by Gary Mintchell | Aug 22, 2016 | Automation, Operations Management, Software, Technology
Industry 4.0 provokes much discussion with little understanding. It began as a German government initiative ostensibly to support the German machine building industry. The idea was picked up in a variety of forms by other governments.
Exploring Industry 4.0 leads me to Tim Sowell’s latest blog post. Tim is a Schneider Electric Fellow and VP of System Strategy at Schneider Electric in the Common Architecture team in R&D. He is also the last remaining (that I can find) true blogger in the space. The company blogs have pivoted from blog format offering information and opinion to more of a press release format—where they use the Webpage to get out a company message directly to readers rather than going through the unreliable filter of the trade press. Sowell offers thoughtful discourse on important topics of the day.
If I thought I could meet with Tim and Stan DeVries at the upcoming Wonderware user conference, I’d make plans to get down there. As it is, the trip would lead to about five weeks of travel in a row. That is more expense and time away from home than a one-person entrepreneur can afford.
Sowell lists this set of viewpoints which are discussed in the white paper:
- Industry 4.0 is about the transformation from controlling focusing on process to “controlling the product/ order” and the “product/ order being self aware”.
- Industry 4.0 is about operations transformation, not about technology.
- Industry 4.0 provides a practical strategic framework for “lean” and “agile” industrial operations.
- Industry 4.0 addresses the needs of discrete and batch manufacturing, but it needs some adaptation for the heavy process and infrastructure industries.
He adds, “Cloud computing and IT/OT convergence are often linked to implementing Industry 4.0, but these need some adaptation to address “trustworthiness” of the architectures. One emerging topic is Fog computing.”
He argues that automation and operation management technologies are more relevant than ever before. Also important are information standards such as “IEC 61850/ISO9506, ISA-95/ISO62264, PRODML etc.”
You need to go back and read his entire paper. He discusses benefits of adopting this way of thinking about manufacturing (discrete and process). He looks at use cases. And the foundation of Industry 4.0—it requires better information, not just more data.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 30, 2016 | Automation, Internet of Things, Operations Management, Software
Software platforms that provide specific “apps” for industrial applications was the theme of the week for me. I received a better look at Siemens’ Mindsphere along with a competitor’s app that I’ll discuss in a later post. Tuesday and Wednesday this week found me in Las Vegas at the 2016 Automation Summit—Siemens US users group. There were many sessions and quite a lot of training for customers.
The keynote was given by Klaus Helmrich, a member of the managing board of Siemens. He continued the theme repeated during Hannover Messe—digitalization. His point was that digitalization enhances competitiveness, time to market, flexibility, quality, efficiency. You design in the virtual world; take it to real world; receive feedback from real world to the virtual world to assure design is current to reality.
Although I’ve been told that Europeans are not fond of the term “ecosystem” in this context, Helmrich uttered the “e-word”. The Digital Enterprise Ecosystem enables customers toe realize their wish to interact with the production process making their product.
Memorable quote—“using software is key to realization of Industry 4.0.”
Maintenance and Reliability
Terry O’Hanlon CEO of ReliabilityWeb.com and Uptime magazine invited me to a panel presentation he was on. From the description in the program, I’d probably have never looked a second time. Plus, I’m not fond of panels. Usually each one talks for 10-15 minutes and then there is 10-15 minutes at the end for questions.
This one went against that grain. Each panelist gave about 2 minutes of their interest in the topic, then moderator Bob Vavra, editor of Plant Engineering magazine, proceeded directly to asking questions of the panel. The panel did not just sit back but each chimed in appropriately.
They did hope to hold questions to the final 15-20 minutes of the 105-minute session, but the audience would have none of that and started waving hands to ask follow up questions soon after the beginning.
The other panelists were Jagannath Rao, President of Siemens Industry Services; Brian Clemons, process automation manager at Dow Chemical; and, Keith Jones, of Prism Systems—an integrator.
It was a wide-ranging discussion. So, here are some quotes that capture some of the flavor of the discussion.
O’Hanlon, “What maintenance delivers is capacity.”
Clemons, “We bring a new process into the plant, but we’re still dealing with the same people.”
Clemons, Reliability usually talks MTBF, but what is really important is MTTR (repair or recover).
Rao, “Technology Suppliers more than component sellers, but look at larger solution.”
Jones, “Big data going to analytics is a difficult proposition—both doing and defining.”
O’Hanlon, “You need sensors that are appropriate to the health of the asset. That’s why you need predictive analytics.”
Jones, “IoT increasing traffic on network is a burden and sometimes affects production.”
O’Hanlon, “Reliability as a function of the business case.”
Data Analytics — Mindsphere
MindSphere is Siemens Cloud for Industry built on SAP HANA. It is a platform, which Siemens, customers, and OEMs can build software apps (App Store) on top of.
Speakers acknowledged that some customers are still uncertain about the cloud, but the cloud is where analytics run.
One app already developed is control loops. Customers can connect selected control loops, send data to cloud, analytics check for status of tuning and other things. The customer gets a dashboard. The analytics can even see stiction in valves.
This solution (like many) moves the software expenditure from CapEx to OpEx (note: look for this as a theme for how technology suppliers are beginning to price software).
This formula:
Domain Knowhow + Context Knowhow + Analytics Knowhow = Customer Value
is the foundation of app development.
Siemens has a product “MindConnect” secure data acquisition box. This is a similar idea to the Dell IoT Gateway or Advantech. These edge computing and communicating engines are the current IoT trend.
Current apps include:
Drivetrains (gearboxes)
Energy
Networks
Machine Tools
Control Loops
Cyber-security
by Gary Mintchell | May 24, 2016 | Internet of Things
During Hannover Messe in April, Dell and Intel sponsored a Think Tank session. I had the privilege to moderate the session. They brought in several partner companies to discuss Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. The first report from the session was reported here, Dell IoT Think Tank At Hannover Sees Bright Future.
[Update: The video clips are now available on YouTube.]
First we discussed whether the Internet of Things is really a disruptive force for industry. And why.
Josef Brunner, Relayr—an MES supplier, said, “For our customers it’s all about competitive pressure. They tell us they need protect their core—services, margins. That’s why predictive maintenance is important. They are also finding new business models around the IoT.”
Ole Borgbjerg of Kepware, noted, “Suddenly there are millions of devices. How do we connect them? Also, the data will be unstructured. Our challenge is how do we provide value to the customers?”
Chet Hullum, Intel, suggested that we don’t have to peer to far into the future. “What can you do now with the technology we have?” But he voiced a question on the minds of many in the automation community, “Is IoT going to disrupt automation and controls?”
To which Tom Burke, president of the OPC Foundation, responded that IoT is scaring the PLC people. For example, he added, “Look at the example of the ExxonMobil request for quote, ‘If the DCS vendor won’t do it, we’ll go out to someone else and look there’.”
Oliver Niedung Microsoft, said, “We couldn’t innovate IT before in many companies. Maybe they were too small. But with the cloud, now they can innovate and find new business models.”
Finally, the representative from ERP supplier SAP, Timothy Kaufmann, brought up still another disruptive possibility, “Look at pay-per-use. Customers don’t want to buy a machine, they want to buy its output. For this they need IoT.”
How disruptive is IoT to industry technologies and practices? The consensus of the panel held that IoT is truly a disruptive technology. The suppliers are laying plans and developing technologies and products to exploit this for the benefit of their customers—and their own success.
Edge Analytics
The IoT is going to enable a distributed control architecture. Placing lower-cost powerful computing and networking devices close to the edge suggests not only a new architecture but also interesting ideas for new uses.
Intel’s Hullum, suggested, “Ancillary equipment brings the IoT to fruition. We could cut network bandwidth. We don’t need the pump to report 2,000 times per second it’s on. We just need the anomaly. We can do that at the edge. But we will also need tools to find the experts and match to data we are collecting and analyzing at the edge.”
Niedung from Microsoft, countered, “Some customers want all the data just in case they need to analyze everything. Others just want the exceptions. So, we need to support both.”
Kaufmann from SAP taking the broad view noted, “Customers need to architect their system intentionally to allow for their needs and how they can/will collect data. We also must educate customers on what data they really need. It’s not big data, but smart data.”
Kepware’s Borgbjerg pointed out that the RTU people missed it. “We’re really talking about the old RTUs, but they didn’t keep up with the technologies and use cases. We need a platform, not just for communication but to make decisions.”
Data Utilization
Jürgen Kletti, from MES supplier MPDV, reported that customers need the data to make better decisions faster.
Relayr’s Brunner, found that customers have much data locked in machines. Therefore, they build a very simple retrofit kit to get the information out of it.
New Workforce
No discussion of the near future trend for industry is complete without considering what is going to happen with all the retirements that will occur over the next 5-10 years.
Hullum pointed out the problem with talent in the plants. “We need help with workforce. We need technology to help bring new people up to speed. Somehow we must input knowledge quickly to the new people entering without an industrial background.”
Nicola Tsirigotis from Knapp pointed to a common perception of the new generation. “We need younger engineers, but they don’t read documentation. They watch YouTube.” The point being how we reach and educate them. Are we ready?
Collaboration for IoT
Dell’s Helmuth Schmidt, moving the discussion to the famous IT/OT divide, “Why still are not more companies not doing something about that problem?”
Kepware’s Borgbjerg took the question an interesting direction, “What are we trying to sell? A total solution? But you can’t go to IT if you don’’t have support at lower level. We (suppliers) need to get all in the same room.”
We are now building IT protocols and ideas into OT networks, for example security. Now that the technology is beginning to resemble each other more, both IT and OT feel better about what’s happening. More problems have been due to lack of coordination of technologies than from organization.
Dr. Valentijn De Leeuw, ARC, summed up the collaboration discussion, “We need to bring people together. We need both strategy and structure. Then add some governance. We begin with what is available today that I can still connect and extend. Make it interoperable when I add more stuff so that it continues to work.”
Conclusion
This Think Tank idea was a new one for me. Dell’s hope was twofold—generate many ideas; foster collaboration among its partners (and Dell, of course). This brief summary of two hours of discussion exemplifies the breadth and depth of the discussion.
by Gary Mintchell | May 18, 2016 | Operations Management
Tim Sowell’s thinking over the past few months has resonated with me. He’s looking at the blend of technology and humans that will build the plant of the future.
Some years ago when I was laying out the initial editorial stance of Automation World, I was attacked by Lean practitioners (consultants). They said there was little use for automation. It just replaced people and made plants less intelligent and flexible.
My reply was that they missed the point. Some things needed to be automated—maybe for safety reasons or for repeatable quality. Some things would always require people (no matter what some dystopians are trying to sell us today). The smart managers and engineers architect blended manufacturing using the best of both automation and people.
I still believe that.
Sowell’s latest blog post, New World of Work will be center to Factory of the Future, takes a look at a similar idea. Much deeper than my musings, of course, his thesis needs to be digested and considered when you are out architecting your next manufacturing or production line.
He talked of a discussion with some colleagues discussing the future from a variety of views. “Sure enough we ended up aligned on the core that the ‘factory of the future’ will be around what two companies labeled ‘New World of work’. I have mentioned this many times in this blog around ‘smart operational work’.”
We were able group companies who looked at the future thru “new technologies” and how they could apply them, (I seem to visited a number of this type in the last month) vs those companies that we believe will be the leaders with the successful approach of “how they must operation, work” in the new world.
They defined some characteristics of the new world:
- Brand loyalty at customer reducing, so “Brand Promise” is key
- Agility to satisfy is key
- Shrinking mid tier market as the larger companies continue to consolidate to address the supply of new products and service markets. (especially in consumer products).
- Dynamic workforce where workers rotate locations/ roles, experience in a role will be less than 2 years.
- Supply chains with limited inventory requires transparent/ agile manufacturing across the sites.
- “Constant Change” in assets, process, people, products is the natural state in the 2020.
Then they defined some fundamentals of the “new world of work.”
- New ways of working with dynamic workers that share, collaborate and are connected but assume experience from the system, they trust the system
- New Processes around agility, new product introduction that leverage the skills and approach of the “digital Native” collaborative worker, combined with new technologies to enable new processes and operational awareness. The ability to see situations early, continue to learn, and act fast to changing conditions is key.
- New technologies provide the opportunity to deliver these new ways of working, with new processes. The likes of leveraging the data, through “big data” to use the past to determine the future in a natural manner. The industrial internet of things (industry 4.0) will enable smart devices providing new levels of embedded autonomy in machines and processes, shifting workers to “exception based” management, but with greater responsibility.
Think about the ease of younger people who move between physical and digital seamlessly. There is no hesitation to communicate and collaborate. If they don’t know something they will search for an answer. As we learn to blend technology and people seamlessly, we’ll see this new world of work evolve.
Sowell concludes, “The natural state of the new world is one of ‘change’ and the systems and culture must be able to ‘master’ naturally.”
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 18, 2016 | Operations Management
Part of the promise of digital manufacturing, also known as Industry 4.0 or Industrial Internet of Things, concerns breaking the digital barriers, freeing information to flow to where it is needed.
This relates to the promise of implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in a manufacturing enterprise, which always fell a little short due in large part to the lack of integrated information. Timely, accurate data from production did not find its way into the enterprise system.
Effective digital manufacturing extends beyond just the facility into the ecosystem of company facilities, logistics, suppliers, and customers. In other words, the next great leap of progress will be an integrated, digital supply chain.
“The Current and Future State of Digital Supply Chain Transformation,” by Capgemini Consulting, GT Nexus and Infor, reports on a study that surveyed over 300 executives from some of the largest global manufacturing and retail organizations across North America and Europe, and found that:
- Currently, only 15% have access to data from their extended supply chains, and just 23% of those that have access, actually analyze that data for decision making purposes
- Almost 50% of respondents admit that right now “traditional” methods such as phone, fax, email are still the dominant ways to interact with supply chain partners
- Only 23% say that the majority of data from the extended supply chain is analyzed and used for decision making, but in five years, that number is expected to jump to 68%
Most research studies conducted on the topic so far have examined Digital Transformation within organizations, or between organizations and their customers. This new research project is the first of its kind that explores the current state and future of Digital Transformation especially between organizations and all of their partners across the extended value chain.
The study surveyed 337 executives from some of the largest global manufacturing and retail organizations across Europe and North America.
Key findings of the research study include:
Digital Transformation of the Supply Chain is important
- 75% of respondents say Digital Transformation of the supply chain is “important”
- 50% say that Digital Transformation is “very important”
- 70% say they have started a formal Digital Supply Chain Transformation effort
Progress has been slow so far
- >30% of respondents said they are “dissatisfied” with progress so far
- Only 5% are “very satisfied”
Key technology enablers have been identified, but are not widely used yet
- Supply Chain Visibility Platforms/Tools (94%), Big Data Analytics (90%), Simulation Tools (81%) and Cloud (80%) are seen as the biggest technology enablers of Digital Supply Chain Transformation
- But 48% of respondents admit that right now “traditional” methods such as phone, fax, email are still the dominant ways to interact with supply chain partners
Dramatic changes are expected within just five years
- Today only 15% of respondents say that the majority of data from the extended supply chain is accessible to their organization. In five years, that number jumps to 54%
- Today only 23% of respondents say that the majority of data from the extended supply chain is analyzed and used for decision making. In five years, that number jumps to 68%
- Five years from now, 95% of respondents expect more processes with suppliers to be automated
- Five years from now, 94% expect to receive more real-time status updates from across the entire supply chain
The expected benefits of Digital Supply Chain Transformation include, but go well beyond cost reductions for logistics, inventory and maintenance, improvements in customer service and higher overall equipment effectiveness. Perhaps more importantly, Digital Supply Chain Transformation is expected to dramatically improve an organization’s agility. Agility is necessary to respond to changing market conditions, to new market entrants that can threaten existing business models or to unexpected supply chain disruptions. Such disruptions have already caused major harm to the financial performances and reputations of countless organization over the years.
Mitigating the impact of these unforeseen disruptions has become a main priority and a major driver behind the need to digitally transform. But according to the study, current levels of collaboration and visibility across the network are still low. That limits agility.
“75% of respondents say Digital Transformation of the supply chain is important, but a massive gap exists today between where companies are today and where they expect to be in just five years from now,” said Mathieu Dougados, Senior Vice President, Capgemini Consulting. “Transformation initiatives inside the four walls of the enterprise pose significant challenges within themselves. But in today’s globalized and outsourced world, Digital Transformation can only be successful if companies approach it with a holistic view of their entire value chain. That value chain can include hundreds of partners. So connectivity between partners, cross-company access to data, and the use network-wide analytics become the key focus areas.”
“Supply chain transformation is a massive undertaking that requires leadership and vision at the C-level, and a holistic transformation approach that fosters automation, connectivity, data sharing and collaboration across the entire value chain,” said Kurt Cavano, Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer at GT Nexus. “This survey showed that manufacturers and retailers clearly have an idea of where they need to be and what digital technologies will get them there in the next five years. But it’s going to be a real sprint given the current reliance on outdated, analogue technologies such as phone, fax and email to collaborate and execute in the global supply chain. Meanwhile, risk of supply chain disruptions runs high, with an expensive cost to pay.”
