Unlocking the Full Potential of the Industrial Internet of Things

Featured Article Unlocking the full potential of the Industrial Internet of Things

A leading automation solution for the Industrial IoT is deviceWISE from ILS Technology, a Telit company, designed to connect production machines and processes with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing resource planning (MRP) systems and SCADA applications without programming.

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inventories to improve production scheduling and logistics, resulting in sizeable operational effi ciencies and profi tability; integrating production with the enterprise via manufacturing execution systems that drive and track consis- tent workfl ows, materials consumption, and inventories; and taking advantage of new part- nering opportunities by using collaboration tools across an extended IT framework (e.g., remote access, messaging, and fi le sharing). Additionally companies should leverage knowl- edge across the entire supply chain to address business challenges, collect performance data of fi eld equipment ensuring maximum equipment uptime and reducing scheduled maintenance costs of mission-critical systems, and improve vendor documentation for regulatory compliance.

For manufacturers, an increase in emerging technologies and smarter devices on the Factory automation: vehicle robots factory fl oor means larger data sets from diverse PLCs. Each machine might use a dif- Competing nowadays in global economy existing enterprise IT systems and Cloud plat- ferent method of communicating to the ERP/ requires the ability to adapt quickly to chang- forms and services for web-based and mobile MES systems, resulting in slower integration ing consumer demands. Manufacturers need to applications. An AEP that is easy to deploy, speeds and reduced data quality. Th e ideal stay lean and fl exible while maximizing capa- requires no custom programming and can solution is a single enterprise-grade industrial bility and capacity to take advantage of new save time and money versus custom home- automation platform that can communicate business opportunities. Th ey need real-time grown confi gurations. with all the machines on the network and pro- data to make informed decisions to improve vide aggregated data to the ERP/MES servers. effi ciency, eff ectively manage the supply chain, One of the leading enterprise automation Benefi ts of deviceWISE include: improved and generate new revenue streams. solutions for the Industrial IoT is the device- resource utilization by eliminating the use WISE AEP from ILS Technology, a Telit of intermediate PC technology, resulting in Real-time visibility into manufacturing oper- company. Th e deviceWISE AEP is designed enhanced security and reduced system inte- ations requires integrating plant fl oor equip- to easily connect production machines and gration cycles; more informed decision mak- ment with business systems and applications. processes with enterprise resource planning ing with real-time communications between Data from disparate devices and machines (ERP) and manufacturing resource planning production equipment and enterprise serv- made by diff erent suppliers, using diff erent (MRP) systems and SCADA applications ers; a scalable architecture that is confi gu- technical protocols, and connected via diff er- without programming. It enables bi-direc- rable to any manufacturing environment in ent private or public communications channels tional data communication between factory any industry by leveraging the vast library across campus, cities, or around the world adds fl oor machines and to enterprise IT systems of built-in standardized drivers and connec- a layer of complexity that means many manu- and databases. Th is AEP supports all popu- tors; easy on-site installation and mainte- facturing and IT departments are spending too lar PLCs from Siemens, Mitsubishi, Rockwell, nance; and Store-and-Forward functionality much time and money on custom-program- Omron and most widely used production to ensure that no data is lost in the event that ming and complex home-grown solutions. equipment, and is compatible with virtually the connection with enterprise applications is any database, message queuing and applica- interrupted. Data is automatically saved, and To reduce complexity and save money, lead- tion server system available, including IBM, will be delivered when access has been rees- ing manufacturers rely on new technology SAP, ORACLE and Microsoft . tablished. platforms to connect and integrate all their on-site and remote production assets with As a key enabler of the Industrial Internet Plant fl oor IT managers across Honda automo- their own business systems, as well as those of Th ings, deviceWISE also provides seam- tive facilities in North America were challenged of their suppliers and customers across their less and secure integration with the Cloud for with integrating disparate PLCs from Omron, entire ecosystem. Innovations in this new remote control and monitoring of business Rockwell, Mitsubishi and others with propri- connected industrial world – oft en referred operations and equipment by company per- etary (MES) applications and widely used DB2, to as the “Industrial Internet of Th ings” – are sonnel or authorized third parties via web- MSSQL and ActivPlant. Th ey were tasked with transforming the way businesses operate based and mobile applications and dashboards. improving IT resource utilization with sim- around the world. Th is optional Cloud integration lets companies ple common tools, increasing commonality improve operational effi ciencies and create between tools and plants, and improving data A key component in unlocking the full poten- business innovation around collaboration, pre- quality. Th e team needed the ability to ramp tial of the industrial IoT is the application dictive maintenance and big data analytics with up based on market demands while keeping enablement platform (AEP). An AEP is a secure, role-based access to managed assets. their staff sizes the same. Th ey needed to stay purpose-built soft ware platform that can For example, companies can react quickly to lean and fl exible while maximizing capability collect and process data from any device, emerging supply-chain and market condi- and capacity. In addition, they were collect- anywhere. It provides seamless connectiv- tions to drive operational excellence and cost ing more data using more advanced tools to ity and integration of data – both directly to savings by: monitoring real-time demand and get better quality results, which meant poten- electronica Nov 2014 16 INTERNET-OF-THINGS

ers of the application architecture, not from just inside their apps but from the factory fl oor side as well. Scalability meant supporting large factory implementations with large UNIX systems as well as small factory implementations with medium Linux systems. It also meant supporting special situations, e.g. satellite operations, with unique equipment or suppliers.

For large plants deviceWISE provided cen- tralized control with options for satellite systems for localized logic and data reduction. Honda could run deviceWISE locally or communicate back up to the enterprise inside their data center and back to the factory fl oor. Th ey could collect data downstream and have nested information or nested devices below that, thereby creating a small, common architecture and then feeding the data up to the enterprise into the large systems such as the Data transfer between production assets and enterprise systems ERP system or MES systems. tially slower speeds. To improve product qual- form. Originally developed to operate within Finally, the deviceWISE platform met the ity they would need to focus on integration the four walls of the enterprise, it connects and requirement to improve data quality. Th e speed and ease of collecting data. Th e origi- integrates production machines and processes original plant tools couldn’t handle the larger nal 2001 IT implementation included a large with existing enterprise resource planning data sets sent from newer, more intelligent Java-based MES tracking application built on (ERP) and manufacturing resource planning production devices with faster scan rate capa- a UNIX platform. It was a custom-developed (MRP) systems and SCADA applications. bility. For example, the history of a part serial equipment interface written in house to meet DeviceWISE runs on multiple platforms (Win- number had to be retained in the PLCs. Add- business needs. Th e solution worked well but dows, Linux, AIX, etc.), uses simple confi gu- ing more data to the PLCs slowed the over- was diffi cult to maintain; additional custom- ration logic and is fully-featured for advanced all scan times, which could lead to missing ization was required each time a new device industrial automation. By adding deviceWISE, data. Implementing the deviceWISE solution was introduced. An OPC-based solution was Honda was able to bring their blended system enabled Honda to: simplify the plant device added but it fell short of delivering the desired – the custom and the OPC package – into one confi guration, make the complex business improvements in resource utilization. Th e logic common, simple interface. logic that was buried in the application avail- and application integration was still written by able to the plant device, remove complex lad- Honda, the response time was slow, there was Th e deviceWISE solution met the Honda der logic, and utilize a cheaper platform to data buildup in transit, and the team still had requirement for a fl exible and scalable system write logic. It also meant using the enterprise to deal with confi guration issues. To reduce to suit the architecture of each plant. Plant to store and search the larger data set while custom code and integration, Honda deployed fl oor IT managers needed to drive decision not impacting the PLC scan rate and improv- the deviceWISE industrial automation plat- making by staying fl exible within all lay- ing performance.

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