by Gary Mintchell | Feb 16, 2024 | News, Organizations
Two major sources of technology buzz from around 2015 to 2020 or so found homes in industry consortia within The Object Management Group. I talked often with people from the IIC, aka Industry IoT Consortium, and with the Digital Twin Consortium. These were most likely too much overhead for the supporting suppliers and industry. They have merged under The Object Management Group.
- Object Management Group Announces Integration of Industry IoT Consortium with Digital Twin Consortium
- Alignment to increase collaboration for a more holistic view across industries and technologies
Object Management Group (OMG) announced the integration of two of its consortia: the Industry IoT Consortium (IIC) and the Digital Twin Consortium (DTC). This integration will further expand OMG’s collaboration with industry, academia, and government, leading to increased adoption of digital twins and digital transformation.
“During the past several years, we have seen opportunities for increased collaboration and alignment between the IIC and DTC,” said Bill Hoffman, CEO and Chairman of OMG. “Integrating IIC within DTC ensures we have the best minds from both, working together to solve increasingly complex problems and providing a more holistic view across industries and technologies.”
OMG will retain IIC’s essential contributions to IoT and digital transformation on the IIC website. Combined IIC/DTC thought leadership will reside on the DTC website.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 26, 2024 | News, Organizations
A number of consortia and other collaborative groups have sprung up recently to foster standard approaches to new technologies. One such group is the Digital Twin Consortium (DTC). As technology moves more quickly than human organizations, the DTC has announced a liaison agreement in December with the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance. This agreement is not only for the exchange of information but also to bring digitalization and collaboration to the next level.
The Open Industry 4.0 Alliance functions as a collaborative consortium comprising of prominent industrial companies actively involved in deploying cross-vendor Industry 4.0 solutions and services for manufacturing facilities and automated warehouses. Within industry and technology working groups, subject matter experts conceive practical scenarios and put them into practice using the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance reference architecture. These solutions, alongside detailed implementation instructions, are disseminated within the community and made accessible to parties beyond the Alliance.
“We are excited about working with the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance,” said Dan Isaacs, GM & CTO of DTC. “We look forward to helping manufacturers and solutions providers further the use of digital twins in smart factories, oil & gas, pharma, and others based on Industry 4.0 and key open industry standards.”
“The collaboration between the DTC and the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance aims to drive the alignment of technology components and other elements to ensure interoperability,” says Ricardo Dunkel, Technical Director at the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance. “Together we are working on the standardization and integration of technologies in vertical use cases, proof-of-concepts and Value Innovation Platforms (VIP). This collaborative partnership will be strengthened through the exchange of information, regular consultations and joint events to drive digitalization and promote collaboration.”
The two groups have agreed to the following:
- Realizing interoperability by harmonizing technology components and other elements
- Aligning work in Digital Twin Consortium Capabilities and Technology for adoption within vertical domains through proof of value projects and use cases, including:
- Composable and Architectural Frameworks,
- Advanced Capabilities and Technology showcases
- Security and Trustworthiness applications
- Conceptual, informational, structural, and behavioral models
- Enabling technologies such as AR, VR, AI, and other advancements
- Case study development from initial concept through operational analysis
- The DTC and Open Industry 4.0 Alliance will exchange information through regular consultations, seminars, and training development vehicles.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 16, 2024 | Business, News, Organizations
How do large companies with their inevitable bureaucracies innovate and grow? Through acquisition. Siemens has recently acquired two companies to strengthen its offerings in the water and transportation sectors.
Siemens acquires BuntPlanet to strengthen its artificial intelligence portfolio in the water sector
Siemens has announced the acquisition of BuntPlanet, a technology company based in San Sebastian, Spain. BuntPlanet’s award winning software has been deployed around the world to support customers with smart metering solutions, water quality, asset management, and integration of hydraulic models and artificial intelligence for detecting leaks and other anomalies in water networks. Siemens has had a licensing agreement with BuntPlanet since 2019 to sell their leakage detection software known as SIWA LeakPlus. With this acquisition, BuntPlanet’s entire offering and team will be integrated with Siemens’ application portfolio for water utilities making it even more comprehensive for water customers.
BuntPlanet’s core offering, BuntBrain, is a software platform with solutions for leak detection, water quality improvement, end-use water analysis, water loss reduction, asset management, digital twin and water meter management. The application includes the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence, big data, and hydraulic simulation to pre-locate leaks and other anomalies, minimizing risk of damage to infrastructure and reducing operational and maintenance costs. With proven integration with Siemens Measurement Intelligence hardware portfolio the combination of sector leading instrumentation and software has demonstrated detection of leaks as small as 0.25 liter per second.
Once the integration has fully concluded, Siemens will make BuntPlanet’s offering also available on its open business platform, Siemens Xcelerator.
Siemens strengthens market position with Heliox acquisition
- Heliox develops fast charging for e-bus and e-truck fleets, marine, port, mining vehicles and more.
- Heliox expands Siemens eMobility’s offering for the growing eBus and eTruck charging market, and for depot and fleet solutions
- Accelerates value creation in Siemens’ fast-growing eMobility business
- Adds attractive digitalization and software potential
Siemens AG has completed the acquisition of Heliox, a technology leader in DC fast charging solutions, serving eBus and eTruck fleets and passenger vehicles. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Heliox employs approximately 330 people.
The acquisition complements Siemens’ existing eMobility charging portfolio, adding products and solutions ranging from 40 kilowatts (kW) to megawatt charging solutions for depots and en-route charging. Heliox’s portfolio also extends Siemens’ market reach, primarily in Europe and North America, while improving capabilities in power electronics. Heliox’s mobile, scalable and parallel charging solutions will enable Siemens to serve these markets better.
Next to DC fast charging solutions, Heliox offers charger monitoring and energy management services. This expands Siemens eMobility’s IoT product portfolio and strengthens its digitalization and software offering.
Siemens eMobility is part of Siemens Smart Infrastructure. It offers IoT-enabled hardware, software and services for AC and DC charging from 11 kW to 1 megawatt for a broad range of applications. Siemens acquired Heliox from private equity firm Waterland and an entity owned by a group of employees and individual shareholders.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 15, 2024 | Automation, News, Organizations, Technology
Semiconductor manufacturing resides in its own unique niche. I have seldom covered it in detail since it doesn’t translate well to other forms of discrete or process automation. This news is more general showing the potential good from companies collaborating. It’s one way that big companies can keep progressing. This is a Siemens and Intel collaboration on manufacturing.
- Siemens and Intel to collaborate to advance semiconductor manufacturing production efficiency and sustainability across scopes 1-3 of the value chain
- Semiconductors are crucial for the global economy and for lowering carbon footprints across economies by enabling sustainable solutions
- Intel and Siemens will leverage their respective portfolios of cutting edge IoT solutions, along with Siemens automation solutions to enhance semiconductor manufacturing efficiency and sustainability
“Semiconductors are the lifeblood of our modern economies. Few things run without chips. Therefore, we’re proud to collaborate with Intel to quickly advance semiconductor production. Siemens will bring its entire cutting-edge portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware and software and electrical equipment to this collaboration,” said Cedrik Neike, CEO of Digital Industries and member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG. “Our joint efforts will contribute to achieving global sustainability goals.”
The MoU identifies key areas of collaboration to explore a variety of initiatives, including optimizing energy management and addressing carbon footprints across the value chain. For instance, the collaboration will explore use of “digital twins” of complex, highly capital-intensive manufacturing facilities to standardize solutions where every percentage of efficiency gained is meaningful.
The collaboration will also explore minimizing energy use through advanced modeling of natural resources and environmental footprints across the value chain. To gain more information on product-related emissions, Intel will explore product and supply chain related modeling solutions with Siemens that drive data-based insights and help the industry accelerate progress in reducing its collective footprint.
“The world needs a more globally balanced, sustainable and resilient semiconductor supply chain to meet the increasing demand for chips,” said Keyvan Esfarjani, Intel Executive Vice President and Chief Global Operations Officer. “We are excited to build upon Intel’s advanced manufacturing capabilities by expanding our collaboration with Siemens to explore new areas where we can utilize Siemens’ portfolio of automation solutions to enhance efficiency and sustainability in semiconductor infrastructure, facilities, and factory operations. This MOU will benefit regional and global industry value chains.”
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 15, 2024 | Generative AI, News, Organizations
Despite all the hype, augmented intelligence (AKA artificial intelligence or AI) is and has been a real thing in programming. The power does continue to grow—just like all technology. Two areas ripe for improvement through the use of AI are education and healthcare. This news relates to healthcare.
Emory University is embarking on a new initiative that will unite the power of machine learning and big data to transform the ways in which health care systems prevent, diagnose, treat and cure diseases on a global scale.
Launching this month under the umbrella of Emory’s AI.Humanity initiative, the Emory Empathetic AI for Health Institute will utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and computing power to discern patterns in vast amounts of data and make predictions that improve patient health outcomes in diseases such as lung, prostate and breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes and more. While AI is already being deployed to improve diagnoses and treatment for numerous health conditions, the resounding impact AI can have on health care is just beginning.
As Georgia’s first institute of its kind, Emory AI.Health will foster the development of accessible, cost-effective and equitable AI tools by developing an ecosystem of multidisciplinary experts from Emory, the Atlanta VA Medical Center, the Georgia Institute of Technology and others, and seeking public-private partnerships to propel new research forward. It will then serve as an engine to deploy those tools to the patient’s bedside, initially within Emory Healthcare and ultimately across the globe.
“AI will transform society and at Emory, we want to use these powerful technologies to save and improve lives,” says Emory President Gregory L. Fenves. “We see the power AI has to facilitate healing while improving equitable access to health care. Dr. Madabhushi is a trailblazer in health-focused AI and the ideal person to lead the Empathetic AI for Health Institute.”
Emory AI.Health will be led by Anant Madabhushi, PhD, a Robert W. Woodruff professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory and Georgia Institute of Technology, a member of the Cancer Immunology research program at Winship Cancer Institute and a research career scientist with the Atlanta VA Medical Center.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 12, 2024 | News, Organizations
You may look at the headline and wonder “Industry 4.0 Club?” I received an email from that organization with an invitation to talk with CEO Mike Ungar. Of course I had to satisfy my curiosity. Ungar was an engineer at Michelin who joined as Chairman and just swapped roles with Mike Yost.
The Industry 4.0 Club is building a community to give encouragement and ideas to small-to-medium sized manufacturers who need/want to adopt modern Industry 4.0 practices. There are many companies out there who desperately need to update in order to remain competitive. This group hopes to spur their change.
I worked with Mike Yost for years at MESA. He then spent time with CESMII before moving to this organization. I first talked with him about software when he was at GE.
This is an organization worth checking out. They have a basic newsletter and a paid subscription newsletter with deeper information. The only part I was disappointed in was that they built their site on Substack. But that is just an open Web guy speaking there.
Check them out.
From their press release:
The Industry 4.0 Club, a leading community in the manufacturing sector, announced key changes to its leadership team, positioning the club for a transformative year in 2024. These changes include: Mike Yost as Chair of the Board of Directors with extensive experience in bringing together solution providers and manufacturers to help solve their most challenging issues. Carol Mitchell-Lin as Vice-chair, known for her Industry 4.0 thought leadership, co-host role in our Women In Manufacturing LinkedIn Live broadcasts, and commitment to manufacturers’ success everywhere. Jan Pingel as Secretary, whose background as a results-driven Industrial & IT Product Development & Marketing Executive will enhance our strategic initiatives. Grace Donovan as Treasurer, leveraging her business development experience to fortify our financial planning. Mike Ungar as the visionary CEO, leveraging his 35 years of manufacturing experience to lead the club into new frontiers.
The Industry 4.0 Club has achieved a following of over 5,000 individuals and hosted over 100 virtual and in-person conversations and speakers, significantly expanding its influence and reach. Our regular broadcasts on LinkedIn Live, YouTube, and X have connected thousands of manufacturing professionals, discussing cutting-edge topics like the Future of Manufacturing and Women in Manufacturing.
Mike Yost, the newly appointed Chair, emphasizes, “Our commitment goes beyond conversations; it’s about actionable insights and tangible progress in the world of manufacturing. We are gearing up for groundbreaking initiatives in 2024 that will empower our community and redefine industry standards for openness and collaboration.”
