by Gary Mintchell | Feb 23, 2018 | Asset Performance Management, Automation, Security
Cybersecurity, digitalization, and asset performance management headlined the various press events with Schneider Electric at the recent ARC Forum. I took notes from Kim Cousteau’s presentation on APM at the main press conference and expected a follow up press release for details. I have not received one yet.
Remember the “reverse acquisition” of Aveva where Schneider Electric placed all of its software divisions into Aveva and then took a 60% share in the company? The deal is about to close. Schneider spokespeople assured me that digitalization is proceeding apace with the leveraging of Aveva design through construction applications into operations and maintenance applications—Schneider’s strong suit. This, on paper, brings the company into the competitive marketplace with Siemens and its UGS acquisition of several years ago. This is an interesting area to watch.
Schneider called a special press event, with lunch, to talk specifically about cybersecurity. This response to an incident in which the company’s Triconex safety system earned some publicity—but not always accurately portrayed. The incident was a cyber attack that caused a situation that the safety system caught and initiated a safe shut down.
However, the event caused renewed concern for cyber defense. ARC Vice President, Larry O’Brien, said, “This is a wake up call for people to follow existing security standards.” Gary Freburger, who heads that division of Schneider, said, “It’s everybody’s job.”
We received this official statement from Peter Martin, vice president of business innovation and marketing, Schneider Electric
At Schneider Electric, we heartily encourage all collaborative efforts to strengthen cybersecurity. The growing problem of cybersecurity is not specific to any single company, institution or country. Rather, it’s a threat to business and public safety that can only be addressed and resolved when suppliers, customers, integrators, developers, standards bodies and government agencies work together. This collaboration starts with common standards, agreed-upon rules, appropriate funding and active cooperation. It extends beyond national borders and transcends competitive interests.
Schneider Electric continues to work diligently with our customers, partners, developers and industry peers to make the shift from reactive to proactive cybersecurity management through compliance with evolving industry standards, agreement that cybersecurity is a journey not a destination, and a commitment to standing together in the face of cyber threats.
Today, we commend the signatories to the “Charter of Trust.” It’s another important step toward ensuring that the promise of digital transformation and automation will prevail over the threat of cyberterrorism.
Regarding APM, Kim Cousteau discussed a new release of Avantis that expanded machine learning from the power industry to oil & gas. For maintenance, it incorporates a team system for operator rounds and improved workflow. It incorporates augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) “because workers are so new and need help to get up to speed. Look for updated analytics to aid in catching anomalies ahead of failure. She cited a customer who has been tracking savings from this feature alone and is up to $65 million.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 11, 2017 | Operations Management, Workforce
Companies are adopting Lean manufacturing with increasing frequency. And that is a good thing. A Lean culture is people-friendly, not to mention profit friendly. And thus the story of a GE Brilliant Factory award winning plant.
GE has around 400 manufacturing locations. It has had a contest to find the “most brilliant of the Brilliant Factory” plants in its system. I had the opportunity to interview Rob McKeel, CEO of GE Automation & Controls, whose plant in Charlottesville, VA was one of the 17 chosen from 400+.
Manufacturing Day was last Friday, but we need to continue to promote the importance of manufacturing and production throughout the year so that we can attract our fair share of the best and brightest young people into our industry.
McKeel told me the theme is digitizing Lean manufacturing. The plants are using the advantages of GE’s tools. Different plants chose different problems to tackle. The A&C factory in Charlottesville, VA was chosen as one of the “Most Brilliant of the Brilliant Factories” by meeting its goal to reduce cycles—lean out inventory turns.
The biggest challenge was changing the culture to really become Lean. The worker at the line really owns the results in Lean. Everyone around them has the function of supporting the line worker. On Gemba walks, the line leader presents the situation for that line and then asks for help. Help is given immediately.
Here’s a video that GE created about its Brilliant Factory in Charlottesville.
The second thing is to apply technology. Some technologies used included robots, augmented reality, and visualization to provide data in real time.
“We have a very different plant from 25 years ago—mostly due to tapping the energy of the people,” stated McKeel.
I asked how they went about transforming culture. He told me that first the plant manager went to Toyota to study the Toyota Production System. He took the “big” course. But everyone needs to understand. So then he had some team members took Lean training at Toyota. Then, walking the talk, showing the changes they wanted to effect. The first teams learned to react to worker problems quickly. That action and trust led to other questions. Main value is that the worker comes first, management and other team members support the worker.
Sounds to me like they used a basic method of creating trust. Without trust, you’ll never have a successful Lean implementation.
McKeel said, “We don’t have a single unproductive moment for the worker.”
A&C was awarded the GE Brilliant Factory of the Year for its leadership, people and manufacturing excellence. While four inventory turns per year has long been standard in the industry, the Charlottesville BF is pacing for 50 inventory turns in 2017 on its model product line.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 13, 2017 | Manufacturing IT, Technology
In 2030 every organization will be a technology organization and as such businesses need to start thinking today about how to future-proof their infrastructure and workforce, according to a report published by Dell Technologies. The research, led by the Institute for the Future (IFTF) alongside 20 technology, academic and business experts from across the globe, looks at how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, augmented reality and cloud computing, will transform our lives and how we work over the next decade. The report, titled ‘The Next Era of Human-Machine Partnerships‘ also offers insight on how consumers and businesses can prepare for a society in flux.
Interesting thing about this report is that it is not simply Dell’s technology or market strategy wrapped in the guise of a “research” report like the typical analyst job.
The report forecasts that emerging technologies, supported by massive advancements in software, big data and processing power, will reshape lives. Society will enter a new phase in its relationship with machines, which will be characterized by:
- Even greater efficiency and possibility than ever before, helping humans transcend our limitations
- Humans as “digital conductors” in which technology will work as an extension of people, helping to better direct and manage daily activities
- Work chasing people, in which by using advanced data-driven matchmaking technologies, organizations can find and employ talent from across the world
- People learning “in the moment,” as the pace of change will be so rapid that new industries will be created and new skills will be required to survive
Dell Technologies commissioned the study to help companies navigate an uncertain world and prepare for the future. Today, digital disruption is ruthlessly redrawing industries. For the first time in modern history, global leaders can’t predict how their industry will fare further down the line. According to Dell’s Digital Transformation Index, 52 percent of senior decision makers across 16 countries have experienced significant disruption to their industries as a result of digital technologies. And nearly one in two businesses believe there’s a possibility their company will become obsolete within the next three to five years.
Not your usual analyst firm, Institute for the Future (IFTF) is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) strategic research and educational organization celebrating nearly 50 years of forecasting experience. The core of our work is identifying emerging trends and discontinuities that will transform global society and the global marketplace. The Institute for the Future is based in Palo Alto, California.
IFTF relied on its decades-long study on the future of work and technology, in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, and the opinions and ideas generated during an all-day facilitated workshop with a diverse set of experts from across the globe.
They studied robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality, and cloud computing with the goal of projecting the impacts of these technologies by 2030. I had the opportunity to talk with Liam Quinn, sr. vice president and CTO of Dell Technologies about this report and he added comments about the Internet of Things. More on that interview in my next reflection of the report.
“Never before has the industry experienced so much disruption. The pace of change is very real, and we’re now in a do-or-die landscape. To leap ahead in the era of human-machine partnerships, every business will need to be a digital business, with software at its core,” said Jeremy Burton, chief marketing officer, Dell. “But organizations will need to move fast and build capacity in their machines, ready their infrastructure and enable their workforce in order to power this change.”
“We’ve been exposed to two extreme perspectives about machines and the future: the anxiety-driven issue of technological unemployment or the over optimistic view that technology will cure all our social and environmental ills,” said Rachel Maguire, research director, Institute for the Future. “Instead we need to focus on what the new relationship between technology and people could look like and how we can prepare accordingly. If we engage in the hard work of empowering human-machine partnerships to succeed, their impact on society will enrich us all.”
Other report highlights include:
- In 2030 humans’ reliance on technology will evolve into a true partnership with humans, bringing skills such as creativity, passion and an entrepreneurial mindset. This will align with the machines’ ability to bring speed, automation and efficiencies, and the resulting productivity will allow for new opportunities within industries and roles.
- By 2030 personalized, integrated artificial intelligence (AI) assistants will go well beyond what assistants can do now. They’ll take care of us in predictive and automated ways.
- Technology won’t necessarily replace workers, but the process of finding work will change. Work will cease to be a place but a series of tasks. Machine learning technologies will make individuals’ skills and competencies searchable, and organizations will pursue the best talent for discrete tasks.
- An estimated 85 percent of jobs in 2030 haven’t been invented yet. The pace of change will be so rapid that people will learn “in-the-moment” using new technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality. The ability to gain new knowledge will be more valuable than the knowledge itself.
Exploring the technology areas:
Robotics—Buoyed by their commercial success, the adoption of robots will extend beyond manufacturing plants and the workplace. Family robots, caregiving robots, and civic robots will all become commonplace as deep learning improves robots’ abilities to empathize and reason.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning—According to Michelle Zhou, an expert in AI, development can be thought of in three stages. The first is recognition intelligence—algorithms that recognize patterns; followed by cognitive intelligence—machines that make inferences from data; with the final stage being virtual human beings. It is plausible that, by 2030, we will enter the second stage in AI as this technology progresses.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality—Despite the difference, both technologies represent a fundamental shift in information presentation because they allow people to engage in what Toshi Hoo, Director of IFTF’s Emerging Media Lab, calls “experiential media” as opposed to representative media. The information layer that both technologies create will accelerate the melding of digital and physical identities, with digital drails and traces forming a digital coating over individuals’ physical environments.
Cloud Computing—It’s important to recognize that Cloud Computing isn’t a place, it’s a way of doing IT. It is already in wide use. For example, Chitale Dairy (in India) launched a ‘cow to cloud’ initiative in which each cow is fitted with RFID tags to capture data that is held in the cloud. The relevant analysis of this data is then sent to the local farmers via SMS and the web, to alert farmers when they need to change the cows’ diet, arrange vaccinations, etc. The timely delivery of this information is increasing the cows’ yield, supporting local farmers, whose livelihoods depend on the dairy farms, and enabling Chitale to manage a part of the supply chain which is normally fraught with uncertainty.
You can also check out the Dell blog.
by Gary Mintchell | May 26, 2017 | Internet of Things
Dell EMS Internet of Things (IoT) group assembled a mini supply chain as its booth at the user conference Dell EMS World in Las Vegas in May. At the October Dell EMS World in Austin, these were put together as an ice cream factory and distribution, and the booth featured an ice cream machine. I sure could have used an ice cream by the time I got through all the exhibits.
The Dell IoT Gateway was the common denominator of the exhibit tying everything together.
The first station features construction. Here are a couple of guys trying out the DAQRI augmented reality helmets. I had the opportunity to try these in Hannover. A really cool application of AR.
They are looking at a combination of the construction (see the red “steel” framework) and drawings that show the layout of electrical conduit, HVAC ducting, and other details. As a construction worker, they can get a feel of where things go, as well as spot interferences the designer missed.
This station showed product on its way to market through sensing and communication from Nokia.
Below is a layout of the Emerson process manufacturing system.
They brought actual pipe, pump, motor, instruments, wirelessHART communication. No, it didn’t make ice cream.
This station featured IMS Evolve–an application that brings sensor data into the cloud and provides track and trace, as well as other analytics, assuring the safety of the food product through the supply chain from the point of view of proper temperature.
Don’t forget security! Here is a photo of a physical security video system from V5.
The Dell Gateway is an edge device capable of accumulating data from the disparate sources, performing storage and analysis at the edge then sending information to the cloud for further analysis. It seems that everywhere I go, the “edge” is the place where innovation is centered right now. This simple demo showed the power of the edge.
by Gary Mintchell | May 19, 2017 | Automation, Internet of Things, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management, Software
Software platforms, Internet of Things, Digital Transformation and many more manufacturing technologies brought 225,000 people to Hannover last April. I think I got the last available hotel room in the Hannover as I prepared for an intense three days of meetings. I’ve written a couple of posts already. But there is much more. My trip to Dell EMC World out of the way, I’m back to finishing some Hannover thoughts.
Check out these posts on IoT Platform Architecture, Augmented Reality, and a review of IoT platforms.
ABB and IBM partner for industrial artificial intelligence
ABB and IBM announced a strategic collaboration that brings together ABB’s ABB Ability with IBM Watson.
Customers will benefit from ABB’s deep domain knowledge and extensive portfolio of digital solutions combined with IBM’s expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as different industry verticals. The first two joint industry solutions powered by ABB Ability and Watson will bring real-time cognitive insights to the factory floor and smart grids.
“This powerful combination marks truly the next level of industrial technology, moving beyond current connected systems that simply gather data, to industrial operations and machines that use data to sense, analyze, optimize and take actions that drive greater uptime, speed and yield for industrial customers,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “With an installed base of 70 million connected devices, 70,000 digital control systems and 6,000 enterprise software solutions, ABB is a trusted leader in the industrial space, and has a four decade long history of creating digital solutions for customers. IBM is a leader in artificial intelligence and cognitive computing. Together, IBM and ABB will create powerful solutions for customers to benefit from the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
Another quick note about ABB. It has been a leader in high voltage DC technology (HVDC). At Hannover it announced the latest development in high voltage direct current (HVDC) Light making it possible to reliably transmit large amounts of electricity over ever greater distances, economically and efficiently. The next level of ABB’s HVDC Light will enable more than doubling the power capacity to 3,000 megawatts (MW).
“We pioneered HVDC technology in the 1950’s as a game changer, and the birth of HVDC Light in 1997 was one of the most significant milestones in our innovation journey” said Claudio Facchin, President, ABB Power Grids. “As we mark 20 years of this breakthrough, we are ready to write the next chapter of this technology, with significant enhancements that will help transmit power further with minimum losses and bring major benefits to our customers. HVDC is a cornerstone of our Next Level strategy, reinforcing our position as a partner of choice in enabling a stronger, smarter and greener grid.”
GE Digital
I had several discussions with GE Digital and GE Automation & Control. Here is an announcement from GE.
GE Digital announced a major release of its Plant Applications Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solution for hybrid manufacturing industries, designed to manage highly automated production processes. This new version features a new user interface, using GE’s advanced UX design, to better enable operations staff to analyze equipment effectiveness and identify root causes of downtime. The first phase of the Plant Applications user interface enhancement makes it easier for plant personnel to utilize MES systems in their day to day work.
Plant Applications holistically automates and integrates data collection from assets on the plant floor used to manage production execution and performance optimization in hybrid manufacturers in industries such as Food & Beverage, Consumer Packaged Goods and Chemical.
And from GE Automation & Controls, it announced its Control Server and Control System Health App. These innovations are a part of GE’s Industrial Internet Control System (IICS). IICS is an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution that reliably, safely and securely connects thousands of machines to the power of the cloud and brings computing to the edge.
Utilizing GE’s Field Agent platform, Control Server also enables intensive optimizing apps like Model-based Optimizing Control (MBOC) to inject performance improvements that deliver greater profitability. In addition, the operating and maintenance costs are reduced through consolidation of PC functions provided by virtualization technology on a server-grade platform. With built-in security features, this innovation reduces the cyber-security attack surface and improves compliance with industry regulations.
As part of the industrial app economy, GE also launched the Control System Health App which allows customers to monitor the status of their control hardware from any location with internet access. The app collects real-time data in a time-series database and uses the power of analytics to recommend corrective actions based on faults.
“We are excited to unveil the next round of powerful analytics tools as part of our IICS system,” said Rob McKeel, President and CEO of GE’s Automation and Controls business. “These two innovations will not only help our customers continue to optimize business and asset performance, but now, with the app, they’ll be able to check in on their system in the palm of their hands from anywhere in the world.”
Honeywell Introduces IIoT SDK Utilizing OPC UA
Honeywell Process Solutions announced a software toolkit that simplifies the interconnection of industrial software systems, enabling them to communicate with each other regardless of platform, operating system or size. The Matrikon FLEX OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) Software Development Kit (SDK) is ideal for applications where minimal memory and processing resources are common.
“Honeywell Connected Plant is our holistic approach to anticipating and meeting the needs of customers by leveraging the power of the IIoT,” said Shree Dandekar, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Connected Plant. “Within this environment, OPC UA plays a key role in enabling outcome-based business solutions. Our introduction of Matrikon FLEX underscores the importance of this technology.”
Tom Burke, president and executive director, OPC Foundation, commented, “In order to quickly and efficiently implement OPC UA, suppliers need a toolkit to minimize development time and effort, and deliver secure and reliable products. Honeywell’s new SDK is ideal for companies getting started with OPC UA to take advantage of the growth of the IIoT. It provides a way to launch OPC UA-enabled products faster and with fewer changes.”
Parker Hannifin Unveils Voice of the Machine
Parker Hannifin Corp. unveiled the Voice of the Machine IoT platform, an open, interoperable and scalable ecosystem of connected products and services.
“From online platforms that enable users to engage with our broad portfolio of products, systems and engineering talent; to global monitoring and asset integrity management services that keep critical systems productive, we are creating better outcomes for our customers,” said Bob Bond, Vice President – eBusiness, IoT and Services. “Our Voice of the Machine offering operates at the sweet spot of our core competency at the component and system level. Parker is creating discrete insights across our broad range of motion and control products that we can then connect to enterprise IoT solutions.”
Parker is using a center-led approach and has adopted a common set of IoT standards and best practices for use across all its operating groups and technologies. Every connected product uses the same repository of digital services with an exchange-based platform architecture, designed by software experts at Exosite. The Exosite IoT architecture makes it easy to deploy a diverse set of connected solutions leveraging that same set of digital services and to integrate.
ODVA Launches Project to Develop Its Next Generation Platform for Device Description
ODVA has announced that it has embarked on a major new technical activity to develop standards and tools for its next generation of digitized descriptions for device data. ODVA has named the activity “Project xDS.” The project will focus on the development of specifications for workflow-driven device description files for device integration and digitized business models.
Project xDS will define the technologies and standards for “xDS” device description files that are based on a common format and syntax to enable workflow-driven device integration. Typical workflows include network and security configuration, network and security diagnostics, device configuration, and device diagnostics.
Another aspect of Project xDS is to further the realization of applications for a digitized industrial world. Digitization will require the virtual representation of physical devices as digital twins, and xDS device description files will be able to provide the device data needed for this virtual representation. The result will help enable services for configuration, command, monitoring, diagnostics, prognostics and simulation via asset management systems, cloud based analytics, and new command-control architectures for industrial control systems.
