I interviewed an interesting CEO of a Swedish start up called Mavenoid. Shahan Lilja is also a co-founder of this company leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of Statistical Machine Learning that tackles maintenance from an entirely different perspective.
(Note: I’m making up for going on vacation rather than going to Hannover by interviewing people I would have seen.)
Every company I’ve talked with for the past many years focuses on predictive or preventive maintenance.
But what happens when things break? A technician still must be sent to the scene in order to trouble shoot the problem. Perhaps the trouble is with a consumer product. The customer calls the company for help troubleshooting. The founders of Mavenoid saw this as an ideal opportunity for a Machine Learning application combined with perhaps a chat bot on the order of Siri or Alexa.
Lilja told me Mavenoid is the world’s leading platform for troubleshooting technical products, from dishwashers and robotic lawn mowers to trucks and cranes. It helps companies organize all of their troubleshooting knowledge, and make it come alive through an intelligent virtual agent. This virtual agent works much like a doctor for technical systems, narrowing down the possible solutions to the problem by asking diagnostic questions, and improves with each interaction. Mavenoid has some of the worlds largest companies as clients, e.g. 7 of the 20 largest manufacturing companies in the Nordics, and has quickly established itself as the future of technical support.
Finally, someone who goes beyond “buzz words” in order to define a strong use case for AI.
Mavenoid technology can be (and in fact is already) embedded within companies’ customer support services. I think this is something you all should definitely check out.
I booked a vacation several months ago that conflicted with Hannover Messe. I missed the usually chilly and damp north of Germany in favor of the definitely chilly and damp Pacific Northwest.
Many announcements from Hannover reached me anyway, though, so I’ll be going through a few this week. First up concerns using the new CIP Security protocol from ODVA. This one from Rockwell Automation.
This release talks about Rockwell’s developing solutions toward closing a cybersecurity opening within industrial automation communication.
“As the world’s leading company focused on combining industrial automation with digital technology, we’re uniquely positioned to help close security gaps in connected operations,” said Megan Samford, director of product security, Rockwell Automation. “Our new offerings with built-in security deliver the industry’s best available protection of control-level traffic. This can give users confidence that the integrity of their systems and their device-to-device communications are protected from day one.”
The Allen-Bradley ControlLogix EtherNet/IP communication module is among the first industrial devices to use the CIP Security protocol from ODVA. The protocol helps make sure only authorized devices are connected in industrial operations. It also helps prevent tampering or interference with communications between those devices. CIP Security is the first industrial automation protocol to support transport layer security (TLS), the most proven security standard available.
Also, the newly enhanced Allen-Bradley ControlLogix 5580 controller is the world’s first controller to be certified compliant with today’s most robust control system security standard, IEC 62443-4-2. The standard defines the technical security requirements for industrial automation and control system components. This certification builds on the 2018 certification of the Rockwell Automation Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) to the IEC 62443-4-1 standard.
Here, finally, is someone who writes sensibly about automation. Dystopian writers about a robot apocalypse get lots of clicks and attention, but reality will be far different.
Elliot Dinkin, president and CEO of Cowden Associates: What automation appears to have in store for the job market is not massive downsizing, but changes in job description and reallocation of some repetitive chores.
I don’t know how I got on the mailing list of this PR firm, but the following article is worth it.
In late 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute released a report estimating that the relentless march of automation could eliminate up to 73 million jobs in the U.S. by 2030. “Automation is certainly a factor in the future of the workforce,” says Elliot Dinkin, a nationally known expert in actuarial, compensation, and employee benefits issues. “There are indications, however that its effect on downsizing may be less than what has been predicted. The largest corporate layoffs of this century to date, for example, seem primarily to have been caused not by advanced technology, but by market changes, mergers, and plain old bad business decisions.”
This assessment was echoed by participants in a recent conference on the future of the worker held at the Stanford School of Business. In 1950, the U.S. Census Bureau listed 250 separate jobs; of these, the conference noted, only one, that being elevator operator, has been completely eliminated. (And some of the elevator operator’s tasks, like greeting visitors and guiding them to the right office, have been redistributed to receptionists and security guards.) Conferees also pointed out that automation has its limits. Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of Tesla Motors, said, “Excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”
One reason automation and computerization may loom so large in near-future predictions, industry experts suggest, is the spectacular increase in availability, and decrease in cost, of computer power. Given the capabilities of even an average smartphone, it is easy to forget that the underlying procedures—the algorithms that drive functions like big data and machine learning—have not changed significantly in more than 40 years.
It is also, Dinkin notes, easy to forget that under the right circumstances, automation facilitates business growth and thus stimulates employment rather than threatening it. The Ford Motor Company introduced the auto assembly line in 1913, reducing assembly time from 12 hours per car to about one and one-half hours—and enabling an enormous upsurge in production.5 Since then, the auto industry has continued to embrace automation, along with job-changing concepts like lean manufacturing. It has also continued to hire people; between 2011 and 2017, auto making and auto supplies employment increased by almost 50%, adding nearly 130,000 jobs in the U.S.
Another too often overlooked aspect of the future labor market, says Dinkin, is worker availability. Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, points out that while most popular discussions of technology center around replacing people with machines, current demographic trends point to a coming substantial drop in the supply of labor. According to Varian, the demographic effect on the labor market is 53% larger than the automation effect—meaning that when both are considered, both employment and real wages are more likely to increase than decrease.
“In the future as in the past,” says Dinkin, “workforce reductions will always be a possibility. In the future as in the past, automation will play a role in these decisions—but only as one of a number of factors, all of which need to be taken into account. What matters is to understand the situation, and to handle it in a manner fair to all parties. In our own business practice, we urge both labor representatives and corporate management to approach workforce decisions with as little passion and as much analysis as possible.”
Cowden Associates, Inc., headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, was created in 2001 by the merger of Halliwell and Associates and MMC&P Spectrum Benefits, which was founded by Jere Cowden in 1986. Currently led by President & CEO Elliot Dinkin, Cowden Associates specializes in helping corporate clients find the best solutions, both for the enterprise and for its employees, with regard to compensation, healthcare benefits, retirement and pension issues, and Taft-Hartley fund consulting. Winning Workplaces and The Wall Street Journal have recognized Cowden Associates as a “Top Small Workplace,” a lifetime designation awarded to executives for their ability to build and lead savvy organizations. For more information, visit www.cowdenassociates.com
Sources:
McCarthy, Niall, “Automation Could Eliminate 73 Million U.S. Jobs By 2030,” Forbes, November 30, 2017.
Whiteman, Doug, “The Biggest Corporate Layoffs of the Century (So Far),” Moneywise, February 11, 2019.
Snyder, Bill, “Our Misplaced Fear of Job-Stealing Robots,” Stanford Business Insights, March 7, 2019.
Kosko, Bart, “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?,” Edge Foundation, 2019.
Boisset, Fabrice, “The History of Industrial Automation in Manufacturing,” kingstar.com, May 9, 2018.
“State of the U.S. Automotive Industry,” American Automotive Policy Council, August 2018.
“Productivity, Technology, and Demographics,” International Monetary Fund IMF Blog, May 5, 2017.
Rockwell Automation’s strategy right now seems to be developing partnerships for special use cases. This announcement concerns collaborating with GE Healthcare for bioprocessing automation.
At a glance, GE Healthcare and Rockwell Automation can help companies:
Gain greater efficiency with FlexFactory single-use equipment integrated with Figurate bioprocess automation that improves reproducibility, repeatability and compliance.
Digitize batch files and processes to reduce review times by weeks and even achieve real-time reviews.
Deliver instructions to workers with augmented reality to improve batch execution, operations, equipment setup and training.
Collaboration will help drug manufacturers improve efficiencies, get to market faster and deliver personalized medicines with innovative solutions.
Joint work is pivotal step in transforming biopharmaceutical manufacturing to meet the needs of the biopharma 4.0 era
GE Healthcare and Rockwell Automation are combining their automation, IT, and single-use solution expertise to build bioprocessing operations for the digital age. GE Healthcare has also joined the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork Program as an OEM Partner to help drive a best-in-class distributed control system offering.
Kevin Seaver, executive general manager, Bioprocess Automation and Digital, GE Healthcare, said: “As GE Healthcare and the healthcare ecosystem move toward precision health, flexible and scalable solutions are critical for companies to efficiently manufacture smaller batches of tailored medicines. Our collaboration with Rockwell Automation is an integral part of our strategy to confirm we deliver innovative solutions that meet the needs of the biopharma 4.0 era.”
Fran Wlodarczyk, senior vice president, Architecture and Software, Rockwell Automation said: “Our collaboration with GE Healthcare will help make bioprocessing operations more agile. The facility of the future reimagines what’s possible in production of biopharmaceuticals. It uses connectivity, information, and modular equipment to create smaller-scale, more efficient operations. As GE Healthcare becomes a member of our PartnerNetwork program, our joint work will help GE Healthcare bring the Connected Enterprise to life, so they can meet demands for more targeted drugs and get products to market faster.”
Automation improves operational efficiency with reduced production risk and streamlines workflows resulting in faster times to market. This collaboration leverages the combined expertise in single-use bioprocessing with deep automation and IT knowledge to turn data insights into productive outcomes.
Emerson didn’t let Rockwell Automation’s spurning of its acquisition offer stop it from joining a select few of its peers in expanding its comprehensive control offerings. It went shopping again and found a bargain from the GE garage sale acquiring GE Intelligent Platforms. Now we are seeing the fruits of the combination.
With the addition of the new PLCs, part of Emerson’s acquisition of General Electric Co.’s Intelligent Platforms group, Emerson is bringing more end-to-end automation solutions to its existing process control market. The addition also expands its production optimization and control capabilities in the rapidly growing hybrid and discrete markets, and in industries where PLCs are sometimes preferred or required for faster response and machine control.
The new portfolio of cloud-connected controllers, industrial PCs, and devices for smart plants complements Emerson’s Plantweb digital ecosystem, adding another layer to Emerson’s focus on helping customers leverage automation technologies to pursue digital transformation. The automation and control portfolio will enable more operational performance and efficiency for customers in life sciences, metals and mining, power and water, food and beverage, and packaging, which often blend process and discrete machine control to manufacture and deliver finished products.
“We’ve re-invested heavily in the ability of our control systems to bring new capabilities to help organizations optimize their capital project and operations performance,” said Jim Nyquist, group president of Emerson’s Systems and Solutions business. “With this new portfolio, we’re expanding our automation expertise and bringing new digital solutions to market that will integrate plants seamlessly and accelerate improvements in operational performance, safety and reliability.”
Future interfacing with Emerson’s DeltaV and Ovation process control systems is also planned to help process industries eliminate many of the islands of automation within plants that create data silos in organizations and limit their ability to cost-effectively execute digital transformation initiatives and IIoT-driven capital improvements.
The new portfolio includes a comprehensive offering for machine control and discrete applications with products such as PACSystems, PACMotion, VersaMax IO, and QuickPanel+, which will remain powerful standalone technologies for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) machinery and edge applications.
There are few things I find as exciting as exploring revitalizing manufacturing or production facility. When people and technology come together to make useful products in a clean and safe manner is art to me.
Therefore, I was happy that my Siemens contacts talked me into driving up to Detroit earlier than I planned to tour the Ford Livonia Transmission plant on March 19. I planned to come up for the noon tour at FlexNGate, but the changed plans worked wonderfully.
Ford Powertrain was a customer of mine in the 80s when I worked for a company that designed and built automated machines and then through the 90s when I was a sales engineer solving problems and selling automation and electrical equipment. So, I witnessed the beginnings of the evolution of these manufacturing plants from dark, dirty, smelly, oily, dangerous, loud environments to today’s clean, efficient, professional facilities.
Ford Livonia Transmission Plant
Mike Bastian, Advanced Engineering Manager Ford Powertrain, explained Ford’s journey from 2000 to present to increase use of digital in manufacturing—The Digital Manufacturing Strategy. He told me that since beginning the present system journey in 2008, they were doing IIoT before there was an IIoT.
Ford Livonia Tranmissions
Bob Groden, plant manager, described the journey that began with removing several obsolete lines, gutting the facility, painting and cleaning, and preparing for additional transmission assembly lines. This plant is huge. And he walks it three times a day greeting people and asking how things are going. As he told me, “I get my steps in.”
The three themes include people working together, safety, and quality. An important note: The plant continuously added people over the rebuild time all the while increasing automation. three themes; added people continuously all the while automating the plant. Groden and UAW Local President Keith Miller talk to every new employee class and then follow up with each later on the line.
Jon Guske, manufacturing engineering manager-feasibility, described a system the team built beyond the computer-aided engineering system—discrete event throughput simulation. It can connect to VR to help OEMs understand the process and product before beginning machine design. It even models chip removal in machining processes to improve manufacturing process.
Following are pieces of the Digital Manufacturing Strategy as bullet points:
Standard Hardware Architecture
IP65–removed all the large enclosures in the plant (aside, using Siemens because it could do it; one company went to management and flat out told them that Bastian was wrong, management said don’t ever say he’s wrong; another company gets to the spec via a work-around he didn’t like)
Common PLC/CNC
Common configuration and programming software
Integrated safety
Virtual commissioning
Obsolescence management (upgrade path)
Network Standard
Ethernet, specifically Profinet—called Control Production Network
I had an opportunity during the tour to talk with Scott King, IT Lead, Advanced Manufacturing Powertrain, Solutions Development. I asked about the mythic IT/OT split and convergence. He basically said, “What split?” He sits with engineering advanced manufacturing lead and they discuss projects and problems daily. Plant projects teams include these roles—IT Solutions, Engineering, Product Lead, Operations. They’ve been working together for six years.
FlexNGate
FlexNGate is a Tier One supplier of stamped metal and injection molded plastic parts. The company has $6.5 B sales, 70 plants, and presence in many countries. It just built a 454,000 sq. ft. plant in burned-out Detroit neighborhood manufacturing parts for Ford Ranger. It is the largest investment in the city of Detroit in 20 years.
There were a couple of determining factors in the plant location. Ford wanted supplier to be local. The city wanted plants to locate in distressed areas that would also hire locally to provide jobs and hope to the area. They pledged 250 jobs, have 350 full time and 250 temporary and the plant is just a year old and still stabilizing processes after the significant production ramp up.
They run the new hires through training from such things as showing up on time every day, following work instructions, safety, and quality.
Two impressive facilities in one day. That’s a pretty good day.
