by Gary Mintchell | Jun 16, 2016 | Leadership, News, Workforce
Here is another one of those cool PwC research reports regarding manufacturing workforce. As always when talking about the present and future workforce, there is good news, bad news, and idle speculation.
We must remember that many of us are filling roles that didn’t exist ten years ago. How many jobs will exist in ten years that we can’t even imagine!
Executives’ Split Opinions on Manufacturing Workforce
PwC, along with the Manufacturing Institute, surveyed 120 US manufacturers, and found that many are still split on the issue of talent shortage – 31% of manufactures believe there is no manufacturing skills shortage now, but there will be in 3 years, while 29% believe there is one and it will only get worse.
Other stats surveyed and topics discussed in the report include:
- 75% of factory floor jobs (R&D, engineering, prototype design) are being filled by those with post-second school education
- 74% of manufacturers are training in-house to raise employee advanced manufacturing skills, with 40% recruiting local STEM students
- While millennials are of focus, what about Gen Z?
- Can manufacturers attract the gaming generation using virtual reality as a draw?
- Wild cards – the maker generation and the gig economy, & the rise of the freelance class
Upskilling manufacturing: How technology is disrupting America’s industrial labor force placed special emphasis on how advanced manufacturing technologies are impacting workforce dynamics. “What we found is that while there is indeed some jitteriness over skills gaps, manufacturers are working to close those gaps. But we’re still in the early stages.”
- Skills shortages are not uniformly felt today: 33% of manufacturers say they have no or only a little difficulty in hiring talent to exploit advanced manufacturing technologies, while 44% have ‘moderate difficulty.’
- The worry is that it will worsen: 31% of manufacturers see no manufacturing workforce skills shortage now but that there will be one in the next three years; 26% say it’s already peaked and is behind us; and 29% said it exists and will only worsen in the next three years.
- The most common strategy to upskill employees in advanced manufacturing is to train in-house, followed by recruiting local STEM students and offering outside vocational training.
- Robots are not stealing manufacturing jobs: 37% believe that the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies will result in their hiring additional employees; 45% said it will have no impact on hiring; and 17% said it will result in hiring fewer employees.
- But advanced tech is changing job requirements and descriptions: Nearly three-quarters of non factory floor manufacturing jobs are given to candidates with a four year or advanced degree.
Click bait and People As An Asset
I wonder how much of the worry is caused by idle speculation from the press searching for page views? Bad news hyped is as good a formula as “10 ways to attract the opposite sex” for getting clicks to your site. The fact that so many are taking immediate steps to “upskill” their workforce is gratifying.
Too often we forget that people are the most important asset. They come not only with two hands, but they also come with a brain. The more we encourage them to develop and use that brainpower, the more successful our enterprise will be.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 15, 2016 | Internet of Things, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management
The race to be the best at providing information to aid plant personnel decision making continues unabated. Here are new products from GE Digital and Honeywell Process Systems.
GE Pulse Optimizer
GE Digital announced the availability of a new Brilliant Manufacturing Suite module, Plant Pulse Optimizer. Lack of plant wide visibility often results in lost opportunities, and manufacturers’ need to easily integrate, access, analyze and visualize data to improve collaboration and information transparency within the plant. The Plant Pulse Optimizer provides a Panoramic view of all production activity for all factory personnel via real-time, multi-shift based KPIs (machine-material-labor-product intelligence) as scorecards.
The module provides insights focused on production analytics to organize manufacturing data into a structure to provide information on inventory, yield and achievement of production plans. The module is also device and back-end agnostic, which allows it to be connected to both GE and non-GE manufacturing operations systems.
Plant Pulse Optimizer is an out-of-the-box solution that requires minimal configuration. The “card”-based views aid in execution for various roles within the plant, with associated drill down cards to allow quick identification of bottlenecks at the operation level.
Plant Pulse Optimizer is available at the end of June. Brilliant Manufacturing Suite will leverage GE’s Predix platform for the Industrial Internet to further drive enterprise optimization, helping customers maximize productivity while ensuring product quality and sustainability.
Honeywell Suite
Honeywell has launched Uniformance Suite, an integrated system of process software solutions that turn plant data into actionable information enabling smart operations.
“The Uniformance Suite is Honeywell’s analytics platform for digital intelligence and a big part of our Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) strategy,” said Ali Raza, vice president of HPS’ Advanced Solutions business. “The software suite provides powerful data analytics capabilities to enable customers to capture the data they need, visualize trends, collaborate with other users, predict and prevent equipment failures, and act to make informed business decisions.”
Using a common asset model, the Uniformance Suite:
- Collects and stores all types of data for easy retrieval and analysis
- Predicts and detects events based on underlying patterns and correlations
- Links process metrics with business KPIs for better decision making
- Enables IIoT, mobility, cloud, big data, and predictive and enterprise analytics
“Our customers are challenged to drive a culture of safety, reliability, efficiency and agility in their organizations, more so now than ever before,” said Raza. “They need access and visibility to real-time performance against business metrics. The Uniformance Suite software solutions are designed to work in unison to give businesses the ability to put their data to work.”
As part of the expanded Uniformance Suite, Honeywell has introduced Uniformance Insight, which allows customers to visualize process conditions and investigate events from any web browser. Built on an intuitive platform using thin-client software, there are no downloads or installations required. It correlates historian information along with KPIs and an asset database all in one tool, and enables collaboration with others.
“Uniformance Insight’s thin client capability means I can have more team members use this tool without having to install any special software on their computers,” said Heath Case, process control engineer and Uniformance PHD Administrator for DuPont Protection Solutions. “Because I don’t have to go to each user’s PC to roll out these changes, it translates into both cost and time savings.”
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 14, 2016 | Automation, Manufacturing IT, Networking, News, Operations Management, Process Control, Technology
Second day Rockwell Automation TechED keynote speakers drilled down into the weeds a little to flesh out the High Performance Architecture and Connected Enterprise themes from day one. Unusual for a second day general session, the room was about as packed as for day one.
There is little mention of Internet of Things at this conference—it’s sort of assumed as part of the Connected Enterprise. However, speakers went from one “standard, unmodified Ethernet” comment yesterday to many mentions today.
Product group vice presidents Fran Wlodarczyk (Control & Visualization), John Genovesi (Information & Process), and Scott Lapcewich (Customer Support & Maintenance) showed how their groups supported the company vision.
Wlodarczyk discussed controllers getting faster (leading to added yield for an automotive assembly plant), improved workflows and tighter integration with control in the visualization portfolio, and how the latest motion control products are self-aware (auto-tuning) and system-aware.
Genovesi, who has learned the languages of process automation and information systems well in his time leading the area, spoke to both.
“Rockwell Automation is uniquely positioned to drive value-based outcomes”:
- Integrated Architecture that includes integrated software
- Intelligent Motor Control (smart, connected assets)
- Domain Expertise (Solution delivery)
When Rockwell finally made a real commitment to entering the process automation business, it specifically avoided the term “DCS” and used its “PAC” (programmable automation controller) terminology. A couple of years ago spokespeople made a point of saying they have a DCS. Genovesi said the Rockwell DCS brings a modern approach that established competitors cannot match. Plus, the Rockwell approach can be less expensive.
The Rockwell DCS (built on the Logix platform, but not a PLC) advantage is that it can integrate with other plant automation and control assets such as motor control.
On the Information Services side, he emphasized the partnership with OSIsoft—a company now saying it has moved from just a historian company to providing a “real-time infrastructure.” We’ve been in the Industrial Internet of Things for 35 years, the OSIsoft spokesman proclaimed.
Lapcewich listed five sets of services his group provides:
- networks & security
- product & application lifecycle
- remote monitoring & cloud analytics
- asset management & reliability
- people & asset safety
[Note: when Rockwell discusses asset management, it refers to the types of electrical and automation assets/products it provides.]
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 13, 2016 | Automation, Manufacturing IT, News
I’m in Orlando at the annual summer gathering of Rockwell Automation distributor and customer tech specialists. This is where they go for training in current products and introduction to new ones. And to get a little fired up about the company.
Rockwell Automation currently bills itself as the largest company solely devoted to industrial automation. True to the billing, current Senior Vice President and incoming President and CEO Blake Moret told the 2,100 gathered attendees, “All we do is industrial productivity.”
Moret’s other significant quote revealed a huge cultural shift that Rockwell Automation has undergone under current CEO Keith Nosbusch—We describe the value of the Connected Enterprise to customers in language specific to each. That means that the company has learned to speak other terminology than discrete manufacturing and machine control. Historically it lost credibility by going into batch and continuous processing companies and describing offerings using the terminology of discrete. Now they can talk pharma, or oil & gas, or whatever.
Sujeet Chand, SVP and CTO, gave the technology keynote. Chand talked about connecting silos of information—something we’ve discussed for years but seems closer to reality than ever before.
He did not spend much time on trends (collaborative robots, wearables, mobility), but pointed out that many countries are starting advanced manufacturing initiatives. The danger of so many independent initiatives is that this could lead to multiple standards, which would be a mess. He urged us to work for common standards.
Chand reinforced the value propositions for the Connected Enterprise, Rockwell’s focus for several years:
- Faster time to market
- Lower total cost of ownership
- Improve asset utilization
- Enterprise Risk Management
Why do we care about IT/OT convergence—something else we’ve discussed for years. This convergence is a key factor for Connected Enterprise, however, another benefit is it leads to improved workflow.
Since I follow all things IoT, I found Chand’s “IoT Stack” interesting. It’s fairly typical, but he differentiates data abstraction from data accumulation in the mix and does not specifically use the term analytics.
- Collaboration & processes
- Data Abstraction
- Data Accumulation
- Edge Computing
- Connectivity
- Physical devices
Frank Kulaszewicz, SVP Control and Architecture, delved into High Performance Architecture. Fundamental to high performance architecture are devices that are self-aware. A photoelectric, for example, can send a notification that it needs to be aligned or cleaned. Or a motion control servo drive can be self-tuning. Stepping up from self-aware devices are systems that are “system-aware.”
Dean Kamen, prolific inventor and entrepreneur, was the “star” keynote.
He began with a bit of discouragement, “As society get older, adoption of technology slows.” But then he showed development of some of his notable inventions that have made the world better for many. There is the insulin pump, portable dialysis machine, prosthetic arms with such great control that people can pick up a grape and eat it without crushing the grape designed for people who have lost their entire arms. Lack of clean drinking water is the #1 killer of children globally. He invented “slingshot” a machine that distills and condenses water such that just about anything wet even from manure piles can be converted to safe drinking water. He partnered with Coca-Cola to get them distributed to areas of great need.
His greatest achievement is the invention of the FIRST Robotics competition. Begun in 1989 to inspire high school kids to develop a passion for science and engineering, the movement has spread to 86 countries.
Technology development, especially through the middle ages and even by technologists like Da Vinci, was for development of tools of war for their princely benefactors. Kamen’s vision is to challenge kids (and the rest of us) to develop technology to solve human problems. No Terminators, here.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 10, 2016 | Internet of Things
I first learned about Dell entering the Internet of Things (IoT) market last October at Dell World. It introduced its first product—Edge Gateway 5000—and partnership with Microsoft. This month marks the one-year anniversary of the founding of the division. It has come a long way in a year.
The division not only has a couple of Edge Gateway devices, it also has released its first embedded computers. The significant partnerships have extended to Intel and, with the one-year press release announcement, VMware.
It also held a successful Think Tank session at Hannover Messe that showed off the commitment of several partners and the potential benefits to customers.
Dell not only has aggressively signed on technology partners, it also has enlisted a number of OEM and integrator partners. Considering only a year passed since the division started, there were enough applications implemented that Dell and Intel hosted a “Connect What Matters” IoT Contest from October 2015 to March 2016 to encourage businesses large and small to submit interesting, practical, data-driven ideas. There were many submissions leading to announcement of 16 winners with $600,000 in total prizes.
VMware, Nokia, Eurotech and others joined the program, while DGLogik , Exara, and FogHorn were promoted from Registered to Associate tier.
“We’re proud of the progress that we’ve made this past year,” said Andy Rhodes, executive director, Commercial IoT Solutions, Dell. “With the launch of the Edge Gateway and Embedded Box PCs, our quickly growing partnership program and now our successful IoT Gateway Contest, our efforts underscore Dell’s deep commitment to driving IoT adoption for real world use.”
IoT Contest Winners
The platinum winner is V5 Systems , a provider of portable, solar-powered security and Industrial IoT solutions. This technology can be deployed without being tied to power or data cables for applications from law enforcement to agriculture to other outdoor uses. The portable units contain analytics, multiple sensors (including video, acoustic and chemical detection), power, computing and Wi-Fi and cellular communications. V5 evolved its intelligent security platform to support more use cases and technologies by working with Dell OEM Services to provide intelligent gateways for use at the edge of networks expanding Industrial IoT applications.
Gold winners include:
- Eigen Innovations who built a video analytics solution that leverages thermal imaging cameras and PLC/sensor data for real-time process and quality control
- Iamus leveraged its IoT platform and facilities management expertise to build a unique smart streetlamp solution for various applications in smart city project.
- n.io applied its unique technology to turn a manually-dependent, subjective farming operation into a highly-instrumented and autonomous example of precision agriculture
- RiptideIO created a packaged software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution designed to scale in small retail building spaces
- Software AG built a predictive maintenance solution that includes in memory edge analytics for acting on collected machine data in real-time
Silver winners include AZLOGICA , Blue Pillar , Calibr8 Systems Inc, Daliworks , ELM Energy , Independent Automation , Onstream , PixController, Inc, , PV Hardware and We Monitor Concrete.
IoT Partner Program
Dell’s continued expansion of its IoT Partner Program , which now consists of almost 50 companies, is designed to offer customers a broad spectrum of industry-specific expertise in conjunction with Dell’s reputation as a global leader in computing technology.
Additionally, VMware has qualified its new Liota (Little IoT Agent) open-source software development kit (SDK) with Dell’s IoT hardware, providing customers with further choice for IoT gateway management and the ability to build apps on Dell’s gateway. LIOTA also acts as a bridge to VMware’s AirWatch and VMware vRealize Operations to allow customers to configure, monitor and deploy millions of things from one console, view device health and act on anomalies as they arise. With Liota open-source SDK, developers can write applications that interact with any data center component, over any transport, for any IoT gateway.
In the spirit of the program, three partners that have demonstrated differentiation have been promoted from the Registered to Associate tier. DGLogik offers an end-to-end platform for Industrial IoT and Building Automation applications with a particular focus on enabling the rapid creation of rich data visualizations with its DGLux offering. Exara is collaborating with Dell and Intel to deliver digital oil and gas production optimization solutions that leverage software-based edge data management technology. Exara’s software delivers machine data at any fidelity, any view and always on -demand to enterprise customers and applications without compromising existing industrial control system security or service levels. FogHorn’s platform is purpose-built to enable edge intelligence and analytics for gateways in Industrial IoT use cases, hosting high performance processing, analytics, and heterogeneous applications closer to control systems and physical sensors. Also joining the program as new Associate partners are KMC Controls, Eurotech, Nokia, and V5 Systems.
“Working with Dell h as allowed us the opportunity to expand our product offering and our product vision with the Industrial IoT as our primary focus,” said Mazin Bedwan, Co -Founder and President, V5 Systems. “We have integrated the Dell IoT gateway into our technology offering taking edge computing and Industrial IoT to the outdoors; where it belongs.”
“Working together with our customers and partners, including gateway vendors such as Dell, VMware is paving a way for IoT innovation across industries,” said BaskIyer, chief information officer, VMware. “Our Liota open source SDK provides the libraries to develop apps that connect and orchestrate data and control flows across things, gateways and the cloud.”
“As IoT moves from hype to reality, the diversity of applications an d use cases among the IoT Innovation contest winners clearly demonstrates the value developers and customers can capture by implementing real IoT solutions.” said Jonathan Ballon, vice president in the Internet of Things Group (IOTG) and general manager of the Markets and Channels Acceleration Division from Intel. “Through our partnership, Dell and Intel are able to provide re-usable building blocks that will help these applications scale in the future.”
