by Gary Mintchell | Feb 20, 2017 | Automation, News, Operations Management, Process Control, Software, Standards
Open Process Automation and IT/OT Convergence. Thursday, the last day of the ARC Forum, is not always all that well attended. The 2017 edition witnessed two sessions that held the attention of the later departing attendees. These two attracted a reasonably good attendance.
I didn’t do the IT/OT one, but I had great interest in the Open Process Automation Forum (Open DCS?).
This was my 20th ARC Forum. My first Forum featured another open control series of meetings on Thursday morning—The Open Modular Architecture Controller group. That group of engineers and managers sought to specify a PLC based upon the computing standards of the time. The culmination of that effort was a CompactPCI chassis cobbled together by an entrepreneur. It was not picked up. Meanwhile OMAC pivoted when end user companies principally P&G and Nestle moved the focus to packaging machines. The goal became machines that used standard states and HMI in order to reduce training time for operators as they moved from machine to machine.
ExxonMobil appeared at the Forum last year with an idea. It wished to reduce the cost to deploy and eventually upgrade its control systems. It had worked with Lockheed Martin to devise a plan from the avionics industry (FACE).
This session at the Forum updated attendees with progress. It has formed under The Open Group as the Open Process Automation Forum. Although driven by ExxonMobil initially, the goal is to form a broad alliance of owner/operators, end users, systems integrators, and suppliers developing this new automation platform.
Many people at the conference relate this effort to the old OMAC work. They see the end game as a customer trying to drive down the cost of the system. Especially a customer who faces two problems: the immediate problem of upgrading old technology; the long range cost of upgrading technology to newer levels.
Another way to view this initiative is more altruistic in the sense of driving disruptive change in the market for all users using standards.
I am conflicted in trying to understand the dynamics of the situation. As a proponent of standards, I applaud the effort to find ways to implement standards and interoperability. Interoperability has been proven in many industries as a driver for business growth. The idea of decoupling hardware and software holds great promise for future upgrades.
But if, in effect, the customers simply wish to drive automation components and software to commodity level, then I see problems. Such ideas have killed entire industries in the past.
I also look at the old PC technology when there many players developing cards for the PC bus to add on to an “IBM PC.” But over time, technology enabled chip manufacturers to incorporate all those features into the main CPU and the industry returned to basically a single source for a computer.
Predictions? I’m not making any right now. However…
This process is now more than a year old, and yet, the theme of the Forum in Orlando was a plea for participation. There were few other owner/operators. Even though almost all major suppliers have signed on, only two (Schneider Electric and Yokogawa) appear to be active. The leaders have put forth an ambitious timing plan. The group is going to have to build a critical mass of participants quickly.
One more point. There is an age-old tension between an end-user wishing to reduce procurement costs by being able to competitively bid everything. However that means that someone must assemble all the components. On the other hand, end user companies also like partnerships with suppliers for joint development and better service.
By decoupling end user from supplier, something or someone must fill the gap. That would be the system integrator, I guess.
There are many questions.
Without further comment, I’ll leave you with the Open Process Automation Forum’s Vision Statement.
Composed of a broad group of end users, product suppliers, systems integrators, and academics, the Forum will create a technologically appropriate open process automation architecture and specifications along with business guidance for its adoption and use.
- This will result in a standards-based open, secure, and interoperable process automation architecture and instances thereof that have the following characteristics:
Easily integrates best-in-class components to provide timely access to leading edge performance
- Employs an adaptive intrinsic security model
- Enables the procurement and modular interaction of certified conformant components into systems that are fit-for-purpose for the end users’ needs
- Is commercially available and applicable to multiple industry sectors
- Protects suppliers’ Intellectual Property within conformant components
- Enables portability and preservation of end users’ application software
- Significantly reduces the difficulty of future replacements and reduces the lifecycle cost of systems
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 17, 2017 | Automation, Internet of Things, Operations Management, Process Control
Three major automation companies laid out new products and services based on exploiting all the connections found in today’s industrial world. Senior executives presented to a press conference and later I had a chance to talk a little with most of them.
Honeywell
Paul Bonner, Honeywell Connected Plant Vice President of Consulting and Data Analytics, introduced the company’s Honeywell Connected Plant (HCP) business, a holistic approach to addressing the challenges of industrial customers. HCP leverages the power of the Industrial Internet of things (IIoT), machine learning, and big data analytics; coupled with Honeywell’s first-principles and empirical modeling technologies and deep process domain expertise. This new business brings together HPS’ Advanced Solutions, Honeywell UOP’s Connected Performance Services (CPS), and Digital Transformation organizations. He will also highlight the Honeywell Sentience cloud platform and INspire partner ecosystem.
Bonner told me that the big thing is that customers are beginning to accept the cloud. Honeywell’s solution, like most of those found in industrial applications, is built on Microsoft Azure.
Another part of the initiative is a collaboration with Seeq, one of three such partnerships for it. This joint development agreement will help customers minimize unplanned shutdowns, maximize output, minimize safety risk and optimize supply chain strategies.
“Honeywell’s deep domain knowledge and capabilities in process optimization, data consolidation, storage and asset monitoring combined with Seeq’s technology help us to identify and solve previously unsolvable problems,” said Shree Dandekar, senior vice president and general manager, Honeywell Connected Plant. “Our goal is to create an effective solution that securely captures, aggregates and analyzes data, and then leverages a vast ecosystem to provide a higher level outcome for our customers. This ecosystem includes leading equipment vendors, process licensors, OEMs and other industry experts.”
“We see this collaboration between Honeywell and Seeq as beneficial to continuously improving how we serve our customers with the latest advanced software and analytics,” said Steve Sliwa, CEO and co-founder, Seeq Corporation. “Honeywell provides key infrastructure to collect and securely store data, while we embed decades of domain knowledge into advanced analytics for more business value, faster. This collaboration will help us provide our customers with new insight through transformative capabilities that lead to more rapid decision-making and process optimization.”
Yokogawa
Since announcing its mid-term business plan, Yokogawa has been accelerating its transformation, including developing new solutions to increase customers’ value. Satoru Kurosu, Director and Executive Vice President, Yokogawa Electric Corporation presented Yokogawa’s new vision to support customers’ best-in-class operating performance and its solution business roadmap to maximize the synergistic effects of strategic acquisitions. In addition, Andrew Howell, CEO, KBC Advanced Technologies announced a unique co-innovation solution designed to provide new perspectives that can help end users strengthen their asset value and overcome challenges.
KBC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yokogawa Electric Corp., launched the KBC Co-Pilot Program (“Co-Pilot”). Just as the co-pilot of an aircraft is there to assist the pilot with additional knowledge and to step in and help at times of intense activity, the KBC Co-Pilot is there to remotely support the plant with expertise and insight supplementing the plant’s own capabilities and resources, thus assuring that it achieves its full potential.
The KBC Co-Pilot Program will assure asset owners and operators that their simulation and planning tools are always up to date, and that the actions taken by their operators result in best possible process performance and safe operation of equipment within recognized limits now and into the future.
KBC has recently integrated its operations with those of two other Yokogawa business units– Industrial Knowledge and Soteica Visual Mesa– to bring together all KBC Co-Pilot
Program capabilities under one organization. The first KBC Co-Pilot solution is for the
remote performance monitoring of oil refinery facilities such as crude distillation units, fluid catalytic crackers, and catalytic reformers.
Key elements of this solution are:
- Real-time data connection to the plant using Web*Technician data-as-a-service
- Automatic recalibration of Petro-SIM rigorous simulation model against actual plant
data
- Automatic LP vector updates from recalibrated model
- Regular health check of unit performance vs plan and vs potential
- Consulting and assistance to implement recommended changes
- Reset of baseline operating plan due to major changes in external impacts such as economics, demand, asset capabilities
Siemens
Jagannath Rao, Sr. Vice President, Data Services, Siemens U.S, presented the
company’s MindSphere industrial cloud infrastructure as an essential element on the path to the digital enterprise. Connectivity on the production floor and acquiring and analyzing data can provide significant opportunities for businesses.
But, how can a manufacturer store, manage, and gain value from the large data
that can be acquired from their machines and production lines? Without a proper infrastructure for data management, implementing the benefits of data-driven intelligence will have very limited possibilities.
This is a comprehensive platform that I saw previewed last year at Hannover in Germany. I have written about Mindsphere a couple of times before here and here.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 16, 2017 | Security
Cyber security was a pervasive topic at the recent ARC Forum in Orlando. There were at least five suppliers with exhibits featuring security. Several were startups headed by former Israeli security officers. Guess they should know what they’re doing.
Featured:
Bedrock Automation
Claroty / Rockwell Automation
Indegy
PAS
Nazomi
Bedrock Automation
Bedrock Automation announced newly upgraded control system firmware that extends its intrinsic cyber security protection to networks, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and third-party applications. Bedrock Cybershield 2.0 firmware not only enables authentication and encryption of I/O networks and field devices, it now protects compliant networks and user applications such as controller configuration, engineering and SCADA. It achieves this with the world’s first industrial control system (ICS) certification authority (CA) – drawing on the power and flexibility of public key infrastructure (PKI) and Transport Layer Security (TLS).
Bedrock Automation also announced a controller that enables end users to obtain customized, company specific root keys With the inclusion of more than 40 intrinsic technologies, the BedrockOpen Secure Automation (OSA) platform initially delivered on two fundamentals of cyber defense: a secure control platform and secure component supply chain. The resulting endpoint root of trust leverages hardware-based secret root keys and certificates for advanced cryptographic authentication of Bedrock hardware and software components, which are further fortified with layers of anti-tamper protection.
“Our first objective was to deliver a hardware-based endpoint root of trust, which we did with the Cybershield 1.0, which was built into last year’s product release. Cybershield 2.0 is our next giant leap. It validates our built-in versus bolted-on technologies and is forward and backward compatible. This 2.0 firmware upgrade demonstrates how we continuously enhance intrinsic defense and lead the digital convergence of OT cyber security with enterprise class technologie,” said Bedrock founder, CTO and VP Engineering Albert Rooyakkers.
Claroty
Industrial security software provider Claroty and Rockwell Automation will work together to combine their security products and services into future, packaged security offerings.
After a competitive review process, Rockwell Automation selected Claroty for the company’s anomaly-detection software purpose built for industrial network security. The software creates a detailed inventory of an end user’s industrial network assets, monitors traffic between those assets, and analyzes communications at their deepest level. Detected anomalies are reported to plant and security personnel with actionable insights to help enable efficient investigation, response and recovery.
“More connected control systems combined with the potential for more attacks on those systems have made cybersecurity a top concern in the industrial world,” said Scott Lapcewich, vice president and general manager, Customer Support and Maintenance, Rockwell Automation. “Claroty’s deep-visibility software platform and expertise in industrial security made the company a natural fit for substantial collaboration as we grow our existing portfolio of security service and support offerings.”
A key characteristic of the Claroty software is its ability to explore the deepest level of industrial network protocols without adversely impacting the system. This enables end users to identify even the smallest anomalies while protecting complex and sensitive industrial networks. Traditional IT security software often uses active queries and requires a footprint on the network, which can ultimately disrupt operations. However, the Claroty platform uses a passive-monitoring approach to safely inspect traffic without the risk of disruption.
“The Claroty platform can detect a bad actor’s activities at any stage, whether they’re trying to gain a foothold on a network, conduct reconnaissance or inflict damage,” said Amir Zilberstein, co-founder and CEO, Claroty. “It also can detect human errors and other process integrity issues, which are often more common than threats from bad-actors. For example, the software monitors for critical asset changes that, if done incorrectly, could result in unexpected downtime. The system also identifies network-configuration issues that could expose a system to outside threats.” here.
Indegy
Last year I wrote about Indegy as a stealth security startup. This year, not so much stealth. It was one of several at the Forum. They told me this year that they are more OT focused than IT focused. Most of the other companies look at network traffic trying to find anomalies. Indegy focuses on changes in the PLC. The founders are from Israeli security plus retired US General Petratis is on the board.
PAS
PAS is not a new company. It has been known as the “human reliability” company focused on its background in alarm management expanded into cataloging process control systems for purposes of change management. It has taken these technologies to the next level by applying them to cyber security. Over the past two years, PAS has invested heavily in people and technology to become a leading process cyber security company.
Nozomi
Nozomi, a Swiss company, began on the offensive side of cyber security. Founders have an academic background. It switched to the defensive side with a tool that exposes visibility in a process system. Its second co-founder brings a background of machine learning to the mix. The technology listens to the network with an understanding of the process and detects anomalies.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 17, 2016 | News, Operations Management, Podcast
While I was at Dell World last fall, Dell Chief Research Officer Shawn Rogers interviewed me on Internet of Things. The video has been posted.
Meanwhile I have recorded a YouTube video report from the recent ARC Forum. I made a podcast of the recording for those who download from iTunes and listen while driving or exercising.
As I stated in the video and podcast information, “Gary reports from Orlando at the ARC Advisory Group 20th Annual Industry Forum. No surprises that Internet of Things and cyber security were headliners. The real surprise was the amount of Keynote space president Andy Chatha gave to an ExxonMobil initiative of engaging Lockheed Martin to essentially drive an open-specification DCS. Reception by technology suppliers was lukewarm at best. Reception by peers was difficult to gauge because so few were in attendance. But the conversations were intense.
Enjoy.
