by Gary Mintchell | Feb 4, 2015 | Automation, Internet of Things, News, Operations Management, Software, Technology
Predictive technology in the asset performance arena seems to be the trend of the week. I wrote yesterday about a solution. Today brings another announcement. I think I’ll learn more about this one next week at the 2015 ARC Forum in Orlando. (By the way, if you’re there, please look me up.)
The headline for this article came from GE. I’ve heard of predictive maintenance (which many aspire to and few achieve) and condition-based maintenance (similar but, I guess, different). Here they combine the two. Check it out and let me know what you think.
GE’s Measurement & Control business and Meridium Inc. introduce Production Asset Reliability (PAR), an integrated Asset Performance Management (APM) offering for an all-in-one view of equipment health. Combining GE Measurement & Control’s System 1 condition monitoring and diagnostic applications with Meridium’s suite of enterprise performance management and asset strategy solutions, PAR provides a holistic and quantifiable view of operations, maintenance, availability and overall operating performance for production assets.
System 1, GE’s patented condition monitoring software, helps users quickly diagnose potential equipment and instrument health issues which can lead to equipment failure. Meridium’s applications provide structured processes and analytics to identify critical assets and failure modes, calculate equipment reliability and determine downtime impacts. The integrated PAR solution provides an end-to-end process that connects the machine diagnostics to the business context and execution to drive optimized maintenance practices and production loss management for all asset-intensive industries.
“Today’s measurement, monitoring and management systems are disconnected, and, as a result, organizations fail to leverage quality data for actionable insights,” said Art Eunson, general manager for Bently Nevada, GE Measurement & Control, a GE Oil & Gas division. “GE and Meridium’s integrated PAR offering empowers our customers with the ability to connect identification, evaluation and execution for greater asset optimization and productivity.”
Asset intensive organizations are challenged to maximize production, minimize costs, follow regulations and manage risk. To balance the demanding requirements, operators require a more cohesive system that assesses equipment performance and manages the resulting data. GE and Meridium provide this comprehensive solution for customers to effectively measure, monitor and manage each connected asset.
“With greater availability of big data and connected assets, there is an end-to-end picture of plant operations waiting to be tapped by organizations from the plant floor to the corporate office in order to stay competitive on a global scale,” said Bonz Hart, Meridium Founder and CEO. “PAR measures performance, quantifies risk and delivers analytics in real-time, providing customers with the insight needed to effect real change, improve efficiency and reduce maintenance costs.”
The Oil & Gas industry demand solutions that can grow with business demand and adapt rapidly to changing technical environments. That is why GE’s industrial solutions such as System 1 are standardizing on GE’s software platform for the Industrial Internet, Predix.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 13, 2015 | Automation, Education, Internet of Things, Leadership, News, Operations Management, Software, Technology
Let the debates begin! Jim Pinto has published his 2015 prognostications in the latest JimPintoBlog.
Check out his entire list and enter your thoughts on his blog. I’ll highlight some of his thoughts and add some of my own.
Automation Industry Trends
New inflection points will change the leadership lineup.
GM—I do not expect big changes in the automation leadership lineup. Mitsubishi, Rockwell Automation and Siemens are dominant in their home areas and fighting it out in China and India. Siemens has a bit of an edge having been international for a longer period of time. But as automation commoditizes, perhaps some new entrants will grab some share. If Bedrock Automation can market well, watch out for it. On the process side, Invensys is gone, absorbed by Schneider Electric. So the process automation business becomes even more of a minor part of the overall businesses, like ABB, Emerson Process Management, and Yokogawa. The only interesting situation in that market area is Honeywell Process Solutions. But I don’t really expect any change there.
I think 3D printing (additive manufacturing) is a game changer and one of the most important things from last week’s CES. It’s not strictly automation, though.
From Jim:
- Internet of Things (IoT): The Industrial Internet will transform the next decade. Intelligent sensors and networks will take measurement and control to the next level, dramatically improving productivity and efficiencies in production. Growth in 2015 will be bottom-up, not top-down.
- Smaller, Cheaper Sensors: Everyone is looking for or working on smaller, cheaper sensors for widespread use in IoT. Expect fast growth for sensors this year.
- Cloud Computing: Cloud computing technology reduces capital expenditures and IT labor costs by transferring responsibility to cloud computing providers, allowing secure and fast access for data-driven decisions. The significant gains in efficiency, cost and capability will generate continuing rapid growth in 2015.
- 3D Printing in Manufacturing: Today, do-it-yourself manufacturing is possible without tooling, large assembly lines or multiple supply chains. 3D printing is reshaping product development and manufacturing.
- Mobile Devices in Automation: The use of WiFi-connected tablets, smartphones and mobile devices is spreading quickly. Handheld devices reduce costs, improve operating efficiency, boost productivity and increases throughput. More and more employers are allowing BYOD (bring your own device).
- Robotics: Millions of small and medium-sized businesses that will benefit from cheaper robots that can economically produce a wide variety of products in small numbers. The next generation of robots will be cheaper and easier to set up, and will work with people rather than replace them.
- Control Systems Security: In spite of apprehensions over consumer security breach events, industrial cyber security has mostly been ignored due to lack of understanding of solution costs. Many companies struggle to justify what is seen as added cost to secure their operation. Major security breaches will change this attitude.
Business Technology Trends
Gartner’s top trends for 2015 (3) cover three themes: the merging of the real and virtual worlds, the advent of intelligence everywhere, and the technology impact of the digital business shift. There is a high potential for disruption to the business with the need for a major investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.
Here are the top Gartner trends:
- Computing Everywhere: As mobile devices continue to proliferate, there will be increased emphasis on the needs of the mobile users. Increasingly, the overall environment will need to adapt to the requirements of the mobile user
- 3D Printing: Worldwide shipments of 3D printers are expected to grow 98 percent in 2015, followed by a doubling of unit shipments in 2016, reaching a tipping point over the next three years.
- Advanced, Pervasive and Invisible Analytics: The volume of data generated by embedded systems generates vast pools of structured and unstructured data inside and outside the enterprise. Organizations need to deliver exactly the right information to the right person, at the right time, so analytics will become deeply, but invisibly embedded everywhere.
- Smart Machines: Advanced algorithms will allow systems to understand their environment, learn for themselves, and act autonomously.
- Cloud Computing: The convergence of cloud and mobile computing will continue to promote the growth of centrally coordinated applications that can be delivered to any device. Applications will evolve to support simultaneous use of multiple devices.
- Risk-Based Security and Self-Protection: All roads to the digital future lead through security. Organizations will increasingly recognize that it is not possible to provide a 100 percent secured environment. They will apply more-sophisticated risk assessment and mitigation tools. Every app needs to be self-aware and self-protecting.
GM—My take is that the biggest thing in this area is analytics combined with improved visualizations and dashboards that take advantage of smartphones and tablets. Cloud is here. IoT is here. Security will forever be an important part of business.
2015 Consumer Electronics Show
- Wearable Devices: The time is right for wearable devices.
- Practical green tech.
- Sustainability and transportation: Tesla Model X all-electric SUV with the doors that open like a Delorean. Electric-assisted bike technology; electric scooter with swappable batteries and dashboard analytics.
- Kid-Tech: Apps to help teach children science, math, and tech. Fun little robots that teach kids computer programming concepts. Drawing, design, and color patterns to help kids learn about robotics and computer programming.
GM—as I’ve already written, autonomous vehicles could be a game changer and 3D printing was huge. The outlier is drones. Who knows where that might go?
Future Prognostications 2015-2025
Here are ten prognostications for the next decade, picked from the World Future Society (7) forecasts, plus other readings and discussions with Futurists.
- – Education: A major shift to on-line education and certification is already happening, and will continue steadily.
- – Jobs: Advances in artificial intelligence will eliminate human workers.
- – Robot Work Force
- – Middle Class Impasse: delaying retirement, income stagnating
- – Driverless cars
- – Speak to Computers.
- – Robotic Augmentation (exoskeletons)
- – Health & Well-being: sensors everywhere
- – Brain scanning will replace juries
- -Energy: Futurist Ray Kurzweil notes that solar power has been doubling every two years for the past 30 years while costs have been dropping. He says solar energy is only six doublings (less than 14 years) away from meeting 100% percent of energy needs.
GM-There are going to be some disruptions and huge benefits from a number of these. Autonomous vehicles and health advances are fantastic. I wish education would change more quickly that it does. Even those who wish to disrupt education mainly only have the political agenda of “teachers’ unions” and driving down salaries. (Why is it a political agenda to drive down salaries. Shouldn’t we be trying to improve everyone’s lot in life?)
I’m not a fan of Kurzweil. 100% is not realistic—maybe residential, but not everything. Don’t think there’s enough volts there!
I think we are going to need those labor-saving, productivity-enhancing advancements because we’re actually facing a labor shortage in 10 years. Time to start thinking farther ahead.
Humans have a way of adapting to thrive. I am optimistic about the future!
Yes, Jim, I’m with you there!
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 22, 2014 | Automation, News, Organizations, Process Control
Here we are at the end of 2014 and we see continuing evidence of the business trend in the industrial process control industry—consolidation.
Emerson announced Dec. 22 that it has acquired Stirling, Scotland-based Cascade Technologies Ltd., a leading manufacturer of gas analyzers and monitoring systems using Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) technology. This innovative technology measures multiple gases simultaneously, helping companies improve industrial emissions monitoring, production efficiencies and environmental compliance.
Emerson is expanding its analytical measurement capabilities by adding this innovative laser technology to its Rosemount Analytical gas analysis portfolio. QCL technology provides a step change in gas analyzer performance through its increased sensitivity, speed of response, and fingerprinting capability. These technology advancements in the gas analysis market space provide a powerful solution for customers in various industries such as petrochemical, food and beverage, marine, automotive and pharmaceutical. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“The acquisition of Cascade Technologies is an exciting step as we further strengthen our gas analysis portfolio,” said Tom Moser, group vice president of Emerson Process Management’s measurement and analytical businesses. “Our customers depend upon Emerson to solve their toughest analytical measurement problems. We are now better positioned to serve that need.”
Dr. Iain Howieson, chief executive officer of Cascade Technologies Ltd., added, “Joining a global leader like Emerson represents an incredible opportunity for business growth. Emerson’s global presence and market leadership will have an immediate impact on the adoption of cutting edge QCL gas analyzers and monitoring systems.”
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 10, 2014 | Automation, Internet of Things, M2M, Manufacturing IT, Motion Control, Networking, News, Operations Management, Organizations, Technology
Here is announcement that foretells significant impact on industrial Ethernet and potentially all the suppliers. I bet it’s also an alliance that you’ve never heard of. Think audio-visual for AV. The AVnu Alliance has launched work on an open standard for deterministic Ethernet creating capability for standard Ethernet to meet the needs of industrial market while embracing the future promise of IoT. As I understand it, this work feeds back into the IEEE standards. Even more significant.
As I chatted with Todd Walter of National Instruments, Dan Sexton of GE, and Paul Didier of Cisco, I began to envision a standards-base, open technology that can be implemented in what will become standard Ethernet silicon. Let your imagination work for a minute. This could be a significant advance.
[Note: I’ve asked for feedback from a couple of suppliers. I’m sure that I’ll get some comments after the digest the information and construct a response.]
The group notes that standard Ethernet continues to expand its range, functionality and applications with the evolution of the Audio Video Bridging (AVB) standard into Time Sensitive Networking (TSN). The new capabilities of TSN provide the Industrial community with the ability to use standard Ethernet to support highly reliable and precise synchronized networking appropriate for industrial control.
New AVnu members
With the expansion into the Industrial Control market, AVnu Alliance announced three new members, Belden, with its Hirschmann, Tofino Security, GarrettCom and Lumberg Automation brands, is a global leader of mission-critical industrial network infrastructure; General Electric, global leaders in creating an electrical infrastructure with advanced technologies to safely and reliably distribute, protect and control electricity; and National Instruments, a leading test, measurement and embedded systems provider for engineers and scientists. These companies, as leaders in the industrial, automation and IT infrastructure space, are driving forces in the recent expansion, working within the Alliance to develop the foundational elements needed for industrial applications, based on the common elements of AVB/TSN. The industrial segment is also supported by existing AVnu Alliance members such as Broadcom, Cisco, Intel, Interval Zero, Marvell, Micrel, Vitesse, Xilinx and XMOS.
Supporting quotes
“It is incredibly important for GE to support and stay up to date on the evolving open standards in the industrial control market. Since AVnu Alliance is the only community consortium driving the expansion of AVB and TSN standards, we are excited to join and offer our expertise to the efforts,” said John Garrity, Product Line Leader for General Electric Intelligent Platforms. “AVnu certification will ensure interoperability across multi-vendor solutions and our continued contribution to the TSN standards will help us deliver the next generation of reliable networked products to our customers. We are excited to join AVnu Alliance and contribute to the workgroups as the Alliance expands into this new market and continues to build on the open standards that are currently evolving. Our work with TSN better enables our customers to easily and rapidly create innovative next generation control systems transmitting real time traffic.”
“IEEE and AVnu Alliance’s work to bring open standards to industrial applications provides a great venue to amplify Belden’s long history of standards work, and we recognize the immense value open standards offer to our customers,” said Andreas Dreher, Strategic Technology Manager at Belden. “TSN technology shows promise to be the core technology for high-end industrial Ethernet communications in the future, solving challenges faced by our customers in demanding, high-performance and high-precision industries, like motion control, robotics and high-speed manufacturing. Our plan for joining with the Alliance aligns well with our long-standing work in bringing innovation, standardization and awareness to the industrial market for new and emerging open standards.”
“TSN promises through standard silicon to converge the previously disparate technologies needed for standard Ethernet communication, for deterministic high speed data transfer, and for high accuracy time synchronization. These developments will create a common foundation that will impact numerous applications and markets ranging from machine control and asset monitoring to test cells and vehicle control. Key technology and equipment providers to the industrial market are supporting the effort. National Instruments is happy to collaborate within the solid ecosystem that AVnu Alliance is building,” said Mike Santori, Vice President, Product Marketing, National Instruments.
The Alliance notes, “Standard Ethernet is evolving to enable next generation control systems. This will allow convergence of low latency control traffic and standard Ethernet traffic on the same network for demanding applications like multi-axis motion control, providing a foundation for more advanced manufacturing and production models where data can be shared more flexibly between layers of the control system and where Internet of Things (IoT) technology can be applied into production environments. The new capabilities of these open standards enable high-speed closed loop control networks to support any Ethernet device using standard IT components and creates the needed foundation for IoT integration with industrial production.”
“As a founding member of AVnu Alliance, Intel is committed to advancing open standards that deliver time-sensitive communication” said Anthony Neal-Graves, Vice President, Internet of Things Group, Intel. “This is particularly important for cyber-physical-systems where multiple compute nodes cooperate to control physical systems ranging from industrial robots to autonomous vehicles and smart buildings. Intel has been a leader in this industry for more than two decades and we look forward to seeing the new opportunities TSN will bring to our customers.”
The Alliance has previously announced support for TSN in automotive applications such as drive-by-wire and autonomous driving. The Industrial market, which parallels work that AVnu Alliance members have been doing in the Automotive segment, is a $150 billion a year market space and creates a pathway to the future of IoT.
“This new segment is very exciting for the Alliance. Adding new members who are from this space and the evolution of the standards makes AVnu Alliance and Time Sensitive Networking poised for rapid growth in this market. As a founding member, Cisco’s contribution to AVnu Alliance will help guide the expansion and the standards work being done within the industrial segment,” said Kip Compton, VP and General Manager of the Internet of Things (IoT) Systems and Software group, Cisco. “AVnu Alliance remains dedicated to its core work in professional audio and video, consumer electronics and automotive. Broad market expansion of AVB/TSN with wide deployment will only benefit all members and markets – both from a cost perspective as well as assuring long-term support for the capabilities in standard components.”
“As a founding member of AVnu Alliance, Broadcom has been involved in the support of a variety of evolving market segments and expansion into the industrial control space is the next natural move for the Alliance,” said Nicholas Ilyadis, Broadcom CTO, Infrastructure & Networking Group. “As the industrial market continues to expand, AVnu Alliance will become an important driver in the interoperability and certification of networked devices and ensuring the deployment of reliable solutions in global markets.”
AVnu Alliance is responsible for guiding the specification for new applications to simplify the process for engineers and designers to build products. AVnu Alliance has created an Industrial Advisory Council for manufacturers and end users to learn more about the Alliance and the standards.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 25, 2014 | Automation, Technology
The Fluke product managers I talked with last week at Automation Fair were high on technology last week as they showed me the first high-definition Infrared Camera from the company.
The TiX1000 (with 1024 x 768 resolution), TiX660, and TiX640 (both 640 x 480) feature up to ten times the on-camera pixels as are available on standard 320 x 240 cameras and a large 5.6-inch articulating display to help quickly identify issues while still in the field. The TiX Expert Series delivers highly detailed image quality, the most advanced focusing options available on one infrared camera, and the versatility to capture accurate measurements from targets that are challenging, dangerous, or moving too fast.
They told me that the resolution was so good that you could shoot pictures from a distance and still have sufficient definition for detailed analysis. You could, for example, stand on the ground and shoot a distillation column and still see great detail.
The company has shot this informative video.
The SuperResolution mode feature on the TiX1000 and TiX660 cameras increase image resolution, when viewed in the included SmartView software, four times more than what you get on camera. For example, SuperResolution reveals HD quality in the TiX1000 images with 3.1 million pixels. The TiX660 SuperResolution images have 1.2 million pixels. This higher resolution helps better identify potential issues that might have been missed with other infrared cameras.
The TiX Series can also be sub-windowed to 240 Hz frame rate to capture and analyze sudden temperature changes that occur within a second for advanced research and development applications.
With eight lens options (two telephoto, two wide angle, three macro, and one standard), the TiX Series can capture images from very close up to long range to meet a wide variety of applications.
The combination of high resolution and telephoto lenses captures detailed thermal images from a safe distance for oil and gas, utilities, and preventive/predictive industrial maintenance applications. The super telephoto lens enables users to inspect areas that they could not get close to before and still capture spectacular, detailed infrared images.
At the other end of the spectrum, these cameras, combined with a macro lens, deliver extreme close-up views in extraordinary detail making them ideal for inspection and analysis for the research and development engineer.
The TiX Series cameras feature the most advanced focus options available on a handheld infrared camera for consistently in-focus images. The EverSharp multifocal recording mode utilizes the focus motor to capture multiple images from varying focal distances with the push of a button. Using advanced algorithms, Fluke SmartView software combines the images taken from multiple focal distances and creates an image that sharpens the detail of not just the initial focal point, but the elements around the focal point, providing an in-focus image for objects at different distances. This along with LaserSharp Auto Focus, auto focus, and manual focus provides a variety of methods to capture consistently in-focus images.
Fluke Connect System
TiX Series Infrared Cameras are part of the Fluke Connect system, which allows technicians to wirelessly transmit measurement data from their test tools to their smart phones and tablets for secure storage on the cloud and universal team access from the field. With Fluke Connect, teams can easily access past infrared inspections on the go and look at trends over time. The Fluke Connect app can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
