by Gary Mintchell | Oct 16, 2017 | Internet of Things, News, Organizations
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has been incredibly active over the past month. While I’ve been traveling, news releases and interview opportunities have been pouring in.
In brief:
- IIC and Avnu Alliance Liaison
- IIC and the EdgeX Foundry Announce Liaison
- IIC Develops Smart Factory Machine Learning for Predictive Maintenance Testbed
- IIC Publishes Edge Computing Edition of Journal of Innovation
Related:
See my white paper on OPC UA and TSN. I wrote this following interviews at Hannover for the OPC Foundation and subsequent travels to see people. I think this is a powerful combination for the future.
Why it’s important:
These news items when viewed collectively show momentum for what is happening with the Industrial Internet—or as some say the Industrial Internet of Things. These technologies are soon to be powerful business drivers for a new age of manufacturing.
The News:
Liaison with Avnu Alliance
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and Avnu Alliance (Avnu) have agreed to a liaison to work together to advance deployment and interoperability of devices with Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) open standards.
Under the agreement, the IIC and Avnu will work together to align efforts to maximize interoperability, portability, security and privacy for the industrial Internet. Joint activities between the IIC and the Avnu will include:
- Identifying and sharing IIoT best practices
- Realizing interoperability by harmonizing architecture and other elements
- Collaborating on standardization
“Both Avnu and the IIC are well aligned to pursue the advancement of the IIoT. An example of this is Avnu’s participation in the IIC TSN testbed where members have an opportunity to try their equipment and software on the testbed infrastructure. This provides the participants with the ability to discover what’s working and what is not and provide feedback that helps speed market adoption,” said Gary Stuebing, IIC liaison to Avnu. “The lessons learned in our TSN testbed fuel the ability of both of our organizations. TSN could open up critical control applications such as robot control, drive control and vision systems.”
“Our liaison agreement and work with the IIC TSN Testbed demonstrates real-world applications and solutions with TSN and helps to accelerate readiness for the market. The testbed stands as a showcase for the value that TSN standards and ecosystem of manufacturing applications and products bring to the market, including the ability for IIoT to incorporate high-performance and latency-sensitive applications,” said Todd Walter, Avnu Alliance Industrial Segment Chair. “Our collaboration with IIC and the work coming out of the TSN Testbed is already having a direct impact on suppliers and manufacturers who see the technology as a value add for their system structure.”
Avnu and IIC are meeting for a TSN Testbed plugfest later this month to evaluate and trial TSN device conformance tests that are being developed as a baseline certification in the industrial market.
Avnu creates comprehensive certification tests and programs to ensure interoperability of networked devices. The foundational technology enables deterministic synchronized networking based on IEEE Audio Video Bridging (AVB) / Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) base standards. The Alliance, in conjunction with other complementary standards bodies and alliances, provides a united network foundation for use in professional AV, automotive, industrial control and consumer segments.
Agreement with EdgeX Foundry
The Industrial Internet Consortium and EdgeX Foundry, an open-source project building a common interoperability framework to facilitate an ecosystem for IoT edge computing, announced they have agreed to a liaison.
Under the agreement, the IIC and the EdgeX Foundry will work together to align efforts to maximize interoperability, portability, security and privacy for the industrial Internet.
Joint activities between the IIC and the EdgeX Foundry will include:
- Identifying and sharing best practices
- Collaborating on test beds and experimental projects
- Working toward interoperability by harmonizing architecture and other elements
- Collaborating on common elements
- Periodically hosting joint seminars
“We are excited about working with EdgeX Foundry,” James Clardy, IIC liaison to EdgeX Foundry. “And we look forward to leveraging the experiences of the IIC to help further accelerate the adoption of the industrial Internet.”
“EdgeX Foundry’s primary goal is to simplify and accelerate Industrial IoT by delivering a unified edge computing platform supported by an ecosystem of solutions providers,” said Philip DesAutels, senior director of IoT for The Linux Foundation. “Formalizing this liaison relationship with the IIC is fundamental to unlocking business value at scale. Together, we will provide better best practices that will drive the unification of the industrial IoT.”
Hosted by The Linux Foundation, EdgeX Foundry has an ecosystem of more than 60 vendors and offers all interested developers or companies the opportunity to collaborate on IoT solutions built using existing connectivity standards combined with their own proprietary innovations. For more information, visit
Smart Factory Machine Learning for Predictive Maintenance Testbed
The Industrial Internet Consortium announced the Smart Factory Machine Learning for Predictive Maintenance Testbed. The testbed is led by two companies, Plethora IIoT, a company, designing and developing cutting-edge answers for Industry 4.0, and Xilinx, the leading provider of All Programmable technology.
This innovative testbed explores machine-learning techniques and evaluates algorithmic approaches for time-critical predictive maintenance. This knowledge leads to actionable insight enabling companies to move away from traditional preventative maintenance to predictive maintenance, which minimizes unplanned downtime and optimizes system operation. This would ultimately help manufacturers increase availability, improve energy efficiency and extend the lifespan of high-volume CNC manufacturing production systems.
“Testbeds are the major focus and activity of the IIC and its members. We provide the opportunity for both small and large companies to collaborate and help solve problems that will drive the adoption of IoT applications in many industries”, said IIC Executive Director Dr. Richard Mark Soley. “The smart factory of the future will require advanced analytics, like those this testbed aims to provide, to identify system degradation before system failure. This type of machine learning and predictive maintenance could extend beyond the manufacturing floor to have a broader impact to other industrial applications.”
“Downtime costs some manufacturers as much as $22k per minute. Therefore, unexpected failures are one of the main players in maintenance costs because of their negative impact due to reactive and unplanned maintenance action. Being able to predict system degradation before failure has a strong positive impact on machine availability: increasing productivity and decreasing downtime, breakdowns and maintenance costs,” said Plethora IIoT Team Leader Javier Diaz. “We’re excited to lead this testbed with Xilinx and work alongside some of the leading players in IIoT technologies. This is a unique opportunity to test together machine learning technologies with those involved in the testbed at different development levels starting from the lab through production environments, where a real deployment solution is utilized. As a result, from these experiences, we can significantly reduce the time-to-market of Plethora IIoT solutions oriented to maximize smart factory competitiveness.”
”Xilinx is committed to providing the Industrial IoT industry with our latest All Programmable SoC and MPSoC platforms – ideal for sensor fusion, real-time, high-performance processing, and machine learning from the edge to the cloud,” stated Dan Isaacs, Director of Corporate Strategic Marketing and Market Development for IIoT and Machine Learning at Xilinx. “The combination of these highly configurable capabilities drives the intelligence of the smart factory.”
Additional IIC member companies participating in this testbed are: Bosch, Microsoft, National Instruments, RTI, System View, GlobalSign, Aicas, Thingswise, Titanium Industrial Security, and iVeia. They provide technologies to enable the Smart Factory Machine Learning testbed, including:
- Factory automation
- OT and IT security
- Edge to cloud machine learning and analytics
- Time-sensitive networking (TSN)
- Data acquisition
- Smart sensor technology
- Design implementation
- Embedded programmable SoC technology
- Secure authentication
Journal of Innovation
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has published the fifth edition of the Journal of Innovation with a focus on edge computing. The Journal of Innovation highlights the innovative ideas, approaches, products, and services emerging within the Industrial Internet, such as smart cities, artificial intelligence, the smart factory, and edge computing.
Edge computing promises to bring real-time intelligence to industrial machines at the edge of the network, where data can be processed closer to its source. Edge computing provides businesses with a cost-effective means to transmit and analyze large quantities of data in real-time, enabling them to reduce unplanned downtime, improve worker safety and enhance asset performance.
“The Journal of Innovation brings together innovators and thought leaders across the IoT spectrum. In this issue, our experts share their insights on edge computing as a key enabling technology poised to transform the IIoT,” said Mark Crawford, co-chair of the IIC Thought Leadership Task Group and Standards Strategist, SAP Strategic IP Initiatives. “Edge computing is not a new concept, but as IIoT transforms business processes, the need to use data closer to its source, whether that be from a wind turbine, a deep-water well’s blowout preventer, or an autonomous car, is paramount.”
The Edge Computing edition of the Journal of Innovation includes articles contributed by leaders at IIC member companies including:
- Where is the Edge of the Edge of Industrial IoT? · Pieter van Schalkwyk XMPro
- Device Ecosystem at the Edge – Manufacturing Scenario · Sujata Tilak, Ascent Intellimation Pvt. Ltd.
- Edge Intelligence: The Central Cloud is Dead – Long Live the Edge Cloud · Yun Chao Hu, Huawei Technologies Duesseldorf GmbH
- Outcomes, Insights, and Best Practices from IIC Testbeds: Microgrid Testbed · Brett Burger, National Instruments · Joseph Fontaine, Industrial Internet Consortium
- A Knowledge Graph Driven Approach for Edge Analytics · Narendra Anand, Accenture Technology Labs · Colin Puri, Accenture Technology Labs
- Industrial IoT Edge Architecture for Machine and Deep Learning · Chanchal Chatterjee, Teradata Inc. · Salim AbiEzzi, VMWare Inc.
- A Practical and Theoretical Guide to Using the Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework · Stan Schneider, PhD. Real-Time Innovations, Inc. · Rajive Joshi, PhD. Real-Time Innovations, Inc.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 31, 2017 | Interoperability, News, Operations Management, Standards
Looks like standards and interoperability week at The Manufacturing Connection. I once was pretty active with MESA and lately I’ve gotten to know the IIC. Both good organizations promoting best practices in industry. MESA is not a standards organization, though, but one that promotes Level 3 (MES/MOM) software applications. IIC has taken a leadership roll bringing Internet of Things people and companies together.
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together to advance their shared interests. Under the agreement, the IIC and MESA will work together to align efforts to maximize interoperability, portability, security and privacy for the industrial Internet. That all sounds pretty vague and something like motherhood, but I applaud all steps toward collaboration.
Joint activities between the IIC and the MESA will include:
- Identifying and sharing IIoT best practices
- Realizing interoperability by harmonizing architecture and other elements
- Collaborating on standardization
- Collaboration in the areas of industrial analytics and asset performance management (APM)
MESA’s President, Mike Yost, said, “This partnership makes good business sense, with the Industrial Internet Consortium advocating for the broad adoption of industrial Internet technologies and with MESA educating manufacturers and solution providers of all sizes on both how and why to adopt them. Collaborating with the IIC also helps ensure MESA members and IIC members have a common vocabulary and a common understanding of business value.”
“We look forward to working with the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Enterprise Association,” said Wael William Diab, IIC Chair of the Liaison Working Group. “Within the manufacturing vertical, industrial analytics and asset intelligence systems enable manufacturers to realize the value of their industrial IoT systems by analyzing and acting on data to increase asset reliability and availability and reduce maintenance. Collaborating on industrial analytics and asset performance management will help to further advance industrial IoT in manufacturing environments.”
MESA and the IIC have agreed to meet regularly to exchange information and have targeted a joint workshop on industrial analytics and asset performance management for Q4. The IIC Liaison Working Group is the gateway for formal relationships with standards and open-source organizations, consortia, alliances, certification and testing bodies and government entities/agencies.
The agreement with the MESA is one of a number of agreements made by the IIC’s Liaison Working Group.
Here is a little more information about the IIC.
The Industrial Internet Consortium maintains active relationships with standards development organizations, open-source organizations, other consortia and alliances, certification and testing bodies and government entities or agencies involved in the Industrial Internet.
The purpose of these relationships is to generate requirements for new standards from every part of the activities taking place within the Industrial Internet Consortium.
These relationships help eliminate duplication of effort and ensure that new standards and technologies necessary to build and enable the Industrial Internet are brought to market more rapidly.
By establishing a formal liaison with the Industrial Internet Consortium, organizations can engage directly with our Working Groups and gain faster access to developing requirements for standards and technologies required for the Industrial Internet across a spectrum of industries and applications.
The Industrial Internet Consortium itself is not a standards organization; however, it strongly advocates for open standard technologies in order to ease the deployment of connected technologies. Our Liaison Working Group is the gateway for the liaison relationships listed below and new ones forming now.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 12, 2017 | Internet of Things, Operations Management
I received report recently from Altizon (www.altizon.com). It is an interesting look at some Industrial Internet of Things implementations.
The distribution of projects was (out of 62 companies reporting):
• Condition based maintenance 30
• Productivity improvement 62
• Quality Improvement 10
• Energy optimization 35
• Warehouse management 5
• Predictive maintenance 12
• EHS 1
They then looked at overall benefits that their customers derived so far from Industrial Internet of Things projects. The results were distributed with average and spread noted:
• Average Improvement in Topline 5% (3%-8%)
• Average Improvement in Productivity 13% (7% – 50%)
• Savings in Energy Expenses 5% (1%-8%)
• Savings in Indirect Cost 15% (1%-20%)
• Savings in Tooling and Spares Cost 3% (0.5%-6%)
These are interesting numbers. All the companies were implementing productivity improvement projects. Two-thirds also were upgrading maintenance strategies. This showed in an average of 13% improvement in productivity with at least one actually showing a 50% improvement (maybe we don’t want to benchmark the “before”).
I don’t know what they included in indirect costs. But I’m intrigued by the improvement in top line of 5%. This must be from better communication from customer to manufacturing. Certainly that’s an IioT program worth going for.
Altizon works in a number of industries. They looked at trends among their customers in the various industries. Following are highlights.
Trends
Automotive—Move towards a connected Supply chain: Visibility into a supplier’s manufacturing process, in-transit visibility, and management of inventory.
Industrial Products—End-to-end process traceability and Genealogy: if a product fails, it can be traced back to the conditions under which the product was built and the components that constitute the product, right down to the vendor.
Steel Industry—Genealogy and Process traceability-from mining to distribution; environmental management and adoption of ISO 50001.
Tire Industry—Reconciliation of real-time production booking with planned data in ERP systems; environmental management and adoption of ISO 50001.
Food and Consumer Goods—Genealogy and process traceability; performance benchmarking within and across plants.
Chemical Industry—Predicting quality and process yield based on detailed analysis of raw material used; IoT enabled system’s safety.
If you are planning an Internet of Things program and researching potential projects and benefits, these findings would be valuable toward the success of your proposal.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 14, 2017 | Data Management, Internet of Things, Operations Management, Software
Connecting your plant devices through the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) generates lots of data; but, without powerful analytics and visualization, it’s all meaningless.
Therefore, Plex today announced a new analytics product.
The IntelliPlex Production Analytic Application, available now, taps IIoT data to provide manufacturing leaders with enterprise-wide insight into the performance of production operations, including processes and equipment on the shop floor.
This application adds to Plex’s IntelliPlex Analytic Application Suite, which includes applications for sales, order management, finance and procurement. This suite, with the addition of production analytics, delivers to manufacturers the industry’s most comprehensive cloud analytics, uniquely providing visibility all the way down to the shop floor.
The Plex Manufacturing Cloud is a comprehensive platform for manufacturing enterprises, connecting suppliers, customers, people, equipment, materials and finances across multiple facilities to form the technology backbone of an organization. Plex uses real-time IIoT connections as a core mechanism for managing manufacturing operations and enterprise resource planning.
That comprehensive view means Plex not only streamlines and automates operations, but also enables unprecedented access to companywide information including IIoT data. The IntelliPlex suite of analytic applications turns that data into configurable, role-based, decision support dashboards – with deep drill-down and drill-across capabilities. Plex first introduced the IntelliPlex Analytic Application Suite in 2016 with turnkey analytics for sales, order management, procurement and finance professionals.
- The IntelliPlex Production Analytic Application provides insight into key performance measures such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), scrap rates, first pass yield, inventory turns, on-time jobs and machine availability.
- IntelliPlex is configurable, so users can create custom performance dashboards and combine metrics to form their own analysis based on the wealth of data stored in the Plex Manufacturing Cloud.
- IntelliPlex analytics are also drillable, enabling users to instantly go from top-line performance analysis directly into data and details across plants, time and geographies.
- IntelliPlex applications are easy to activate as part of the Plex Manufacturing Cloud, and can be quickly extended and configured to match an organization’s evolving needs over time.
- The Production Analytic Application is available now.
Plex is planning to deliver additional analytic applications, including supply chain and human capital management. All applications are accessible to customers without the need for a lengthy implementation process.
“At Plex, we know that the best manufacturing organizations are built on the shop floor and that operational excellence is the foundation of product quality, company growth, and profitability,” said Karl Ederle, group vice president of products for Plex. “The IntelliPlex Production Analytic Application is unique because it provides an enterprise-wide view of manufacturing performance, combined with the ability to tap into the IIoT signals from equipment on a specific production line. Plex now offers customers analysis of their organization that truly spans from shop floor equipment to the financial bottom line.”
“This is not an IT tool, it’s an empowerment tool,” said Janice D’Amico, Plex specialist lead, Hatch Stamping. “The IntelliPlex Production Analytic Application has given Hatch access to accurate, near real-time data cross-enterprise that is user-friendly – easy to create, understand and share. We see this application being used at all levels of the organization to make better business decisions. The opportunities are endless.”
“In many manufacturing organizations, there is a communication breakdown between the front office and the shop floor,” said Alexi Antonio, Plex Analytics product lead. “Because the three OEE production metrics—performance, quality, and availability—are not expressed in monetary units, daily efforts to improve processes using OEE alone do not always translate into bottom-line savings. Plex puts OEE and financial metrics into a single dashboard, for the first time giving manufacturing leaders the ability to see and manage complete business performance.”
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 3, 2017 | Internet of Things, News, Organizations
Committee co-chair Mark Crawford of the The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) told me yesterday that its Industrial Internet Reference Architecture is a living document. The committee revises frequently in order to stay current with rapidly moving technology and use cases.
Therefore, it is no surprise that the organization has published version 1.8 of the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA). This new version builds on version 1.7, originally published on June 17, 2015. The document is applicable both for systems architects and business leaders who wish to incorporate the Internet of Things into their corporate strategies.
The IIRA is a standards-based architectural template and methodology designed by a broad spectrum of IIC members, including system and software architects, business experts, and security experts, to assist IIoT system architects to design IIoT solution architectures consistently and to deploy interoperable IIoT systems. It is important to note that the IIRA itself is not a standard.
“The IIC is committed to delivering practical deliverables to the IIoT community that represent the latest thinking about IIoT,” said John Tuccillo, Senior Vice President of Global Industry and Government Affairs, Schneider Electric and IIC Steering Committee Chair. “The IIRA, like all IIC deliverables, is a living document. The IIRA and the now the IIRA v1.8 are the first steps toward an open, innovative and thriving technology development ecosystem across industrial sectors of the IoT.”
“We have already seen customers who are using the IIRA to define and deploy their IIoT systems,” said Dr. Tanja Rueckert, Executive Vice President, IoT and Digital Supply Chain at SAP SE and IIC Steering Committee Vice Chair. “The IIRA and the other IIC deliverables provide significant value to IIC members as well as the broader IIoT and IoT communities.”
IIRA v1.8 Benefits
The IIoT core concepts and technologies addressed in the IIRA v1.8 are applicable to the depth and breadth of every small, medium and large enterprise in manufacturing, mining, transportation, energy, agriculture, healthcare, public infrastructure and virtually every other industry. In addition to IIoT system architects, the plain language of IIRA v1.8 and its emphasis on the value proposition and enablement of converging Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) enables business decision-makers, plant managers, and IT managers to better understand how to drive IIoT system development from a business perspective.
“It has been widely recognized that IIoT delivers value and transforms business. A main challenge for many enterprises now is how to get started,” said Shi-Wan Lin, CEO & Co-Founder, Thingswise, LLC and Co-Chair of the IIC Architecture Task Group. “The IIRA provides a framework to drive IIoT projects from a business viewpoint. This is valuable for enterprises to build IIoT systems that can deliver the expected business value.”
Technology vendors can use the IIRA concepts and methodologies to build interoperable system components that address the broadest possible market. System implementers can use the IIRA as a starting point to shorten system development by deploying reusable, commercially available, or open-source system building blocks to reduce project risk, associated costs, and time-to-market. Ultimately, the IIRA will help the IIoT community to realize an open, innovative IIoT ecosystem, thereby reducing the cost of design and operations.
“The value of the IIC is that it brings together a set of diverse, talented people with an extraordinary set of knowledge to develop innovative technology to solve corporate-level industrial challenges,” said Todd Edmunds, Global Manufacturing Solutions Architect – Internet of Things at Cisco Systems and Co-Chair of the IIC Edge Computing Task Group. “The IIRA accelerates the development of solutions to digitize business and realize IIoT’s true potential to transform industry.”
Journal of Innovation
Capping a busy week, the IIC has also published the Third Edition of the Journal of Innovation. A publication written by IIC members, the third edition of the Journal of Innovation is dedicated to the “Smart Factory,” and includes articles on designing, retrofitting, and applying IIoT technologies within the manufacturing industry.
“Manufacturers are challenged to make factories more efficient, safer and greener than ever before,” said Erik Walenza-Slabe, CEO, IoT One and Co-chair, IIC Smart Factory TG. “While no single organization can solve all the problems of the IIoT, the IIC is helping to revolutionize manufacturing through its many activities, including the innovations described in the third edition of the Journal of Innovation dedicated to the ‘Smart Factory.’”
New to this edition are two articles summarizing interviews with two IIC testbed leads, describing insights, outcomes and lessons learned. These articles highlight the innovations taking place in the Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) Testbed and the INFINITE Testbed.
“Testbeds are at the very core of what we do in IIC and we aim to feature testbeds in all of our future editions,” said Edy Liongosari, Chief Research Scientist of Accenture Labs and co-chair of the IIC Thought Leadership Task Group.
The Journal of Innovation includes the following articles authored by IIC member companies:
- “Blurry Box Encryption Scheme and Why it Matters to Industrial IoT”
- “Results, Insights and Best Practices from IIC Testbeds: Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) Testbed”
- “Making Factories Smarter through Machine Learning”
- “Driving Innovation in Product Design and Manufacturing using 3D Printing”
- “Results, Insights and Best Practices from IIC Testbeds: INFINITE Testbed”
- “Smart Factories and the Challenges of the Proximity Network”
Authors and interviewees within the third edition include Cisco, Cork Institute of Technology, Dell EMC Research Europe, Ikergune, IT Research Center, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Plethora IIoT, QualiCal, Synapse Wireless, System On Chip Engineering, Xilinx, Wibu-Systems.
