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Contents A5 How to achieve remote automation success

In a remote, yet connected world, this is how to keep pace with the changing face of automation in manufacturing

A8 How to accelerate data visualization

As the volume of industrial data grows exponentially, human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are providing improved data visualization and storytelling tools to support intelligent automation and strategic decision making

ON THE COVER Technological advances are keeping the world connected. Highperformance HMI graphics, for instance, are key to getting critical data to the right people at the right time and can help improve an operator’s ability to manage the operation more effectively, increasing response time to alarms and other abnormal situations. Data really is king. Courtesy: MAVERICK Technologies.

A5

I NSI GHTS

Insights on remote operations and HMIs

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Jack Smith Editor

A4 • April 2021

he cover story in this issue of AppliedAutomation explores remote automation. The unfortunate events of 2020 as well as the technologies developed in response to them are, according to the author, “Forcing manufacturers to adapt and work in an ever-evolving, more remote business environment.

“Now more than ever, they must digitally transform their legacy control systems, set up secure remote infrastructures and establish remote application support capabilities to continuously optimize, maintain and sustain their facilities. Manufacturers also should develop remote management strategies where they leverage smart technologies, mobile devices, remote access connectivity and communications tools to ensure critical infrastructures remain up and running efficiently. They must carefully weigh the pros and cons of inhouse resource bandwidth issues and the associated costs.”

The author also emphasizes remote access.

He wrote: “Interconnectivity with today’s indus-

Applied Automation

trial control systems is essential from the business office down to the plant floor and throughout all remote locations.”

He also discusses outsource remote management and monitoring: “Outsourcing remote management and preventive maintenance services can help ease the workload for inhouse employees from having to perform a variety of critical tasks.”

The second article in this issue focuses on data visualization. The author discusses user interface (UI) and data visualization designs such as color, form, spatial positioning and movement.

He wrote: “The use of proactive, continuous intelligence for automatically processing real-time and historical data also can play a role by allowing operators to process increased data volumes.

By detecting anomalies and producing effective UI indications, alarms and events, data visualization becomes an effective way of alerting operators of potential issues. Data storytelling puts information in context, reducing the chance of incorrect interpretation.”

R E M O T E A U T O M AT I O N

How to achieve remote automation success In a remote, yet connected world, this is how to keep pace with the changing face of automation in manufacturing

By Ram Ramamoorthy,

Add workforce attrition to this above-normal exodus and the combination places more responsibility and tasks on personnel who already have heavy workloads.

Those left to fill the ever-widening skills gap have little bandwidth to perform updates to keep new and legacy he world we live in is not the same world we hardware and software secure and optimized, finding once knew. Unprecedented global events themselves reacting more to higher-priority tasks. Some and new technological advances are forcing may also lack the required level of experience to troublemanufacturers to adapt and work in an evershoot and diagnose system failures or the daily process evolving, more remote business environment. issues that come up, which can lead to equipment failure Change is inevitable as industry feels the and costly downtime. impact of this new reality and As manufacturers transition the challenges it presents Manufacturers also should develop their legacy control systems from both a business and resource perspective. remote management strategies where to more modern digital technologies (e.g., IIoT, data anaTo move forward and stay they leverage smart technologies, lytic tools, digital twins/digital competitive, manufacturers thread, artificial intelligence, must look at new ways of doing mobile devices, remote access conaugmented reality/virtual realthings — new approaches, and machine learning and so new automation technologies nectivity and communications tools to ity, on) and set up remote infraand applications. Now more than ever, they must digitally ensure critical infrastructures remain up structures, they must weigh the pros and cons of inhouse transform their legacy control resource bandwidth issues and systems, set up secure remote and running efficiently. the associated costs. infrastructures and establish remote application support capabilities to optimize, main• Is it realistic to do a capital expenditure (CapEx) projtain and sustain their facilities. Manufacturers also should ect in-house — buying the hardware/software and develop remote management strategies where they leverinstalling it using existing resources? age smart technologies, mobile devices, remote access connectivity and communications tools to ensure critical • Have personnel ever participated in at least one major infrastructures remain up and running efficiently. control system installation or migration project before Smart manufacturing and Industrial Internet of Things or set up remote applications?

(IIoT)-enabled technologies can help manufacturers capture, collect, store and analyze data to aid in decision• Are personnel trained on critical automation tasks? making. For more efficient operations, they must look at recent trends in high-performance human-machine • Can personnel effectively diagnose system failures or interfaces (HP-HMIs), alarm rationalization and predictive deal with the daily process issues that may arise? maintenance. Industrial personnel must adapt to a newer and more secure way of doing their jobs to mitigate • Who will train automation personnel on new system risk of data breaches and social engineering attacks. upgrades and infrastructure, along with support for Companies must do all this and more with fewer resourcnecessary remote automation applications? es as the industrial workforce evolves.

M AV E R I C K Te c h n o l o g i e s

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Resource considerations Industrial personnel, mainly the baby boomers, are retiring for various reasons, but personal safety tops the list.

• Do personnel have the capability to remotely monitor systems and keep them optimized, maintained and running 24/7?

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R E M O T E A U T O M AT I O N torian and other software to provide real-time production Companies often require help from a third-party partinformation remotely on their mobile devices. They can ner who can perform a needs assessment and skills gap make informed decisions based on historical trends, key analysis, as well as provide operational and specialized performance indicators and other system data reports in knowledge on the latest technological advances, platreal time. forms, remote infrastructure and applications. Cost and HP-HMI graphics are key to getting critical data to the downtime, however, are always major factors for any right people at the right time and can help improve an business. operator’s ability to manage Consider the potential cost the operation more effectively, associated with system failure Direct connectivity to increasing response time to or downtime. No one wants alarms and other abnormal lost production and product process control networks and situations (see Figure 1). An quality issues. Many compaalarm rationalization team can nies can’t afford to have an advanced data sharing brings justify, validate and document employee fielding potential the alarms an operator sees problems 24/7. Instead, the many benefits but can also lead to minimize the number of focus should be on the daily alarms required to keep operoperational tasks at hand. to the potential for cyberattacks ating conditions efficient and Reducing the time inhouse safe. Add alarm management personnel must perform or be and safety risks. software to the mix, and the trained on critical automation alarm monitoring responsibilitasks can realize a cost savties can be dispersed to personnel who are not working ings. At the end of the day, if the third-party solutions and services deliver a positive return on investment (ROI), then in process control areas.

Overall, many software tools and applications are availthe benefits exceed costs for any process improvements able to help manufacturers determine which real-time or potential system failure or downtime. data adds value to improve operational efficiencies and Remote access: Data is king increase their competitive edge. Direct connectivity to process control networks and advanced data sharing Interconnectivity with today’s industrial control systems brings many benefits but can also lead to the potential for is essential from the business office down to the plant cyberattacks and safety risks. floor and throughout all remote locations. It is possible for personnel to communicate and access data from anyRemote security and support where in the world. For many manufacturers, however, legacy control system limitations prevent open communiData breaches resulting from cyberattacks or social cation to smart field devices, subsystems and higher-level engineering attempts can be devastating. To protect intelenterprise-wide systems, making it difficult for personnel to lectual property (IP), a manufacturer’s information techaccess and monitor critical data. nology (IT) personnel need to ensure safe and secure This is where the latest advances in smart technologies, remote firewall access to systems, giving unique access wireless technology, high-speed network connections, via username and passwords to all, including third-party open systems, predictive maintenance, alarm rationalsolutions providers. Security coverage to prevent hackers ization and HP-HMIs come into play. Leveraging these goes two ways in remote setups, so high priority should technologies can help manufacturers remotely manage be placed on it from both sides of the firewall. and monitor critical automation and control systems and In addition, aging legacy systems present a challenge access data in real time. as hardware and software support, security updates For instance, with the right smart technology, devices and software fixes for older releases become obsolete. and tools, mission-critical data can be captured, stored, Manufacturing personnel will need to safeguard their IP analyzed and used effectively to run a facility and meet with critical updates, reboots and patches for system customer demands. Smart devices improve asset utilizasecurity and reliability. tion, increase connectivity and enable near-real-time, Many manufacturers use a customized Windows data-driven decision-making throughout the enterprise.

Server Update Service (WSUS) deployment for periData historians (e.g., Rockwell Automation’s odic patching. Process servers and stations should be FactoryTalk Historian, OSIsoft PI, and AspenTech’s updated on a regular basis with respect to new patches Aspen InfoPlus.21) play a key role in acquiring and for enhanced security and protection. Typically, Microsoft storing selected process automation data from instruprovides these updates weekly. mentation and control system sources at the heart of Process control system patches must be original equipautomation processes. Today, historians have become ment manufacturer (OEM)-tested and approved. An OEM the manager’s HMI. Managers now can rely on the hisoften allows a limited number of patches and posts them

A6 • April 2021

Applied Automation

to maintain the equipment. Typically, a small upfront CapEx cost is required with the majority expensed, usually over a 60-month timeframe.

This infrastructure-asa-service (IaaS) concept is gaining traction in the process control world.

Depending on the solutions or services required, consult a trusted advisor who has experience performing numerous projects on a variety of platforms and in various stages — including the upfront plan, design and build stages working directly with OEMs to the sustain and continuous improvement stages.

For ongoing 24/7 support, a proactive thirdparty remote management and monitoring team can handle any Figure 1: Technological advances are keeping the world connected. issues to prevent any High-performance HMI graphics, for instance, are key to getting critisafety lapses and increase efficiency cal data to the right people at the right time and can help improve an while saving costs in operator’s ability to manage the operation more effectively, increasing the long run. response time to alarms and other abnormal situations. Data really is Manufacturers must king. Courtesy: MAVERICK Technologies. embrace today’s fastpaced technological world and take advantage of all it has to offer in the Remote management nd monitoring: Outsourcing form of digital technologies and remote applications. In doing so, manufacturers will be able to alleviate resource Outsourcing remote management and preventive bandwidth issues, leverage mission-critical data remotely maintenance services can help ease the workload for in real time to make informed business decisions and inhouse employees from having to perform a variety of increase operational productivity with improved efficiencritical tasks. These tasks include, but are not limited to, incident management, system backup and recovery, data cies in a safe manner.

The time is now to update or migrate legacy control analysis and retrieval, software updates and patches, systems and set up robust, secure remote infrastructures real-time monitoring of software and systems, machine and capabilities to optimize, maintain and sustain facililearning, predictive analytics, IT/operational technology ties to meet consumer demands and keep ahead of the (OT) hardware refresh, online automation and system competitive curve. Making these changes is not a matter programming edits. of if it will happen but when — and the sooner the better.

For preventive maintenance on hardware and software, many vendors and OEMs offer subscription-based Ram Ramamoorthy is operations manager, Strategic hardware refresh services, which includes a service level Manufacturing Solutions at MAVERICK Technologies. agreement (SLA) with defined response and resolution on their site for use on their systems.

Manufacturing personnel must identify the recommended patches for their systems and then install them.

A control system may or may not handle the installation well, which can result in an unplanned shutdown for potentially long periods of time and cost millions of dollars in lost production. Be sure to apply only OEM pre-approved, tested and vetted patches to reduce the potential for undesirable outcomes.

With a diligent patch management approach and strategy, manufacturers can keep cyberattacks at bay and feel confident knowing their systems will stay up and running safely, securely and efficiently with little to no interruptions. All require proper implementation and execution to avoid incurring a large amount of unplanned downtime.

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D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N

How to accelerate data visualization As the volume of industrial data grows exponentially, human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are providing improved data visualization and storytelling tools to support intelligent automation and strategic decision making

By Leandro Coeli, A D I S R A

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(OEE) displays — and show results of advanced analytics and predictive maintenance. These UIs need to capture the attention of the operator, be intuitive and allow quick interpretation of the data so action can be taken.

A Microsoft study shows the average human’s attention span in the year 2000 was 12 seconds, and by the year 2013 this had declined to 8 seconds. Therefore, designers must incorporate pre-attentive attributes as they create the data visualization so operators can notice screen information without using undue conscious effort.

DATA IS THE NEW CURRENCY is a catchphrase heard throughout many industries. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach 483 exabytes globally.

In our daily lives, data is generated every time someone Googles for information, asks Alexa for something or accesses their phone or smartwatch. For the industrial Today, with the largeamount automation sector, Global Market Pre-attentive processing Insights projects industrial sensor of data received from sensors, shipments to grow past 3 billion Pre-attentive attributes are units by 2026. The growing impledefined as attributes our brains mentation of industrial sensors, controllers, IIoT devices and other process in milliseconds, such as along with advanced controllers color, form, spatial positioning and and data acquisition platforms, is movement. systems, advanced data enabling real-time data collection Color. Color can either enhance at extraordinary rates, creating or distract from the data visualvisualization becomes paramount exponential growth. ization message. The ISA-101 However, collecting the data is standard for HMI design recomnot enough, it needs to be visualized in context as useful mends using color sparingly, and mostly for representation information for quick and easy interpretation. Good inforof anomalies or abnormal states. Situational awareness mation allows users to establish meaning, find patterns methodology — making the user aware of the context and anomalies and draw conclusions. Today, with the large when designing screens and dashboards — also advoamount of data received from sensors, controllers, IIoT cates for using color and shapes sparingly to ensure the devices and other systems, advanced data visualization operator’s attention is drawn to actionable data. becomes paramount.

When using color for data visualization, experts also The human mind processes visual data better than text advocate using color consistently and effectively, with an or other types of data, and the human brain also rememunderstanding of the cultural implications of the palette bers stories and visuals better than text-based information, selected. The meaning of color varies depending on culso providing information in these formats is critical. ture or color biases. For example, in Western culture, red is often used to signify alarms or danger, while in China The big picture red represents good luck and success. Therefore, when designing data visualization screen, the effect of color Several user interface (UI) and data visualization design needs to be considered in context with the message being trends are beginning to impact industrial automation, conveyed. Color should be used purposefully to either including concepts such as using real-life pictures, aesdraw attention to and highlight a portion of data, or to disthetic minimalism and sophisticated typography. Effective tinguish among various data points.

UIs are needed for local human-machine interfaces Brightness is related to color, and dark data dashboards (HMIs), site-wide supervisory control and data acquisition — black backgrounds with pastel or neon color palettes (SCADA) systems, and overall equipment effectiveness A8 • April 2021

Applied Automation

Figure 1: Dark HMI dashboards have overtaken lighter options in popularity, but color should always be used purposefully in consideration of end user expectations. Courtesy: ADISRA

— are growing in popularity as inspired by futuristic films such as Star Wars, and major brands such as Apple. Dark data dashboards prolong display device battery life and improve visual ergonomics by reducing eye strain, and automatically adjusted brightness based on current light conditions facilitates use in dark environments. Because of these and other advantages, dark data dashboards are now used more than those with light color themes (see Figure 1).

Form. Form applies to attributes distinguishing data on a screen. For example, dynamically increasing the size or prominence of an object or screen area signifies importance and quickly captures operator attention.

Spatial Positioning. Spatial positioning is the space used to represent data, and it may include the use of two- and three-dimensional representation. Most data visualization is depicted in two-dimensional space.

However, geographic information system and threedimensional representation is effective for representing geographically dispersed assets. With smart devices and sensors being deployed everywhere, spatial positioning is taking on greater importance for achieving data visualization operational efficiency.

Movement. Movement has always been a common way to capture operator attention. However, caution must be used to avoid annoying or distracting movement, flickering and pop-ups. Consider how web advertisers attempt to capture our attention with dynamic displays, and how many of these ads become annoying and prompt users to engage ad-blocking software.

Properly implemented, UIs can benefit from animated buttons on a data dashboard as a powerful technique for indicating to operators when action is required. This is especially important for space-constrained mobile devices.

Figure 2: Effective data visualization storytelling, depicted in this ADISRA SmartView screen capture, can communicate before/after or good/bad comparisons to explain not only what is happening, but why. Courtesy: ADISRA

Trends in data visualization The use of proactive, continuous intelligence for automatically processing real-time and historical data also can play a role by allowing operators to process increased data volumes. By detecting anomalies and producing effective UI indications, alarms and events, data visualization becomes an effective way of alerting operators of potential issues. Here are some additional data visualization trends.

Smart devices. Smart devices are everywhere, collecting data all the time and contributing to the proliferation of data. Yet the value of data diminishes as it ages, so data visualization must occur closer to the data origination, while providing visualization to the enterprise level.

Furthermore, connection across distributed data sets allows organizations to identify valuable connections, relationships and insights among these disparate devices.

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D ATA V I S U A L I Z AT I O N However, given the increasing velocity of data collection and the growing number of deployed smart devices and sensors involved, the need has expanded.

Real-time visualization must collect, aggregate, correlate and provide analysis to accelerate the decision-making process. Realtime analytics will become paramount to help users understand what is happening. As devices become smarter, the data they communicate will contain more information (see Figure 3).

Curating effective data communication Figure 3: Modern HMIs like ADISRA SmartView will continue to display data, but must be capable of collecting, aggregating, correlating and analyzing many sources to create context and accelerate user decision-making. Courtesy: ADISRA

According to IDC, by 2024, “70% of enterprises will have integrated their edge-generated data with cloud-based enterprise systems to allow for real-time actioning based on IoT analytics.” The incorporation of smart devices to provide real-time data analysis, along with visualization closer to where the data is generated, while incorporating these data sets into corporate architecture, provides decision makers with the information they need, where and when they need it.

Mobile devices have become indispensable in our lives and will likewise play an integral data visualization role in enterprise digitization. Mobile devices possess limited graphical real estate, requiring data visualization on these devices to be clear, simple, compact and concise. As attention spans wane, data visualization on mobile devices must provide awareness while simplifying interactive features.

Storytelling. Data visualization using traditional HMI/ SCADA and dashboards show operators what is happening, but not why. Data storytelling is a method for communicating the why with a compelling narrative. Data storytelling puts information in context, reducing the chance of incorrect interpretation (see Figure 2).

Gartner forecasts indicate data storytelling will be the primary way users consume analytical data by 2025. Data storytelling leverages data, narrative and visuals tailored for the operator to effectively communicate actionable insights.

In other words, data visualization is representing data graphically, while data storytelling is putting meaning behind the data. This provides a narrative consolidating a complex amount of data in a simple, concise manner, resulting in a story explaining the how and why behind the data.

Real-time visualization. Visualizing data in real time is nothing new for industrial automation applications.

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Applied Automation

According to Forbes, 35 billion smart devices will be online by 2021, growing to 75 billion by 2025. Data visualization is becoming more important as the volume of data is increasing while attention spans decrease.

Data effectiveness will increase as data visualization becomes more intuitive and data storytelling principals are applied.

Data visualization has reached new heights with the emergence of cognitive frameworks, which are defined as a set of elements from psychosocial theories on how humans process data. Dashboards for HMIs, SCADA, OEE, advanced analytics and predictive maintenance must evolve to allow the visualization of large amounts of data, while providing the best techniques for visual communication. Effective data visualization is intuitive, offers easy visual recognition and enables quick understanding of the data being presented.

Data storytelling will become more common in industrial dashboards for communicating real-time data as well as analytics. Machine learning techniques for data visualization will continue to ascend into traditional industrial markets for optimizing actionable decision making.

Data fuels the power of intelligent automation and strategic decision making. There is a beauty in data visualization when it simplifies curated data and conveys contextual information in a manner appealing to users. The right data visualization software coupled with intelligent configuration will deliver these and other benefits to provide improved operations throughout the enterprise.

Leandro Guimarães Coeli is a partner at ADISRA, LLC. He is responsible for Customer Applications and Services.

He has more than 16 years of experience in industrial automation with technical specialties in SCADA, HMI, databases, web and application communication. Prior to ADISRA, Coeli spent 13 years as the owner and partner at PhiSystems, Ltda, an industrial automation systems integration company, and he also worked for many years at InduSoft as an engineer.

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