by Gary Mintchell | Jan 21, 2015 | Manufacturing IT, Operations Management, Software
Tim Sowell, Schneider Electric Fellow and Vice President, is always thinking two or three steps ahead of the rest of us. His weekly blog is on my must-read list. This week he tackles the future role of systems integrators—assuming that manufacturing software becomes much more configurable out of the box (therefore requiring much less custom code).
“In a number of discussions this week and last year it was clear that in the next 5 to 10 years the role and way traditional System Integrators work in the Industry Supervisory/ Operational/ Information space, will transform significantly. Especially those serving the smaller to medium industrial market, customers will demand accelerated solutions with a different model of project management, e.g., no RFP, no long project cycle, expect pre canned domain knowledge. They will want setup fast, and results with understandable costs. Similar to Sales Force.com where your CRM system can be set up in days, is the model that early adopters are testing in 2014, and I expect to grow in 2015.”
I tweeted this out Sunday and wound up in an interesting Twitter conversation with Andy Robinson (@archestranaut). A couple of other people chimed in. More on that below.
No offense meant to the sales function, but manufacturing operations software is of necessity much more complex. Sowell implies that there is some beta or alpha testing going on, but it will be interesting to see how that develops. One of the biggest challenges is for the customer to rationalize and understand its operations such that a configurable solution will be feasible.
Sowell continues:
“So what is changing is that users are now wanting:
- Solutions faster, minimal project removal of the project RFP process
- Less involvement
- Expect domain experience built in
- Minimal impact on internal resources
- Minimal risk
- “Good enough” will do if it improves and minimal impact or up front cost
- Minimal up front cost.
“So the new generation of System Integrator in the industrial world will be a “solution provider”. Providing a service of domain solutions hosted and built on an digital industrial platform from vendors such as Schneider-Electric. They will engage the customer in 3 to 5 year service contracts, but projects will be in weeks not months, years, RFPs will go away to selecting modules and completing configuration questionnaires.”
This begins another crucial thought process for systems integrators. I remember the height of the open systems movement from the late 90s through the early 2000s. SIs wondered if open systems would put them out of business. No more custom coding proprietary systems.
I suggested that open systems would require even more work from SIs, because someone would have to tie the parts together. In many ways, I don’t think open systems were as revolutionary as we thought they would be. However, the thought process did yield a number of standard interconnect technologies.
Now onward to operations management software. My next post after this one, as fate would have it, concerns just such a configurable system as Sowell envisions. In that case, much of the work can be done without systems integrators. The process is designed for small-to-medium-sized businesses presently, but it will be interesting to see how far the concept can be stretched.
Here is a glimpse of the twitter conversation I had with Andy Robinson:
@garymintchell – Controversial to system integrator community? “System Integrators Transformation to Solution Providers” http://invensyssysevolution.blogspot.com/2015/01/traditional-system-integrators.html …
@archestranaut – it will take a massive shift in thinking for customers but must start with the software platforms first
@archestranaut – yes bc the current solutions aren’t even close to good enough to just point click configure.
@archestranaut – also until customers are ready to accept 95% out of the box functions ala salesforce or google docs we aren’t there
@garymintchell – yes. How about need to rationalize processes before adding software? You can’t just slap software at a problem?
@archestranaut – agreed. We are light years from even the WordPress model where out of the box gets you 80% +19% with 3rd party themes
@archestranaut – but then again Tim thinks way out beyond what average folks are thinking.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 29, 2014 | Industrial Computers, Manufacturing IT, Networking, Operations Management, Security, Technology
During media interviews (more accurately mini-presentations) in November at Rockwell Automation’s media/analyst day “Automation Perspectives,” Sr. VP and CTO Sujeet Chand met with us individually along with several managers from Cisco Systems to discuss cyber security. This marks at least the third year where Chand’s role was to explain the Cisco/Rockwell relationship.
I’ve been thinking about the presentation for the past couple of weeks (OK, except for during Christmas). When they broached the idea of cyber security, I jumped to a conclusion about how thinking about security would lead engineers to more thoroughly thinking about their overall network leading to overall improvement in manufacturing.
What they seemed to be actually saying was much less than that. The message seems to have been about engineers should actually begin thinking about their network architecture.
Suddenly it dawned on me what the problem was that they were trying to solve. Automation engineers are evidently just cobbling together Ethernet networks in their processes and factories with no thought of network cyber security. But they will start—and buy some Cisco/Rockwell managed switches and security services. (Sorry, I don’t mean for that sound cynical. What they do is sell products and services to help their customers succeed.)
There has been NO thought to cyber security!?
They evidently thought that even with the several years of intense media coverage of security holes in SCADA and other processes engineers were still not taking security into account.
If that is true, then we truly need the new generation of computer/networking/security-savvy engineers (millennials?) now.
Thinking ahead
I know that one of my problems is jumping ahead. Companies will show me a new product, and I’ll immediately start thinking of all the uses and potential additions.
Any engineer who has not been building in some defense in depth and getting help from IT about security policies needs to be trained or replaced. We’ve known about this for at least five years.
Going back to re-engineer (or engineer intentionally for the first time) the factory network, should lead to significant improvements in the automation system, information flow, and ultimately manufacturing profits.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 23, 2014 | Data Management, Operations Management, Software
This reference is partly in my sweet spot of coverage, and it is partly beyond it pointing toward enterprise. And no, it is not predictive maintenance, by the way.
This is a post on the SAP blog about 10 Myths of Predictive Analytics. It is quite accurate about many of the “higher-end” software applications.
It’s not easy to do right. It requires insight as well as pure number crunching to obtain maximum benefit. It is iterative; that is, just like advanced process control you don’t run it once and declare it done. Maximum benefit means iterating the data and process.
It is a good read.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 19, 2014 | Automation, Networking, Operations Management, Technology, Wireless
Wireless sensor network pioneer, Emerson Process Management, also recognizes the need for customers to manage the growing proliferation of wireless networks within a facility.
It has introduced the Smart Wireless Navigator, a new software platform that enables users with large wireless deployments to maximize the power of their wireless networks. The Navigator brings together Smart Wireless tools for planning, managing, and maintaining networks. Valuable wireless network and device diagnostics and data are organized in an intuitive interface, along with the wireless tools, to streamline the Smart Wireless experience.
“Wireless technology is as scalable as it is powerful,” commented Bob Karschnia, vice president of wireless at Emerson. “As users’ facilities grow, they are expanding to installations of multiple wireless networks managed by different groups.”
The Smart Wireless Navigator helps users effortlessly manage their expanding wireless infrastructure and get the most value from their networks. A single software platform design makes it easier for users with large deployments of wireless to manage their networks across functional groups, delivering actionable information to the people who need it.
“To maximize value, facilities also needed a central platform to plan and deploy new networks and to organize the influx of new data and diagnostics,” wireless continued Karschnia. “In answer, we developed a single window interface that brings together several Smart Wireless tools on a specially designed appliance to maximize visibility, efficiency and value.”
An intuitive design organizes large amounts of wireless diagnostic information and data, and existing infrastructure is illustrated and easily understood.
“The Smart Wireless Navigator is a comprehensive tool that helps users realize the value of wireless across the range of reliability, safety, environmental accountability and process performance,” summarized Karschnia, “it delivers value throughout the cycle of engineering, installation, operation and maintenance.”
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 18, 2014 | Automation, News, Technology
What happens when we teach a computer how to learn? Technologist Jeremy Howard shares some surprising new developments in the fast-moving field of deep learning, a technique that can give computers the ability to learn Chinese, or to recognize objects in photos, or to help think through a medical diagnosis. (One deep learning tool, after watching hours of YouTube, taught itself the concept of “cats.”) Get caught up on a field that will change the way the computers around you behave … sooner than you probably think.
That is the description of this TEDx Talk on the hubris of a technologist, er, I mean, the science fiction possibilities of technology run amok.
As much as we look back and see how much technology has aided humans, there are still those who look ahead through a darkened glass. Here is yet another technologist who believes that soon we’ll all be out of work and will just be lazy, good-for-nothing slaves to technology.
Time after time we’ve seen how technology has greatly improved the lives of humans. People have been removed from dirty, dangerous, demeaning work. Yet, there remain many other places to tackle that same problem—I can think of mining for an example. How many miners do we need to lose to cave-ins or black lung?
The main problem I see with Howard’s analysis is the old “linear extrapolation” trap. He says in effect that this technology can never stop growing exponentially. That, of course, is false. Nothing in nature continues to grow forever linearly. It will either level off or be asymptotic to some axis.
On the other hand, he does have some fascinating examples of technology helping humans.
http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_howard_the_wonderful_and_terrifying_implications_of_computers_that_can_learn
