by Gary Mintchell | Nov 17, 2016 | Automation, Networking, News, Organizations
Time-Sensitive Networking holds the promise for great advances in industrial networking when it gets adopted for deterministic high-speed Ethernet. The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has taken a leading role in advancing the standard. Belden Inc. has joined the IIC Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) Testbed, which aims to improve multi-vendor interoperability and to display the value of the IEEE 802.1 Ethernet standards for time-sensitive networking in a manufacturing ecosystem.
“By enabling a single Ethernet network to deliver time-guaranteed messages for both mission-critical and time-sensitive applications, while simultaneously delivering high-bandwidth, supervisory, data collection, video and other traffic, TSN fulfils a critical need in bringing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to manufacturing environments,” said Jeff Lund, senior director of product line management at Belden and co-chair of the IIC marketing working group. “Belden has been a leading participant in the IEEE standardization effort of TSN since 2009 and we’re excited to be at the point where that hard work is now demonstrated in a multi-vendor environment. We hope our many years of experience with TSN will add valuable insight to the testbed and ensure it delivers on its mission.”
The TSN Testbed was on display at the 2016 IoT Solutions World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Oct. 25-27. Event attendees viewed live demonstrations of the testbed, which includes Hirschmann’s prototype TSN-enabled RSP Ethernet switches, and see first-hand the possibilities TSN enables for industrial networks.
“The addition of Belden to our TSN Testbed will help bring our collective efforts one step closer to reality – as we all work together in the pursuit of converging IT and operational technologies,” said Dr. Richard Soley, executive director of the IIC. “Testbeds serve as a center of innovation, and we know Belden’s TSN experience will help us achieve our goal. This testbed in particular seeks to show the value of TSN technology, as well as identify and address any implementation challenges to continue improving the standards.”
Following the event, the testbed will be moved to National Instruments’ headquarters in Austin, Texas. In addition to National Instruments, Belden is working alongside leading industrial companies, including Schneider Electric and Bosch Rexroth, among others.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 4, 2016 | News, Organizations, Standards
MIMOSA has announced its MIMOSA Open Meeting and Annual MIMOSA Members Meeting to be held in Houston, Texas at the BP Upstream Learning Center on Nov 29 and 30, 2016. The Open Meeting will take place on Nov 29, while the Members Meeting will take place on Nov 30. The address for both meetings is BP America Inc, 2 Helios Way, Houston, TX 77079.
The focus of the MIMOSA Open Meeting is to highlight recent developments and progress toward adoption of interoperability standards between MIMOSA and cooperating industry organizations enabling the Open Industrial Digital Ecosystems based on the Open Industrial Interoperability Ecosystem (OIIE). The OIIE provides a pragmatic option to proprietary ecosystems. It is developed in a fully cooperative manner with multiple industry standards organizations, so that it is fully open and supplier neutral, while allowing the use of Commercial Off The Shelf solutions from suppliers of all types and sizes. The agenda for the MIMOSA Open Meeting is still being finalized, but the starting time will be 9:00 AM CT on Nov 29 and it will finish at 4:00 PM. Owner/Operators, EPCs, Integrators, Equipment OEMs, Software Suppliers and Industrial Media participants are welcomed.
The MIMOSA Members Meeting on Nov 30 will focus on areas of greatest interest to our members, including Owner/Operators, EPCs, Equipment OEMs, Software Suppliers and invited guests. The MIMOSA Annual Business Meeting will be included in the day’s events. The MIMOSA Members Meeting will start at 9:00 AM on Nov 30 and conclude at 5:00 PM.
To reserve your spot at this important meeting, please email [email protected]. Further information will be made available on the MIMOSA website at www.mimosa.org.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 2, 2016 | News, Organizations
This announcement reveals important advances in the cause of suppliers, owner/operators, and standards organizations coming together to support and use interoperability standards. Much progress has been made since the OGI Pilot demonstration in 2009. I have written two white papers on the subject that you can download here.
MIMOSA, which provides information standards for physical asset management, announced Nov. 1, 2016 that SAP has joined the organization to incorporate MIMOSA’s industry standards on SAP Asset Intelligence Network. Alan Johnston, president of MIMOSA said, “I am very pleased to have SAP join MIMOSA and support the Open Industrial Interoperability Ecosystem. This way, we expect that many more of the owner/operators in asset-intensive industry groups will gain business value from SAP Asset Intelligence Network running on the new SAP HANA Cloud Platform when they leverage our open standards.”
MIMOSA provides a broadly used portfolio of industry standards for physical asset management and leads the development of the Open Industrial Interoperability Ecosystem (OIIE), in cooperation with other industry standards associations. Ken Dunn from BP, who is chairman of the MIMOSA board, explained: “The OIIE incorporates a portfolio of international and industry standards which enable sustainable standards-based interoperability. It is designed to dramatically reduce the cost of integration across a heterogeneous information technology environment and to facilitate the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT). The OIIE is even more important in economically challenging times, as it helps owner/operators reduce cost and complexity, while continuing to sustain critical programs around asset integrity management and operational risk management. SAP’s commitment to these industry standards is a major step forward in their widespread adoption.”
SAP Asset Intelligence Network will provide a global registry of industrial equipment designed to enable collaborative business models. Achim Krueger, VP of Global Solutions for the SAP Extended Supply Chain (which includes Asset Management and HSE), commented, “Being part of this interoperability standards organization will become a key support of SAP Asset Intelligence Network, benefitting our entire ecosystem of manufacturers, engineering suppliers and asset operators. The intent is to enable them to automatically exchange their asset management data and reduce manual steps in the process. This is a great example of how SAP continues to work with the industry to co-innovate new solutions that are important for our customers.”
Ken Evans, head of SAP Global O&G Business Unit, stated, “As our customers digitally transform their global operations, they need greater flexibility in their business and operations technology platforms. We view joining MIMOSA as an important step to support their ability to openly integrate SAP Asset Intelligence Network with their ecosystem of service providers. We are excited to continue our innovations with the O&G industry and to utilize standards to improve overall enterprise process efficiency and access to operational content.”
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 26, 2016 | Automation, Internet of Things
Figuring out how to assemble the pieces of the Industrial Internet of Things, the Industrial Internet Consortium promotes testbeds where collaborating companies can work out proof of concept.
National Instruments, SparkCognition, and IBM are collaborating on the Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance Testbed. The goal of the collaboration is to deliver interoperability among operational technology and informational technology as organizations search for better methods to manage and extend the life of aging assets in heavy machinery, power generation, process manufacturing and a variety of other industrial sectors.
In a new age of Big Analog Data solutions, users can take advantage of machine learning to harness value from information. They can collect raw data and derive insights to improve operations, equipment and processes. Users can also realize huge cost savings and competitive advantages as artificial intelligence-driven prognostics warn of component failures before they occur, identify suboptimal operating conditions and assist with root-cause analysis.
NI’s open, software-centric platform creates the foundation of the Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance Testbed, which delivers on the opportunities present in machine learning. Customers can apply SparkCognition’s cognitive analytics to proactively avoid unplanned equipment fatigue and failure of critical assets; thus, enhancing system capabilities by gaining advanced insights into equipment health and remediation solutions. These capabilities help increase operational efficiencies and safety, and decrease maintenance costs.
“With IIoT technologies driving vast sensorization of industrial equipment, and massive amounts of data being collected on those assets, the collaboration between NI and SparkCognition powers the complex and intelligent processing of information to produce valuable insights,” said Stuart Gillen, director of business development at SparkCognition.
“We are excited that our platform can acquire the data and extract the features to drive SparkCognition analytics for IIoT solutions,” said Jamie Smith, director of embedded systems at NI. “Combined with existing technologies in the testbed, the addition of SparkCognition presents new ways to help automate the process of turning sensor data into business insight.”
With this software-defined approach, viewing, managing and refining a broad range of assets stands in direct contrast to the traditional, fixed-functionality methods of the past, which often take too much time, rely on hard-to-find talent and require custom model building for each type of asset.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 5, 2016 | Podcast
Another Gary on Manufacturing podcast. Listen here or subscribe in iTunes or other podcast sources.
After attending PI North America annual general meeting, I discuss the future of Profinet, Fieldbuses and Interoperability, and a teaser about a Wonderware announcement.
