by Gary Mintchell | Nov 6, 2015 | Automation, Education, Operations Management, Workforce
Educating today’s young people both in essential skills required by modern manufacturing as well as on the careers available to them has become a strategic theme for technology suppliers and for manufacturers alike.
Phoenix Contact, a global technology supplier with US offices in Middletown, PA, has announced a partnership with a local community college to achieve just that.
HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, has become the first American school to join Phoenix Contact’s EduNet program. EduNet is an international education network that brings together schools and industry in the field of automation technology.
Workforce Education
Phoenix Contact and HACC officials announced the partnership Oct. 5, 2015, during the dedication of a new automation lab at HACC’s Midtown Trade and Technology Center in Harrisburg. Phoenix Contact’s contributions through the EduNet program include donating equipment for the lab. This gives students hands-on access to several Phoenix Contact ILC controller and PROFINET starter kits, the same type of equipment they might use once they graduate and work on the manufacturing floor.
Instructors will also receive a curriculum and free training sessions throughout the year. This includes the opportunity to travel internationally to attend a conference where they can network and exchange knowledge with EduNet teachers from other countries. Registration for the conference is free, courtesy of Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co. KG, of Blomberg, Germany, while Phoenix Contact USA will help cover the cost of travel.
Phoenix Contact and HACC previously collaborated on other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education initiatives. Most prominently, they designed and implemented a Mechatronics Apprenticeship program in 2011. Over a four-year period, apprentices simultaneously work at Phoenix Contact while pursuing an associate degree in mechatronics at HACC, at no cost to the apprentice.
In 2013, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Apprenticeship and Training Council and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship recognized Phoenix Contact as an official apprenticeship and training sponsor and the first in the state to offer a mechatronics apprenticeship program. This means the program is available to any company that wants to start its own mechatronics program using the Phoenix Contact/HACC program as a model.
“As Central Pennsylvania looks to increase manufacturing jobs, STEM education is the keystone to developing a workforce with the skills to fill these jobs,” said Jack Nehlig, president of Phoenix Contact USA. “Our mechatronics partnership with HACC is a great example of STEM in action. To date, six students have graduated, and we have two more currently enrolled. We hope HACC is the first of many American colleges and universities who take advantage of the learning and networking opportunities EduNet can provide.”
Pictured in the group photo are (from left to right):
Patricia Marrero, Director of Organizational Leadership, Phoenix Contact Services; Jack Nehlig, President of Phoenix Contact USA; Daniel Koprowski, Mechatronics Technician Apprentice; Irvin Clark Ed.D., Vice President, HACC’s Harrisburg Campus; Tom Lepp, Instructor, mechatronics and electronics, HACC faculty member; David Skelton, Vice President. Phoenix Contact Development and Manufacturing; Jerry Wise, Technical Training Specialist, Phoenix Contact Services; Marian Roldan, Vice President Human Resources, Phoenix Contact Services; and Sheila Ciotti, Campus Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, HACC.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 4, 2015 | Events, Safety
I’m wrapping up my coverage of the EHS Today Safety Leadership Conference held last week in Greenville, SC. I covered the Technology Track sponsored by Rockwell Automation.
Steve Ludwig, safety program manager at Rockwell Automation, presented on the impact of the evolving workforce on safety.
Workforce changes
“We are facing a shortage of skilled workforce, and it is a global issue,” began Ludwig. “The average age of skilled worker is 56, and this demographic is prone not to delay retirement. Add to this the fact that birth rates have declined for the last 35 years, so we do not have the usual situation of increasing population to fuel economic growth.
There are now more inexperienced workers who are more at risk. This is not just a situation for your plant, but also for the plants of all your suppliers. Businesses face supply chain interruption, reputational / brand risk. Businesses face not only an aging workforce that may be prone to injury, but also a younger, less experience workforce that tend to have more frequent acute injuries.
When Ludwig asked attendees, “How do we improve with a changing workforce?” most responded that they were proactively going out to schools to recruit and evangelize manufacturing. They were also assuming much responsibility for helping train young people.
Connected enterprise for safety
Jeff Winter of system integrator Grantek discussed connecting the enterprise for safety. He noted a problem that continues to exist is that dashboards rely on manual data collection and input.
There are three “Eras” of safety technology–initially just preventing access; then detecting access (something that increased both safety and productivity); today controlling access (integrated safety into machine, about as productive as you can get).
“EHS must get a chair at the table when data collection and analysis are being discussed in the plant or company,” he concluded. Winter continued with this advice, “Ask for data on actions such as emergency stops, intrusions, shut downs.”
Beyond lockout, tagout
Turning to electrical safety specifically, Jimi Michalscheck business development manager for safety looked at going beyond Lockout Tagout (LOTO). His point was how to balance safety with production. He posited a system of engineered safety control, which he called a new way of addressing LOTO.
“If you haven’t designed an alternative, then you must use LOTO (OSHA). To prevent unexpected restart of the equipment during service from causing harm to employees.”
Engineering safe alternatives. Think of your machine as simple components. For example, a case packer. Notorious for frequent need for getting into it, so also for citations. Using Alternative Protective Measure (APM), design the machine in components. Task specific, area specific, documented (know that the service area is protected for the reach of the worker). APM developed must provide the same or greater level of protection as LOTO in order to comply with CFR1910.147.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 16, 2015 | Automation, Wireless
I’ve just been talking about startups, and here is news from a startup within an established engineering company. Wunderlich-Malec Engineering Inc. (WM) is an engineering services company that had built a handy little maintenance tool for itself and some clients.
A new business development director entered the company and asked why didn’t they turn it into a product and sell it. After some further development work, WM VIP Services was created. VIP stands for Virtual Information Portal.
This mobile app for iPad and Microsoft tablets has been designed to improve efficiency and increase productivity by serving information to a maintenance technician, engineer, or manager who might happen to be out in the plant and need some contextual information served quickly.
“For over 33 years, WM’s success has been built around our strong customer commitment. VIP Services® solidifies this commitment by helping our customers reduce unscheduled downtime and increase productivity.” says Neal Wunderlich, President WM.
Here are some features gleaned from the press release.
Reducing Downtime – Time is often lost when technicians leave the work area to find resources, such as schematics, procedures or other data to complete a task.
VIP Services – Links all equipment to all its relevant data and information resources. It provides specific and accurate information for the technician at the equipment where needed information is time critical.
Improving Communication for Quicker Decision Making – Communications about production downtime issues and their resolution using traditional channels (email or phone) is often unclear or delayed until the correct resource can come onsite and ‘see’ the issue in real time.
VIP Services – Shows the problem, complete with all relevant process data and resources to the subject matter expert who can support the local technician with better communications for quicker problem resolution.
“We are very excited about our VIP Services Initiative. We feel that our new mobile application will greatly aide our customers in their pursuit to save time and money.” says Joel Gil, Director of Business Development, VIP Services Business Unit, WM.
Wunderlich-Malec has created a new VIP Services business unit headquartered in Houston, Texas. Our VIP Services Core Team will deliver complete turnkey VIP Services® Solutions.
The system works by printing and applying a “Point of Interest” QR code label at a POI—machine or unit or device. The services team can help accumulate all the relevant drawings and documentation about that POI and serve it up when the technician scans the QR code with the tablet camera.
Pretty elegant solution for not a lot of integration expense.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 8, 2015 | Automation, Data Management, Events, Internet of Things, News, Operations Management, Process Control, Security
Here is the official wrap of the recent Honeywell Users Group (HUG) Americas symposium. It was the 40th anniversary celebrated with the theme “40 Years of Innovation.” Officially “more than 1,200 people” attended the event.
I have written a couple of times during the week here and here. This information comes from a press release issued last week. Along with some executive quotes is a note that Honeywell Process Solutions has been developing and implementing technologies for the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) for many years.
During the event, Honeywell announced a collaboration with Intel Security McAfee which will expand its industrial cyber security capabilities to help defend customers from the increasing threat of cyber attacks.
“The process manufacturing industries are facing a critical time in history due to a convergence of factors such as security threats, a shrinking workforce and lower oil prices, among others,” said Vimal Kapur, president of Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS). “These factors are driving a greater need for our technologies and services because they’re designed to help companies conduct operations more efficiently, and with less risk.”
The conference revolved around three core technology themes directly impacting companies’ abilities to successfully adapt to changing market conditions: digital transformation and smart operations, system evolution and risk reduction, and smart instrumentation with smart integration. Throughout the week, Honeywell executives, technology experts and customers explained how these core areas can turn technology buzzwords like Big Data and Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) into practical applications.
“HPS has been leveraging the concepts and technologies behind the Industrial IoT as part of the vision that we have been evolving towards for several years,” Bruce Calder, HPS chief technology officer told general session attendees. “In order to run a reliable operation that continues to improve performance and business results, you will need to install smarter field devices, achieve more connectivity, collect more data and find ways to use that data to run a smarter operation.”
Calder also gave attendees a first look at HPS’ first native app for mobile devices and tablets that connects to different sources and applications across the company’s portfolio to create a more-intuitive mobile experience for plant workers. Mobility is part of the initiative to introduce a suite of apps that, along with new cloud functionalities, will enhance existing solutions to deliver better business efficiencies.
The conference agenda included a wide range of presentations from Honeywell customers ExxonMobil, Chevron, Reliance, DuPont, Great River Energy, Syngenta, Genentech, Valero and others. These presentations – covering everything from wireless applications and cost-effective control system migrations, to alarm management and energy conservation – highlighted how real-world manufacturers have used Honeywell technology to streamline their businesses by generating and analyzing the most-meaningful data from their operations.
In addition to these presentations, attendees received a first-hand look at some of Honeywell’s newest technologies designed to change the way their enterprises work, generate the right data to inform decisions, and reduce overall risks. Highlighted technologies included:
- UniSim Competency Suite – the newest addition to the UniSim family of training technology, which now includes 3D virtual environment capabilities to provide realistic experiences.
- DynAMo Alarm and Operations Suite – software that leverages more than 20 years of alarm management experience in the process industries to help users reduce overall alarm count by as much as 80 percent, identify maintenance issues and increase visibility of critical alarms that require urgent attention.
- Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security Risk Manager – the first digital dashboard designed to proactively monitor, measure and manage cyber security risk for process control systems.
- SmartLine Level Transmitter – the newest addition to Honeywell’s line of modular, smart field instrumentation designed to integrate with control systems to provide benefits such as extended diagnostics, maintenance status displays, transmitter messaging and more.
- The EC 350 PTZ Gas Volume Corrector – the first member of a new line of high-performance electronic volume correctors (EVCs) that more accurately measure natural gas delivered to industrial customers, helping them meet government and industrial standards.
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 18, 2015 | Automation, Internet of Things, Networking, News, Operations Management, Security
The Cisco and Rockwell Automation partnership continues its step-by-step extension strengthening Rockwell’s “Connected Enterprise” strategy. This strategy builds on the foundation of EtherNet/IP and CIP (common industrial protocol). Now that all the magazines and newspapers and bloggers are writing about the Internet of Things and the Industrial Internet of Things, supplier communications managers cannot keep themselves from applying IoT to everything their companies do.
The two companies have issued two press releases recently. One concerns enhanced training couched in the strategy of bringing IT and OT together (the once and future kingdom). The other relates to extensions and additions to the partners’ reference architecture.
First, let’s see how many buzz words a marketing manager can fit into one sentence:
“The expansion of the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) and convergence of operations technology (OT) and information technology (IT) systems into The Connected Enterprise raises questions of who within industrial organizations should design and oversee unified network infrastructures. Rockwell Automation, in collaboration with its Strategic Alliance partner Cisco, is helping address this workforce challenge with the new training and certification offerings.”
Last year, the companies jointly rolled out the Managing Industrial Networks with Cisco Networking Technologies (IMINS) training course and Cisco Industrial Networking Specialist certification. This first-of-its-kind course provided foundational skills needed to manage and administer networked, industrial control systems.
This year, Rockwell Automation and Cisco are unveiling the five-day, hands-on Managing Industrial Networks for Manufacturing with Cisco Technologies (IMINS2) course and CCNA Industrial certification exam. The course offers deeper analysis of EtherNet/IP architectures with industrial protocols, wireless and security technologies implementation, and advanced troubleshooting. The CCNA Industrial certification ensures that OT and IT professionals have the skillset needed to design, manage and operate converged industrial networks.
Pathways to Certification
Students who successfully complete the Industrial Networking Specialist and CCNA Industrial certification exams will earn CCNA Industrial certification. Alternatively, IT and OT professionals that already have their CCNA Routing & Switching or Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT) certification can enroll directly in IMINS2 and take the CCNA Industrial certification exam to receive CCNA Industrial certification. Once completed, the certification is valid for three years.
Participants in the IMINS and IMINS2 courses will receive exam vouchers for the Industrial Networking Specialist and CCNA Industrial certification exams, respectively, as part of course tuition. This offer is only available through courses offered and delivered by Rockwell Automation. The CCNA Industrial certification exam can be taken at one of any Pearson VUE testing centers located in more than 165 countries.
IMINS courses are offered on an ongoing basis. The enrollment schedule for IMINS2 will be posted in June, with classes beginning in July. As the leader in OT/IT skills development, Rockwell Automation will continue to invest in The Connected Enterprise and IoT training curriculum to address emerging skills requirements.
Converged Plantwide Ethernet Architectures (CPwE)
As industrial markets evolve to unlock the promise of the Internet of Things (IoT), Rockwell Automation and Cisco are announcing new additions to their Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) architectures to help operations technology (OT) and information technology (IT) professionals address constantly changing security practices. The latest CPwE security expansions, featuring technology from both companies, include design guidance and validated architectures to help build a more secure network across the plant and enterprise.
The Industrial IoT is elevating the need for highly flexible, secure connectivity between things, machines, work flows, databases and people, enabling new models of policy-based plant-floor access. Through these new connections, machine data on the plant floor can be analyzed and applied to determine optimal operation and supply-chain work flows for improved efficiencies and cost savings. A securely connected environment also enables organizations to mitigate risk with policy compliance, and protects intellectual property with secure sharing between global stakeholders.
Core to the new validated architectures is a focus on enabling OT and IT professionals to utilize security policies and procedures by forming multiple layers of defense. A defense-in-depth approach helps manufacturers by establishing processes and policies that identify and contain evolving threats in industrial automation and control systems. The new CPwE architectures leverage open industry standards, such as IEC 62443, and provide recommendations for more securely sharing data across an industrial demilitarized zone, as well as enforcing policies that control access to the plantwide wired or wireless network.
Rockwell Automation and Cisco have created resources to help manufacturers efficiently deploy security solutions. Each new guide is accompanied by a white paper summarizing the key design principles, as follows:
The Industrial Demilitarized Zone Design and Implementation Guide and white paper provide guidance to users on securely sharing data from the plant floor through the enterprise.
The Identity Services Design and Implementation Guide and white paper introduce an approach to security policy enforcement that tightly controls access by anyone inside the plant, whether they’re trying to connect via wired or wireless access.
This announcement further extends the commitment by Rockwell Automation and Cisco to be one of the most valuable resources in the industry for helping manufacturers improve business performance by bridging the gap between plant-floor industrial automation and higher-level information systems.
