The post AutoQuiz: What Is the Fastest “Electronic” Method to Bring a DC Motor to a Full Stop? first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
This automation industry quiz question comes from the ISA Certified Automation Professional (CAP) certification program. ISA CAP certification provides a non-biased, third-party, objective assessment and confirmation of an automation professional’s skills. The CAP exam is focused on direction, definition, design, development/application, deployment, documentation, and support of systems, software, and equipment used in control systems, manufacturing information systems, systems integration, and operational consulting. Click this link for more information about the CAP program.
a) regenerative braking
b) mechanical braking
c) ramp to stop
d) coast to stop
e) none of the above
Answer B is incorrect, because mechanical braking is not an electric method for braking a DC motor. This is a mechanical method, which uses friction to stop the motor shaft once power has been removed.
Answer C, ramp to stop, is an electronic means of stopping a motor over a longer period of time. A high-wattage bank of resistors transforms the rotating energy into heat, thereby dissipating the voltage generated by the motor, slowly bringing the motor to a stop.
Answer D, coast to stop, is the slowest way to stop a motor, and is accomplished by simply removing the motor current and allowing inertia to bring the motor to a stop.
The correct answer is A. In regenerative braking, all of the motor’s energy is fed directly back into the AC power line. This is accomplished through the use of “reverse-connected” SCRs, which allow the drive to conduct current in the opposite direction and oppose the rotation of the motor, bringing it to a quick stop.
Reference: Nicholas Sands, P.E., CAP and Ian Verhappen, P.Eng., CAP., A Guide to the Automation Body of Knowledge. To read a brief Q&A with the authors, plus download a free 116-page excerpt from the book, click this link.
About the Editor
Joel Don is the community manager for ISA and is an independent content marketing, social media and public relations consultant. Prior to his work in marketing and PR, Joel served as an editor for regional newspapers and national magazines throughout the U.S. He earned a master’s degree from the Medill School at Northwestern University with a focus on science, engineering and biomedical marketing communications, and a bachelor of science degree from UC San Diego.
Connect with Joel
Source: ISA News
The post Key to Achieving Positive Business Results: Manage Risk Throughout Industrial Automation Infrastructure first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
Maximizing productivity and minimizing risk are the yin and yang of the industrial world—forces that must remain in harmony for optimal business performance. That is particularly true in process industries, where managing risk for both people and brand is tantamount.
Today’s leading industrial producers are increasingly taking advantage of new technologies and the convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) to help manage risk at its root: industrial automation infrastructure.
Managing automation-infrastructure risk requires a commitment to four areas:
1. Equipment obsolescence: Modernizing production systems minimizes unplanned downtime and maximizes overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
2. Quality: Harnessing the power of data can improve quality management and help with adherence to existing and emerging government regulations.
3. Safety: Addressing safety in three crucial areas—culture, compliance, and capital—has been shown to help best-in-class organizations lower safety incidents while improving operational performance.
4. Security: Embracing a comprehensive security approach for interconnected facilities and enterprises helps protect people, intellectual property, and more.
Many organizations rely on control systems and other production hardware and software that are near or past obsolescence. Threats posed by outdated equipment extend well beyond downtime and include falling short of today’s regulations and standards and potentially harming workers, the environment, and product quality.
An installed-base evaluation identifies key operational weak links to recognize obsolescent elements and determine strategies based on return on investment. For example, a software inventory can identify incompatibilities between firmware and software versions.
A worldwide focus on smart manufacturing to connect the plant floor to the enterprise is driving the convergence of IT and OT. A single, converged network infrastructure enables end-to-end, enterprise-wide connectivity and secure, real-time information sharing.
A converged network infrastructure allows access to data from production equipment, smart devices, and the supply chain. With this visibility into operations, industrial producers can better understand and address their most pressing risk areas. For instance, data from a single IT and OT network can identify processes or raw materials that lead to quality issues and reveal where injuries and safety downtime events occur in operations.
Using manufacturing execution system software to integrate quality management and business analytics with production data can be crucial for meeting regulatory requirements and reporting. Replacing manual data collection with automated systems reduces the risk of human error, thus helping to mitigate quality issues and product recalls.
Best-in-class industrial producers—defined as the top 20 percent of aggregate performance scorers—share a common set of core safety pillars:
A study by Aberdeen Group found that best-in-class industrial producers achieve 5–7 percent higher OEE and 2–4 percent less unscheduled downtime than average performers. Top-ranked performers also have far fewer workplace accidents (one in 2,000 employees) compared to average performers (one in 111 employees).
Security requirements are expanding with the advent of smart manufacturing and connected enterprises. More connections create more security risks, be they physical or digital, internal or external, malicious or unintentional.
Protecting people, property, and proprietary information requires a comprehensive approach to industrial security. A security assessment is the logical first step in establishing that program, including software, networks, the control system, policies, procedures, and employee behaviors. Automation security specialists can also identify mitigation techniques needed to bring process facilities to acceptable risk levels.
Managing risk throughout the industrial automation infrastructure is key to driving positive business results. By modernizing production systems, industrial companies can maximize their efforts throughout the enterprise and be proactive about all facets of risk management that affect people, brand, and business performance.
About the Author
Sujeet Chand, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Rockwell Automation, is responsible for the company’s global technology strategy and technical innovation. He has been instrumental in driving business growth through next-generation product architecture and platforms, engineering best practices, global technology road maps, research and development, and technical standards. Chand leads the company’s global R&D and industrial standards development teams in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Source: ISA News
The post A Roadmap to Industrial Network Convergence first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
A global beverage manufacturer was having network performance and communication disruptions between factory floor assets. These disruptions were causing unplanned production losses due to network convergence timing issues.
The existing network was more than 15 years old with an aging infrastructure of wiring and Ethernet. Although new data requirements for plant reporting were initiated, the system had not been upgraded to keep up with the manufacturer’s changing needs. New components were continually being “bolted on” to the old infrastructure, and it was close to collapsing. To further complicate matters, there was no in-house expertise to upgrade the network.
An integrator was engaged to evaluate and design a network architecture that focused on improving overall bandwidth utilization and efficiency across all manufacturing areas. The new network requirements were to configure and install a reliable, expandable, and robust infrastructure and maximize the benefits of plant-to-business network convergence. It was going to take a new high-performance copper and fiber system to meet the manufacturer’s requirements for enterprise and industrial networking standards.
A network audit was conducted using diagnostics, and a design plan and a schedule for implementation were created. The project team reviewed the design plan with the manufacturer’s stakeholders for alignment. It was crucial to be in alignment with all stakeholder groups, because the project touched every area of the plant. Support was needed from information technology (IT), all department managers, plant engineering, and control support technicians.
The project would need to be invisible to plant operations with minimal disruptions. To accomplish this, the installation and network migration schedules had to be constantly adjusted to the plant’s schedule.
It was determined that the network upgrade would include a change from the original mesh topology to a star topology. The new topology plan was to use supplier-supported switches along with supplier-supported fiber and copper solutions for reliability and flexibility. Using these solution providers increased the manufacturer’s technical resource support through the partner networks of the technology suppliers.
Step 1: The implementation began with the lowest risk area. The first step was to install and configure the new fiber infrastructure of the network, connecting the new infrastructure to the existing infrastructure. The installation was focused on replacing the existing Ethernet copper cabling and existing fiber-optic cabling with a new cabling system that would support the updated topology and designed bandwidth. Validation was completed to ensure that the existing network could effectively communicate with assets on the new network before proceeding. To reduce migration risk from old, dated media, the project team installed all new copper and fiber in parallel to the existing network. With this parallel installation, the project team could reduce installation risk, continue with day-to-day operations, and have a seamless migration cutover. In this project, the installation was approximately 60 percent of the total project cost.
Step 2: The next step was to move all of the plant’s industrial servers to the new infrastructure. The project team then tested and validated all communications with existing plant operations. This installation required the most resources from the facility’s IT support group. Once validated and stable, it was time to migrate the other automation components and operational areas to the new network.
Step 3: The next several migration areas followed the operational flow of the plant, strategically migrating each area from low risk to high risk, ending in a low-risk area. The team validated each area in real time against an agreed upon checklist, requiring 100 percent accuracy before moving to the next area.
Step 4: After completing the migration of each of the operational areas, the team conducted a network health assessment. This step involved connecting to the core switch and running a number of tests, checking for any problem areas or communication disruptions.
The team delivered training to the appropriate operations support groups as it followed its road map for the process. As one area was validated and running smoothly, hands-on training and the handoff was conducted before moving to the next area. The updated network provided the desired performance results and delivered a system that is secure, sustainable, and scalable—eliminating network-related production downtime. The updated network also increased the plant’s networking support structure and ease of maintenance, and introduced new technologies that can be used in future plant projects.
About the Author
Robin Cobb, PE, PMP, is industrial network and security solutions product manager for Polytron, Inc., which is certified by the Control System Integrators Association as a full manufacturing systems and solutions integrator and 2015 System Integrator of the Year.
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A version of this article also was published at InTech magazine.
Source: ISA News
The post AutoQuiz: Unique Feature of a Pneumatic Differential Pressure Sensor/Transmitter first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
This automation industry quiz question comes from the ISA Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST) program. Certified Control System Technicians calibrate, document, troubleshoot, and repair/replace instrumentation for systems that measure and control level, temperature, pressure, flow, and other process variables. Click this link for more information about the CCST program.
a) high pressure inlet
b) d/p cell diaphragm
c) low pressure inlet
d) feedback bellows
e) all of the above
As the bellows expands, it draws the nozzle away from the baffle. There is a balance that is achieved by matching the motion of the baffle with the motion of the nozzle. This balance keeps the distance between the baffle and nozzle, and, hence, the output pressure, constant for a constant input pressure. Only pneumatic differential pressure transmitters have this feature. There are other classes of devices, such as electro-pneumatic relays (I/P transducers) that also use this principle.
The correct answer is D, feedback bellows. In a pneumatic transmitter, the nozzle faces a baffle, so, as the measured pressure increases, the baffle moves toward the nozzle. This causes the backpressure within the nozzle to rise. The rising pressure is amplified by a pneumatic relay, with the output pressure applied to both the feedback bellows and to the sensor output port.
Reference: Goettsche, L.D. (Editor), Maintenance of Instruments and Systems, 2nd Edition
About the Editor
Joel Don is the community manager for ISA and is an independent content marketing, social media and public relations consultant. Prior to his work in marketing and PR, Joel served as an editor for regional newspapers and national magazines throughout the U.S. He earned a master’s degree from the Medill School at Northwestern University with a focus on science, engineering and biomedical marketing communications, and a bachelor of science degree from UC San Diego.
Connect with Joel
Source: ISA News
The post What AF, ASCI, ISCI, and WCI Are Doing for You first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
So what are these groups, and why should you care? Do you know why they exist, and what they’re doing to help you, your employer, and the automation industry?
First off, let’s get all the acronyms out of the way. AF is the Automation Federation , ASCI is the Automation Standards Compliance Institute, ISCI is the ISA Security Compliance Institute, and WCI is the Wireless Compliance Institute.
How might these groups be helping ISA, you, your employer, and industry? Keep our vision and mission statements in mind. ISA’s vision statement is: Create a better world through automation. Our mission statement is: Advance technical competence by connecting the automation community to achieve operational excellence. These groups all align with our vision and mission statements. They all exist to make you and your employer more safe, secure, and profitable. I think that’s something we can all support.
The Automation Federation (AF – www.automationfederation.org) is an association of associations. There are 19 different member organizations, including ISA. Together they serve as “The Voice of Automation.” The AF enables these associations to more effectively fulfill their missions, advance the science and engineering of automation technologies and applications, and develop the workforce needed to capitalize on the benefits of automation. Simply put, the AF exists to advance the safety, security, and future of critical infrastructure and manufacturing. I think that’s something we can all support.
The Automation Standards Compliance Institute (ASCI) was established by ISA to facilitate programs that assess automation-related standards compliance, particularly ISA standards. The ISA Security Compliance Institute (ISCI – www.isasecure.org/en-US/) and the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (ISA100 WCI – www.isa100wci.org) function as operational groups within ASCI.
ISCI exists to provide market awareness, technical support, education, and compliance for control system security requirements based on ISA/IEC 62443 and other relevant standards. There are currently more than 18 member companies within ISCI, with names that you’ll all recognize: users such as ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron; vendors such as Honeywell, Yokogawa, and Schneider; and certifiers such as TÜV and exida. Simply put, ISCI exists to make the world more secure and safer. I think that’s something we can all support.
ISA100 WCI is a collaborative industry-based program supported by more than two dozen users, suppliers, and other stakeholders. The institute creates specifications and processes used in the testing and certification of wireless products and systems based on the ISA 100.11a-2011 standard (IEC 62734). Simply put, the WCI exists to decrease the time, costs, and risks of developing and deploying standards-based, industrial wireless devices, and systems. I think that’s something we can all support.
It takes a lot of work by a lot of people to advance the industry, make the world safer and more secure, lower the cost of automation system development, and promote and implement the benefits of standardization and third-party certifications. ISA and our partner organizations are all heavily involved in helping you, your employer, and industry be more successful.
You might not have known about these organizations earlier, or all that they have been accomplishing behind the scenes. But I encourage you to learn more about them. As you do, I’m certain you’ll recognize their goals and initiatives are well worth your support.
About the Author
Paul Gruhn PE, CFSE, and ISA Life Fellow, is a global functional safety consultant with aeSolutions, a process safety, cybersecurity and automation consulting firm. As a globally recognized expert in process safety and safety instrumented systems, Paul has played a pivotal role in developing ISA safety standards, training courses and publications. He serves as a co-chair and long-time member of the ISA84 standard committee (on safety instrumented systems), and continues to develop and teach ISA courses on safety systems. He also developed the first commercial safety system modeling program. Paul has written two ISA textbooks, numerous chapters in other books and dozens of published articles. He is the primary author of the ISA book Safety Instrumented Systems: Design, Analysis, and Justification. He earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in Texas, and both a Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) and an ISA84 safety instrumented systems expert.
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Source: ISA News
The post How Maintenance Managers Can Maximize Asset Performance with Automation and Control System Tools first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
Maintenance managers can relate with the pressure to constantly deliver a high level of asset performance. They must keep all the systems under their supervision running optimally for as long as possible while keeping costs to a minimum.
Decades ago, this would have been a tall order but today, it’s easier to achieve with effective maintenance management solutions. Especially those solutions that eliminate or reduce the need for direct human intervention at every stage of the maintenance process.
That’s the major benefit of automation and control systems.
These systems combine hardware and software components to manage, command, or regulate the behavior of other devices to produce a desired output.
The following is a look at a few ways through which maintenance managers can use automation and control systems to manage the increasingly complex equipment and buildings available today.
Applications for automation cut across different areas of maintenance operations with many benefits such as higher productivity, increased reliability, better equipment performance, better safety performance, and reduced operating costs.
Some of the most common applications of automation and control systems in maintenance including building automation, predictive maintenance, and public utilities management.
Building automation and control systems are being used to maintain a wide range of facilities in every industry imaginable in the built environment. They monitor, control, and correct the functions of buildings with the aim of increasing efficiency.
Common uses include lighting control, heating, ventilation and cooling applications, and security.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, lighting alone accounts for approximately one-third of electricity consumed in commercial buildings and over half the energy used in lodging and retail buildings. With these kind of numbers, it’s no wonder that there is a lot of interest from maintenance managers to find sustainable options to reduce their lighting-related energy consumption.
There are several kinds of controls available today and they range in complexity from the basic dimmer switches to more advanced systems consisting of controllers, sensors, drivers, and software. Some are motion sensors (mainly for outdoor security lighting), occupancy sensors for controlling indoor lights, or the more advanced networked lighting control systems. Networked lighting control systems can be integrated as part of a computerized building automation system and a major benefit they offer is that they allow technicians to monitor and control the lighting systems from remote locations.
HVAC control systems regulate the operations of a heating and air conditioning system for the comfort and convenience of the building’s occupants and to save on energy consumption.
In its most basic form, a sensing device compares the actual temperature in an enclosure with the desired temperature and aims to keep it stable. When there is a deviation, the control system compares conditions and draws a conclusion before initiating an action. HVAC controllers today are becoming more and more sophisticated and can control indoor air quality throughout entire buildings from either a local or remote central computer. And like the lighting controls discussed above, they can also be integrated with building automation systems.
Automated alarm systems send alerts that warn a security provider of a possible security breach. Typically, the system is a network of different sensors mounted on the walls, windows, doors, etc., and all controlled from a central panel. Triggering any of the sensors sets off either audible or silent alarms that prompts the monitoring company to make quick assessments and take the required action in a timely manner. Other uses of building automation include plumbing systems, electrical systems, and safety.
Predictive maintenance is where the maintenance profession is moving to now. And, increasing asset availability by detecting and avoiding unplanned downtime before it happens is the major principle of predictive maintenance.
Achieving the above requires accurate analysis and understanding of the machine’s behavior by deploying systems that can monitor the equipment in real-time. Predictive maintenance delivers this through condition-based maintenance of parameters such as temperature, vibration, oil testing, pressure, and noise.
The control systems that are set up while implementing condition monitoring technology are programmed to monitor any trends within the machine that can lead to equipment downtime/damage and predict when the next failure will likely occur. They can identify the specific components in the machine that will fail and more sophisticated systems with machine learning capabilities can even go further to correct the process to be more equipment friendly.
The benefits of predictive maintenance are numerous and include:
There are many different applications of process automation in the management of public utilities especially in electricity, transportation, water treatment/supply, wastewater, and sewage systems.
In the case of wastewater management, for instance, the control platform typically consists of a control panel, embedded computer, automation software, and I/O terminals. Together, this system monitors every stage of collection, treatment, and purification from the outstation equipment, to the sewage plant, and down to the control room.
For potable water treatment, various sensors and controllers are part of a system that monitors and adjusts parameters such as temperature, pH levels, oxygen or nitrogen content at every point of the water treatment stations.
Increasing the efficiency of equipment through automation sounds all good and most maintenance managers and machine operators would appreciate the possibility of more availability and fewer downtime.
However, even the best-designed systems will likely fail if rushed. Some areas to be wary of include the sheer volume of data, the analysis, and culture change that is required to switch from one maintenance strategy to another. Poorly managed culture change, in particular, is where many organizations struggle with such a transition and this one factor alone can sink many lofty projects.
There is no doubt that intelligent and smarter maintenance strategies can significantly increase productivity but it’s important to adequately prepare the organization – from top to bottom – for the changes to come.
About the Author
Bryan Christiansen is the founder and CEO at Limble CMMS. Limble is a modern, easy to use mobile CMMS software that takes the stress and chaos out of maintenance by helping managers organize, automate, and streamline their maintenance operations.
Connect with Bryan
Source: ISA News
The post Development of a Hybrid Controller for Renewable Energy and Automotive Applications [technical] first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
This post is an excerpt from the journal ISA Transactions. All ISA Transactions articles are free to ISA members, or can be purchased from Elsevier Press.
Abstract: This paper is devoted to the development of a hybrid controller for a two-interleaved boost converter dedicated to renewable energy and automotive applications. The control requirements, resumed in fast transient and low input current ripple, are formulated as a problem of fast stabilization of a predefined optimal limit cycle, and solved using hybrid automaton formalism. In addition, a real time estimation of the load is developed using an algebraic approach for online adjustment of the hybrid controller. Mathematical proofs are provided with simulations to illustrate the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed controller despite different disturbances. Furthermore, a fuel cell system supplying a resistive load through a two-interleaved boost converter is also highlighted.
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Source: ISA News
The post AutoQuiz: What Is the Definition of Restore Time in Industrial Maintenance? first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
This automation industry quiz question comes from the ISA Certified Automation Professional (CAP) certification program. ISA CAP certification provides a non-biased, third-party, objective assessment and confirmation of an automation professional’s skills. The CAP exam is focused on direction, definition, design, development/application, deployment, documentation, and support of systems, software, and equipment used in control systems, manufacturing information systems, systems integration, and operational consulting. Click this link for more information about the CAP program.
a) repair time + time to close work order
b) repair time + testing time
c) time to troubleshoot/diagnose/isolate + travel time + repair time
d) repair time and restore time are the same quantity
e) none of the above
Answer A is not correct, as work order closure is not required to restore a device to service. Cleanup, work order closure, and return to shop are activities that occur after the restore time period.
Answer B is not correct, because testing time is included in the repair-time activities.
Answer D is not correct, because restore time requires additional activities to be completed beyond the repair-time activities, as described above.
The correct answer is C, “time to troubleshoot/diagnose/isolate + travel time + repair time.” The restore time includes all activities required to diagnose and repair the device. This includes diagnosing the problem, isolating the device from the system, traveling to the device, and repairing the device. Repair time includes removing/repairing/replacing the device, aligning/adjusting/calibrating the device, and testing/restarting the device.
Reference: Nicholas Sands, P.E., CAP and Ian Verhappen, P.Eng., CAP., A Guide to the Automation Body of Knowledge. To read a brief Q&A with the authors, plus download a free 116-page excerpt from the book, click this link.
About the Editor
Joel Don is the community manager for ISA and is an independent content marketing, social media and public relations consultant. Prior to his work in marketing and PR, Joel served as an editor for regional newspapers and national magazines throughout the U.S. He earned a master’s degree from the Medill School at Northwestern University with a focus on science, engineering and biomedical marketing communications, and a bachelor of science degree from UC San Diego.
Connect with Joel
Source: ISA News
The post Webinar Recording: Simple Loop Tuning Methods and PID Features to Prevent Oscillations first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
Editor’s Note: This is Part 3 of a three-part educational webinar series. To watch Part 1, click this link. To watch Part 2, click this link.
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Part 3 (the final part) describes simple tuning methods and the PID features that can be used to prevent the oscillations that plague our most important loops and to achieve the desired degree of tightness or looseness in level control. A general procedure is offered and a block diagram of the most effective PID structure, not shown anywhere else, is given followed by questions and answers.
The ISA Mentor Program enables young professionals to access the wisdom and expertise of seasoned ISA members, and offers veteran ISA professionals the chance to share their wisdom and make a difference in someone’s career. Click this link to learn more about the ISA Mentor Program.
About the Presenter
Gregory K. McMillan, CAP, is a retired Senior Fellow from Solutia/Monsanto where he worked in engineering technology on process control improvement. Greg was also an affiliate professor for Washington University in Saint Louis. Greg is an ISA Fellow and received the ISA Kermit Fischer Environmental Award for pH control in 1991, the Control magazine Engineer of the Year award for the process industry in 1994, was inducted into the Control magazine Process Automation Hall of Fame in 2001, was honored by InTech magazine in 2003 as one of the most influential innovators in automation, and received the ISA Life Achievement Award in 2010. Greg is the author of numerous books on process control, including Advances in Reactor Measurement and Control and Essentials of Modern Measurements and Final Elements in the Process Industry. Greg has been the monthly “Control Talk” columnist for Control magazine since 2002. Presently, Greg is a part time modeling and control consultant in Technology for Process Simulation for Emerson Automation Solutions specializing in the use of the virtual plant for exploring new opportunities. He spends most of his time writing, teaching and leading the ISA Mentor Program he founded in 2011.
Connect with Greg
Source: ISA News
The post How the Internet of Things Impacts Manufacturing first appeared on the ISA Interchange blog site.
Internet of Things (IoT) concepts and technology continue to create a great deal of interest, activity, and new industrial automation industry initiatives. The IoT concepts and technology are having a big effect on information technology (IT), consumer products, medical products, the automotive industry, and other applications. The industrial automation industry, typically a late adopter of technology, is not leveraging IoT and related technologies at the pace of these other segments.
IoT describes a connected world from the “edge” (sensors and actuators/controls) using computer applications (embedded, on-site computing, and cloud computing) to improve and expand efficiency and productivity in a wide range of use cases. IoT edge devices leverage the connection of uniquely identifiable electronic devices using the Internet “data plumbing,” including Internet Protocol (IP), Web services, and cloud computing. Each edge device is uniquely identifiable within the Internet infrastructure of wired, wireless, and cellular communications. Broad applications using IoT concepts and technologies are often referred to as cyber-physical systems, such as smart grids, intelligent transportation, and smart homes, factories, and cities.
New technologies continue to drive this growth with IoT leveraging a range of technological innovations and open standards that have made pervasive communications (voice, data, and video), computing (smartphones, tablet computers, cloud computing), embedded computing (smart appliances, personal fitness trackers), and sensing (microelectromechanical systems, GPS) possible. The integration of all these functions into single-chip computers is dramatically increasing capabilities and lowering costs. The majority are in high-volume applications in business to business, business to consumer, and consumer to consumer.
IoT is starting to create a world that is more connected, with the application of pervasive communications, economical sensors that enable powerful analytics, and predictive software. Edge-of-network devices, including smartphones, tablet computers, personal fitness devices, smart sensors and analyzers, and people sensors, illustrate new possibilities from the leaps of technology. IoT and related innovations and broad ecosystems are making implementation of solutions easier with fewer technical skills required. Every day—using apps and applications like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Snapchat—people are doing things that not many years ago required programmers. The effect as this grows will be dramatic. IoT technologies empower people to use new tools to accomplish more. This is analogous to the impact of spreadsheets, PC databases, Visual Basic, and word processors in the past. They empowered people to leverage computers without programming. Think back to the day when spreadsheet software was introduced, eliminating the need to ask a programmer to create reports and analysis.
Powerful, low-cost cloud computing, wired and wireless communications, and systems-on-a-chip for embedded computing are fueling IoT.
Broad, open ecosystems, including Windows, iOS, Android, Linux, telecommunications, and the Internet, have enabled a wide range of solutions and unleashed the creativity and innovation of developers worldwide. These ecosystems are shared platforms that use more human and investment capital to create solutions than any single company.
A number of edge devices on the market today provide high capabilities at low cost. A great example is the Fitbit, which incorporates processing, sensors, display, and wireless communications supported by a cloud application. A teardown analysis performed by IHS Teardown Services revealed that the Fitbit Flex, which retails for $99.95, costs $17.36 to make, including material and manufacturing costs. This includes the wristband, enclosure, 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3, 32-MHz CPU, 128-KB Flash, 16-KB SRAM, 24 Channel x 12-bit analog-to-digital converter, Bluetooth wireless, three-axis accelerometer, battery, and vibration motor. This is essentially a wireless supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. It is a glimpse into a possible future of industrial automation with end devices, such as sensors, actuators, motors, and valves, having embedded processing and communications.
The notion of sensors placed on humans opens possibilities to improve resource utilization, productivity, and safety. One example today is wearable technology, including interactive eyeglasses providing employees with manuals, real-time data displays, and real-time assistance from remote experts.
Technology innovations coupled with open standards create open multivendor ecosystems leveraging open, multivendor interoperability.
The industrial automation industry has always leveraged commercial technologies after they become mainstream in commercial applications. Examples include programmable logic controllers displacing banks of relays, commercial PCs displacing custom-built CRT consoles, digital control displacing pneumatic/analog electronic control, Ethernet (802.11) displacing proprietary communications, and 802.15.4 wireless sensors. The bottom line is the application of new technology over the years has reduced the total cost of automation system ownership, while increasing the value delivered and creating more possibilities for automation and optimization.
IoT is creating a flood of new technology and tools for the automation industry to use to solve problems, improve operations, and increase productivity
There are many existing industrial standards that support IoT principles.
This comes at a time when many believe the technology gap between state-of-the-art technology and industrial automation systems has widened significantly. Don Bartusiak, chief engineer at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, challenges users to think about this with these questions and rhetorical answers:
“Would you accept a Verizon cell phone that could not talk to Sprint, AT&T, or Vodafone cell phones? This is where we are with industrial automation today!
“If you switched your computer from a Dell to an HP or Lenovo would you accept having to rewrite all your Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents? This is where we are with industrial automation today!
“Would you accept the requirement to have a dedicated router for your Dell computer, a second router for your Apple computer, and a third router for your Android computer? This is where we are with industrial automation today!”
Manufacturing is ripe for a revolution, and leveraging these new concepts and technologies makes it possible. IoT concepts and technology are only recently starting to be considered and adopted for industrial automation applications. Not surprisingly, industrial automation systems are designed conservatively and adopt new technology when it is stable.
The last major adoption of commercial open technology with an open ecosystem in industrial automation was replacing proprietary system software with Microsoft Windows–based “front ends” and human-machine interfaces. Connectivity with open databases, spreadsheets, and enterprise resource planning changed from unique proprietary interfaces to open standards, including Open Database Connectivity, dynamic data exchange, and OPC, creating an ecosystem of creative developers building innovative and useful applications for a range of industries.
The success of the Internet and now IoT is not simply applying the latest technology, but creating ecosystems that expand the creative contributors with open, interoperable standards. Many industrial automation vendors are embracing cloud analytics and historians in various ways, because they add incremental value and only require making their proprietary data available through software and hardware gateways to their closed ecosystems.
Attaching sensors to machines and processes lets companies track progress and receive immediate notification of issues. This improves productivity, efficiency, responsiveness, and economic results. Customers and suppliers can be given real-time visibility to achieve accurate, just-in time production, optimizing inventory with precise real-time information.
Many industrial automation vendors believe the present SCADA and industrial automation systems have been doing IoT functions for years, and the application of IoT concepts and technology to existing offerings can be used to incrementally improve existing industrial automation architectures and devices.
There is some truth in these thoughts, but this is the same type of thinking that mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers had when there was an influx of new technologies and open ecosystems in the computer industry that they resisted when PCs were coming on the market. PCs leveraged highly integrated microprocessors, TCP/IP Ethernet and open systems software (DOS, Windows), and open hardware platforms (Industry Standard Architecture Bus, Extended Industry Standard Architecture Bus, Peripheral Component Interconnect Bus, and Universal Serial Bus) that created an ecosystem of highly creative and productive application developers. They naturally improved competition, value, and cost.
The shift to open unleashed creativity and innovation that brought to market a wide range of solutions that dramatically expanded the computer hardware and software industry. The winners in the computer industry learned a lesson—open systems dramatically increase the number of applications and expand the market by enabling more applications.
The influx of IoT concepts, technology, and architectures has been a big factor in the development of industrial automation initiatives, including:
The danger with new “shiny” technology is staying focused on the goals, such as applying automation to increase productivity and leverage data to competitively manufacture quality products at a profit. Major functions include synchronized manufacturing, advanced optimization, predictive maintenance, and tracking and tracing.
These shifts in technology have worldwide implications for manufacturers, enabling more companies to compete. Rather than getting mesmerized by new technology, it is important to focus on high-level goals to improve quality, uptime, and efficiency, and to drive out the labor cost of production. IoT is a set of concepts and technologies to interconnect, orchestrate, and optimize across the entire value chain of industry, including suppliers, manufacturers, logistics, and users.
To be competitive in their industry, the big question users should consider is which new IoT technology-based solutions are stable and add value. Those will be the worthwhile investments.
I asked some industry analysts for their thoughts on the subject:
Greg Gorbach, vice president and IIoT team leader, ARC Advisory Group
“At ARC, we view IIoT [Industrial Internet of Things] as much more than simply connecting industrial things to the Internet or to each other. IIoT includes that, but also includes a collection of technologies from network communications up to the cloud, including analytics and software. IIoT impacts two distinct areas: IIoT for industrial operations and IIoT for products and services.
“In the plant or factory, there are significant opportunities to optimize maintenance by improving asset uptime through predictive maintenance techniques and by using machine health data. There are also significant opportunities to improve production performance, worker safety and efficiency, quality, and responsiveness.
“Apart from industrial production, IIoT also offers tremendous potential for industrial companies that build smart, connected products for which they can offer new services enabled by the real-time information available from those connected products.
“Both areas—IIoT for industrial operations and IIoT for products and services—offer significant potential to improve the supply chain, design and engineering, business systems, and customer intimacy.”
Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst, Moor Insights and Strategy
“The bottom line is that manufacturers need to embrace IoT or risk losing business and even their entire business. Early IoT manufacturing rollouts have demonstrated that over the midterm, they can improve quality and even enable new XaaS [everything as a service] business models.
“First off, take a sobering and realistic view that you are just starting, so have a big strategy, but start with small projects and get some quick wins. Speak in customer and financial terms internally, not technical.
“I recommend setting up a cross-functional project team with two business leaders from both IT and OT [operational technology]. Also, scope those first projects small to get some quick wins.”
Matthew Littlefield, president and principal analyst, LNS Research
“In less than a year, we have seen over a 50 percent reduction among industrial companies that don’t know about or understand the IIoT. Two-thirds of industrial companies surveyed are already using some type of hardware and data architecture that flows information outside the traditional ISA-95 hierarchical model.”
The danger with new “shiny” technology is staying focused on the goals, such as applying automation to increase productivity and leverage data to competitively manufacture quality products at a profit. Major functions include synchronized manufacturing, advanced optimization, predictive maintenance, and tracking and tracing.
These shifts in technology have worldwide implications for manufacturers, enabling more companies to compete. Rather than getting mesmerized by new technology, it is important to focus on high-level goals to improve quality, uptime, and efficiency, and to drive out the labor cost of production. IoT is a set of concepts and technologies to interconnect, orchestrate, and optimize across the entire value chain of industry, including suppliers, manufacturers, logistics, and users.
To be competitive in their industry, the big question users should consider is which new IoT technology-based solutions are stable and add value. Those will be the worthwhile investments.
Source: LNS Research report, IIoT and Big Data Analytics: How manufacturing System Architecture is Being Transformed
About the Author
Bill Lydon is chief editor of InTech magazine. Lydon has been active in manufacturing automation for more than 25 years. He started his career as a designer of computer-based machine tool controls; in other positions, he applied programmable logic controllers and process control technology. In addition to experience at various large companies, he co-founded and was president of a venture-capital-funded industrial automation software company. Lydon believes the success factors in manufacturing are changing, making it imperative to apply automation as a strategic tool to compete.
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A version of this article also was published at InTech magazine.
Source: ISA News
