by Gary Mintchell | Apr 22, 2015 | Automation, Data Management, Internet of Things, Manufacturing IT, Networking, News, Operations Management, Organizations, Software, Standards, Technology
I have been writing about some open source initiatives with OPC UA. I think it’s cool and long overdue that there is so much happening in the OPC world lately. See these:
Open Source OPC UA Development
Open Source OPC UA for Manufacturing
Last week at Hannover, the OPC Foundation announced several items—including the promotion of Stefan Hoppe to Vice President of the Foundation (pictured). Another one deals with an open (sort of) source initiative designed to broaden the appeal of OPC outside of the industrial automation community.
OPC Announces “OPC UA Open Shared Source” Strategy
The OPC Foundation announced that the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) specifications and technology will be made available to companies, consortiums, and end users without requiring membership in the OPC Foundation. The OPC Foundation is implementing an “open shared source” strategy to facilitate widespread adoption of the technology beyond industrial automation.
OPC UA provides a complete solution for information modeling allowing consortiums and vendors to plug in their simple or complex information models directly into OPC UA and take advantage of all of the OPC UA SOA allowing generic devices and applications to seamlessly share information.
The OPC Foundation open shared source strategy provides developers a quick jump start on the technology enabling prototyping projects without any barriers.
The OPC Foundation vision of interoperability providing the best specifications, technology, certification and process is the core of this open shared source strategy for the technology and specifications. The open shared source will be hosted on open source collaboration community work space. The OPC Foundation OPC UA stacks available to the OPC Foundation members will be under RCL license, allowing OPC Foundation members to build the highest quality OPC UA enabled products and then be able to certify the products through the comprehensive OPC Foundation certification and interoperability programs.
Stefan Hoppe, OPC Foundation Vice President, commented that “Adoption of OPC standards in industrial automation and specifically reaching out to other domains requires new ways of thinking to evangelize and increase awareness about the OPC Technology. OPC Unified Architecture is becoming the dominant infrastructure and information modeling architecture for the Internet of things and Industry 4.0, and these initiatives require complete transparency and open this about the technology to be a core part of their infrastructure.”
Continuing the Conversation
Andy Robinson pointed to a neat little app on OPC on YouTube. I replied and that led to a cool conversation between Andy and Rick Bulotta of ThingWorx. Here is what a nice little conversation can happen on Twitter. I’d like to invite more of these.
Andy Robinson @archestranaut @garymintchell re OPCUA, thought you might be interested in this. It’s a small start but the vision is great! http://ow.ly/LWdXq
Then Rick Bullota chimed in:
Rick Bullotta @RickBullotta why introduce #MQTT into the mix? it is a weak subset of OPCUA (no metadata, RPC, discovery)? #IoT
Andy Robinson @archestranaut 100% for typical in the building plant floor apps. But for weak or expensive connectivity may be better.
Rick Bullotta @RickBullotta living with “all of the above” here @Thingworx. MQTT is more like OPC (actually, NetDDE) than OPCUA.#IoT
Andy Robinson @archestranaut also agree #mqtt maybe not ideal for commands as would probably require Qos2, not a huge deal…
Rick Bullotta @RickBullotta btw, I think it’s quite cool what you did though! nice work!
Andy Robinson @archestranaut not my work. Someone else.
Andy Robinson @archestranaut but I do think the basic idea of accepting not many new #IOT device will speak UA out of box leads us to .. . think about how we might integrate at least a subset of critical info into our already setup SCADA systems.
Andy Robinson @archestranaut I don’t suspect folks like Thingworx are looking to supplant traditional SCADA. At least doesn’t seem logical
Rick Bullotta @RickBullotta we’re already doing this with @ThingWorx via OPC/OPCUA, historians, HMI APIs, databases, and so on.
Andy Robinson @archestranaut which is why you will be fine while other “similar” offerings will disappear on the low end
Rick Bullotta @RickBullotta correct. connecting, augmenting integrating and expanding their reach, whether within the plant or beyond.
Rick Bullotta @RickBullotta been there, done that, twice. 😉 I also founded Lighthammer (now SAP MII).
Andy Robinson @archestranaut nice to have a more civil convo after the last mini-twitp*** of about a month ago with others. 🙂
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 27, 2015 | Asset Performance Management, Automation, News, Operations Management
Reflecting trends I see in consumer-oriented platforms, Rockwell Automation has added custom-device plug-in capability to its FactoryTalk AssetCentre v6.0 asset management software. System integrators can now develop re-usable plug-ins to connect the software to unlimited third-party devices. For manufacturers, this connectivity expands monitoring, backup and recovery capabilities for their critical automation-related assets.
Just take a look at some of the latest developments from Facebook. They are telling media companies and others that the audience is there, on Facebook, so develop apps to reach that audience (owned, by the way, by Facebook).
This is not an exact analogy, but Rockwell has great market share of automation and control in North America and is competitive in Asia. Its software business, while not so dominant, is competitive. Therefore, it makes sense to offer this expansion for asset management.
FactoryTalk AssetCentre software is an asset management tool that allows manufacturers and industrial operators to centrally manage controllers and other automation-related assets. It archives asset configurations on a regularly scheduled basis, tracking changes and providing a point of return for faster recovery following an unscheduled downtime event. Archived asset configurations can also be saved and used as a “golden copy” configuration, allowing customers to pinpoint exactly what should be running in their automation layer and compare it with what is actually running.
“The FactoryTalk AssetCentre software now provides extensive access to equipment across an entire automation system,” said Mohit Singhai, product manager for Rockwell Automation. “Additionally, plug-in definitions created for one third-party device can be re-used with other devices or even in other automated industrial systems to help speed up commissioning and deployment.”
The software also archives user actions and changes. This allows operators or technicians to audit any changes that have been made to more easily identify a problem’s root cause, such as when a temporary code fix to keep a line running leads to an unanticipated downstream issue. Regular comparison reports can also inform operators of any discrepancies that might be occurring between an asset’s last saved configuration and its current parameters.
FactoryTalk AssetCentre software provides configurable levels of security. Administrators can establish role-based data access and activity limitations, and monitor individual user activities.
In addition to the new custom-device, plug-in capability included in the v6.0 software release, independent agent-group functionality has also been added. It allows users to place interrelated programs or agents into groups and then independently configure each agent group as needed, which allows for more scalable and flexible architectures.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 4, 2015 | Automation, Data Management, Events, News, Operations Management, Software
I have a potpourri of items to start the day. In the morning I leave for a week serving at the Tijuana Christian Mission. We will do a variety of service projects including building a section of a cinder-block security wall at its Rosarito orphanage site. We will do some work at the women’s shelter. We will also have some “real” Mexican tacos and check out the Pacific Ocean. I will be writing ahead, but there may be some gaps.
ABB
I decided that I just had too much going on along with watching my budget to attend this year’s ABB Automation and Power World event in Houston. This is the first one I’ve missed. And, yes, I do feel some withdrawal pain. What little news I’ve seen so far says that attendance is about 8,000. That is fantastic. I have seen no other news so far.
There were a couple of press releases in general. I subscribe to news feeds using Feedly on my iPad. I scan hundreds of items a day. Unfortunately, whatever Web technology ABB uses, when I click on the teaser lead in to the story to go to the Website, nothing happens. I’ve reported it to ABB several times in the past. For now, I don’t tweet or write up these items–I can’t see them.
Jim Pinto on Tolerance
My friend Jim Pinto who once wrote a monthly column on automation for me has switched his outlook on life. He has been tackling social problems lately in his new blog.
The latest edition is an impassioned plea for tolerance. He talks about treating other people with dignity. Certainly that is a life skill that will help you become successful except in the most toxic of organizational environment. But certainly successful as a person.
The piece did send me in search of a book in my library from the late 60s called “A Critique of Pure Tolerance.” For you philosophers, you might get just a sniff of Kant in the title. Rightly so. Three philosophers contributed essays–a Hegelian, a Kantian, and a positivist. One author was Robert Paul Wolfe. I can neither remember the other two or find the book right now. The point was (throwback to anti-VietNam protests) that sometimes you really shouldn’t tolerate the thoughts of others. I just offer that as a token of meaningless debate.
Real news from Dassault
Just received this update. By the way, I think these pre-configured apps are the beginning of the future for manufacturing software. Seems Apriso is making us smart–at least according to the press relations manager. Version 4.0 of Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA Apriso Manufacturing Process Intelligence (MPI) application suite is now available. New Maintenance, Logistics and Warehouse Intelligence Packs add visibility to another 200+ new KPIs.
Manufacturers operating globally are challenged to accurately measure analytics across sites to identify “best-in-class” performance. MPI 4.0 now offers 700+ pre-configured, built-in measures and KPIs within seven DELMIA Apriso Intelligence Packs. Intelligence Packs are pre-configured to work out-of-the-box with existing Apriso products (or may be integrated with other vendor products) to deliver the industry’s most robust EMI solution for global manufacturing excellence.
MPI 4.0 now offers Maintenance, Logistics and Warehouse Intelligence Packs, in addition to existing Production, Machine, Labor and Quality Intelligence Packs.
Advanced manufacturing strategies
There is one thing that puzzles me. Does anyone care about the variety of “smart manufacturing” theories and initiatives that take up so much room in magazines and blogs these days? I keep asking and writing, but the response is muted.
Granted, the European initiatives, principally Industrie 4.0, seem to be supplier driven. The US counterpart, Smart Manufacturing, has a government component, but is largely academic backed by some private companies who wish to take advantage of a pool of Ph.D. candidate researchers. It does talk about building a platform. However, the commercial impact is still in the distant future.
Just checking in. I’m working on a paper. If you have anything to contribute, I’m all ears.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 27, 2015 | Operations Management, Software, Standards
Looks like there is a debate in the software development community again. This time around node.js
Dave Winer is a pioneer in software development. I used his first blogging platform, Radio Userland, from 2003 until about 2009 when it closed and I moved first to SquareSpace and then to WordPress. Below I point to a discussion about whether the node.js community needs a foundation.
His points work out for manufacturing software development, too. Groups of engineers gather to solve a problem. The problem usually involves opening up to some level of interoperability.
This is a double-edged sword for major suppliers. They’d prefer customers buy all their solutions from them. And, yes, if you control all the technology, you can make communications solider, faster. However, no supplier supplies all the components a customer wants. Then some form of interoperability is required.
Therefore, technologies such as OPC, HART, CIP, and the like. These all solved a problem and advanced the industry.
There are today still more efforts by engineers to write interoperability standards. If these worked, then owner/operators would be able to move data seamlessly, or almost seamlessly, from application to application solving many business problems.
Doing this, however, threatens the lucrative market of high-end consultants whose lock-in of custom code writing and maintenance is a billion-dollar business. Therefore, their efforts to prevent adoption of standards.
Winer nails all this.
I am new to Node but I also have a lot of experience with the dynamics [Eran] Hammer is talking about, in my work with RSS, XML-RPC and SOAP. What he says is right. When you get big companies in the loop, the motives change from what they were when it was just a bunch of ambitious engineers trying to build an open underpinning for the software they’re working on. All of a sudden their strategies start determining which way the standard goes. That often means obfuscating simple technology, because if it’s really simple, they won’t be able to sell expensive consulting contracts.
He was right to single out IBM. That’s their main business. RSS hurt their publishing business because it turned something incomprehensible into something trivial to understand. Who needs to pay $500K per year for a consulting contract to advise them on such transparent technology? They lost business.
IBM, Sun and Microsoft, through the W3C, made SOAP utterly incomprehensible. Why? I assume because they wanted to be able to claim standards-compliance without having to deal with all that messy interop.
As I see it Node was born out of a very simple idea. Here’s this great JavaScript interpreter. Wouldn’t it be great to write server apps in it, in addition to code that runs in the browser? After that, a few libraries came along, that factored out things everyone had to do, almost like device drivers in a way. The filesystem, sending and receiving HTTP requests. Parsing various standard content types. Somehow there didn’t end up being eight different versions of the core functionality. That’s where the greatness of Node comes from. We may look back on this having been the golden age of Node.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 24, 2015 | Automation, Internet of Things, Networking, Operations Management, Technology
Are you sick of hearing about the Internet of Things, yet? I hope not. That’s the big topic in industrial/manufacturing circles these days, and I doubt that it fades soon.
I think there is a paradox going down here, though. In many respects we already have connected plants. Automation has been so well accepted, that it would be hard to find a facility either manufacturing or production that has no automation. And automation requires instrumentation, networking, and data analysis.
Even considering IP–as in Internet Protocol–as a core of Internet of Things, the adoption of Ethernet-based networks such as EtherNet/IP and Profinet continues to grow significantly.
One wonders, then, what manufacturing executives think of the whole idea and where adoption ranks in their priorities.
Robert McCutcheon, Partner with PwC and US Industrial Products Leader, led a study with PwC and The Manufacturing Institute. The facts and conclusions are included in The Internet of Things: what it means for US manufacturing.
McCutcheon followed up with a blog post where he summarized the findings.
Setting the table for the discussion, he notes, “According to one estimate, the installed base for Internet-connected devices already exceeded $14 billion by early 2015, and is forecast to boom to nearly $50 billion by 2020. We are living in an era of deep data inter-connectivity.”
Further, he says, “Connected devices and new data flows are already making impressive headway in the manufacturing sector, and we expect to see this trend accelerate. In fact, another estimate shows that over the next decade, manufacturers could stand to capture about $4 trillion of value from the IoT through increased revenues and lower costs.”
With this potential value potential, what are executives thinking? Here is his summary.
“This is what we learned:
- Smart sensors are gaining traction – nearly 40% of U.S. manufacturers are collecting and using data generated by smart sensors to enhance their manufacturing and operating processes
- Not all think IoT strategy is critical — about 30% say that it’s “slightly important” or “not important at all” to adopt IoT strategy in their operations
- Focus is on manufacturing plants — one in three manufacturers use data-driven technology in the manufacturing plant only, with about one in four deploying it in their plant and warehouse”
The idea is data-driven manufacturing. Many are competing to find the killer app for this.
The idea is data-driven manufacturing. Many are competing to find the killer app for this. Industrie 4.0 advocates describe a digital factory that mirrors the physical factory where engineers and executives can fine tune the process from design to ship. Smart Manufacturing envisions a platform where apps can be built upon which will provide benefits of enhanced workflow.
Even Lean (which is seldom discussed lately, but remains the best route to manufacturing effectiveness) needs data to both discover problem areas and provide feedback about the success of the project.
Where do you stand on the IoT spectrum?
