by Gary Mintchell | Jan 23, 2015 | Automation, News, Security, Technology
I interrupt this blog to say good-bye and best wishes to industrial control systems security pioneers Eric and Joann Byres. They have been through a couple of iterations of entrepreneurship and had recently sold Tofino to Belden. They are leaving that company, taking some time off, and then looking for their next adventure. I appreciate the intense security conversations over the past 10-12 years. Check out the final blog post.
And, now back to our regularly scheduled program.
Industrial Robotics Once Again a Place for Innovation
Some industrial robots are hulking, highly specialized pieces of machinery that are cordoned off by cages from human factory workers.
But manufacturers have also begun experimenting with a new generation of “cobots” designed to work side-by-side with humans, and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are playing an important role in making these human-robot collaborations more natural and efficient.
Bilge Mutlu, an assistant professor of computer sciences, is working with counterparts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to determine best practices for effectively integrating human-robot teams within manufacturing environments. Their research is funded by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of its National Robotics Initiative program.
Furniture maker Steelcase, a global company headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is also a partner. “Working with world-class research universities like UW is critical to our strategy to evolve our industrial systems and develop industry-leading capabilities,” says Steelcase’s Edward Vander Bilt. “Our hope with this research is that we will learn how to extend human-robot collaboration more broadly across our operations.”
In recent years, the robotics industry has introduced new platforms that are less expensive and intended to be easier to reprogram and integrate into manufacturing. Steelcase owns four next-generation robots based on a platform called Baxter, made by Rethink Robotics. Each Baxter robot has two arms and a tablet-like panel for “eyes” that provide cues to help human workers anticipate what the robot will do next.
“This new family of robotic technology will change how manufacturing is done,” says Mutlu. “New research can ease the transition of these robots into manufacturing by making human-robot collaboration better and more natural as they work together.”
Mutlu directs UW-Madison’s Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory and serves as the principal investigator on the UW side of the collaboration. He works closely with Julie A. Shah, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.
Mutlu’s team is building on previous work related to topics such as gaze aversion in humanoid robots, robot gestures and the issue of “speech and repair.” For example, if a human misunderstands a robot’s instructions or carries them out incorrectly, how should the robot correct the human?
At MIT, Shah breaks down the components of human-robot teamwork and tries to determine who should perform various tasks. Mutlu’s work complements Shah’s by focusing on how humans and robots actually interact.
“People can sometimes have difficulty figuring out how best to work with or use a robot, especially if its capabilities are very different from people’s,” says Shah. “Automated planning techniques can help bridge the gap in our capabilities and allow us to work more effectively as a team.”
Over the summer, UW-Madison computer sciences graduate student Allison Sauppé traveled to Steelcase headquarters to learn more about its efforts to incorporate Baxter into the production line. She found that perceptions of Baxter varied according to employees’ roles.
While managers tended to see Baxter as part of the overall system of automation, front-line workers had more complex feelings. “Some workers saw Baxter as a social being or almost a co-worker, and they talked about Baxter as if it were another person,” she says. “They unconsciously attributed human-like characteristics.”
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 22, 2015 | Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management, Software
I no more had outlined the post generated from Tim Sowell’s latest blog post, when an invitation arrived to talk to the General Manager of Scott Fetzer Electrical Group (SFEG) and the CEO of ERP manufacturing software supplier Kenandy about an application based on the salesforce.com platform which is so easily configurable that even the GM can do it.
SFEG produces electrical products, such as motors, blowers, power supplies, transformers, and electromechanical timers, for large and small OEMs and distributors. Its products are used in products such as blenders, commercial printers, consumer appliances, and electrical signs.
Before deploying Kenandy, it had an on-premise ERP system, but the software was very difficult to use and was not agile enough to support their growth objectives.
Encumbered, not enabled
“Our business was encumbered by our ERP system, not enabled by it,” said Rob Goldiez, General Manager at SFEG. “The software was so hard to use that many people simply stopped using it. The data got stale. We wanted the benefits of a modern cloud platform that’s easy to use, has built-in social and mobile capabilities, and is always current with the latest version of the software.”
SFEG wanted to modernize their operations to support business automation and robotics. They also plan to add features to their product that require the support of a cloud-based system. Kenandy enables them to quickly respond to best industry practices and business innovation.
“Moving to Kenandy eliminates legacy challenges and allows us to focus on quickly growing and extending functionality,” said Goldiez. “We’re excited that we’ll be able to use Kenandy to support innovations, such as enabling our products to be connected over the Internet. We’re committed to living and breathing our innovation vision throughout the company, and Kenandy is integral to that vision.”
Since deploying Kenandy in November, SFEG’s operations have become more efficient. With the previous system, SFEG’s controller required physical signatures on purchase orders. With Kenandy, the process is managed through an automated approval process. SFEG also uses Salesforce Chatter to attach conversations to their sales orders and purchase orders, keeping all the related information together for easy reference. The employees enjoy using the system so the data is always current. They also appreciate the real-time visibility into the business, which helps them make decisions more quickly.
“SFEG’s story is not an uncommon one. Because legacy ERP systems are difficult to use, manage and upgrade, they’re written off as a burden by many users,” said Sandra Kurtzig, Chairman and CEO of Kenandy. “Since Kenandy is built native on the cloud, it offers flexibility that just hasn’t been available before. Modern enterprises need an ERP system that helps them adapt to the needs of their business as quickly as possible.”
SFEG was also interested in Kenandy because it’s built on the Salesforce Platform. They were attracted to the ease of customization, the strong reporting tools, and the robust security down to the field level. They also knew they would benefit from the third-party apps available on the Salesforce AppExchange.
“I evaluated other cloud-based ERP systems and Kenandy really stood out. There was nothing else out there that could compete,” said Goldiez. “We also wanted a system that would be easy to implement. We were up and running on Kenandy four months after signing the initial agreement. That’s fast!”
Kenandy met all the key criteria for SFEG’s new ERP system including:
- Ease of use for technical and non-technical staff
- Customizable workflows and approvals
- Real-time, tailored dashboards and reporting
- Customer portal to allow direct access to status and shipping updates
- Collaboration to facilitate communication around orders
- Mobile interface for anytime access to the system
- Business rules enforcement
Goldiez told me in a follow-up interview, that just about everyone in his plant touches the new system. The old system? Well, there were two “experts” who worked with it, but it was so hard to get into that most people didn’t bother. Not only that, SFEG’s system was tied to a paper report system. Another inflexible and cumbersome preventing widespread use.
Using the configurable cloud-based system is so convenient, that when someone needs a new report or feature, Goldiez can configure it with no need for special work orders through IT.
He said that today there are lots of eyes on the system. People are accountable to the data they are supposed to be managing. It is easier to use since it has a familiar interface.
Kurtzig added, “Millennials are coming into the workforce. They need software as easy to use as Amazon. They have higher expectations—and they also expect to use mobile devices.”
Because the application resides in the cloud as Infrastructure as a Service, new business rules and updates can be added without destroying the core and disrupting use.
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 | Jan 19, 2015 | Automation, Commentary, News
The village I grew up in was 100% Caucasian. As was every village in the county. Well, there was one black family in one of the villages. When I announced sympathy for the civil rights movement at somewhere around 1967, I took a bunch of grief.
I’m not sure when it dawned on me that driving through Mississippi on my way to graduate school in Louisiana with a civil rights decal on the car in 1970 was not a wise decision. I did live to tell about it, though.
Race and Gender
We have come a long way since the mid-60s. We have a black President, and we could have a woman President (at least a couple are serious contenders for 2016). But much work remains.
My dad quit attending the church he had been at for more than 50 years because they called a woman pastor. That was only 15 years ago. But even that barrier has been overcome in most churches. Just shows, we need to keep working to develop our sensitivities.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing, especially engineering (manufacturing engineers, process engineers, chemical engineers, and the like), is still overwhelmingly a male domain.
That is changing, too. For at least the past 10 years, I’ve seen many women, younger people, and ethnic heritages at the engineering conferences I attend. This is a good thing.
That a diverse team is a stronger team is a fact becoming increasingly realized. Here is a report of a recent study confirming new points regarding team strengths due to assembling a diverse group.
The Website Big Think recently ran an article by Orion Jones, Sensitivity, Women, Sharing: What makes teams smart. Here is a partial quote:
When teams of professionals are composed of more women, share ideas in equal part, and are emotionally perceptive, they make better decisions and find better solutions to problems.
As part of an emerging science of effective teamwork, researchers at MIT and Carnegie Mellon University have been asking why some teams, like some individuals, are measurably smarter than others.
Scientists classify individual intelligence as general rather than specific. In other words, smarter people are smarter across the board. People with larger vocabularies, for example, also tend to be better at mathematics, even though we tend to think of those as distinct areas of intelligence.
Group intelligence is also general. Groups which performed better on tasks that involved logical analysis and brainstorming also did better on problems emphasizing coordination, planning and moral reasoning.
The smartest teams were distinguished by members which contributed more equally to the discussion, were better at reading complex emotional states in lab settings, and were composed of more women (possibly because women are better at identifying emotion).
These characteristics were also true of groups that corresponded online, either through live chatrooms, conference calls, or traditional email.
Legacy
It is not only race, but gender, ethnic and geographic diversity that counts. Bringing together such a group that is focused on working together is going to yield better results.
In memory of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as pursuit of excellence, let’s continue building diversity into our team development.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 16, 2015 | Data Management, Internet of Things, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management
If this blog is going to discuss the connected manufacturing enterprise, we’re going to continue to focus on the Internet of Things (IoT). Companies are lining up at present to provide thought leadership and products/services to support IoT.
To be sure, the Industrial Internet of Things is similar, yet different than the popularized IoT from the consumer world. It is also much more robust, since we’ve been at this for years.
Michael Lynch and Richard Howells of SAP chatted with me recently to bring me up to speed with what’s happening with that company and IoT.
SAP is not a point solution company, rather it endeavors to bring all the solutions into an integrated whole. Therefore, it is quite interested in fitting automated connectivity into its portfolio of solutions.
Background
SAP supplied some background information as a prelude to the conversation.
Supply Chain Management – While only 10 percent of industrial operations are currently using the connected enterprise, looking ahead to 2015, the next phase will be about making the cloud truly functional for your business to help streamline processes. Factories and plants that are ‘connected’ are more productive and smarter than their non-connected counterparts – those that don’t take advantage of this connectivity will start to lag behind.
Manufacturing/Automotive – Automotive companies are already starting to use IoT-enabled technology to predict faults, quickly respond to maintenance conditions and take proactive action. Through IoT there is end-to-end visibility across manufacturing operations. Companies are integrating factory-floor operations with core business processes to optimize production with real-time updates from machine data and gain predictive analytics to automate parts and consumable ordering to maximize revenue.
Conversation
Here are some notes from our conversation.
We seem to be at the top of the “hype cycle.” We have been doing this for a long time considering technologies such as RFID and tracking software and the like. But what has changed are the cost of all the chips and the development of big data platforms. There are now chips in everything.
Information from the data gathered is now incorporated into the business process so that managers can make most decisions based on real-time information. Management of the business process itself will help managers run their business better.
Edge devices connected to each other can make decisions faster—say for collision avoidance systems.
Business networks will become more important—physical networks will feed into business networks.
We’re in early stages of this industrial Internet of Things. The first phase is connecting things. SAP can really participate in the second phase where companies ask how they can change and optimize the way they do business—where OT/IT converge. The third phase, the most exciting one, takes it to the next level. With more information displayed well, you can see things you never thought about. Pirelli realized that by managing tire inflation it can offer service in fuel optimization. Customers can do things they couldn’t do before.
At the manufacturing level with products such as MII and EMI, SAP is connecting asset management systems for machine health, as well as looking for deeper machine knowledge.
Connecting to business is critical. Imagine a truck with sensors, it may have 50-100 sensors, but they aren’t coordinated. But if connected and with geolocation, I can see traffic jams and do rerouting. I can see a problem with a truck and schedule maintenance. Connected logistic capability enables managers to manage large depots and hubs. Add geolocation, you can track the specific truck. You can deliver predictive maintenance and service by sending a repair person before customer even knows there’s a problem. This improves customer service. With new visibility into manufacturing, companies are capturing data and using it for reduce downtime, predictive maintenance, building analytics and enabling business solutions.
Business value
Needless to say, SAP is bullish on the IoT given the foreseeable added business value to suppliers and customers.
