Looking for the Source of Innovation in Manufacturing Technology

Looking for the Source of Innovation in Manufacturing Technology

Looking for the source of innovation in manufacturing technology. Not only am I planning for direction in 2018, I’m in conversations about where lies the excitement.

OK, so it’s been two months I’ve been digesting some thoughts. In my meager defense, November and December were very busy and hectic months for me. Still lots going on in January as I gear up for the year.

Last November, I quoted Seth Godin:

Like Mary Shelley

When she wrote Frankenstein, it changed everything. A different style of writing. A different kind of writer. And the use of technology in ways that no one expected and that left a mark.

Henry Ford did that. One car and one process after another, for decades. Companies wanted to be the Ford of _____. Progress makes more progress easier. Momentum builds. But Ford couldn’t make the streak last. The momentum gets easier, but the risks feel bigger too.

Google was like that. Changing the way we used mail and documents and the internet itself. Companies wanted to be the Google of _____. And Apple was like that, twice with personal computers, then with the phone. And, as often happens with public companies, they both got greedy.

Tesla is still like that. They’re the new Ford. Using technology in a conceptual, relentless, and profound fashion to remake industries and expectations, again and again. Take a breakthrough, add a posture, apply it again and again. PS Audio is like that in stereos, and perhaps you could be like that… The Mary Shelley of ____.

So I asked on Twitter “Who will be the Mary Shelley of automation?

I’m sitting in a soccer referee certification clinic when I glance at the phone. Twitter notifications are piling up.

Andy Robinson (@Archestranaut) got fired up and started this tweet storm:

Gary… why do you have to get me fired up on a chilly November morning! I’m not sure we have any.. at least at any scale. And the more I’ve pondered this more the more I consider the role or culpability of the customer. Buyers of automation at any scale tend to be 1/

incredibly conservative. If they are ok with technology that isn’t much more than a minor evolution of the existing then we aren’t going to get anywhere. Recently I devoured Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma. I keep trying to figure out how a small player 2/

with disruptive tech can move our industry. There are pockets and potential but ultimately if there isn’t enough uptake by customers willing to take a risk then we don’t move forward. Considering all this I “think” I have figured out one potential causal factor. 3/

If you look at where the fastest innovation is happening it’s in software. Is the majority of the innovation coming from vendors or asset owners. it’s asset owners. Amazon, Netflix, AirBnB, etc. are all doing amazing things and taking risks writing new code for their systems4/

Having been an asset owner and vendor I can tell you for a fact I was way more willing to take risks when I was the owner. As a vendor I want to deliver a solution to spec with minimal risk. Fundamentally product companies are doing the same thing. Just good enough with 5/

minimum risk to supply chain, warranty repairs, reliable field operations etc. Even platforms like Kubernetes that appear unaffiliated were developed by asset owners like Google, taking risks and pushing the boundaries. The Exxon work with open automation “has” this 6/

potential but I don’t know if the willpower up and down the chain and left and right with partners is going to be there. It takes incredible willpower to take risks and accept that there will be blow back and consequences in the form of loss of political capital and failure. 7/

So maybe it all boils down to the fact that until we as an industry find a place where failure is acceptable and even celebrated on a small scale we will continue to innovate at a speed somewhere between typewriters and vacuum cleaners. 8/

is it any wonder we have such a hard time attracting young talent? Pay is good and challenges to solve real problems are there. But looking 20 years out we are still doing same things, just a new operating system, faster Ethernet, and new style of button bar on the HMI /endrant

He asks some good questions and provides some interesting insights.

I’ve had positions with companies at different points of the supply chain. He makes sense with the observation that the asset owners may be the most innovative. My time in product development with consumer goods manufacturers taught me such lessons as:

  • Fear of keeping ahead of the competition
  • Relentless concentration on the customer
  • Not just cost, but best value of components going into the product
  • Explaining what we were doing in simple, yet provocative terms

Today? I’m seeing some product companies acquiring talent with new ideas. Some are bringing innovative outlooks to companies who find it very hard to take a risk for all the reasons Andy brings up. The gamble is whether the big company can actually bring out the product—and then integrate it with existing products to bring something really innovative to market. They of course have the funds to market the ideas from the small groups.

Next step, do the innovative people from the small company just get integrated into the bureaucracy? Often there is the one great idea. It gets integrated and then that’s the end. The innovators wait out their contract and then go out and innovate again. I’ve seen it play out many times in my career as observer.

Often the other source of big company innovation bubbles up from customers. An engineer is trying to solve a problem. Needs something new from a supplier. Goes to the supplier and asks for an innovation.

I’d look for innovation from asset owners, universities, small groups of innovative engineers and business thinkers. They live in the world of innovating to stay ahead of the competition or just the world of ideas.

I’m reading Walter Isaacson’s biography “Leonardo” right after his one on Einstein. He offers insights on what to personality to look for if you want to develop an innovative culture in your workforce. Wrote about that recently here.

What Makes Up Innovators and Genius

Walter Issacson has done deep research and written biographies of several men you could call geniuses. Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci (next on my reading list), Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein. I just finished the Einstein book.

Reflecting on his career while speaking at a conference I attended, Issacson said that they all shared certain characteristics–they were rebellious, they didn’t quite fit in with their contemporaries, and they could bring in ideas from numerous sources. Think of this in terms of building a great workforce.

I was probably 10 or 11 when I first read a biography of Franklin. Even then I was impressed by his wide-ranging curiosity. He seemed to learn something about everything. Yet, he grew up poor and didn’t have the perks of wealth.

The Einstein book was enjoyable, if long. My wife said she had some trouble getting through it. I can believe it. All the stories about his wives and family troubles were hard to get through. But the detailed discussion about the developments in physics–ah, suburb. OK, so maybe she liked the family stuff and I preferred the physics.

By the way, it’s not true that he failed arithmetic as a boy. But his genius was not in math. He had friends who helped out on the math side of the theories.

Einstein didn’t accept all the common knowledge about physics of the day. As he pondered the influential experiments and thoughts of the late 19th century, he performed thought experiments. That is, he used his imagination.

In fact, one saying attributed to him concerns the importance of imagination over rote learning.

He said later in life that one doesn’t attend college to learn facts. You go to college to learn to think.

I was no doubt influenced by that statement many years ago when I formulated my description of an educated person (note that it says nothing about degrees)–you learn how to learn, you learn how to think clearly, you learn how to express yourself.

In fact, while I respect the tenacity of those who have advanced degrees, I got that out of my system early. The university shut down the program I was in. After getting accepted at a couple of other universities, I looked at the curriculum and decided to study what I wanted. I’ve always viewed a degree as a certificate that entitles the bearer entry into a club.

In that respect, I’ve always sided with the greater Marx philosopher–Groucho. “I don’t want to join any club that would want people like me as a member.”

Workforce tip: You’re going to look for minimum capability, of course. Don’t hire a programmer who thinks Java is something you drink. However, look for people who are curious, who challenge things as they are, who can balance individual work with team work. Cultivate a workplace where ideas (not personalities) form the foundation of lively and challenging discussions.

Digital Transformation Impacts Manufacturing Innovation and Supply Chain

Digital Transformation Impacts Manufacturing Innovation and Supply Chain

Digital transformation professional services companies provide value to owner/operators and manufacturing companies. But their services are often expensive. I have done some work on platforms such as MIMOSA’s OIIE (which is still in development) that are designed to use standards and interoperability to help these customers reduce their expense and dependence on these firms.

It’s sort of a “good news, bad news” thing.

At any rate, the PR firm representing Cognizant contacted me toward the end of December with an opportunity to interview an executive. The purpose of this interview would be to update me on the company and talk a little about digital supply chain, workforce, and other manufacturing innovation topics.

Anxious to get something done before the end of the year (billable hours?), they even offered times between Christmas and New Years. Prasad Satyavolu, global head of innovation, manufacturing, and logistics practice, talked with me shortly before Christmas.

When I laid out the conversation on a mind map, the map was huge. So I thought about it off and on for the past couple of weeks. These thoughts reflect about half of the conversation. There is a lot to think about.

Cognizant was a very familiar name, but I couldn’t place it. “We are familiar with SCADA and plant floor,” Satyavolu told me. “We acquired Wonderware’s R&D operations. In fact, we still work with Schneider Electric. We also work with Rockwell Automation.”

Core Manufacturing services include:

• Transportation/Material Handling

• Process industry

• Energy/Oil & Gas

• Aerospace (some)

• Automation

• Utilities/Smart Grid/Smart Meters

When Cognizant evaluates a customer’s processes and lays out a plan, it includes everything from incoming supply to manufacturing to shipping to customer. The demand and supply chain.

One opportunity Satyavolu sees considers more instrumentation leading to additional sensing of movement of materials and workers in order to capture better decisions and enable efficiencies.

Then consider the confluence of changing workforce and technology. “Consider reality on shop floor. 5-10 years ago a maintenance engineer listened to a machine, diagnosed the problem, and fixed the machine.

The next generation doesn’t have that knowledge. Today the time to fix has gone from 15 minutes to 4 hours. How can we tackle knowledge gap? Further, is the next generation even interested in this sort of work?

Looking ahead, by 2025 we will be short 8 million people with manufacturing skills. How does this impact global mid-sized companies? How can we further leverage robotics to help solve this problem? Would robotics technology even make the work more attractive to a new generation of workers from the world of gaming and drones?

Huge opportunities exist with visibility outside the plant to planning and execution. It’s the Amazon effect—velocity so high that you almost have to produce on demand. Predictive maintenance systems enable managers to manage schedules and demands. This leverages infastructure such as cloud, digital technologies. These improve scheduling, reschedules lowering carrying costs; aids risk management / mitigation; global organizations bringing parts from around the world, global demand/supply increases uncertainty.

On shop floor, plant has fixed schedules / horizons. Scheduling systems and a lot of modeling bring stability and improve effectiveness. You can simulate production quickly, get status of inbound parts, changes in demand side, sync with labor requirements. With better scheduling, you get better visibility—you can save 12-13% of costs with sync. You can track supply chain, transportation, and change schedules in advance improving risk management.

Digital Transformation Impacts Manufacturing Innovation and Supply Chain

Wages and the Future of Workers

Steve Levine writing in Axios Future of Work notes:

For many years, the economic rules were supported by both common sense and the data: When unemployment falls, wages rise soon after. But since the turn of the century and before, that relationship has broken down across the developed world, according to data from the OECD.

Stagnant wages aren’t just an American problem: Workers in the wealthier nations are facing similar headwinds, like declining union membership, increased competition from foreign workers in a global marketplace, and slow productivity growth. But no one knows precisely why economics are failing to observe the traditional supply-and-demand rules.

Gary’s descriptive take:

For years political and managerial attitudes have coalesced around the idea of driving down wages. Levine mentions declining union membership, for example. The political aspect was to break union power in elections toward electing Democrat candidates. Reagan recognized in the 80s (and Trump capitalized in the last election) that white male union members would vote conservative for social reasons.

I keep watching elections for years and seldom see a definitive correlation of votes and economic benefit. People surprisingly often vote against their economic benefit in favor of voting for emotional, social causes.

Twice this month I have been at technology conferences (Emerson Automation and Dell Technologies) where a top executive pronounces that the era of using technology for efficiency is over. We have likely achieved as much reduction in the workforce that will allow us to remain viable.

But I believe the mindset in top management ranks remains, “How can we ‘contain’ or drive down wages and salaries.”

Emotions and mindsets change slowly. The mechanistic law of supply and demand is powerful, but the emotional law of squeezing every last penny of cost has been bred in management DNA for 30 years. It won’t go away soon.

Gary’s prescriptive take:

I’m looking for leaders who see growth in more holistic ways. The “rising tide floats all boats” point of view. Better—the idea that all people in the organization contribute to the success of the organization and should share in the rewards.

There are leaders like that. Just too few

Digital Transformation Impacts Manufacturing Innovation and Supply Chain

People Are The Key to Digital Transformation According to Emerson

The era of improving plant performance and profitability through efficiency—that is by cutting costs—is over. So stated Emerson Automation Solutions executive president Mike Train while kicking off the 2017 edition of Emerson Global Users Exchange in Minneapolis.

“The past 30 years have brought us fantastic advances in the manufacturing sector, including greater operating efficiencies enabled by automation,” said Train. “But the incremental benefits gained are diminishing. The pressure is on industry leaders to take the next step to the game-changing performance made possible by digitally empowering the workforce.”

Emerson has researched industry performance and drew a profile of Top Quartile industry performers – those in the top 25 percent of performance among their peers – Emerson has identified five essential competencies as critical to realize the value of “digital transformation”:

• Automated Workflow: Eliminate repetitive tasks and streamline standard operations to focus personnel on exceptions and other opportunities that require human intervention

• Decision Support: Leverage analytics and embedded expertise to provide actionable insights that reduce complexity and enable higher quality, faster decision-making

• Workforce Upskilling: Identify approaches that empower workers to acquire knowledge or experience faster and more effectively, to support higher-level and collaborative decision-making

• Mobility: Provide secure, on-demand access to information and expertise regardless of location, enabling collaborative workflows

• Change Management: Combine strategies, processes, tools and expertise that, in the right combination, simplify and accelerate the institutionalization of operational best practices

As always, this is a huge customer conference. There is abundant energy. Informal networking occurred all over the place. At this time, Emerson is the most vibrant of the companies in this area. It’ll be interesting to watch how, or if, business continues to grow from the company’s continued vision of industry.

More coming. Gotta listen to the next speaker.

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