumed by OS and general software upgrades. That reduced downtime has translated into a more cost-effective operational management across all of its appliances.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 28, 2022 | Data Management, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management
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Inductive Automation’s Jennifer Faylor wrote on the company’s blog some thoughts from last fall’s Community Conference about digital transformation tips. She notes that digital transformation is “unignorable”. Yep. Even I write about it, even though I think that it’s something that began many years ago and will continue indefinitely.
Despite the abundance of companies forging ahead with plans to digitally transform, there are some that remain a little lost in the weeds. And for those that are already navigating Digital Transformation adeptly, staying on the cutting edge of best practices is indispensable, to ensure you continue to create top-notch solutions.
Following is her compilation of tips.
1. Think Big, Start Small, and Act Fast
“When you start thinking about Digital Transformation, think big, start small, and act fast. … And the big one, I think, most people overlook is actually the acting fast. They get too caught up, or they think about this as a traditional, large, single-entity monolithic project or initiative, instead of a whole bunch of small, iterative, flexible, agile approaches to transforming the company.” – Jeff Winter, Industry Executive for Manufacturing with Microsoft
2. Prepare for Expanding Scopes
“A lot of times with these types of projects, as they expand, as the interest in it grows, the scope of the project grows. So really [it’s important] to define what our core objective is that we want to accomplish, once we meet that objective, add on additional features to it. Sometimes it seems like with these projects, they can balloon almost too quickly. If we can keep it focused on a couple of specific objectives and meet those, then we can take that and build upon it.” – Nate Kay, Engineering Manager at MartinCSI
3. Show How Easy It Can Be
“I think a big thing for Digital Transformation is oftentime clients are very shocked by how easy it is to implement some of the Digital Transformation concepts … and I think we need to continue to push customers to do things like proof of concepts, or really just see a demo for what their system could be. I personally think that the SQL Bridge Module is the most powerful tool, and that customers have been using bad tools for so long that they just don’t realize how simple it can be to capture data and do things like eliminate that manual report that they’ve been filling out for 15 years.” – Elizabeth Hill Reed, Project Engineer, DMC, Inc.
4. Flip the Process From “Push” to “Pull”
“As soon as you do the first line and you prove the data is real regardless of what the preconceived notions are of what the data should be, you turn from a push process, where ‘We’re from central office and we’re here to help,’ to a pull process, ‘I have a problem with another line, can you guys do what you did on that line over on this line?’ So as soon as that coin flips, you’re golden.” – Dan Stauft, Director of Operational Technology, SugarCreek
5. Follow the “4 Rights”
“[Get] the right data to the right people in the right place at the right time.” – Steve Chapman, Partner, Barry-Wehmiller Design Group
6. Embrace Your Role as an Educator
“As an integrator you’re also an educator, in terms of especially today in the space where you do have IT, OT … those are two different levels that for years hadn’t really talked to one another and don’t really know each other’s world. And so now they’re being forced to communicate with each other, and we’ve got to try to help educate them on what’s important to each other and why.” – Mike Ficchi, Senior Controls Engineer, Multi-Dimensional Integration (MDI)
7. Empower People on the Ground
“And the idea is, is that if you work with people on the ground rather than just [sending them] a memo, to say that we’re going to be putting in this system, speak with the people first, get their opinion, and ask them for input because now you’ve empowered them, now they’re part of that solution, and they feel like this solution is going to help them produce better, not this is just going to be some measuring stick as an excuse to get rid of people.” – Craig Resnick, Vice President, Consulting, ARC Advisory Group
8. Add Extra Value to Everything You Do
“For everything you do, give a little bit of value-added. Something new, something that they haven’t thought of, but something that’s going to give them information that they didn’t have before, or control of something, or view of something, or some new data that you’ve merged two bits of information to produce new data, data that they didn’t have before. And they will love that.” – Chris Taylor, Managing Director, BIJC Ltd
9. Remember: It’s a Journey, Not a Destination
“This process is a journey and not a destination. If you can help everyone involved understand that … ‘This is new, and you know what we’re going to celebrate the wins, we’re going to get better from the losses,’ because both of those things will happen on a journey. You have the highs, you have the lows, but if we all understand, ‘Hey, we’re marching towards this common end goal,’ setting those mental parameters is extremely beneficial when we’re trying to attempt and create really any kind of change, not just Digital Transformation.” – Reese Tyson, Ignition Team Lead, Flexware Innovation
10. Accept That the Solution is “Becoming”
“One very important lesson that we learned last year and have discussed a lot internally is that any solution is never really done. It continues to develop in different directions as new business needs arise with the clients, and we’ve learned the hard way that we have to stop talking about the delivery and instead accept that it’s only a delivery, one of many. And somewhere along the road, we realized that there’s a term for this, it’s the thinker Kevin Kelly who actually coined this, ‘becoming.’ So, things are just becoming, the solution is becoming, it’s never ending as such, it’s just becoming.” – Jan Madsen, Founder, Enuda AB
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 27, 2022 | Commentary, Events, Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management
Knud Lasse Lueth, founder and leader of the firm IOT Analytics in Germany, wrote a comprehensive report on trends picked up at the SPS fair in Nuremberg in November. Note: I have an affiliation with the analyst firm as an advisor. I recommend visiting the web site to check out the full report.
Smart Production Solutions (or SPS), one of the leading industrial automation fairs, was back in action earlier this month. The event that took place from 8 November –10 November 2022 in Nürnberg, Germany, showcased once again the latest industrial automation developments. Despite a smaller crowd (44,000 visitors—roughly 30% less than pre-pandemic), the fairgrounds were buzzing and filled with senior executives from many leading industrial automation companies, software providers, and related companies. The conference remains a key show for industrial automation hardware and (increasingly) software. It is perhaps the most important fair for some European (especially German) industrial automation companies, such as Siemens, Beckhoff, or Phoenix Contact.
IoT Analytics had a team of three analysts on the ground. They visited approximately 75 booths and conducted over 50 individual interviews to get a handle on the latest industrial automation trends with a special focus on IT/OT convergence.
The main reason we are seeing interest and movement toward the convergence of IT and OT in the manufacturing space is because of IT technologies’ promise to significantly improve manufacturing. The market dynamics of an increasingly competitive world have “forced” OT, a traditionally less hi-tech sector, to consider these IT technologies. As a first step, IT/OT convergence can happen by creating the necessary (secure) interfaces between IT and OT systems.
10 IT/OT convergence trends visible at SPS 2022
1. IT-based containerization technology at the edge
2. Integration of IT and OT tools
3. Cloud-native (IT) tools for improved manufacturing operations
4. IT programming tools and languages for controllers
5. Virtual PLCs—containerized controllers
6. Digital twins to virtualize physical assets
7. Low-code tools
8. MQTT protocol connecting OT and IT
9. IT cybersecurity models for OT
10. IT approach for industrial software quality control
On another note: The team would like to give a shoutout to Schneider Electric for being one of the few companies at the fair that embraced sustainability by leading with a carbon-neutral booth completely made from recyclable materials (such as walls made of reusable wooden pallets).
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 23, 2022 | Automation, Robots, Technology
AI gathers so much media hype that I must curtail my natural bent toward contrarianism. Artificial Intelligence in its various forms has advanced many applications. However, its hype often exceeds the actual applicability. Some new products offer more potential than immediate use. Industrial and manufacturing announcements are often more immediately accessible than the more general one.
This news announces AI-based software that is now useful add-on for FANUC robots with some interesting use cases.
Micropsi Industries announced that its artificial intelligence (AI)-based software MIRAI is now compatible with numerous robots produced by FANUC. With MIRAI, FANUC customers can now add valuable hand-eye coordination to multiple FANUC industrial and collaborative robots (cobots) to handle difficult-to-automate functions such as cable plugging and assembly.
Using AI, the MIRAI controller generates robot movements directly and in real-time. Robot skills are trained, not programmed, in a few days through human demonstration, without requiring knowledge of programming or AI. To train a robot, a human repeatedly demonstrates a task by manually guiding the robot by the robot’s wrist. The recorded movements are then transformed into a skill.
Cable plugging applications such as flat ribbon cables for the electronics industry or industrial automotive connectors typically require a high degree of flexibility to accommodate shape instability, making it a difficult task for any robot. MIRAI makes this type of application possible, says Prof. Dominik Bösl, chief technology officer, Micropsi Industries.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 22, 2022 | Automation, Business, News, Technology
[Note: If you had previously signed up to receive new posts via email, you’ve noticed that they stopped and then restarted. WordPress had notified me that this service had ended. I recently saw where it was active, but not supported. It’s on for as long as WordPress enables it or until you unsubscribe.
You can subscribe to an occasional newsletter that I’ve been playing around with. It comes through my HEY.com email account. If you haven’t checked out Hey, give it a look. I haven’t moved my business email there, yet, but I like the new take on an email client. My email address there is [email protected]. The newsletter is at https://world.hey.com/garymintchell and you subscribe there or get the RSS feed for your reader.]
Zebra Technologies Corp. is an interesting case study of a company building on a rather mundane, albeit useful, technology in a classic MBA strategy sort of way. I knew it for years as a label printer company—even sold a few in an earlier career. Now its technologies are found in many industries.
Along with the current meme of all God’s children doing research and reports (where have all the industry analysts gone?), here is a report Zebra compiled regarding attitudes and expectations of both consumers and managers in the automotive industry.
A couple of quick highlights:
- Consumers are driving a growing environmental imperative in automotive manufacturing that decision-makers need to address: Eight-in-10 consumers say sustainability and eco-friendliness are key priorities in their vehicle purchase and lease decisions.
- Navigating the increasing demand for EVs: More than half of consumers indicate their future preference is for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). However, navigating the growing demand comes with challenges as 68% of automotive industry decision-makers say they are under high pressure to produce next-generation (i.e., electric) vehicles.
- Trust and transparency in automotive manufacturing is a must: Approximately 80% of consumers and fleet managers want to have end-to-end visibility during the manufacturing process.
Zebra Technologies Corporation released the findings of its Automotive Ecosystem Vision Study which confirmed automotive manufacturers are under pressure to accommodate growing consumer demands for sustainability and transparency throughout the manufacturing process and fleet managers’ need for the digitization of operations and supply chain.
- Despite a fluctuating economy, automotive manufacturers are ready to invest in technology innovation as seven-in-10 expect to increase their tech spend and six-in-10 plan to increase their manufacturing infrastructure spend in 2023.
- Spanning multiple generations, consumers are a driving force behind automotive manufacturers’ acceleration to technology innovation as eight-in-10 say sustainability and eco-friendliness are key priorities in their vehicle purchase and lease decisions.
- Consumers are also driving the growing emphasis on personalization – the ability to customize a vehicle to their liking. Nearly four-in-five consumers say personalization options factor into their decision to purchase a vehicle, and eight-in-10 fleet managers share these same requirements for sustainability and personalization.
- Three-fourths of automotive manufacturers say a top priority is to build strategic partnerships with tech companies for their next generation of production.
- Data and information transparency is highly important to consumers and fleet managers alike, and they’re seeking more visibility into the automotive ecosystem. When considering a vehicle for purchase or lease, 81% of consumers and 86% of fleet managers indicate they want to understand the origin of materials and parts on their vehicle.
- Beyond gaining greater visibility into the automotive manufacturing process, once they have their vehicles, 88% of consumers and 86% of fleet managers want to understand how the data from their vehicles will be used by the automotive ecosystem. After a vehicle purchase, 83% of consumers and 84% of fleet managers expect ownership and control of the data their vehicle generates.
- A majority of consumers and fleet managers (80%) want end-to-end visibility during the manufacturing process. However, only about three-in-10 automotive industry decision-makers say they will prioritize connecting real-time data systems to enable a holistic view of operations and increase visibility across production and throughout the supply chain over the next five years.
- About one-third of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) said autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), RFID, rugged handheld mobile computers and scanners as well as industrial machine vision will improve supply chain management while about one-third of suppliers cite mobile barcode label/thermal printers, wearable computers and location technology as the technologies to do so.
- Overall, seven-in-10 automotive industry decision-makers agree digital transformation is a strategic priority for their organization. In the next five years, they anticipate expanding their use of technology with 47% focused on additive manufacturing/3D printing and 45% on supply chain planning solutions.
