by Gary Mintchell | Nov 10, 2023 | Events, News, Security
Automation Fair was this week. I expected many news releases. I’ve already reported on the one published. I checked out the “show daily” email from my friend Keith at Endeavor Media whose team reported on the presentations a series of executives made to the attending media. Not so much news as it was a survey of the breadth of Rockwell’s offering.
I think that was the theme—don’t think of Rockwell Automation from the point-of-view of controls and drives. Check all the acquisitions from Plex for cloud-based MES, FiiX for cloud-based CMMS, Verve for Cybersecurity, plus material handling and more. Looking at financials, the traditional industrial control product business still is the greatest contributor. Software and control is still next, but services are catching up to it.
These releases concern cybersecurity and partnerships with Dragos and Claroty.
Rockwell Automation will provide ICS/OT Cybersecurity Threat Detection Services, leveraging the Dragos Platform to help Industrial Manufacturers Secure their Environments
Dragos Inc. announced the expansion of its combined capabilities in partnership with Rockwell Automation. With this expansion, Rockwell will be making the Dragos Platform available to organizations for enhanced ICS/OT cybersecurity threat detection, providing global deployment services and support capabilities to help customers operationalize their security investment.
The threat detection capabilities build on the previous global agreement between Dragos and Rockwell for the OT Incident Response Retainer (IRR) program that helps industrial organizations prepare for, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents in OT environments.
- Improved threat detection and response across the entire industrial OT network.
- Greatly enhanced visibility into the OT environment allowing industrial organizations to inventory and monitor assets, track vulnerabilities, and leverage network monitoring to investigate issues and incidents.
- Fast, efficient, and effective threat detection to help maintain safety and uptime as a result of continuously updated knowledge packs focused on ICS networks for Rockwell-specific and third-party vendor hardware.
- The collective experience and intelligence of Dragos and Rockwell to enhance knowledge for industrial defenders, including whitepapers, webinars, and other resources.
- Rapid operationalization of cybersecurity investment with the global deployment and support footprint at Rockwell Automation.
Claroty and Rockwell Automation Expand Capabilities to Include SaaS-powered OT Security Solution xDome
Claroty announced an expansion of its capabilities with Rockwell Automation, Inc. with the addition of SaaS-powered industrial cybersecurity platform Claroty xDome to Rockwell Automation’s global services portfolio. Additionally, Rockwell Automation customers now have access to Claroty’s complete suite of cloud-based and on-premise OT security offerings.
Claroty xDome provides comprehensive security coverage, integrated interoperability, and deep bidirectional technology alliances. The partnership expansion highlights Rockwell’s pioneering stance in OT security by offering a cloud-hosted OT security solution to its customers. This step positions Rockwell on the vanguard of enabling secure digital transformation, underpinning the company’s dedication to innovation and security.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 8, 2023 | Automation, Events, News
I listened to the keynote speeches from Automation Fair this morning while working out. A different perspective from a darkened room at a narrow table with 5,000 (or more) of my closest friends. I’ve listened to maybe 1,000 of these over the past 25 years in media. There are just a few things I’m really listening for. What is the market buzz of the year? What aspects of the company are they promoting? Hopefully, but rarely, a new company direction?
Usually nothing startling comes out. Never a Steve Jobs, “And just one more thing…”
CEO Blake Moret laid a general outline of the growth of Rockwell Automation as it serves the customers’ needs for digital transformation. He chatted with Judson Althoff of Microsoft about their partnership over the years. They worried me talking about industrial metaverse, which is so 2022, but then moved the conversation to the Microsoft Co-Pilot and how the companies are working together to exploit generative AI for industrial usage. Looks like initially Rockwell will incorporate it in its control design software.
I like words and word play, and I couldn’t let this one pass. Vintage (pun) Microsoft. When everyone else uses their own technology to develop new technology, they call it “eating their own dog food.” Not Microsoft. They “drink their own champagne.” 🙂
Interesting side note—I’ve been asking about new engineers entering the field preferring to use tools they’ve learned such as Python and NodeRED. Moret didn’t address that precisely, but he did note that relay ladder logic may not be the programming tool of choice for these new engineers and that generative AI may bridge the gap from modern to archaic (my words, not his).
Sr. VP of Intelligent Devices Tessa Myers was given the task of introducing featured products. These included:
- Automated and autonomous material handling vehicles
- Digital twin and AI technology for maintenance of a process system
- Cybersecurity featuring new developments with acquisitions and partnerships
I’ve diligently returned to the Rockwell Press site for more news, but nothing else forthcoming right now.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 16, 2023 | Events, Interoperability, News
This workshop at Texas A&M Harnessing Digital Transformation Through Asset Data and Systems Interoperability is next week. I’ve only just heard about it. Data and systems interoperability is something I’ve worked on for years. Evidently someone at Texas A&M has been researching. They will be presenting ideas next week. I have asked if I could get an interview to post after the conference.
The conference is October 25-26, 2023 at the Memorial Student Center (MSC), Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
“This workshop aims to address the significance of embracing open standards, vendor neutral interoperability for Owners, EPC, and Vendors .”
Needs—Achieve consensus on significance in open, vendor neutral interoperability
Actionable Plans—Learn and develop actionable plans and strategies to move towards open, vendor neutral interoperability, ensuring that stakeholders can collectively work towards achieving this goal.
Roadmap for the Future—Establish a roadmap outlining the steps and milestones required to accomplish long term standards based interoperability, setting a clear direction for industry wide progress.
Join us to explore the future of digital transformation and its pivotal role in shaping digital twins for the process industry and critical infrastructure
Key Highlights:
- Introduction to the Asset Data Interoperability Framework (ADIF) initiative.
- Navigating the challenges of data and systems interoperability issues.
- Overcoming barriers in maximizing the digital potential for growth.
- Embracing interoperability as a mindset to enable the adoption of digital twins and other transformative technologies
About ADIF Working Group:
A dedicated consortium of industry experts and academia, ADIF is committed to fostering open, vendor neutral and standards based solutions, prioritizing digital enhancements in asset lifecycle management.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 10, 2023 | Automation, Data Management, Embedded Control, Events, Manufacturing IT, Process Control, Sustainability, Technology, Workforce
Honeywell Process Solutions held its annual HUG (Honeywell User Group) conference the week of June 19 in Orlando. I’ve taken some time to compile my many notes and think about the experience.
The marketing communications staff did an excellent job with media and analysts. We did not have time to waste what with presentations and 1:1 conversations.
I had not attended for a few years. For maybe three years I was in the influencer program with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HPE Discover is the same week. That program was disbanded a year or so ago. That marked the end of my IT affiliations. Those companies figured out there was not a lot of money to be made in manufacturing.
There were many questions begging for answers as I traveled to Florida. What was Honeywell HIVE, and how does it relate to the ExxonMobil initiated Open Process Automation group? What is Honeywell Digital Prime and what customer problems does it address? What successes have Honeywell achieved with sustainability initiatives? Honeywell was an early mobility developer. What has progressed in that regard? What role does Honeywell see for AR and VR?
Pramesh Makeshwari, CEO
He mentioned he’d been CEO of this group for only about nine months. Here are a few points of overview.
- Honeywell is not replacing people with technology but helping them perform better
- People have different learning styles and Honeywell products adapt to them
- Digitalization is a significant customer requirement
- Companies are on the Path to Net Zero Carbon
- Focus on Digital Workforce Competency
Evan Van Hook, Chief Sustainability Officer
He looks at sustainability as similar to the Quality Revolution where the goal was to produce quality outputs consistently creating a culture of quality. His question, “Can we create culture of sustainability?” Honeywell is taking a Lean approach—quality, delivery, inventory, cost, then add sustainability.
Lean is a systematic approach. The company overall has generated more than 6,500 projects over 13 years with ideas coming from the floor and everywhere else. Not a political statement, sustainability cuts costs and adds efficiency. A few milestone points:
- 92% reduction of CO2
- 70% improvement in energy efficiency
- Restored 3,000 acres of land
- Water savings
- 4x industry average safety
Act your way into a new way of thinking—Lean—put sustainability into Lean
Tiffany Barnes – Digital Prime
I perhaps had the most difficulty understanding Digital Prime. This is the Honeywell offering responding to the customer need for digital transformation. So, the conversation with Tiffany Barnes from that group was most instructive. Part of my cognitive dissonance perhaps came from this being a new offering only having one part released.
Digital Prime is most easily described as cloud-hosted digital twin of DCS. Some of the customer pressures Digital Prime addresses include:
- Risk of disruption, production downtime and plant safety
- Pressure to reduce overall lifecycle cost
- Do more with less through digitalization
- Data overload
- Reduced skilled workforce onsite
It is perhaps an irony that Honeywell build a virtual infrastructure to help with system acceptance then deleting it upon that acceptance. Customers began looking at digital transformation programs and realized that all this data Honeywell had was useful. This grew to a digital twin.
Honeywell’s Digital Prime is the up-to-date digital twin for tracking, managing, and testing process control changes and system modifications. It brings the highest level of quality control to the smallest projects: An efficient, compliant, and collaborative solution for managing changes, factory acceptance tests, improved project execution and training.
Providing secure cloud-based connectivity and a virtual engineering platform, it’s a collaborative environment for managing and testing additions, patches, upgrades and other system changes:
- Enabling functional reviews and impact analysis
- Supporting remote FAT tests
- Providing a training tool
- Documenting digital changes.
Joe Bastone — HIVE
Veteran editors and analysts were most curious about any Honeywell response to the initiatives undertaken by The Open Group to solve problems of economically and efficiently upgrading control systems.
This led to my intense interest in Honeywell HIVE and a subsequent conversation with Joe Bastone.
The problem lies with traditionally tightly coupled control hardware, software, and I/O.
Honeywell mostly solved the I/O problem years ago with its configurable I/O. That part of the control system continues to evolve.
The company then worked with a major customer about how to upgrade control software with minimal disruption. First, they worked out how to move the existing control software to a modern hardware platform leaving all the I/O in place. They realized that was in reality a form of virtualization. Moving to a virtualized compute environment effectively decoupling hardware and software was the obvious next step. Their I/O was already virtualized and decoupled.
So, Honeywell HIVE solves that upgrade problem that customers are searching for.
Thanks to Joe for walking me through the technology evolution.
Sarang Gadre — Battery Technology
The well documented issue with intermittent renewables (solar, wind) results from the laws of climate—the wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine. Honeywell has had a commercial battery storage product for a while. It is housed in shipping containers. Introduced to us at HUG is the Ionic—a scalable, forklift-able, virtual power plant, with an energy control center in Experion. It is battery agnostic—you specify and buy your batteries of choice. The unit also features peak load shaving.
Naved Reza—Carbon Capture
I always enjoy conversations with Naved regarding sustainable technology solutions.
First up was reference to the ExxonMobil Baytown deployment of one of Honeywell’s carbon capture technologies – Honeywell’s CO2 Fractionation and Hydrogen Purification System. This technology is expected to enable ExxonMobil to capture about 7 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, the equivalent of the emission of 1.5 million of automobiles for one year.
Then we discussed Honeywell Ecofining—Renewable Fuel projects such as Diesel/Aircraft from biofuels. Also Ethanol to Jet and Methanol to Jet.
Aside from Baytown, there are a number of Carbon Capture (CO2) to blue hydrogen, renewable green, low carbon processing.
Manas Dutta — SafetyWatch Mobility
Performing maintenance on a pump involves an average of 3.5 round trips for the technician. Using augmented reality (AR) platforms can save many hour by providing the right documentation and required tools up front.
I made this trip closely following both the Apple Vision Pro announcement along with all the AI chat hype. So I had to ask Manas for his take from the industrial viewpoint.
“AR/VR are excellent for training especially as individualized based on AI feedback. AR/VR can also be useful for construction. When planning turnarounds, I can answer questions such as can I get a crane in, do I need scaffolding, without a visit remote site.”
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 7, 2023 | Events, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management, Process Control
Emerson Exchange Immerse offers users an opportunity to share successes, improve skills and knowledge, and work hands-on with new technologies.
This is interesting if you are someone who follows market trends. I’ve written a few times about the pressure industrial technology companies face from Wall Street analysts. These companies need to show that they are hot technology (read software) companies beyond the old hardware days. Rockwell Automation started calling itself a software company with its partnership with PTC and acquisitions of Plex and Fiix. ABB has been making software noises. I just came from the Siemens Digital conference that was all about breadth of software. At the same time I visited the Hexagon conference where software was the topic. Next was Honeywell with some instrumentation and control discussion (the software group conference comes later), but there was a lot of software discussion there.
Emerson has been calling itself a software leader for a few years. Especially so with the (sort of) acquisition of Aspen Technology. Now we have news of the rebranding of Emerson Exchange as Emerson Exchange Immerse with a new software focus.
Global technology and software leader Emerson will bring together customers, experts, and automation industry leaders for a three-day, process automation experience as part of the first Emerson Exchange Immerse. The conference will be held October 3-5, 2023, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.
As an extension of the comprehensive Emerson Exchange events held globally, Emerson Exchange Immerse will enable users to more directly focus on process automation systems, solutions, and software including technologies from DeltaV™, Ovation™, AMS, Guardian™ and AspenTech. Registration is now open for Emerson customers. Early bird registration ends Aug. 31, 2023.
Emerson Exchange Immerse attendees will engage with their peers, broaden their knowledge base and gain valuable insight from industry leaders. Users will learn the latest technology advancements, implementation successes and proven project solutions being used throughout process automation. Topics will span a wide range of industries including energy, life sciences, chemical, refining, food and beverage, power generation, renewables, hydrogen, biomass, water and mining industries.
“One of the best ways our users, and even our own Emerson experts, learn about new process automation strategies and technologies is from hearing each other’s stories,” said Nathan Pettus, president of Emerson’s process systems and solutions business. “At Emerson Exchange Immerse, attendees will not only hear those stories in user presentations but will be able to dig deeper with our hands-on technology exhibits and in our many networking events.”
Emerson Exchange Immerse will feature over 200 sessions—more than half of which will be presented by users—as well as technology exhibits and educational courses. In addition, forums led by industry experts and Emerson executives will explore how advanced automation software from Emerson is helping companies make measurable progress toward operational excellence and sustainability goals.
Emerson will also host an Exchange user conference for customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in Düsseldorf, Germany, Feb. 27-29, 2024.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 30, 2023 | Events, News
Thanks and a tip of the hat to my long-time sponsor, Inductive Automation. They just sent notice that the Ignition Community Conference (ICC) schedule is up plus Livestream passes are now available. This year it is a 3-day event from September 26-28 in Folsom, CA. I plan to be there to renew old acquaintances. If you’re there, stop me and say hi. Would love to hear what’s on your mind.
