by Gary Mintchell | May 21, 2013 | M2M, Operations Management, Software
Most of you are aware that I have left active participation with Automation World magazine. After 10 years and a small ownership shuffle, I just felt like there wasn’t anything left for me to create there. Hopefully, you are all still following my column there. I also do some small projects from time to time.
I have been more intrigued by digital technologies than print for a long time. Combining that with a passion for what’s next in manufacturing (and add in an area that is significantly undercovered by media right now), I’m focusing on the connected manufacturing enterprise.
This connected enterprise begins with all the connected devices in the plant or factory. This could be called Internet of Things or Industrial Internet or Connected World or M2M. This connection feeds into Manufacturing Operations Software–previously called MES–that is enabling a smarter and more effective manufacturing and production. And it all leads to better decision-making at all levels of the enterprise.
I find it interesting that, after a long and successful career at Invensys (and Foxboro and Wonderware), Mark Davidson has popped up as an analyst for Matt Littlefield–who in turn has left corporate life to start up a new analyst company, LNS Research.
Mark has a recent blog post about Manufacturing Operations that captures my ideas perfectly.
IBM taught me during my first “MRP” class in 1977 that you should first know what your manufacturing systems are, then optimize the system you have, then, and only then, should you apply computer technology.
We have new phrases, but it’s the same idea. Mark writes about seven steps toward “Aligning Manufacturing Goals with the Organization.”
- Understand and Articulate Strategy: have a clear and universally understood manufacturing strategy that is in support of the corporate business strategy
- Translate Strategy into Specific Goals: turn that strategy into specific goals for business groups and associated supply chains, as well as plants, units, and production lines
- Map Goals and Specific Measures for Success: use a cross-functional team to map each detailed translation across the enterprise
- Determine Key Performance Indicators: develop a set of manufacturing KPIs to measure progress toward your goals
- Establish Communication Procedures for KPIs: make sure the right information is getting to the right people in a timely manner
- Set Processes for How to Act on KPI Information: determine best practices for individuals from the shop to top floor to interact with KPI data
- Match Performance Incentives to Aligned Goals: reinforce the effectiveness of measuring KPIs by incentivizing progress
So you do that. What are the common MOM and Enterprise IT applications that companies can use to support monitoring, analysis of, enforcement, and visibility of progress toward these goals? Mark lists nine:
1. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): software that captures cost performance, order and materials performance information.
2. Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM): software that captures supplier performance information.
3. Enterprise Quality Management Systems (EQMS): that can correlate quality and cost of quality performance information.
4. Asset Management / CMMS software: to provide asset and maintenance performance information.
5. Collaboration website and Mobile software: to organize and distribute appropriate performance information across a manufacturing organization.
6. Advanced Process Control & Optimization software: to model and predict complex manufacturing interactions and suggest optimum manufacturing set points within safe and profitable limits.
7. Historians, Batch Management and Manufacturing Execution Software: that captures the real-time manufacturing activity and performance from manual and automation / machine generated information sources.
8. Enterprise Manufacturing Information / Operations Intelligence software: that can correlate information from all of the above sources and present summary reports and live dashboards to guide manufacturing workers.
9. Human Machine Interface (HMI) software: that can display real-time graphical representations and trends of performance information from MOM software and automation / machine generated information sources.
This captures the core of what I want to cover at The Manufacturing Connection. You can go there now and sign up to be notified when we go live.
Right now, you can just stay here until we switch over. And if you’re a supplier in that space, contact me to get in on the ground floor as an advertiser or sponsor (yes, I’ll need to make some money on this hobby).
by Gary Mintchell | May 21, 2013 | Education, Operations Management
ABB Automation & Power World
ABB (US) sent an interesting message to past attendees (I received it through my personal account, not through my media account) regarding its Automation & Power World user conference. The message puts an interesting spin on the change in format to an every-other-year event.
“In a nutshell, Automation & Power World is expanding. We are moving to an every-other-year format that will allow us to make it even bigger and more engaging for attendees. The next Automation & Power World will be held in 2015.”
They say they’ll use the years between main events to extend into new territory via webinars and online activities, as well as localized ABB events and a larger ABB presence at certain key industry tradeshows.
Apriso Customer Event
Thankful for small blessings, Apriso notified the media about its upcoming customer event, but they also told me that its customer events were not media opportunities. So I won’t be traveling to Cleveland or Germany for this one.
It will host its sixth annual Apriso Community Summit, themed Innovation Exchange 2013, in Cleveland, Ohio on June 5-6 and in Marktoberdorf, Germany on June 19-20.
The event in Cleveland will be hosted by Lincoln Electric, a global manufacturer of welding, cutting and joining products. Attendees will see firsthand how this manufacturer is using Apriso’s solutions during a tour of its nearby facility. Those attending the Marktoberdorf, Germany event will have a chance to visit AGCO’s Fendt facility. As the world’s largest manufacturer of tractors and the third largest supplier of agricultural machinery, this manufacturer has come to depend upon Apriso’s solution to maintain their product innovation leadership while supporting their recently expanded production capacity.
Plex, Insequence collaborate
Plex Systems has announced its collaboration with Insequence Corp., provider of manufacturing and sequencing technology, to improve the process of delivering components to the manufacturing supply chain.
Managing the complexity of inventory needed for complex assembly operations is a complicated, critical function. With many products requiring more than a hundred individual components, appropriate sequential delivery of parts enables manufacturers to keep inventory to a minimum while ensuring production is uninterrupted.
Support for diversity
We all should know by now that a diverse workforce is an asset in this competitive environment. Many support diversity in superficial ways. Here’s a different story.
In a survey conducted by U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology (USBE&IT) magazine, Siemens PLM has been named a “Top Supporter” of Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) for the 11th straight year. Siemens provides in-kind grants of software to HBCU Engineering schools through its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software business unit and is the only supplier of PLM software among this year’s list of distinguished companies.
Siemens’ support is part of the company’s focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and diversity initiatives that help drive its manufacturing revitalization efforts throughout the U.S.
“Many companies encourage careers in STEM,” said Tyrone Taborn, editor in chief of USBE&IT magazine and chairman and CEO of Career Communications Group. “This survey’s results highlight for our readers those companies – like Siemens PLM Software – that go the extra mile for HBCU schools. Professionals want to know which organizations are committed to their community. Those are the companies they want to work for or with in the future.”
Each year, USBE&IT magazine conducts an independent survey in which HBCU Engineering School deans and members of the corporate-academic alliance AMIE (Advancing Minorities’ Interest in Engineering) board are asked to provide input about companies that provide the most support to HBCU engineering schools. Participants are asked to list the corporate, government and non-profit organizations that contribute most to their schools’ missions. Contributions in infrastructure, research, advisory council participation, faculty development opportunities, scholarships, student projects and career opportunities are considered.
“We’re committed to leading the industry in diversity initiatives and STEM education support to revitalize manufacturing,” said Chuck Grindstaff, president and CEO, Siemens PLM Software. “Siemens strives to nurture strong industry and academic partnerships not only in the U.S., but around the world. We will continue to work closely with the HBCU academic community to develop highly qualified and highly recruited engineers and technologists.”
by Gary Mintchell | May 17, 2013 | Process Control, Software
Web-based user interfaces for applications is becoming an expected part of the package these days. Even though the PR people who wrote the release for this announcement wrote as if this is revolutionary and new, everyone knows what a browser is and expects a Web interface.
That said, it is good the AspenTech has added Web-interface to its package. Significantly more interesting to me is the addition of a content marketplace. This is an idea that has sprouted over the past couple of years. I’d hope that AspenTech continues to develop this idea and find innovative ways to build on the foundation. Listed below are highlights of the company’s product enhancements.
Aspen Technology Inc. kicked off its OPTIMIZE 2013 user conference with the launch of industry innovations for process manufacturing and significant enhancements to the company’s Engineering and Manufacturing and Supply Chain products. The V8.2 release of aspenONE software features:
aspenONE. A web-based user interface allows process industry professionals to work with aspenONE software anytime, anywhere. Enterprises can now empower the broadest range of users to tap AspenTech software–without specialized product training or desktop installation.
aspenONE Exchange. This process industry content marketplace provides a one-stop shop for engineers to source equipment data, third-party content, and AspenTech resources directly from Aspen Plus and Aspen HYSYS for faster, more accurate process design. Using aspenONE Exchange’s search capability, engineers now have one location to search to find the right information at the right time to build more detailed models earlier in the design process. By providing content in aspenONE Exchange, equipment manufacturers and third-party developers can directly reach the industry’s largest cross section of process engineers.
Aspen PIMS Platinum. Aspen PIMS Platinum software provides refinery planners with an intuitive, web-based interface that allows planners to evaluate multiple scenarios quickly. Version 8.2 of Aspen PIMS Platinum adds the ability to run planning cases and modify data directly in flowsheet views to easily identify market opportunities. Planners can now visualize constraints, evaluate economics, and see the immediate impact of adjustments to the plan to make more profitable decisions.
Advances in aspenONE Engineering software. The latest product enhancements include expanded solids modeling capabilities in Aspen Plus software for specialty chemicals and agro-chemicals industries; new “Plant View” functionality to allow engineers to select specific real-time information and visualize how those plant variables have performed over time for better decision support and troubleshooting; and enhancements to Aspen Economic Evaluation software that allow engineers to ensure designs comply with API RP 14C safety requirements for more accurate economic evaluation of oil and gas assets from conceptual design to detailed cost estimation.
Watch for the launch of The Manufacturing Connection coming soon. “Connecting things, data and people in a digital world promoting manufacturing excellence.”
by Gary Mintchell | May 16, 2013 | Technology
Google GlassThe tech world is buzzing with speculation about Google Glass. Robert Scoble, who made a name for himself (and probably got a big head from it) by first popularizing Twitter years ago, proclaims he’ll never take them off. OK, his wife says that there are times he’d better.
If you have been living a sheltered life for the past few months, Google Glass is another one of those famous Google beta projects. It has been released only to developers and a select few tech pundits. It connects to your (Android) smartphone and projects a screen that you can see by looking slightly up.
There are two interfaces. You can push on the side bar. You can say, “OK Glass” and then give it a command. Presently the best thing going for it is the ability to take pictures easily. We’ll know more when developers start figuring out things to do with it.
Old idea
I wrote about this idea around the year 2000 when I saw a concept of a pair of glasses that could project screens for the user. I remember seeing a prototype where a maintenance technician could see the pdf of a drawing superimposed over the machine he was working on. Don’t think I heard anything more about it. But the concept was fascinating.
Now I’m wondering how we could use those in manufacturing and production.
What would you tell a developer that you could use Google Glass for? Better yet, are any readers actually developers? I personally know several who are. What could you develop with a wearable, hands-free, Internet-connected device? Thoughts?
by Gary Mintchell | May 15, 2013 | Software
A key purpose of an industry association is to educate the community about the different facets of its technology and best practices. MESA International (Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association) has an extensive white paper library available to members and offers a special case here.
MESA White Paper #42: The Role of Semantic Models in Smarter Industrial Operations has just been released.
The paper investiages the application of semantic model design and technology in industrial operations integration and the evolving role of Semantic Computing in operations management. Semantic (data) modeling as a core component of application architecture is compared to more familiar architectural integration patterns. As operations functions are described, the value of semantic models is illustrated through a series of examples that should be familiar to the reader.
Manufacturing best practices only match what is driven by competition; so to compete by differentiating its performance, each company must judiciously apply leading practices. Semantic Computing now has sufficient industrial application to be considered a leading practice. As such, various ways in which Semantic Computing supplements legacy technologies and possible longer term enhancements are suggested to facilitate operations safety and data integrity.
Three critical elements are often described in discussions around smarter plant solutions, of which semantic concepts are a key element. These three critical elements, the three “I”s as they are sometimes labeled, are “Instrumented,” “Intelligent” and “Interconnected.” These elements support the idea that much data are collected from the world around us and if we use the three “I”s to federate the data, operations intelligence is derived and with that we drive timely communication, response, and optimization around critical business tasks.
Important in this approach is the ability to interpret data for timely analysis and to derive understanding from a wide variety of sources in a wide range of formats and contexts. With Semantic Computing, the calculations and analysis are generalized to apply them to all instances of similar objects.
Data in the real world are subject to constant change. Therefore, structures need to be self-adapting and not rigidly predefined. This difference is referred to as the “Open World” versus the “Closed World.” Semantic modeling and its technology identify changes in underlying data and the potential interactions of those changes.
However, for the most part, the role of semantics is to alert a human promptly and in the appropriate context so that responses to those changes can be identified and appropriately acted upon.
Implemented semantic models can federate data from any connected data store into an agile, adaptive, fit-for-purpose model that leverages and extends industry standards and ontologies. When semantic models are coupled with applications that perform analysis, logic, reports, views, etc., which are easily and consistently applied and adapted, manufacturers are truly evolving to an global environment in which business and operations personnel are directly in control of their data, business and operations rules, and business and operations processes.This evolution is refered to as the “evolving ubiquitous computing model,” since computing power has become highly distributed and pervasive.
Industrial architectures must be designed to handle ever-changing, disparate data and implied, actual relationships between the data. Data sources include structured and unstructured data, sensor data (current value and historical), images, audio, and video. In addition, interactions of proposed data changes must be identified so that coordinated change is the rule and discovery is minimized. Not only does current data handling not fit well into standard relational persistence structures, but there is also the challenge to make sense of this data in context and adapt to additions, deletions, and changes with validation but without undue complexity.
This paper was produced as part of the MESA/ISA-95 Best Practices Working Group through an international peer review process involving 5 or more subject matter reviewers. This MESA White Paper is also be published in the methodology best practices collection, The MOM Chronicles: ISA-95 Best Practices Book 3.0 (Published by ISA, February 2013).
Authors:
Dave Noller, IBM
Tim Hanis, IBM
Michael Feldman, Savigent Software
Charlie Gifford, 21st Century Manufacturing Solutions LLC
Contributing Editors:
Jimmy Asher, Savigent Software
Bill Bosler, P.E., Texas Consultants, Inc.
Eyad A. Buhulaiga, Saudi Aramco
By the way, the “three I’s” fits perfectly into the direction I’m going with The Manufacturing Connection. You can sign up for email notification when the site goes live (soon, if I get my act together).
