by Gary Mintchell | Mar 13, 2023 | Automation, News, Organizations, Technology
The entire scope of technology going under Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Extended Reality (XR), Metasphere, and whatever comes next has been hyped beyond the Gartner Hype Cycle. That brings out the skeptic in me.
Many trade show demonstrators have fitted me with a variety of glasses, goggles, hoods, hard hats with goggles, and many I’ve no doubt forgotten. Cool demos, all. But real applications? Nothing has really caught on. This news from the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance included some use cases. What do you think? Do you see using them in your plant?
Well, maybe someday.
The Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance (AREA) published a new research report entitled 3D Mapping Solutions for Enterprise AR announced March 6, 2023. The new AREA research report reviews 3D mapping technologies and principles and defines parameters for choosing a 3D scanner for a specific use case.
3D models or point clouds can lower the cost, time, and developer training to view an object or environment with AR information such as instructions, warnings, or routes overlaid on the physical world. Despite its relatively young presence in the enterprise sector, AR technology has rapidly evolved into a powerful tool with broad versatility and a thriving community of experts.
AR technology is already being leveraged with 3D mapping data to provide strategic tools for site planning, instructional guidance, or real-time navigation. As AR technology advances, so will its capabilities to leverage 3D mapping data.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 24, 2023 | Automation, News, Organizations, Process Control, Standards
One of the meetings I look forward to these days at the ARC Forum in Orlando concerns updates from The Open Process Automation Forum, a working group of The Open Group.
This year I met with OPAF leaders Mohan Kalyanaraman and Ryan Smeltzer for a private briefing and then attended one of the OPAF sessions in the general forum. Widespread interest in their work was evidenced by the turnout of more than 200 people.
The OPAS 2.1 version of the standard is considered to be stable and suppliers can build products to it. Conformance requirements and testing are in process and due this year. Security guidelines and adoption guides are due to be completed this year.
Test beds and a pilot project have been completed. A few companies have scheduled test beds to their requirements. ExxonMobil is proceeding with a field trial that includes DCS/PLC that are commercially available compliant with OPAS 2.1. The project includes a single operator, single console, 2,500 I/O, and 100 control loops.
Further, OPAF is working with OPC Foundation for joint standard for Field Exchange and is also working with NAMUR ZVEI in Europe.
A little history and context
This work was instigated by ExxonMobil made public in 2016. That company faced upgrading its automation platforms at considerable expense. Other end user companies faced the same challenge. Schneider Electric, Yokogawa, and ABB were early boosters from the technology provider side of the equation.
I have followed a few of these initiatives. I can see the value of open systems. They have worked well in the IT market. However, gaining adoption is exceedingly difficult. Many suppliers may talk open systems, but in the end they want to keep everything tied together in house. To the outside world, they’ll say that they can assure all the parts will work together better because they are all designed by the same company. On the other hand, they really want to establish a long-term relationship with a large customer that is difficult to break. Lots of conflicting desires and business needs.
This project is gaining traction. It will only work in the end if enough end users specify the products and enforce procurement and application. Another project I once followed stumbled at this stage. One corporate engineering staff approved the open standard, but they could not enforce procurement at the plant level. We’ll see where this one goes.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 14, 2023 | Business, News, Organizations
Partnerships, collaborations, consortia constitute the theme of this era of technology. Siemens sent this item about a joint venture called Cofinity-X formed to foster the adoption of the Catena-X network. What are these, you may ask. Well…
- Cofinity-X aims to operate an open marketplace for applications and provide products and services to enable the efficient and secure exchange of data between all participants of the ecosystem initially focusing on the European market.
- Cofinity-X will help to make important progress with the operationalization and build-up of end-to-end data-chains to trace material flows throughout the entire value chain.
- Basis for the operation will be the trusted Catena-X and Gaia-X principles ensuring full data sovereignty for data sharing parties in an open, trusted, collaborative, and secure environment.
Cofinity-X founders are BASF, BMW Group, Henkel, Mercedes-Benz, SAP, Schaeffler, Siemens, T-Systems, Volkswagen and ZF.
Here is more detailed explanation.
Future customers will be able to access applications and services to implement use-cases in the automotive value chain such as CO2 and ESG monitoring, Traceability, Circular Economy or Business Partner Data Management:
- Approaches for decarbonization: Carbon Footprint Tracking solutions enable concise, accurate calculation and reporting of CO2 values along the value chain. This will allow Cofinity-X customers to stay ahead in Carbon Footprint transparency and derive potential sustainability improvements to play an active role in the global effort to reach net-zero.
- Consistent and reliable traceability: Tracing parts and components at any time throughout the entire supply chain starting with raw material and closing the loop with recycled parts. Traceability applications can give the possibility to display the entire value chain and help to find ways to increase supply-chain resilience.
- Circular economy for a sustainable value chain: The recycling of materials is an ever-increasing topic of importance within the automotive industry. The information about the condition of components can be transparently displayed among suppliers and customers to properly re-use parts and components. By implementing circular economy, companies can improve the ratio of recyclable materials in their products and reduce waste.
- Intelligent Business Partner Data Management (BPDM): Companies invest significant resources to keep customer and supplier data up to date. The BPDM services of Cofinity-X cleans and enriches business partner data across the automotive industry. Customers of Cofinity-X thus can benefit from sorted, analyzed, uncluttered, and enriched partner data.
- Collaboration between suppliers and customers throughout the automotive value chain: “Increasing requirements to trace all materials throughout the entire value chain is one of the key factors Cofinity-X is built on. We will be an important part of a rapidly scaling ecosystem in which all companies in the automotive value chain can participate equally. Therefore, our product offering will initiate end-to-end data chains as well as generate value for all the participants.” Alexander Schleicher, Managing Director Cofinity-X
A product offering built to drive acceptance and adoption of small- and medium sized enterprises: End-to-end data chains can only be created if all parties are willing to collaborate. Most of the companies in the automotive value chain are small and medium-sized enterprises. Cofinity-X will offer an easy and fast onboarding for these key players. Cofinity-X will build a portfolio around four key product and service offerings. The first products and services will be available from the end of April 2023.
- Open Marketplace aspires to enable the efficient “matchmaking” of network participants by creating an optimal environment for business applications which customers can implement. All applications offered will be compliant with the Catena-X and GAIA-X data exchange principles.
- Data Exchange between parties will be based on sovereign, secure and standardized principles without forcing a lock-in effect to certain solutions. Every partner will stay in full control of their own data.
- Federated and Shared Services will power the business applications offered on the marketplace and enable data exchange in an interoperable open-source approach ensuring added value for each customer.
- Onboarding Services will foster the adoption of the Catena-X ecosystem and accelerate the digital connection of automotive partners in every step of the value chain to the ecosystem.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 9, 2023 | News, Organizations
Two news items from the OPC Foundation were announced at the ARC Forum in Orlando this week. An agreement with the Digital Twin Consortium and welcoming the Foundation’s 900th member.
Procter & Gamble the 900th Member
The OPC Foundation is proud to welcome Procter & Gamble as the 900th OPC Foundation member. A leading consumer goods company, P&G is also a global leader in the Smart Manufacturing domain through its efforts to drive innovation by using digital technologies, including OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), in a concept they call “constructive disruption.” Procter & Gamble’s Manufacturing Operations have been recognized in delivering industry leading performance and capability over many years made possible by leveraging their operational excellence program called Integrated Work System (IWS). Based on this success, IWS is not only leveraged across their 100+ manufacturing sites globally, but now also 450+ non-compete manufacturing operations are leveraging IWS to deliver superior results. Procter & Gamble is taking this to the next level by bringing artificial intelligence and machine learning to their processing equipment in ways that continue to advance their heritage of operational excellence across the smart manufacturing spectrum. P&G is shaping its future by leveraging open standards in the industrial ecosystem in order to deploy their technologies at scale. OPC UA is an integral part of the industrial communication framework within P&G’s automation systems, providing secure connectivity from sensor to cloud.
When asked about P&G’s efforts to harmonize their digital transformation while advancing their heritage of operational excellence, Jeff Kent, Vice President, Smart Platforms Technology & Innovation, P&G, stated: “It is critically important to P&G to have an innovation and operational ecosystem that can enable the speed-to-value-creation and sustained operational excellence expected from smart manufacturing. We see the need to work collaboratively with automation industry partners and The OPC Foundation, as a leading global open communications and integration standards body, to drive scalable, repeatable and resilient intelligent operational technology implementations across our worldwide operations. Smart manufacturing technology architectures, IT/OT network communications, data engineering and data modeling, S/W applications and AI/ML algorithms all depend on the proven, progressive and practical adoption of the specifications that we are adopting with our industry partners.”
Michael Clark, Director OPC Foundation North America was honored to make this milestone announcement, saying, “Procter & Gamble has successfully completed many phases of innovation ever since its inception almost two centuries ago; and today is no exception.” Clark further stated, “Procter & Gamble continues to show its leadership by embracing the global standard of OPC UA, and we could not be more pleased to welcome them as the 900th member of the OPC Foundation – joining our collaborative digital communication ecosystem, comprised of the most forward-thinking companies on the planet.”
Stefan Hoppe, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation, welcomed P&G as an official member. “It is with great pleasure that I welcome a very special company with tremendous global relevance, with high visibility in all of our daily lives.” Hoppe explained, “Procter & Gamble is the producer behind an incredible number of name-brand products we likely know and use. It fills us with pride to recognize how Procter & Gamble is committed to acquiring and leveraging critical data from a variety of automation assets, with the consistent adoption of OPC UA enabled products across its diverse manufacturing facilities.”
Digital Twin Consortium
Digital Twin Consortium (DTC) and OPC Foundation announced a liaison agreement to accelerate the development and adoption of digital twin-enabling technologies. The DTC and the OPC Foundation have worked closely in several open-source reference implementation projects on GitHub and have agreed to collaborate even closer.
“We are excited about working with OPC Foundation,” said Dan Isaacs, GM, and CTO of DTC. “Through our collaboration, we will influence interoperability standards and processes that will advance the use of digital twins in manufacturing across many industries.”
The DTC and OPC Foundation have agreed to the following activities:
- Collaborating on standardization requirements
- Realizing interoperability by harmonizing technology components and other elements
- Aligning work in horizontal domains for adoption in vertical domains and use cases, proof of concepts, and Value Innovation Platforms (VIP) programs, including:
- Technology, terminology, and taxonomy
- Security and trustworthiness
- Conceptual, informational, structural, and behavioral models
- Enabling technologies, such as simulation and AI
- Technology stack across the digital twin lifecycle
- Case study development
- Developing and understanding open-source reference implementations
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 26, 2023 | Business, News, Organizations
I refrain from politics on this blog and other places notwithstanding that I was in the 99th percentile on the political science graduate record exam at university and came close to a graduate degree in that discipline before I escaped into common sense.
I also am not a booster of the US Chamber of Commerce. However, throwing all that aside, I have to report on this news from them regarding today’s political agenda in Congress (and elsewhere). Kudos to CEO Clark and the organization for taking a stand. I don’t agree with their entire agenda, but that’s OK. Ideas and debate are good. Let’s quit making points on social media and start doing things to make the country stronger and better.
U.S. Chamber President and CEO Suzanne P. Clark – in the annual State of American Business address – today urged government to reject partisan gridlock, pursue an actionable agenda to strengthen America, and give businesses the best opportunity to succeed.
“Business demands better from our government because when it comes to Washington, the state of American business is fed up,” said Clark. “The polarization, gridlock, regulatory overreach, and inability to act smartly and strategically for our future is making it harder for all of us to do our jobs and move this country forward.”
“We need a government that works. A government that rejects gridlock and chooses governing. A government that can partner with the private sector on our biggest challenges and can engage globally to advance America’s interests, and the world’s. A government that limits itself to the work only it can do — no more and no less.”
Agenda for American Strength
Clark called on Congress to begin work on an Agenda for American Strength that can “help us not only navigate the present moment but also steer our country to the brighter, stronger future that we expect — and future generations deserve.”
Clark outlined a forward-looking, aspirational agenda to strengthen our country in five key areas: building, people, energy, global leadership, and the rule of law. She stressed that progress can be made on national priorities immediately through practical, actionable steps, and highlighted the following key actions that Congress and the Administration should pursue this year:
Pass a permitting reform bill to deliver on the investment made in infrastructure;
Secure our nation’s border, protect Dreamers, and increase the number of employment-based visas;
Fix worker shortages by improving access to childcare and incentivizing work;
Accelerate permitting for new American energy exploration and production, finalize a legally required 5-year program for offshore leasing, and make it easier to build energy infrastructure;
Work in partnership with the private sector to achieve climate resilience through innovation;
Resume free and fair trade negotiations and pursue new deals;
Tackle head-on the challenges with China, while maximizing the benefits America can and must derive from continuing to do business with the world’s second largest economy in areas consistent with our national security and values;
End lawsuit abuse by going after litigation funders; and
Enact policy changes to help law enforcement and prosecutors make our communities safe and fight organized retail crime.
Equally important, Clark noted, is what government should stop doing: instituting a government-knows-best approach that burdens American businesses with overregulation and micromanages our economy.
Fighting Overregulation through the Courts
“The unprecedented regulatory overreach has accelerated over the past two years,” said Clark. “When I gave this speech last year, I pledged that if government didn’t stop getting in the way through overregulation, we would lead the fight to stop it. And that’s why the Chamber sued the FTC, the SEC, and the CFPB last year. And we won’t hesitate to do it again if that’s what’s needed to protect business interests, preserve innovation and competition, and position our economy for growth.”
“Our message to our partners in government today is very simple,” said Clark. “Do your jobs, so we can do ours. Make government work, so business can keep working … so companies of all sizes can keep doing the things that society needs, expects, and trusts us to do. America is a great and capable nation, and together, we can do the big thinking and take the smart steps to secure the future we deserve and strengthen this country that we all love.”
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 24, 2023 | Business, News, Organizations, Sensors
This news came to me via a UK company called McMenon Engineering Services. It concerns ABB, too. To quote from McMenon, “A UK manufacturing company’s growth plans have taken an exciting leap forward with the acquisition of a state-of-the-art product line from Europe.”
A range of Variable Area (VA) Flowmeters will now be manufactured in Workington, Cumbria, after McMenon Engineering Services Ltd was chosen by global technology company ABB to make the VA flowmeter product portfolio that had been produced by ABB in Germany.
Following the acquisition, McMenon, under a supply partnership agreement, will continue to supply VA meters carrying the ABB brand and the meters remain part of ABB’s product offering.
McMenon, a worldwide manufacturer and supplier of quality flow and temperature measurement instrumentation, and ABB have a long-standing partnership.
With this acquisition, McMenon, already a highly recognised name in the global flowmeter and temperature instrumentation market, will now be placed among the top global manufacturers of VA flowmeters. ABB customers will see no difference and can expect the same product quality they are used to.
