by Gary Mintchell | Aug 13, 2015 | Data Management, Internet of Things, Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management
The Internet of Things can best be thought of as an ecosystem of interrelated parts. There are smart devices on the edge packed with connectivity, memory, processing power, and sensing ability. Networks connect the devices with each other and with controllers, servers, PCs, and mobile devices. Databases store the data in such a way as to enhance retrieval.
Speaking of databases, these days they can reside in all sorts of places. The “cloud” is a perfect place. Actually cloud is a misnomer. It just means there’s a server somewhere. All you really care is that the server is secure, accessible, and backed up.
Amazon showed us with AWS a business model for selling cloud services. Google, Microsoft, and others also have developed businesses around cloud services. It was only a matter of time for a specific cloud service for industrial applications.
Enter GE Predix Cloud
GE has announced plans to enter the cloud services market with Predix Cloud. The world’s first and only cloud solution designed specifically for industrial data and analytics, this platform-as-a-service (PaaS) will capture and analyze the unique volume, velocity and variety of machine data within a highly secure, industrial-strength cloud environment.
Predix Cloud will drive the next phase of growth for the Industrial Internet and enable developers to rapidly create, deploy and manage applications and services for industry. With $4B in software revenues in 2014 and projected software revenues of $6B in 2015, GE continues to grow its investment in software.
“Cloud computing has enabled incredible innovation across the consumer world. With Predix Cloud, GE is providing a new level of service and results across the industrial world,” said Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE. “A more digital hospital means better, faster healthcare. A more digital manufacturing plant means more products are made faster. A more digital oil company means better asset management and more productivity at every well. We look forward to partnering with our customers to develop customized solutions that will help transform their business.”
Predix Cloud will enable operators to use machine data faster and more efficiently, saving billions of dollars annually. By combining GE’s deep domain expertise in information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), GE’s Predix Cloud will deliver advanced tools like asset connectivity, machine data support and industrial-grade security and compliance.
“A cloud built exclusively to capture and analyze machine data will make unforeseen problems and missed opportunities increasingly a complication of the past,” said Harel Kodesh, Vice President, General Manager of Predix at GE Software. “GE’s Predix Cloud will unlock an industrial app economy that delivers more value to machines, fleets and factories – and enable a thriving developer community to collaborate and rapidly deploy industrial applications in a highly protected environment.”
“Like GE, Pitney Bowes is in the midst of its own physical and digital transformation,” added Roger Pilc, Chief Innovation Officer, Pitney Bowes. “With our APM apps running on Predix Cloud, we’re able to extract and analyze data from our assets faster than ever, and use that insight to drive real business outcomes for Pitney Bowes and its clients, including lower operational costs, greater productivity and output and higher service levels. GE knows industrial machines and related data analytics better than anyone, and we look forward to continuing to partner with them on more Industrial Internet solutions.”
The Industrial Internet is generating data twice as quickly as any other sector. With investment in infrastructure expected to top $60 trillion over the next 15 years, the number of devices connected to the Internet will continue to swell, generating an unprecedented collection of data and analytics. Built for Predix, the cloud platform for the Industrial Internet, Predix Cloud is designed to provide a highly secure infrastructure for this next phase of growth, which will generate a new level of insight, asset performance management (APM) capabilities and innovation in the developer community.
The success of the Industrial Internet depends on a collaborative ecosystem of partners. GE’s Predix Cloud is purpose-built from the ground up, but it will also run on other cloud fabrics if required by a customer. Predix Cloud uses Pivotal’s Cloud Foundry to help with application development, deployment and operations.
GE businesses will begin migrating their software and analytics to the Predix Cloud in Q4 2015, and the service will be commercially available to customers and other industrial businesses for managing data and applications on Predix Cloud in 2016.
Specific Features
- Asset Connectivity: Analysts estimate that more than 50 billion assets will be connected to the Internet by 2020. Predix Cloud provides advanced connectivity-as-a-service for these industrial assets, combining proprietary technologies with global telecommunications partners to enable rapid provisioning of sensors, gateways and software-defined machines.
- Scalability for Machine Data: Machines produce different types of data, which consumer cloud services are not built to handle. Predix Cloud was purpose-built to store, analyze, and manage machine data in real time. From capturing and analyzing time series data from a locomotive with thousands of sensors to delivering large object data like a 3D MRI image to a doctor for diagnosis, Predix Cloud is built for the variety, volume, and velocity of industrial data.
- Security + Compliance: Incorporating decades of experience in operational security and information security, Predix Cloud is designed with the most advanced security protocols available, including customized, adaptive security solutions for industrial operators and developers.
- Governance: Leveraging GE’s global network and deep expertise across more than 60 regulatory areas, Predix Cloud is designed to streamline governance and drive down compliance costs for each individual user, while respecting national data sovereignty regulations globally. This enables GE, partners, and developers to more easily build and deploy services for highly regulated industries such as aviation, energy, healthcare and transportation.
- Interoperability: Predix Cloud will operate seamlessly with applications and services running in a broad spectrum of cloud environments. As such, businesses will be able to take advantage of its optimized security and data structure offerings while maintaining and interoperating within existing solutions.
- Gated Community: Unlike public cloud services, which are open to any individual or organization, Predix Cloud is based on a “gated community” model to ensure that tenants of the cloud belong to the industrial ecosystem.
- Developer Insight: Developers will have visibility into their operating environments and every actor connected to it. In doing so, businesses will be able to deploy and monitor machine apps anywhere, continuously adjusting to new demands in the physical and digital world while providing the security and visibility required for operational effectiveness.
- On-Demand Availability: Businesses will be able to easily access and scale with the Predix Cloud, which will be offered through a convenient on-demand, pay-as-you-go pricing model.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 30, 2015 | Commentary, Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management, Software
OK, so I was wrong. Well, I was right and wrong.
My analysis of the Schneider acquisition of Invensys (Foxboro, Wonderware, et. al.) centered on European competition. Namely that as Schneider assembled a large industrial technology powerhouse it was looking at Siemens and ABB—its next-door rivals.
Schneider was already a competitor in the electrical power industry. Acquiring the process automation technologies business with Invensys brought it into more complete competition with ABB.
Software
On the other hand, I thought that Schneider might divest the software business partly because it never really had very much in the way of software.
OK, I was wrong.
Schneider announced last week that “it has reached a preliminary, non-binding agreement with AVEVA Group PLC (“AVEVA”) on the key terms and conditions of a combination of selected Schneider Electric industrial software assets and AVEVA (forming the “Enlarged AVEVA Group”).
On the surface this appears to be a strange marriage. In fact, my friend Walt Boyes did an anti-Schneider rant on his blog this morning. Amongst the rumors he alluded to about Schneider management and how Clayton Christensen’s analysis of acquisitions predicted that the acquisition would go south, he also misunderstood, I think, the implications of this move.
AVEVA is a construction engineering software company. It provides the front-end engineering for plants that Foxboro, Triconix, Avantis, and other ex-Invensys brands operate and maintain.
Design to operate
The upshot is that Schneider should be able to provide an end-to-end solution for process industries similar to what Siemens has done for discrete manufacturing with the integration of UGS and the Siemens PLM division.
By the way, this latter is an example of how a large company can beneficially absorb an acquisition. The merger has worked very well. Other European companies have closely watched this acquisition model. I believe that Schneider will have learned from it.
I wonder what implications for the OpenO&M Initiative and the OGI Pilot program—an ongoing effort to use standards to move data from the engineering design database to the operations & maintenance database. AVEVA was a key player.
Transaction details
It is expected that the proposed transaction would:
1. create a global leader in industrial software, with a unique portfolio of asset management solutions from design & build to operations, with both scale and a distinct market position to address critical customer requirements along the full asset life cycle in key industrial and infrastructure markets;
2. unlock additional value at enlarged AVEVA and Schneider Electric through the potential for material revenue and costs synergies, leveraging on complementary end-markets exposures, customer bases and product portfolios;
3. establish a ‘best in class’ management team and increased brand profile for attracting further talent; and
4. realize the full value of the contributed industrial software assets.
The enlarged AVEVA would have combined revenues and Adjusted EBITA of c. £534 million and c. £130 million, respectively. It is expected that the Enlarged AVEVA Group will continue to be admitted to listing on the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trade on the London Stock Exchange plc’s main market for listed securities. Schneider Electric intends to comply with the Listing Rules of the UKLA. As part of the transaction, Schneider Electric would contribute a selection of its industrial software assets to AVEVA and make a cash payment of £550m to AVEVA, (which would subsequently be distributed to AVEVA shareholders excluding Schneider Electric) in exchange for the issuance of new AVEVA shares, giving Schneider Electric a majority stake of 53.5% in the Enlarged AVEVA Group on a fully-diluted basis. Schneider Electric would fully consolidate the business in its Group financials.
In addition to any consultation procedures involving the personnel’s representative bodies that may be required, the transaction remains subject to, amongst other things, the completion of mutual due diligence to the satisfaction of both parties, agreement on the terms of legal documentation, the approval of the respective Boards of Schneider Electric and AVEVA, AVEVA shareholder approval and relevant anti-trust and regulatory approvals (if required). In accordance with the applicable law and regulation of the United Kingdom, a more detailed public announcement has been released today and is available on the AVEVA and Schneider Electric websites as well as on the AMF (French regulatory authority) website.
A further announcement will be made as and when appropriate.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 22, 2015 | Internet of Things, Interoperability, Networking, News, Operations Management, Process Control
I have business related to an angel investment and too much other travel to attend this week’s Honeywell User Group in San Antonio and Siemens Summit in Las Vegas. Trying to get to both events was both expensive and too exhausting to attempt. I had one friend, at least, who was going to both. More power to Greg.
I’ll analyze from reports I see from those there and from press releases. I know that Honeywell Process Solutions anticipated one major security announcement at HUG, but I would have been gone had I decided to attend anyway.
Meanwhile, I’ve been writing about the Internet of Things, fieldbuses, and networks for some time. The ODVA reached out asking if I’d like an update on its process industry work with EtherNet/IP. Of course, was the reply. It has a stand at ACHEMA in Frankfurt (another place I could have gone…) and sent me this update that would be the centerpiece of its press conference there.
Along with Rockwell Automation’s entry into the process industry automation market, EtherNet/IP usage now must incorporate process industry standards to go along with factory automation (discrete industry) usage. Partner Endress + Hauser has been building out devices that are EtherNet/IP enabled. This is an interesting addition to process industry “fieldbus” market (I know, perhaps EtherNet/IP is not a “real” fieldbus, but it will be used like one).
This was ODVA’s first appearance at ACHEMA, where ODVA members and EtherNet/IP suppliers Endress+Hauser, Hirschmann, Krone, Rockwell Automation, Rosemount, Schneider Electric and Yokogawa have assembled a demonstration of EtherNet/IP to explain to visitors ODVA’s approach to the optimization of process integration. Illustrating typical process applications, such as clean-in-place, highlights of the demonstration include:
- Use of EtherNet/IP to connect best-in-class solutions and devices for process applications;
- Integration of traditional process networks, such as HART, Profibus PA and Fieldbus Foundation, into an EtherNet/IP network; and
- Movement of data between field devices, such as pressure sensors and flow meter, and plant asset management systems.
ODVA’s process initiative, launched in 2013, is intended to proliferate the adoption of EtherNet/IP in the process industries. Initial focus has been on the integration of field devices with industrial control systems and related diagnostic services, leading to a road map for adapting the technology to the full spectrum of process automation needs, including safety, explosion protection, long distances and comprehensive device management.
“EtherNet/IP is at the forefront of trends in convergence of information and communication technologies used in industrial automation. Although industrial Ethernet was first adopted in the discrete industries, today EtherNet/IP is widely adopted in hybrid industries and is spreading into process industries, said Katherine Voss, president and executive director of ODVA. “Because ACHEMA is an international forum for users in chemical engineering and the process industries as a whole, ODVA felt it would be helpful to the ACHEMA’s audience to broadly showcase to process users the opportunities for integration improvements, optimized network architecture and increased ROI that EtherNet/IP can afford.”
by Gary Mintchell | May 7, 2015 | Asset Performance Management, Automation, News, Operations Management, Technology
Fluke invited a group of partners, customers, and bloggers to its Everett, WA corporate facility on May 6 in order to take a deep technology dive into where Fluke is and where it is going from a product/technology point of view. The tone of the gathering was one of conversation where Fluke presented ideas and asked for push back and ideas from us.
And feedback was what they got. The small group I was part of came up with four flip chart pages of ideas regarding proposed new products and products we thought it should pursue.
We also toured labs and manufacturing. Here are some brief impressions.
Fluke has an impressive metrology lab, actually two. The electrical lab has been around for a long time. A new thermography lab has just been constructed. I’m familiar with measurement, but the level of measurement and the dedication to standards was amazing. The science behind all the Fluke tools is solid.
Manufacturing is probably a poster child for the Danaher Production System—the company’s Lean implementation. The facilities are clean, organized with information clearly posted at the cells.
Fluke is also moving further into software—databases and analysis. Initially, Fluke Connect was a cool collaborative app for smart phones. Now it is evolving into helping smaller companies who may not have CMMS or other systems improve asset management through the information gathered from Fluke tools.
This is a product that holds great promise for many who need to start along the predictive maintenance path. “We’d like to help change behaviors in the maintenance and reliability areas.”
Given that, here is the press release for the unveiling of Fluke Connect Assets.
Fluke Connect Assets is a cloud-based wireless system of software and test tools that gives maintenance managers a comprehensive view of all critical equipment — including baseline, historical, and current test tool measurement data, current status, and past inspection data — enabling them to set up and sustain a predictive maintenance (PdM) or condition-based maintenance (CBM) system easily with minimal investment.
It features one-touch measurement transfer from more than 30 Fluke Connect-enabled test tools, eliminating manual recording of measurements so maintenance managers can be confident that the equipment history is accurate.
The company says it’s easy to set up with minimal investment and no need for support from the IT department.
The system’s features allow maintenance managers to analyze multiple types of predictive data (for example, electrical, vibration, infrared images) all in one program, side by side, in a visual format that enables easy scanning. In fact, it’s the first software that offers results across multiple deployments (smart phone, web browser). This intuitive display of multiple measurements enhances the productive use of data and the ability to identify a problem, since each measurement type tests a different aspect of equipment health and together they present a more complete picture.
Key features of Fluke Connect Assets include:
- Asset Health Dashboard — Asset Health is a hierarchy based overview of aggregated status over time, aggregated alarms over time, and equipment status timeline, all with drill downs with more details. This permits managers to quickly identify where they need to focus efforts as part of a morning routine. They can trend and compare thermal, electrical and vibration data over time for each piece of equipment and drill down to the data needed for repair/replacement decisions.
- Asset Status Dashboard — allows managers to quickly scan the most recent status updates for key assets so they can better monitor team and equipment activity.
- Asset Hierarchy and Test Points — allows managers to easily create inspection routes, schedules and instructions and assign technicians to measure specific test points to create repeatable, comparable data.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 7, 2015 | Asset Performance Management, Automation, Events, Interoperability, Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management, Process Control, Software, Technology
Ulrich Spiesshofer, ABB CEO
I was not able to attend ABB’s Automation and Power World this year. Too many places to go at the same time.
However, someone I trust, Mehul Shah of LNS Research, was there and wrote his observations on the LNS blog.
Mehul focuses on software and linked it to the Internet of Things. “The conference also featured a prime focus on the Internet of Things (IoT), as a panel was presented on stage, containing key event sponsor Microsoft, ABB, and an ABB customer. The trio provided insight and examples into how the IoT trend is impacting the industry.”
Highlighting ABB’s solution in the IoT space, Spiesshofer discussed the following key areas of focus
• Robotics
• Intelligent devices
• Control systems
• Advanced communication infrastructure
• Enterprise software
• Analytics solutions
“A notable fact that was highlighted at conference was that—to my surprise—more than 50% of what ABB’s currently offers is software related. ABB had made a few major acquisition over the last decade to build its software offering. The most impactful was the acquisition of Ventyx for $1 billion in 2010. This gave ABB a major boost in asset, operations, energy, and workforce management solutions in some of the asset intensive industries. ABB has also made some other acquisitions such as Insert Key Solutions and Mincom to build its Enterprise Asset Management software offerings. It seems clear the company understands the importance of its software business to remain competitive, and has also developed a separate Enterprise Software group that houses some of these acquisitions.”
Interesting that the investments were in software applications. Several years ago a CEO told me that software was important to his company—and that there was software in most of the company’s hardware products. That was correct—but my point was software business, not technology. ABB seems to have kept emphasis on software business even while Spiesshofer has been divesting some of the acquisitions made under previous CEO Joe Hogan.
Shah’s Takeaways
• It was impressive to see the effort that ABB has invested to bring its acquisitions under one brand.
• ABB has taken a first step in building a technology roadmap by bringing some of the software offerings together as part of the Enterprise Software group. LNS sees this as a big step in the right direction strategically, and should prove of great benefit to current ABB customers as well as prospects.
• However, ABB currently has important software products that remain outside of its Enterprise Software group and it remains to be seen if these solutions will receive the required attention, especially when considering the breadth of ABB’s portfolio. Two examples of this are the company’s Manufacturing Execution System (MES) offering, and the aforementioned Decathlon for Data Centers.
• ABB has a full-fledged MES offering with some good customers currently leveraging this MES across discrete, process, and batch industries.
• ABB might have some ground to cover in MES compared to some of its closest competitors in this space. Companies like GE, Siemens, Schneider Electric and Rockwell Automation have been heavily focused on the software business with many announcing reorganizations to increase resources allocated to software over the past several years and.
• Another area we would like to hear from ABB is around their offerings in IoT. While there were number of products that were categorized as IoT solution, ABB will need a holistic offering and vision around how their industrial clients can leverage these solutions to drive value.
• To answer the question, yes—ABB can compete effectively in the software business. But there is still some grounds to cover. ABB has had a lot of critical parts of the software business for quite a while and has been slower than many of its competitors in pulling it all together.
Gary’s Take
I agree with Mehul for the most part. I knew ABB had an MES offering, and I’ve interviewed Marc Leroux many times over the years. But it always seemed a little under the covers. The same with the Ventyx acquisition. It was easy to forget about it as it didn’t seem to get the promotion it deserved.
ABB is such a diverse conglomerate that sometimes it’s hard to know what it focuses on. I always followed the automation—primarily process automation. Several years ago, I think at Hannover but maybe SPS in Nuremberg, ABB executives explained the factory automation offering and the added emphasis the company was placing on it. But there are so many things and so few promotional dollars.
Also a few years ago, ABB decided to add its Power users to its Automation user group conference—hence Automation and Power World. However, the first two of those featured much more power and much less automation. It looks as if the company is striking a balance at the conference. But the Power division is still a laggard in performance.
ABB is a strong company, but it has much work to do in order to reach peak performance.
