I think that cloud-based platforms supporting this Internet of Things (IoT) phenomenon will proliferate for a while until we reach some sort of stability. Nadella came from this part of Microsoft, so I’m not surprised to see continued emphasis on these enterprise platform technologies.
An interesting highlight for us manufacturing and production geeks was that Microsoft brought an application by Rockwell Automation front and center. When Rockwell started doing these services, the Internet of Things phrase had not even been invented. It now finds itself in front of the IoT parade in the Microsoft keynote. I guess the time has come.
Quoting from its blog, “Microsoft’s vision is to help companies thrive in this era of IoT, delivering open, scalable platforms and services that any company, whether startup or the most established global enterprises, can use to create new value, right now. Nadella mentioned our investments in the Windows 10 IoT operating system for devices, and equally with the Azure IoT Suite, we’re bringing together a variety of Azure services to help our customers accelerate their transformation to digital businesses.”
This reminds me of conversations with Microsoft people stretching as far back as 1999 where the topic was Microsoft as a platform company that provided a foundation for industrial applications. Looks like it is consistently fulfilling that vision.
Microsoft introduced a preview of the Azure Intelligent Systems Service last April. It is designed to securely connect, manage and capture machine-generated data from sensors and devices. “If the Intelligent Systems Service was a starting point, the Azure IoT Suite is its evolution and maturation – a reflection of what we learned from the feedback provided by our customers and partners throughout the preview.”
The Azure IoT Suite is an integrated offering that takes advantage of all the relevant Azure capabilities to connect devices and other assets (i.e. “things”), capture the diverse and voluminous data they generate, integrate and orchestrate the flow of that data, and manage, analyze and present it as usable information to the people who need it to make better decisions as well as intelligently automate operations. The offering, while customizable to fit the unique needs of organizations, will also provide finished applications to speed deployment of common scenarios we see across many industries, such as remote monitoring, asset management and predictive maintenance, while providing the ability to grow and scale solutions to millions of “things.”
Additionally, the Azure IoT Suite will provide a simple and predictable pricing model despite the rich set of capabilities and broad scenarios it delivers, so our customers can plan and budget appropriately. This approach is aimed at simplifying the complexities that often exist with implementing and costing IoT solutions.
The Azure IoT Suite will be released in preview later this year.
Nadella even talked manufacturing industry featuring Rockwell Automation, playing this video. One of my Twitter contacts pointed this out and asked how much was real and how much was hype. Well, I’ve actually seen similar applications at Rockwell, so it is just good marketing communication of a real service built on what is now known as Internet of Things.
I have a potpourri of items to start the day. In the morning I leave for a week serving at the Tijuana Christian Mission. We will do a variety of service projects including building a section of a cinder-block security wall at its Rosarito orphanage site. We will do some work at the women’s shelter. We will also have some “real” Mexican tacos and check out the Pacific Ocean. I will be writing ahead, but there may be some gaps.
ABB
I decided that I just had too much going on along with watching my budget to attend this year’s ABB Automation and Power World event in Houston. This is the first one I’ve missed. And, yes, I do feel some withdrawal pain. What little news I’ve seen so far says that attendance is about 8,000. That is fantastic. I have seen no other news so far.
There were a couple of press releases in general. I subscribe to news feeds using Feedly on my iPad. I scan hundreds of items a day. Unfortunately, whatever Web technology ABB uses, when I click on the teaser lead in to the story to go to the Website, nothing happens. I’ve reported it to ABB several times in the past. For now, I don’t tweet or write up these items–I can’t see them.
Jim Pinto on Tolerance
My friend Jim Pinto who once wrote a monthly column on automation for me has switched his outlook on life. He has been tackling social problems lately in his new blog.
The latest edition is an impassioned plea for tolerance. He talks about treating other people with dignity. Certainly that is a life skill that will help you become successful except in the most toxic of organizational environment. But certainly successful as a person.
The piece did send me in search of a book in my library from the late 60s called “A Critique of Pure Tolerance.” For you philosophers, you might get just a sniff of Kant in the title. Rightly so. Three philosophers contributed essays–a Hegelian, a Kantian, and a positivist. One author was Robert Paul Wolfe. I can neither remember the other two or find the book right now. The point was (throwback to anti-VietNam protests) that sometimes you really shouldn’t tolerate the thoughts of others. I just offer that as a token of meaningless debate.
Real news from Dassault
Just received this update. By the way, I think these pre-configured apps are the beginning of the future for manufacturing software. Seems Apriso is making us smart–at least according to the press relations manager. Version 4.0 of Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA Apriso Manufacturing Process Intelligence (MPI) application suite is now available. New Maintenance, Logistics and Warehouse Intelligence Packs add visibility to another 200+ new KPIs.
Manufacturers operating globally are challenged to accurately measure analytics across sites to identify “best-in-class” performance. MPI 4.0 now offers 700+ pre-configured, built-in measures and KPIs within seven DELMIA Apriso Intelligence Packs. Intelligence Packs are pre-configured to work out-of-the-box with existing Apriso products (or may be integrated with other vendor products) to deliver the industry’s most robust EMI solution for global manufacturing excellence.
MPI 4.0 now offers Maintenance, Logistics and Warehouse Intelligence Packs, in addition to existing Production, Machine, Labor and Quality Intelligence Packs.
Advanced manufacturing strategies
There is one thing that puzzles me. Does anyone care about the variety of “smart manufacturing” theories and initiatives that take up so much room in magazines and blogs these days? I keep asking and writing, but the response is muted.
Granted, the European initiatives, principally Industrie 4.0, seem to be supplier driven. The US counterpart, Smart Manufacturing, has a government component, but is largely academic backed by some private companies who wish to take advantage of a pool of Ph.D. candidate researchers. It does talk about building a platform. However, the commercial impact is still in the distant future.
Just checking in. I’m working on a paper. If you have anything to contribute, I’m all ears.
Asset performance management joined the Industrial Internet of Things as a key topic at the 2015 ARC Forum in Orlando. Here is a release from Meridium that reflects many of the trends—data collection, analysis, configurable display, mobility.
Meridium Inc., global supplier of asset performance management (APM) software and services, announced the availability of Asset Answers V2.0. The company claims this as the only cloud-based asset performance diagnostics solution that provides comparative analytics, delivering instant visibility into asset data, and supplying organizations with the insights to drive safer, more informed, and more profitable decisions.
Asset Answers 2.0 delivers next-generation APM insights into industrial assets and their health and overall performance, an improved user interface that includes dashboards and enhanced mobility on a variety of handheld devices that provides true anywhere/anytime availability. Since the introduction of Asset Answers to the market, more than 130 sites in the Petrochemicals, Oil & Gas, Power & Utilities, and Manufacturing industries rely on Asset Answers to support continuous improvement initiatives with the ultimate goal of achieving operational excellence.
For example, Dow Chemical was able to collect and analyze reliability audit report data for 25 production units across 4 plants in less than 1 day, saving 175 man-days of effort and remain focused on cost, availability, and reliability optimization for the company. Another Asset Answers client, Profertil, reduced costs for 30 straight months and was able to readily identify and highlight savings of $900,000 and counting.
According to Roy Whitt, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Asset Answers, “For organizations in asset-intensive industries, Asset Answers 2.0 uncovers the true cost, reliability and availability of asset groups and individual pieces of equipment with the click of a mouse. Subscribers can easily view performance criteria across sites and benchmark themselves anonymously against global industry peers. Combining data mining and preconfigured metrics, reliability engineers can investigate equipment data to identify assets that represent the best opportunities for improving maintenance costs and reliability. With access to the objective truth about asset performance, management can act with confidence to intelligently cut costs while increasing production, especially in times of shrinking margins.”
Asset Answers can identify and evaluate better performing equipment manufacturers and highlight predominant failure modes for specific equipment models. With this analysis, Asset Answers also can create opportunities for equipment improvements and automatically track the savings these improvements have provided.
Whitt also added that, “Asset Answers uses comparative analytics or ‘intelligent benchmarking’ that enables organizations to conduct ‘apples to apples’ comparisons of industrial equipment in production units across multiple plants within an organization. That same information helps organizations compare the relative performance of their assets against industry peers to gain a deeper understanding and a competitive advantage, optimize total cost of ownership (TCO) for critical assets and make better asset purchasing decisions.”
This approach both improves collaboration between Reliability, Engineering & Maintenance and also enables continuous and systematic improvement of operations and production output over time. Benefits of Asset Answers 2.0 include:
A proven, systematic and secure approach to continuous improvement and Operational Excellence
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.
I’ve worked with the safety system team at Rockwell Automation for many years. We’ve done a couple of podcast interviews that were among my most downloaded. This one on Safety Maturity Index and this one on Safety Automation Builder. Below are details of a new machine safety program.
To help manufacturers identify best-in-class safety system integrators – with current safety standards expertise, a proven track record in building safety systems, and knowledge of productivity-enhancing safety technologies – Rockwell Automation has created the Machinery Safety System Integrator program.
“A recent Aberdeen report found best-in-class organizations are 81 percent more likely than low performing organizations to leverage outside services to design and install compliant machinery safety solutions,” said Mark Eitzman, manager of safety market development, Rockwell Automation. “The challenge comes in finding and vetting the most capable provider for the job. Rockwell Automation created the Machinery Safety System Integrator program to ease that process and connect manufacturers to machinery safety system integrators they can trust.”
Program candidates must meet stringent requirements and complete a rigorous, months-long assessment and education process. Only existing Rockwell Automation Solution Partners or Recognized System Integrators can qualify for the program. Candidates must have three to five years of demonstrated machinery safety experience. Rockwell Automation recognizes third-party certification from industry-accepted organizations, such as TÜV or exida.
Upon meeting these initial requirements, Rockwell Automation machinery safety experts conduct a candidate assessment to determine if additional training or experience is required. The candidate’s safety engineers must then complete training modules on topics, such as global safety standards, safety risk assessment practices, and different types of safeguarding applications. Lastly, the candidate must submit a machinery safety project to ensure it demonstrates methods consistent with global standards.
The collaborative nature between Rockwell Automation and its Machinery Safety System Integrators allows for seamless assessment, design, mitigation and validation of machinery safety systems. And as members of the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork program, these companies also commit to an active and extensive relationship with Rockwell Automation to provide the most productive and cost-effective automation solutions to their customers.
Twenty companies have joined the Machinery Safety System Integrator program in the following countries:
Belgium: DC Engineering (Langemark-Poelkapelle), Egemin Automation (Zwijndrecht)
Columbia: TREETEK SAS (Cali)
Denmark: 3Tech Automation (Fredericia)
England: AND Automation (Ilkeston), Bilfinger Industrial Automation Services (Chesterfield, Derbyshire), Newfield Automation (Congleton), Westbury Control Systems (Leicester)
Germany: Gundlack Automation GmbH (Verden)
Mexico: Advanced Machine Control SAPI de CV (AMCO) (Cuautitlán, Izcalli), IDTec Automatización (Guadalupe, Nuevo León), Target Robotics (San Luis Potosi)
Netherlands: Egemin Automation (Gorinchem)
Scotland: H&G Systems (Broxburn)
Spain: Sistrol (Madrid)
United States: Automation Solutions of America (Beloit, Wisconsin), Barry-Wehmiller Design Group (St. Louis, Missouri), E-Technologies Group (West Chester, Ohio), Polytron (Duluth, Georgia), TBD Solutions (Ogden, Utah)
