by Gary Mintchell | May 23, 2022 | Business, Enterprise IT, News, Organizations
We thought of Artificial Intelligence as something magical. Then we figured out that much of the output of AI depends upon how the application is trained. Then, duh, we discovered bias underneath the AI training. Perhaps concepts we have learned since ancient times such as ethics, morals, and responsibility are important. My adolescent self hates hearing me say things like that. But, it’s true.
Sometimes I despair at the general lack of taking responsibility for our words and actions I too often observe.
In a bit of mining that same vein, the Object Management Group announced last Friday, May 20, a new consortium called Responsible Computing (a trademark of IBM, by the way). The founding members of this group are IBM and Dell. Its purpose is to focus on sustainable development goals.
From the news release, “Responsible computing is a systemic approach aimed at addressing current and future challenges in computing, including sustainability, ethics, and professionalism, stemming from the belief that we need to start thinking about technology in terms of its impact on people and the planet.”
“Responsible Computing aims to shift thinking and, ultimately, behavior within the IT industry and affect real change,” said Bill Hoffman, Chairman, and CEO of RC and OMG. “We’ve made our manifesto and framework freely available, and we’ve asked every RC member to implement RC principles. Our goal is that someday every IT professional will adhere to RC principles.”
The new consortium’s manifesto defines RC values to restore trust in IT by responsibly applying technology and by sharing experiences with other organizations. These values include sustainability, inclusiveness, circularity, openness, authenticity, and accountability.
The consortium’s RC framework focuses on six domains of responsible computing, including:
- Data centers – are designed and operated with a focus on efficiency and sustainability, including emphasizing green energy and improving the handling and disposal of chemicals, toxic materials, and rare metals.
- More sustainable infrastructure – monitoring the energy usage of products and technologies. Efficient and more sustainable operations, including proper disposal of products.
- Code – choosing code that optimizes environmental, social, and economic impact over time. Optimal code includes efficient algorithms, frameworks, and tools and KPIs to accelerate decision-making and pinpoint areas requiring more scrutiny during software development.
- Data usage – the safe use of data will drive transparency, fairness, privacy, and respect for users.
- Systems – that address bias and discrimination by driving equality for all, for example, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for transparency.
- Impact – the technologies and innovations that drive a positive impact on society at large such as building to improve human conditions and mitigate social risk.
Through interviews with over 100 CTOs concerns were raised around developing practical actions to progress Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) programs. They wanted to contribute to becoming more sustainable businesses and demonstrate progress through consistent metrics. In November 2020, IBM’s Academy of Technology (AoT)’s responded to these challenges and created the Responsible Computing Council, an international team of technology and computing leaders who collaborate in validation and the implementation of the RC framework and lead by example in becoming a responsible computing provider. Object Management Group (OMG) was an early member of the council, and shortly after that, the OMG board approved the formation of the RC consortium.
“Now is the time for companies to adopt a holistic approach that places sustainability strategy at the center of their business,” said Sheri Hinish, Global Lead, IBM Consulting Sustainability Services. “IBM is proud to be a founding member of the RC consortium. Through this collaboration, we hope to help companies establish new and innovative ways to transform their business operations through ethical, impactful ways that can help contribute to a more sustainable future.”
“Dell is proud to be a founding member of the RC consortium. We are aligned with and driven by a similar passion to help leading technology organizations realize their sustainable development goals, in line with the planet’s,” said Marc O’Regan, CTO EMEA, Dell Technologies. “In addition to being socially and environmentally responsible, we also expect that RC members will see improved go-to-market solutions, strategies and bottom-line results by following RC principles.”
An organization can become more operationally efficient and demonstrate a return on investment (ROI) when meeting sustainability goals. The ROI can potentially include:
- Reduced power consumption
- Waste reduction for packaging
- Cost-effective heating and cooling solutions
- Supply chain efficiency, and more
by Gary Mintchell | May 17, 2022 | Data Management, News, Organizations, Standards
The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) continues to reinvent itself as new technologies and applications appear. I could say the same about Mark Fondl, whom I first met as he explained how Ethernet was going to be the only sensible control network some 24 years ago. About the time I first met OMAC. This initiative comes because of all the data-intensive technologies we’ve added in manufacturing over the past few years. We have cloud, analytics, digital transformation, data-driven, and the entire panoply of use cases and tech.
OMAC’s latest initiative, led by ei3’s Mark Fondl, aims to establish a framework and guidelines to protect precious proprietary information while enabling secure data sharing for efficiently solving problems, mining insights, and capturing the highest value from data-supported capabilities.
The workgroup will elaborate on the following topics to help organizations boost employee collaboration and productivity and support continuous innovation through practical data-sharing approaches.
- Categorizing types of data and methods of segmentation
- Identifying the sources of data
- Clustering data usage – from control and optimization to service and support
- Understanding data ownership and constraints – especially concerning the use of insights arising from the data
- Architecting data hierarchy for distribution
- Reviewing security regulations concerning the transfer and storage
Participating organizations include leading manufacturing companies such as Cargill, Pepsico, and Corning; well-known OEMs including Mettler-Toledo, Milacron, Barry-Wehmiller, and Nordson; system integrators like Rovisys and Martin CSI, and groundbreaking technology companies like the ei3 Corporation, Siemens, General Electric, Rockwell, Cisco, Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. amongst others.
The workgroup will meet virtually, with the kick-off meeting being planned for May 18, 2022. (Sorry, I’m a bit late to the party due to the allergy attack.) A face-to-face workshop will take place in December 2022 to allow active members to review the developed content and enable an easy and free flow of suggestions in advancing this topic.
If you would like to participate and contribute your knowledge, skill, and experience, please complete the Expression of Interest Form, and the workgroup administrator will reach out to you.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 23, 2022 | Education, News, Organizations
Festo branches into many interesting endeavors. I’ve visited the company’s headquarters, a few customers including an Audi plant in Hungary, and the Cincinnati, Ohio area training facility. This news touches on a hot topic crucial to manufacturing success–training and education. Festo Didactic develops training courses and conducts classes. Here are two pieces of news. One from Ohio regarding a pre-apprenticeship program in a couple of schools. The second from Wisconsin concerning an award.
Warren County and Clermont County Schools Kickoff Manufacturing Pre-Apprenticeship Program
Students from Kings High School and Goshen High School get on-the-job training in advanced manufacturing from Festo Didactic, made possible by funding from Easterseals and the State. A group of 14 high school seniors in southwestern Ohio have become the first beneficiaries of a workforce development grant to fund a newly formed pre-apprenticeship program focused on modern day manufacturing.
The grant was awarded to Easterseals, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit organization focused on improving workforce equity, inclusion and access.
Kings High School in Warren County and Goshen High School in Clermont County are the first high schools in the state to participate in the pre-apprenticeship program in collaboration with Festo Didactic, a global leader in industrial and technical education.
“The Area 12 HUB (Butler, Clermont, Warren counties and Easterseals) partnered with Festo because they have an exceptional model for their manufacturing pre-apprenticeship program,” said Jessica Dean, Manager, Youth Services Community Operations at Easterseals Serving Greater Cincinnati. “In this program, there’s a strong commitment to help youth become successful. For students to have access to high quality STEM education and hands-on training like this, it opens up a world of possibilities.”
According to apprenticeship.gov, by definition, pre-apprenticeship is a program or set of strategies designed to prepare individuals to enter and succeed in a Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP). Pre-apprenticeship programs help employers save time and money by providing pre-screened, ready-to-work employees who have been trained in the specific skills employers need. U.S. Department of Labor case studies have shown that pre-apprenticeship programs can attract more diverse candidates, including women and people of color, and increase employment of disabled workers.
Specifically, Festo’s pre-apprenticeship is designed to introduce students to modern day smart manufacturing. The program prioritizes hands-on, experiential learning that exposes students to the wonders of bionics and robotics in addition to beginner-level engineering concepts in pneumatics and mechatronics. Pre-apprentices receive a comprehensive learning experience in the classroom with textbook and hybrid learning, then head off to the lab to apply their knowledge hands-on with IoT hardware and software systems. Upon completion of the program, students will receive a certificate of completion.
Classes are held at Festo’s Regional Service Center (RSC), a 47-acre state-of-the-art logistics and manufacturing plant that provides automation technology serving all of North America. The plant opened in 2015 and is among the 15 largest employers in Mason.
The RSC also serves as the home base for Festo’s award-winning Mechatronics Apprenticeship Program (MAP2) which first launched at the Festo Learning Center in 2016. In 2020, MAP2 earned the Best in Ohio Business Award in the Workforce Development Program category.
KTEC to Honor Festo Didactic as the 2022 Distinguish Partner
Festo Didatic is scheduled to be presented with KTEC’s 2022 Distinguished Partner Award at the annual KTEC Gala on Saturday, March 26, for the company’s dedication to education and support of KTEC.
The mission of Kenosha School of Technology Enhanced Curriculum (KTEC) is to engage learners of all types in an innovative and continually evolving learning environment, to prepare students for success through academic excellence by the use of 21st Century Skills, strategic partnerships, and technology integration to prepare for a global society.
The company is an important part of innovation for KTEC students. Festo and the school are working together to integrate bionics and mechatronics into the school’s STEM learning program for 6th–8th grade students.
Festo is also an important part of the design team for KTEC High School, which is slated to open this September. Festo is facilitating the development of the Automation and Robotics career pathway.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 16, 2022 | Business, News, Organizations
Consolidation hits the vision system market yet again. Zebra Technologies, pursuing a strategy of becoming a broader automation player, announced intent to acquire Matrox Imaging. Matrox has been around for a long time. I remember it from my days as an integrator. It’s a tough market to go alone.
Zebra Technologies announced it intends to acquire Matrox Imaging. This acquisition further expands Zebra’s offerings in the fast-growing automation and vision technology solution space following last year’s acquisitions of Adaptive Vision and Fetch Robotics.
Matrox Imaging offers platform-independent software, software development kits (SDKs), smart cameras, 3D sensors, vision controllers, input/output (I/O) cards, and frame grabbers which are used to capture, inspect, assess, and record data from industrial vision systems in factory automation, electronics and pharmaceutical packaging, semiconductor inspection, and more.
“Customers are increasingly deploying automated solutions to augment their front-line workers, enabling them to focus on more complex, higher value workflows, and machine vision is a key technology to help them get there,” said Anders Gustafsson, Chief Executive Officer of Zebra Technologies. “This acquisition enables us to meet our customer’s evolving needs, regardless of where they are on their automation journey—from capturing and analyzing data to facilitate decision-making to deploying physical automation solutions to accelerate the production and movement of goods and materials. We are excited to welcome the Matrox Imaging team to the Zebra family.”
Matrox Imaging’s solutions complement Zebra’s recently launched fixed industrial scanning and machine vision portfolio as well as significantly augment Zebra’s growing expertise in software, machine learning and deep learning.
“The combination of Matrox Imaging’s technical expertise with the global footprint of Zebra Technologies presents an opportunity for Matrox Imaging to accelerate its long-term strategic plan,” said Lorne Trottier, President and Co-Founder of Matrox. “With its complementary machine vision and fixed industrial scanning portfolio, Zebra Technologies will be an excellent home for Matrox Imaging.”
Zebra expects to fund the $875 million purchase price with a combination of cash on hand along with fully committed financing under its credit facility. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval and is expected to close in 2022. Matrox Imaging generates annual sales of approximately $100 million with a higher profit margin profile than Zebra.
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP is serving as legal counsel and UBS Investment Bank is serving as financial advisor to Zebra. Stikeman Elliott LLP is acting as legal counsel and Evercore is acting as financial advisor to Matrox Imaging.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 10, 2022 | Automation, Networking, News, Open Source, Organizations
I’m sitting in the San Diego airport following my second post-pandemic conference. ODVA wrapped up its 2022 Annual General Meeting at lunch today with technical committee sessions continuing the rest of the day. This organization may be the most active of any similar one of its kind currently. Working groups met virtually during the two years of the pandemic following the 2020 meeting and maybe were more productive than ever.
Technical Sessions
Yesterday, March 9, I sat in two technical sessions relevant to my interests. The first, ”Edge to Cloud”, discussed the work being done to map CIP data to OPC UA. A large amount of detail has been by the ODVA working group as well as work with a joint working group writing a companion specification for OPC Foundation. Much field-level data that may not even be used by the control function bears content useful to other systems—many of which use the cloud for storage and retrieval.
The second technical session concerned using CIP networks in process automation applications. ODVA originally developed DeviceNet, a fieldbus most useful for discrete applications. Even EtherNet/IP found most uses in factory automation. Process automation users also discovered a need to use EtherNet/IP (a CIP network). The technology enticing for process automation users is Advanced Physical Layer (APL). This network can handle identified required areas including safety, hazardous areas, configuration, process improvement, secure remote access, and 24/7 uptime. Work continues to define and implement standards.
ODVA Growth
Al Beydoun, executive director of ODVA and Adrienne Meyer, VP of operations, reviewed the many association activities of the past two years.
- Grew membership to greater than 365
- Focused on growth in China
- Development work for EtherNet/IP over TSN
- CIP Safety was recertified with IEC
- Collaboration continued with Fieldcomm Group and FDT Group
- Worked with OPD Foundation
- Worked on xDS device descriptions
- Extensive online training and promotion.
The technical committees recorded activities of 80 SEs and TDEs, completed two publication cycles in 2020 and three in 2021 one of which concerned APL, and recorded 27 volume revisions. They also worked on standards for resource constrained devices, process industry requirements, and Time Sensitive Networking (TSN).
User Requirements from P&G
Paul Maurath, Technical Director—Process Automation from Procter & Gamble’s Central Engineering, presented the user’s view of automation. I will dispense with suspense. His conclusion, ”Help us manage complexity.”
Maurath told the story of setting up a test process cell in the lab. They used it to test and demonstrate Ethernet APL devices and the network. They discovered that APL worked, the controller didn’t see any issues. The discouraging discovery was the amount of configuration required and the complexity of setup. He referred to an E&I technician working the shift on a Sunday morning at 3 am. Call comes in. Device is down. With a regular HART / 4-20 mA device, the tech has the tools. But with an Ethernet device configuration can be a problem.
Conclusion:
- There is a need for new technology to deliver functionality and simplicity
- Standards are great
- Please keep end users in mind when developing standards and technology
ARC Advisory Group Glimpses the Future
Harry Forbes, research director for ARC Advisory Group. devoted a substantial part of his keynote to open source. ”There is,” he noted, ”an IT technology totally overlooked by OT—open source software.” He principally cited the Linux Foundation. You’ll find news and comments from LF throughout this blog. I see great value from this technology. That an ARC researcher also sees the power was somewhat a surprise, though. ”It’s not software that’s eating the world,” said Forbes, ”it is open source eating the world.”
The problem to solve as detailed by presentations at the last ARC Industry Forum (and I think also worked on by the Open Process Automation Forum which also appears often on this blog) is the need to decouple hardware and software allowing easier updates to the software through containers (Docker, Kubernetes) and virtual machines.
Is that the future? I’m not sure where the vendors are that will bring this innovation, but I’m sure that many users would welcome it.
Conclusion
ODVA appears to be thriving. It is at the forefront of pushing new standards. It is looking forward at new technologies. It is growing membership and mindshare. The staff also assembled an outstanding event.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 23, 2022 | Business, News, Organizations
I lost this news item, and now the deadline for sending information has passed. However, this is an initiative that you may want to keep in the back of your mind for future ideas. Or, maybe you would like to investigate further and join. Remade Institute is one of 16 US Department of Energy advanced manufacturing organizations.
Responses to REMADE’s RFI will inform revisions to the Institute’s technology roadmap, which is currently focused on reducing the use of raw and virgin, or primary, materials; increasing remanufacturing and the use and supply of recycled, or secondary, materials; and fostering circular innovations. The RFI will also address REMADE’s sustainability strategy, including developing Circular Economy approaches that will help address climate change economy-wide.
“Over the last five years, REMADE has invested or allocated more than $85.6 million to develop innovative technologies to reduce energy consumption and decrease carbon emissions,” Remade CEO Nabil Nasr said. “Given REMADE’s projected impacts so far, it’s important to see how we can further accelerate the U.S.’s transition to a Circular Economy — to turbocharge it.”
The connection between industrial development and climate change is significant. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, manufacturing accounts for 25% of U.S. energy consumption at a cost of approximately $150 billion. Based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, industry is the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the nation at 30%. This is why a circular approach to manufacturing — “make-use-reuse-remanufacture-recycle” — is so important, Nasr said.
“If we don’t reduce industrial energy consumption and industrial emissions, research shows we will only get a little more than halfway to net-zero by 2050, about 55% of the way,” he added. “A Circular Economy approach to how we manufacture and use everyday products can help us get all the way to net-zero.”
REMADE Chief Technology Officer Magdi Azer says the Institute has focused its efforts and investment dollars on increasing the reuse, remanufacturing, recovery and recycling of four energy-intensive material classes: metals, plastics/polymers, fibers, and electronic waste (e-waste). In addition to seeking feedback regarding these current activities, the RFI asks where REMADE should focus its efforts relative to electric vehicles (EV) and photovoltaic (PV) solar power as part of the Institute’s future planning.
“Having invested in a suite of technologies to increase the reuse, remanufacturing, recovery and recycling of metals, polymers, fibers and e-waste, REMADE is evaluating how to proactively respond to megatrends such as climate change, resource scarcity, and technological breakthroughs in its research agenda,” Azer said. “The RFI will assist us in answering these questions.”
Those interested in learning more can read the detailed RFI here. Innovators and researchers with industry, academia, government, and the non-profit sector who are interested and involved in the nation’s transition to a Circular Economy are especially encouraged to respond. Responses can be submitted in either short-form or long-form. For details on REMADE’s 2020 Technology Roadmap, review the Institute’s roadmap here.
REMADE, part of the nation’s Manufacturing USA network of 16 advanced manufacturing institutes, and its members are developing technology solutions that are capable of:
• Saving more than 1 Quad of energy per year, which is the equivalent of conserving more than 180 million barrels of oil a year
• Reducing 50 million metric tons per year in greenhouse gas emissions, which is the equivalent of eliminating the annual emissions of 11.5 million cars
• Increasing the supply and use of recycled materials by more than 40 million metric tons per year
• Creating up to 700,000 direct and indirect jobs, enhancing the U.S. economy and increasing the nation’s competitiveness
Founded in 2017, REMADE is a 141-member public-private partnership established by the U.S. Department of Energy with an initial investment of $140 million. REMADE is the only national institute focused entirely on the development of innovative technologies to accelerate the U.S.’s transition to a Circular Economy. In partnership with industry, academia, and national laboratories, REMADE enables early-stage applied research and development that will create jobs, dramatically reduce embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the supply and use of recycled materials.
