Innovation-Powered Manufacturing Disruptive Technologies, Cross-Pollination and Ignition
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
White Paper Innovation-Powered Manufacturing Disruptive Technologies, Cross-Pollination and Ignition To succeed in today’s data-driven world, don't simply compete in the game – change the game. 800.266.7798 800.266.7798www.inductiveautomation.com www.inductiveautomation.com Innovation-Powered Manufacturing Disruptive Technologies, Cross-Pollination & Ignition A full -grown elephant can weigh Whatever the reason may be, companies like these are not moving forward even though competitors 13,000 pounds and has been known who embrace the rapid changes in technology are to carry close to its own weight on leaving them farther and farther behind. They are unaware of, or unwilling to tap into, the innovative its back, yet these powerful animals power they possess. can be trained to stand still. Like a trained elephant stuck in the thinking of its Training starts when the elephant is young. Elephant infancy, they remain chained to a 20th century trainers use a technique of chaining a young mentality in the 21st century. Companies that remain elephant’s foot to a heavy stake that is driven into resistant to change will never reach their full poten- the ground. When the little elephant tries to walk tial and will find it harder and harder to adapt to an too far or escape the chain, its foot is yanked back. industry that is rapidly changing under their feet. The elephant learns a painful, lasting lesson: if the chain is on its foot and it tries to move outside of a limited area, it will feel pain. As the elephant grows bigger and stronger, the secret to keeping it from breaking its bonds isn’t to use a heavier chain but to simply take the stake out of the ground. Because “an elephant never forgets,” a trained adult elephant will stay in place if it has a chain or rope around its foot, even though it has grown strong enough to break free. The stake only exists in the elephant’s mind: all that holds it back are its beliefs based on past experiences. Is Your Company Behaving Like a Trained Elephant? Many companies in today’s fast -changing world are like trained elephants: They have been conditioned to resist change by past experiences or outdated ideas about technology. Perhaps these companies tried to innovate in the past and failed, or they adopted some technology that later fell into obscurity or just didn’t produce the returns they’d hoped for. Leaders of some companies may still perceive the early adoption of new technology as being too trendy, too risky or an unnecessary luxury. 800.266.7798 Innovation-Powered Manufacturing | 2 of 12 www.inductiveautomation.com © 2013 Inductive Automation Innovation-Powered Manufacturing Technology and Risk in the 21st Century In a short amount of time, the correlation between technology leadership and business risk has shifted. In the 20th century, when the market environment The greatest risk is not trying to innovate too was relatively static, it was more reasonable to take quickly; it lies in not innovating quickly enough. a conservative approach to IT matters. At that time Companies that fail to realize this in time will be the pace of technological change was slower than outmaneuvered in the marketplace, and may find it is today, so following a model of slow technology they are unable to catch up. adoption was less costly and still allowed many companies to stay competitive. In the 21st century, being The manufacturing industry in particular has tended to run its legacy systems down to their last legs, innovation -focused is not just a upgrading only when absolutely necessary. Today, way for companies to project a many plant floors are still running on 1990s technol- ogy – and manufacturers are spending a lot to keep more prestigious image or chalk those aging systems running when they could be up modest gains in efficiency. innovating. This is a serious problem because the rate of technological advancement has increased dramati- Innovation is now a matter of cally since manufacturers installed those 90s systems. business survival. Trained Elephant Trained Company Old thinking can keep Old thinking can keep a an elephant from ever manufacturing company realizing its full power from achieving its full potential Old Thinking Old thinking is a lesson learned in the past that does not apply today 800.266.7798 Innovation-Powered Manufacturing | 3 of 12 www.inductiveautomation.com © 2013 Inductive Automation Innovation-Powered Manufacturing Disruptive Technology: The conventional data tools most companies have now aren’t up to the task of managing, storing and A Catalyst for Change analyzing Big Data. The data deluge may lead to wider use of non-relational databases like NoSQL, Why is technology changing business so much, so which are made to handle larger volumes of loosely quickly? Obviously, the explosive growth of the structured data and can utilize inexpensive Cloud- Internet and mobile devices over the last 10 to 15 based storage and processing. years has profoundly changed the way people live and work. But even more revolutionary changes However, the greatest challenge and opportunity are on the way, thanks to what the intelligentsia of Big Data is not in its volume but in making it into has labeled as “disruptive technologies.” actionable information. The companies that most quickly convert Big Data into valuable insights will The term “disruptive technologies” refers to a group be at a huge advantage. For example, manufacturers of separate but related developments that will could use it to predict changes in the economy, reg- change business and society in general. Whether ulations and consumer behavior and then respond the net effect of those disruptions is positive or to them more quickly. negative will depend largely on how a business reacts to them. As the ARC Advisory Group pointed out in its 2013 white paper, “Information-Driven Manufacturing,” disruptive technologies are likely The Cloud to significantly change the manufacturing business, and manufacturers should therefore take a 21st- Cloud computing, or The Cloud, is another buzz- century approach to technology adoption. word that’s always in the air lately. Using The Cloud basically means that a company is running appli- The following are considered disruptive technolo- cations and storing data through online services gies and are on the rise. While these technologies that are hosted off -site instead of on their own hard are corollaries to the manufacturing industry and drives and servers. Compared to a traditional IT net- may not have an immediately apparent application work, Cloud- based computing solutions are more to your business, keep in mind that they may be on demand and elastic, which makes them easier applied to manufacturing in ways that no one has to scale and less expensive. Companies can use a foreseen yet. Even if disruptive technologies don’t public cloud, where services are available to anyone, directly affect the manufacturing industry, they or a private cloud where services are only available could have an indirect but very real impact on it by to a limited group, such as their own employees. affecting other related industries. Therefore, it is critically important to be aware of these trends and Many observers predict that the scalability and their potential impact. elasticity of The Cloud make it inevitable that most manufacturers will move to it, although some businesses may hold out because of concerns that Big Data their electronically transmitted data might be moni- tored by government agencies. A widespread move to The Cloud would have a major impact on the IT The term Big Data is an inescapable buzzword landscape as we know it. Manufacturers using The which describes the explosive increase of incom- Cloud would benefit by not having to store their ing data from a growing number of computing own data, do their own analytics or deal with con- devices. More specifically, it describes the increas- stant software upkeep. Instead, they could pay for ing volume, variety and velocity of data, which are their computing needs as they go. As with Big Data, sometimes referred as the “3 Vs.” How much more The Cloud helps manufacturers respond to changes data are we talking about? Hundreds to thousands in the supply chain and in customer behavior. of times more data than most companies are used to handling. 800.266.7798 Innovation-Powered Manufacturing | 4 of 12 www.inductiveautomation.com © 2013 Inductive Automation Innovation-Powered Manufacturing The Cloud Disruptive Run your Technologies + applications and Your Company store your data through online services that are hosted o-site Your Company Today + Big Data An explosive increase of data and analytics Big Data across the entire enterprise The Internet + of Things 1 Any physical object 0 Social with a microproces- Technology 1 sor will be able to 0 1 Expand the sharing interact with large of information, The Internet 0 of Things amounts of data 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 both internally and other devices 0 0 0 100 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 and externally + 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 100 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 110 0 0 0 1 Social Technology + Mobility + Mobility Workers at all levels will have more information right The Cloud in their hands 800.266.7798 Innovation-Powered Manufacturing | 5 of 12 www.inductiveautomation.com © 2013 Inductive Automation Innovation-Powered Manufacturing The Internet of Things Social Technologies This term means that “things” (computers, devices, Connected to the mobility trend is that of work- applications or any other physical object with a ers using unified communications tools (such as microprocessor) will be able to collect large amounts instant messaging, videoconferencing and VoIP) of data from the physical world through sensors, and and social platforms to expand the sharing of infor- will be able to connect with each other, thereby mation, both internally and externally.