Automation World August 2021 by PMMIMediaGroup

AUGUST 2021 / www.AutomationWorld.com

28 WILL MES AND SCADA BECOME MORE CLOSELY MIXED? Section

20 38 32 08 43

Noosa Yoghurt Cuts Downtime with Valve Upgrade Automation Spending Trends in Continuous Processing Top 20 Secure PLC Coding Practices Three Scale-Up Pitfalls for Manufacturers

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CONTENTS 3 AW AUGUST 2021

AUGUST 2021 | VOLUME 19 | NUMBER 8

Will the Future of MES and SCADA Be More Closely Mixed?

Automation Spending Trends Diverge in Continuous Processing

Noosa Yoghurt Cuts Downtime, Product Loss With Valve Upgrade

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Despite increasing overlap in functionality, MES and SCADA are likely to co-exist with tighter integration in pursuit of a single pane of glass.

Research shows that digital transformation is the primary driver of automation technology spending across the discrete, batch, and continuous process industries. But which technologies get the most focus tends to shift when it comes to continuous processing.

The TrueClean CIP’able air blow check valve from Central States Industrial enabled the yogurt maker to save hours of downtime and many pounds of product every week, with an expected savings of $350,000 a year.

7/27/21 2:46 PM

4 CONTENTS AW AUGUST 2021

EDITORIAL

ONLINE 6

Exclusive content from AutomationWorld.com: videos, podcasts, webinars, and more

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS 8 Top 20 Secure PLC Coding Practices

BATCH OF IDEAS 10

Open Industrial Control Commences with COPA QuickStart

PRODUCTION PERSPECTIVES 11

Using the Digital Thread to Deliver CAD-Based Instructional Materials

PERSPECTIVES 12

Colgate-Palmolive Focuses on Machine Health to Improve Supply Chain Operations Autonomous Mobile Robots and Wearables Come Together to Boost Warehouse Productivity

NEWS 16

Digital Twin Consortium Launches Open-Source Collaboration Initiative Edge Computing and Analytics Get a Boost from CESMII PMMI News Digital Feature Debuts at PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO

NEW PRODUCTS 40 High-Precision Solenoid Pump High-Flex Cable Assemblies Profinet Option Card Pneumatic Valves And more...

David Greenfield Director of Content/Editor-in-Chief dgreenfield@automationworld.com / 678 662 3322 Stephanie Neil Senior Editor sneil@automationworld.com / 781 378 1652 David Miller Senior Technical Writer dmiller@automationworld.com / 312 205 7910 Emma Satchell Managing Editor esatchell@automationworld.com / 312 205 7898 Jim Chrzan VP/Content and Brand Strategy jchrzan@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1470 Kim Overstreet Senior Content Strategist, Alignment koverstreet@pmmimediagroup.com James R. Koelsch, Lauren Paul, Jeanne Schweder and Beth Stackpole Contributing Writers

ART & PRODUCTION

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AUDIENCE & DIGITAL

INDUSTRY VIEW 42

David Newcorn Executive Vice President Elizabeth Kachoris Senior Director, Digital & Data Jen Krepelka Director, Websites + UX/UI

INTEGRATOR VIEW 43

PMMI MEDIA GROUP

Manufacturing Trends and Technologies in the Automotive Industry By Dick Slansky

Kurt Belisle Publisher kbelisle@pmmimediagroup.com / 815 549 1034 Jake Brock Brand Operations Manager jbrock@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1320 Sharon Taylor Director of Marketing staylor@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1710 Amber Miller Marketing Manager amiller@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1130 Janet Fabiano Financial Services Manager jfabiano@pmmimediagroup.com / 312 222 1010 x1330

Three Scale-Up Pitfalls for Manufacturers By Gary Powell

ENTERPRISE VIEW 44

Moving From Digital Experimentation to Value at Scale By Brian R. May

KEY INSIGHTS 46

All Automation World editorial is copyrighted by PMMI Media Group, Inc. including printed or electronic reproduction. Magazine and Web site editorial may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

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6 ONLINE

AW AUGUST 2021

PODCAST SERIES How to Train Workers for Highly Automated Environments

Learn how new training tools help onboard workers and sharpen the skills of experienced workers in this podcast discussion with Vincent Higgins of Honeywell Process Solutions.

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AUTOMATION WORLD TV Advances in Conveyance Technology

An assortment of flexible conveyance options available on the market today can allow manufacturers to more precisely position products, achieve energy efficiency gains, and improve overall equipment effectiveness. Watch this Take Five video to learn more.

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THE AUTOMATION PLAYBOOK The Automation Playbook is a useful source of information as you look for guidance in how to approach the Industrial Internet of Things, communication protocols, controls implementation, safety, asset management, predictive maintenance, the mobile workforce, and much more.

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With their ability to minimize operator errors, reduce training time, and enable remote assistance, augmented and virtual reality technologies are seeing a growth in interest amid the pandemic. Read the full E-book to learn more about how these technologies are proving to be an operator’s best friend in discrete and process manufacturing.

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8 EDITORIAL AW AUGUST 2021

INDUSTRY DIRECTIONS

Top 20 Secure PLC Coding Practices By David Greenfield

dgreenfield@automationworld.com Editor-In-Chief/ Director of Content

ndustrial cybersecurity has moved from being a topic of interest only to industrial and cybersecurity professionals to the forefront of mainstream media coverage as ransomware attacks have disrupted fuel and food supplies in the first months of 2021. There are many methods hackers use to infiltrate industrial control systems (ICS)—often through phishing methods used to extract sensitive passwords from employees. But that fact doesn’t relegate ICS security solely to the IT realm. To help industrial companies protect the control systems used across industries, Admeritia—an operations technology-focused provider of cybersecurity software and services—has compiled a list of what it considers to be the top 20 secure PLC coding practices. Following is a brief rundown of these top 20 practices: • Split PLC codes into modules using different function blocks and test each independently. • Track operating modes by keeping the PLC in “run” mode; if a PLC is not in this mode, it should trigger an operator alarm. • Leave operational logic in the PLC where feasible rather than in other applications, such as the human machine interface (HMI). • Place counters on PLC error flags to capture any math problems in the code. • Use cryptographic hashes or checksums to check PLC code integrity and issue alarms when they change. • Validate timer and counter values in the

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PLC code for “reasonableness” and verify backward counts below zero. • Ensure that paired I/O signals are not asserted together. I/O states considered unfeasible should trigger alarms. • Validate HMI input variables at the PLC, not just at the HMI. • Poison array ends to catch fence-post errors to validate indirections. • Assign designated register blocks for specific functions to validate data, avoid buffer overflows, and block external writes. • Instrument your control processes to allow for plausibility checks by crosschecking different measurements. • Ensure that operators can only enter input that’s physically feasible. Set a timer for how long an operation should take with alerts sent for any unexpected activities. • Disable ports and protocols not required for an application. • All data interface connections should be well defined and restricted to only allow read/write capabilities for the required data transfer. • Define safe states for the process in case of PLC restarts. • Summarize PLC cycle times every two to three seconds and report to HMI for visualization. • Log and trend PLC uptime on the HMI for diagnostics. • Store PLC hard stop events for retrieval by the HMI before PLC restarts. • Monitor PLC memory use and trend it on the HMI. • Identify critical alerts and program a trap for them that monitors their trigger conditions and the alert state for any deviation. Full details of these PLC coding security practices can be downloaded from Admeritia’s Secure PLC Programming Project site at awgo.to/1226.

Learn about four critical aspects of ICS cybersecurity not to be overlooked. awgo.to/1227

Listen to this podcast explaining how to assess the level of cybersecurity needed for your operation. awgo.to/1096

Watch this Take Five with Automation World video on cybersecurity concerns in the post-COVID-19 era. awgo.to/1237

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10 EDITORIAL AW AUGUST 2021

BATCH OF IDEAS

Open Industrial Control Commences with COPA QuickStart By Stephanie Neil

sneil@automationworld.com Senior Editor

ince 2015, when Don Bartusiak, then the chief engineer at ExxonMobil Research & Engineering, publicly advocated for the development of a new, standards-based, open—yet secure—process control architecture, the industry has been working to solve the problem of proprietary vendor lock-in. In 2017, The Open Group, a vendor-neutral technology consortium, launched the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF), and began work on developing business guides and the Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS), which is currently on version 2.1 O-PAS version 3.0 is not yet released, but it does promise to deliver a usable system. So, as the standard matures and user labs are set up across the world, the next step is to start deploying O-PAS-enabled products. But it’s a pretty big step to adopt these commercial products, and manufacturers have many questions about how to get started with open process automation. The answers may come from the new Coalition of Open Process Automation (COPA). COPA is a partnership program started and managed by California-based CPLANE.ai, a provider of cloud infrastructure management, and Collaborative Systems Integration (CSI), a systems integration company in Austin, Texas, started by Bartusiak (now retired from ExxonMobil) which is focused on providing technology and services for open process automation (OPA).

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COPA’s purpose is to create collaboration among OPA-aligned suppliers that provide hardware and software products which integrate using the O-PAS standard. Currently, COPA partners include IT and OT technology companies like Phoenix Contact, R. Stahl, SuperMicro, and Codesys, with an expanding ecosystem of suppliers underway to support what COPA founders call “the movement” of everyone working together. And, to be clear, OPAF and COPA are complementary organizations created to define and promote OPA. “This is not competitive,” said Brandon Williams, co-founder of CPLANE.ai, “It’s a subset of vendors that are ready to demonstrate and implement open products for this market.” “This is not a splinter activity,” echoed Bartusiak, noting COPA partners are OPAF members. “We’re just trying to capitalize on the commercialization. There are a lot of people standing on the sidelines and waiting for someone to go first. We are stepping up to go first.” That first step comes in the form of COPA QuickStart, which will be a commercially available product bundled with a 6-module training program that allows end-users to better understand the technology, the process, and the skills required to manage an OPA system throughout its lifecycle. It encourages end-users to learn and experiment with OPA systems (to confirm technical feasibility and to demonstrate business value) so that they can accelerate their adoption of OPA systems. The hands-on modules include: Design (multi-vendor architecture, separation of I/O and compute, etc.), project start-up (configuration, tags, etc.), operations (system management, failover, applications, etc.), evolve (advanced capabilities), secure (role-based access, zero trust device security, etc.), and troubleshooting (remote management, system monitoring, etc.). Customers can choose from simulated process control applications, such as fired heater, distillation column, or fed-batch fermenta-

tion, for example, to learn how to configure database tags, control blocks, and HMI displays, as well as test and tune the controllers. “We are hearing that companies want to get started with open process automation now, but a lot of learning has to take place,” Williams said. “The advantage of [the QuickStart] system is it is completely pre-engineered and demonstrates the important features of open process automation, the interoperability of best of class components, and it is inherently secure.” To that end, COPA QuickStart is intended for end-users to learn and experiment with an OPA system. It is not recommended as a production system since it contains early OPA components that will not yet be ready for production workloads. QuickStart will be available to users in Q3 of 2021 and, in general, comes with a year-long commitment for testing and feedback in preparation for production-ready field trials in 2022. “Industrial manufacturers have repeatedly told me that if O-PAS based systems were available, they would buy them. The COPA QuickStart system is our answer to that challenge,” Bartusiak said.

“Customers can choose from simulated process control applications, such as fired heater, distillation column, or fed-batch fermentation, for example, to learn how to configure database tags, control blocks, and HMI displays, as well as test and tune the controllers.”

7/28/21 10:59 AM

EDITORIAL 11 AW AUGUST 2021

PRODUCTION PERSPECTIVES

Using the Digital Thread to Deliver CAD-Based Instructional Materials By David Miller

dmiller@pmmimediagroup.com Senior Technical Writer

he term “digital thread” is becoming an increasingly common phrase in industry vernacular. Typically, it’s used to refer to a pipeline of standardized, homogenous data that can be accessed across an organization and by its partners. Simply put, a digital thread allows for consistent data to be shared across a product lifecycle from the design stage all the way to frontline maintenance, repair, and operations. As a result, business processes across an enterprise—and even between numerous enterprises—can be synchronized, allowing new efficiencies to be ferreted out. To date, the digital thread has led to two primary shifts in business practices. First, it has created new, more enduring relationships between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end-users of equipment, with machine-usage data gathered on the frontlines being tapped by OEMs to provide better service, learn how their products are used, and improve the design of future offerings. Secondly, it has proven that Industry 4.0 is not just about the movement of data between machines and systems, but human workers too, as digital insights gathered by operations technology (OT) personnel are made into valuable data to aid in decision-making by upper-level management. PTC’s Vuforia Instruct recently joined the ranks of software products capitalizing on this kind of end-to-end connectivity. The

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software reportedly offers end-users the ability to eliminate reliance on paper forms for quality inspections and other types of reporting. According to PTC, 67% of manufacturers still rely on paper reporting for these tasks, which can be inefficient and lead to errors in the transcription and communication of data. By digitizing the process, results can be updated in real-time, delivered consistently to various stakeholders, and tweaked on-the-fly as conditions change. In addition, Vuforia Instruct can streamline the delivery of field maintenance instructional material to frontline workers. Through the software, interactive, step-by-step instructions can be created from computer-aided design (CAD) models of equipment provided by OEMs and accessed via an augmented reality (AR) headset by workers in the field. The instructional material is overlaid on an enduser’s field of vision, and provides spatially contextualized information regarding the individual components of a piece of equipment and the work processes that must be performed on them. Finally, a built-in portal enables all usage activity from the plant floor to be viewed. As a result, traceability for audit and compliance purposes is ensured, and opportunities for improvement can be identified. “We are thrilled to be working with PTC and Rockwell Automation to bring AR to our customers, and see tremendous opportunity to use 3D work instructions to address critical inspection steps within the maintenance, repair, and sanitation processes on our packaging equipment,” said Alexander Ouellet, innovation engineer at HarpakULMA Packaging, a packaging machinery OEM. “The enhanced work instructions created with Vuforia Instruct enable us to upskill our customers’ employees, and even our own technical staff, on intricate procedures in mission critical environments. AR

technologies will help our customers reap significant productivity gains by enabling them to improve the accuracy and timeliness of complex, manual processes.” Vuforia Instruct is part of PTC’s broader Vuforia Enterprise AR suite, which also includes Vuforia Expert Capture, Vuforia Studio, Vuforia Engine, Vuforia Chalk, and Vuforia Spatial Toolbox, all of which are available as software-as-a-service (SaaS) via PTC’s Atlas platform.

“Simply put, a digital thread allows for consistent data to be shared across a product lifecycle from the design stage all the way to frontline maintenance, repair, and operations.”

7/27/21 2:42 PM

12 PERSPECTIVES AW AUGUST 2021

Colgate-Palmolive Focuses on Machine Health to Improve Supply Chain Operations By David Greenfield

Editor-In-Chief/Director of Content

rom toilet paper shortages and soaring lumber rates affecting home prices to long-delayed shipments of household appliances and furniture, numerous supply chain concepts once reserved for procurement and logistics professionals have become almost common knowledge to people outside industry. Likewise, a focus on the close connection between production operations and their affect on supply chains is gaining more adherents. As noted in the recent Automation World article, “Supply Chain Optimization and the Future of Industry” (awgo.to/1232): The growing need for end-to-end visibility is particularly relevant for plant-level operators and systems integrators because it often requires more integration between supply chain software and manufacturing execution systems (MES) to extract granular data such as equipment health and material availability that can help to more accurately gauge a facility’s true capacity. Collecting and communicating this data to supply chain partners in real time can assist them in more effectively coordinating their own procurement and inventory activities. A good example of this trend in connecting manufacturing operations to the supply chain can be seen at Colgate-Palmolive where, according to Warren Pruitt, vice president, global engineering services, the company has been bolstering its supply chain reliability by moving

toward predictive maintenance of our machinery. The predictive maintenance model employed by the company “preserves machine health through 24/7 monitoring via wireless sensors combined with analytics powered by artificial intelligence [AI],” said Pruitt. Colgate-Palmolive is feeding this wireless sensor data into Augury’s machine health software platform. Pruitt pointed out that this enables Colgate-Palmolive’s machine data to be compared with machine data from more than 80,000 other machines connected to the Augury platform around the world. “That massive analytical scale brings us insights on how to optimize the performance of equipment and make ever-smarter choices on how and where we deploy it,” Pruitt said. “What’s possible only gets more compelling as this AI solution harnesses more data to create better health outcomes for our machines and our business.”

Sensor data

Approaching the development of this machine health monitoring system at Colgate-Palmolive required investigation into the best sensor type for this job. According to Pruitt, “Bluetooth sensors require a person with a smart phone to collect the data, and wired sensors come with a high price tag. But the wireless sensor solution we’re now using automates that data collection

An Augury Machine Health sensor on industrial equipment. Note: This photo is supplied by Augury and is not from a Colgate-Palmolive plant.

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PERSPECTIVES 13 AW AUGUST 2021

and analysis—monitoring vibration, magnetic flux (energy use), and surface temperature. When issues arise, reliability professionals remotely alert and collaborate with our plant teams as needed.” The sensors used in the Augury Machine Health system were retrofitted onto Colgate-Palmolive’s existing equipment to capture vibration, temperature, and magnetic data and transmit it to the Augury platform. Pruitt explained that Colgate-Palmolive uses Augury’s sensors on a variety of rotating equipment, such as homogenizers, mixers, pumps, case packers, fillers, cartoners, conveyors, and agitators. Sensor data is transmitted via Wi-Fi to the Augury Machine Health platform in the cloud. With the data in the system, Augury’s AI algorithms can diagnose machine malfunctions to create what Augury calls the “baseline.”

Improving yield, reducing risks

According to Augury, its Machine Health system doesn’t just “automatically diagnose machine malfunctions, it tells users how and when to fix them.” The company claims its software goes beyond the capabilities of the average predictive maintenance system by providing a real-time snapshot of a machine’s health and immediately alerting users of machine faults, their severity, and what actions to take to prevent a failure. This also allows for specific machines at highest risk of failure to be prioritized and helps users better understand the risks of downtime. “Although early diagnosis of problems is a key advantage here, there are additional savings from extending use of equipment past what would be typical preventative maintenance schedules,” said Pruitt. “Instead of stopping production as a matter of course, say, every six months, we monitor the near real-time health and performance of our machines and if all is well, we can safely keep them running nine months or longer. This has increased our available manufacturing capacity by allowing higher production volumes, which has been invaluable during the COVID-19 crisis.” Pruitt also noted that supply chain interruptions and capacity requirements were reducing the available capital for strategic growth at Colgate-Palmolive, driving the company to explore new systems, like Au-

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gury’s Machine Health, to improve yield, lower operating costs, and mitigate manufacturing risks. “The goals of the Machine Health program were to help improve output, reduce downtime, and reduce MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) spending by moving from preventive to predictive maintenance,” he said.

Notable improvements

Coming 2022

Providing a specific example of how Augury’s Machine Health system has helped Colgate-Palmolive, Pruitt noted that the system’s AI detected rising temperatures in the drive of a tube maker and alerted the plant team. “Upon inspection, they discovered a problem with the motor’s water cooling system,” he said. “By getting it quickly resolved, we prevented the drive from failing due to overheating, which would’ve stopped the tube production line and incurred replacement costs. We figure the savings at 192 hours of downtime and an output of 2.8 million tubes of toothpaste, plus $12,000 for a new motor and $27,000 in variable conversion costs.” In another example, Pruitt said Machine Health’s AI provided an early warning that a gearbox in a liquids machine was experiencing structural and operational issues, putting it at high risk of failure that could shut down the line. “The team was able to order a replacement gearbox and plan the maintenance to swap it in, bringing the machine to acceptable condition with minimal interruption,” he said. “The benefits of having real-time access to machine health analytics have been so powerful, we’re going to roll out this technology across our global supply chain.” Accoring to Pruitt, mutiple ColgatePalmolive plants currently use Machine Health. “For example, six Hill's Pet Nutrition plants have deployed the technology. Within four months of deployment, the cost savings from Machine Health had paid for the annual Machine Health program in all six plants,” he said. Based on its experience thus far with the system, Hill’s is starting to combine machine insights with quality insights to predict which pet food formula will run best on which extruder, a process which will influence future product development, Pruitt said.

7/28/21 10:58 AM

14 PERSPECTIVES AW AUGUST 2021

Autonomous Mobile Robots and Wearables Come Together to Boost Warehouse Productivity By David Miller

Senior Technical Writer

hile warehouse automation doesn’t predominate Automation World coverage, as we focus more on automation in production operations, warehouse automation does play a vital role in the manufacturing industries by serving as a critical link in a supply chain. In fact, when interviewed for a recent supply chain feature both Andrew Robling, senior product manager at Epicor, and Jonathan Foster, principal consultant at Proxima, indicated automated improvements to warehouse processes as one of the primary areas where advances in supply chain management would occur in the future. Swelling warehouse labor shortages are one of the most prominent reasons for their assessment. While the issue has been long gestating, it rapidly grew worse when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many out of hands-on fields that require them to occupy crowded physical spaces. As a result, both autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and various wearable technologies have seen growing adoption in logistics operations due to their ability to take over human tasks entirely in some cases and enhance

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the productivity of human workers in others. This operating reality is driving a strategic partnership between inVia Robotics, which provides AMRs through a robots-as-a-service (RaaS) model, and Rufus Labs, a company that supplies wearable technologies and accompanying analytics software. An important aspect of inVia’s RaaS model for warehouse use is that it allows end-users to be billed per item moved rather than by the number of robots deployed. According to the companies, the goal of the initiative is to provide warehouse operators with a suite of technologies that can be rapidly deployed and integrated for increased picking rates with existing labor while keeping upfront costs low. InVia’s AMRs are able to autonomously retrieve items and bring them to stationary workers who are directed to scan the items and place them in an order bin by inVia’s PickMate software, which is run from Rufus Labs’ wearable devices. These wearables include ergonomic gloves for scanning items and wristmounted tablets to receive instructions and other information. PickMate then uses the

same artificial intelligence-driven analytics employed by inVia’s AMRs to direct workers as to how inventory can most efficiently be picked and packed out, allowing intelligently optimized work processes to be followed even when the shape or arrangement of items that need to be picked are too complex or irregular for AMRs or other robots to handle. From here, all data gathered is fed back into inVia’s Logic and Rufus Labs’ WorkHero analytics software so that further opportunities for optimization can be identified. "Optimizing humans and robots in the warehouse is key to future sustainability, increased productivity, and ensuring a safe environment for workers,” said Gabe Grifoni, CEO and founder of Rufus Labs. “Rufus WorkHero already cuts pick time in half and provides added safety features to pickers. Our partnership with inVia will continue to improve throughput for our mutual customers, and allow for future innovations between humans and machines.”

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16 NEWS

AW AUGUST 2021

Digital Twin Consortium Launches Open-Source Collaboration Initiative By David Miller

Senior Technical Writer

ith so much data being traded between disparate machines and systems, achieving interoperability has been one of Industry 4.0’s greatest hurdles to overcome. As such, there’s been no shortage of new consortiums, industry groups, and standards launched over the past several years to address the interoperability challenge. One of the most recent entities to come into being is the Digital Twin Consortium (DTC), which was launched in 2020 by the Object Management Group (OMG). The OMG also hosts the Industrial Internet Consortium. Digital Twins—simulations which provide end-users with a virtual copy of assets and production systems and even entire facilities—have been a topic of discussion for some time now. This technology has seen an uptick in interest over the past few years due to its ability to facilitate remote access to plant

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infrastructure and provide supply chain planners with end-to-end, real-time visibility into the production capacities of various facilities. To support this increasing interest in digital twins, the DTC aims to accelerate the deployment of digital twin technology by defining best practices for digital twin use, with the goal of easing barriers to adoption and increasing interoperability. Most recently, the group has announced an open-source collaboration community that will allow members and non-members alike to work together on open-source projects to develop code that will become a part of the DTC ecosystem. Those who wish to contribute to the new open-source collaboration community must first complete a project application for the DTC Technical Advisory Committee to review. If approved, contributors are able to upload their projects to the DTC Open-Source Collaboration GitHub site, which contains project files and revision histories, enabling other users to re-use and improve upon shared content. Like digital twins, the open-source approach to software development is another trend that

has taken off in recent years, allowing for rapid advances in software, as engineers and developers can make use of large, online libraries of pre-existing code rather than having to create their own line-by-line. As a result, barriers to entry have been significantly lowered for numerous digital technologies. "We hypothesize that the Internet of Things (IoT) can only be successful if a lot of parties work together. And we believe there is no better collaboration form than open source,” said Johan Stokking, co-founder and chief technology officer at The Things Industries. “It (open source) allows parties to fork existing ideas, experiment with them in an agile way, and commit the good parts back that help the common ecosystem objectives. The Digital Twin Consortium's Open-Source Collaboration Initiative will catalyze like-minded community expansion." Access more information about getting involved with DTC’s Open-Source Collaboration Initiative at awgo.to/1233.

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18 NEWS

AW AUGUST 2021

Edge Computing and Analytics Get a Boost from CESMII

By David Miller

Senior Technical Writer

ince its launch in 2016, the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) has become a major player in accelerating the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies by providing funding for numerous Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) pilot projects and collaborating with the OPC Foundation, Plattform Industrie 4.0, the Industrial Internet Consortium, and other industry bodies to promote the development and dissemination of open standards. Founded by the U.S. Department of Energy, CESMII is primarily focused on supporting projects that increase energy productivity and efficiency, while also improving economic performance. Recently, CESMII awarded 14 contracts to co-fund private sector initiatives as part of its second round of smart manufacturing innovation projects. Among those selected

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were edge computing company Litmus and industrial software provider ThinkIQ. The Litmus project will focus on connecting Litmus edge software to CNC machines at Bray International, a manufacturer of flow control products and accessories. The initiative aims to create a smart manufacturing profile for the production of valves that will optimize Bray’s maintenance procedures, increase uptime, and improve product quality. “Litmus was chosen because their project directly aligned with our specific areas of interest for applying smart manufacturing principles to real-world manufacturing processes and operations challenges,” said John Dyck, CEO of CESMII. “These projects are vital to a global transformation of the manufacturing industry and we look forward to working with Litmus and Bray International to see real progress in their productivity, performance, and maintenance initiatives.” The second project, which is being headed up by ThinkIQ, will endeavor to better quantify the impact of supply chain variability on the processing of chicken by-products for a

large food company. ThinkIQ will use its analytics software to maximize material utilization on the food company’s poultry processing lines with the intention of later applying the same methods to other food processing and energy-intensive industries. “Delivering value through interoperability and scalability is essential,” said Doug Lawson, CEO of ThinkIQ. “We are leveraging the CESMII smart manufacturing innovation platform to avoid implementing yet another information island on the plant floor, thereby reducing cost and complexity, and facilitating rapid return on investment.” Other projects selected by CESMII to receive co-funding as part of its Smart Manufacturing Innovation Platform can be viewed on CESMII’s website. CESMII also offers cofunding for enabling research and development projects, ecosystem and workforce development projects, platform capability projects, application projects, and innovation centers.

7/27/21 2:35 PM

PMMI NEWS 19 AW AUGUST 2021

Digital Feature Debuts at PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO By Sean Riley

Senior Director, Media and Industry Communications, PMMI

or the first time in its history, show-producer PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, is offering a virtual component to the live PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO events (Sept. 27-29, Las Vegas Convention Center). PACK EXPO Xpress will allow those unable to travel to access products in digital showrooms and connect with suppliers during the event while also serving as a supplement to the on-site experience for those attending and their coworkers. Registration provides access to a My Show Planner account—PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO’s personalized resource planning tool and directory. PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Pack-

aging EXPO will reunite the packaging and processing community with 20,000 attendees, more than 1,500 exhibitors, world-class education, and countless networking opportunities spread across four expansive halls. “The goal of PACK EXPO Xpress is two-fold, offering access to the show experience to larger portions of the packaging and processing community, some who can better serve their customers by remaining on the plant floor,” says Laura Thompson, vice president, trade shows, PMMI. “At the same time, it allows in-person attendees not to have to choose, for example, one education session over another, helping alleviate the stress of trying to see everything PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO has to offer.” In today’s manufacturing environment, processing and packaging often come together as an integrated system, making it more critical than ever to bring both packaging and processing suppliers and end-users together.

To meet this growing need, The Processing Zone returns with front-of-the-line solutions such as homogenizing, heat treating, forming/sizing, and coating to help increase efficiency, achieve total system integration, and ensure food safety. New in 2021 is the Processing Innovation stage, focusing on the latest processing breakthroughs. Visit packexpolasvegas.com to register. Registration for PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO is $30 through Sept. 3, after which the price increases by $100. Registration for PACK EXPO Xpress remains $30. The show website also provides information on the event’s PACK Ready health and safety plan.

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AW AUGUST 2021 / SPONSORED CONTENT

How Edge Computing Helps Deliver Reliable Automated Pressure Testing System integrator Engenuity uses Opto 22’s groov EPIC for integrated data and control in the oil and gas industries. By Josh Eastburn, Director of Technical Marketing, Opto 22

ngenuity Inc. provides control automation and data integration solutions with a primary focus on advanced technologies for the oil and gas industry. Through their work in this industry, they have identified specific deficiencies in validation pressure testing of blowout preventers (BOPs) and well control equipment. These tests are often executed manually and can cost operators millions of dollars annually. In collaboration with customers like Shell International Exploration and Production Company, Engenuity developed a set of fully automated test execution and reporting products. Their high-reliability solution uses Opto 22’s groov EPIC (edge programmable industrial controller) to integrate critical functions like process control, text and email notification, and process history storage and replication.

System design

Using Engenuity’s BOPX testing software, system operators can map out valve arrays and their associated pressure limits, then automatically execute and report on a variety of test scenarios. Engenuity’s EZ Valve retrofittable actuator integrates manual gate, low torque, and plug valves into this automated system, actuating up to 70 valves through as many as 30 test sequences. Engenuity’s EZ Vision leak detection sensors add acoustic analysis to the system to help pinpoint the location of leaks. While Engenuity has added many features to the BOPX system over the years, Ted Royer, a controls engineer with Engenuity, stresses that “all the test software is on the

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With Engenuity’s BOPX testing software, users can map out valve arrays and identify validation pressure limits for each component in the system. EPIC. BOPX is just an interface now.” It’s primary role in test execution is to send configuration data to the groov EPIC edge controller over a Modbus/TCP connection using the EPIC’s configurable firewall to protect critical control data. One of the controller’s two network ports is configured as a read-only interface joined to an untrusted network named the Manufacturing Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The other network port is joined to a separate, trusted network, named the Manufacturing Zone, where all I/O and

control communication takes place. The EPIC prevents routing traffic between its two ports, so there is no risk of untrusted connections tampering with configuration, execution, or process history data on the trusted network.

Process control and history

With configuration data securely transmitted, the edge controller begins executing test scenarios. Automated valve manifolds and EZ Valve and EZ Vision connections are

7/27/21 2:24 PM

SPONSORED CONTENT / AW AUGUST 2021

Once arriving at the bridge, prioritization alone is not the only method to determine which vehicles get to exit at their desired point. Internally, bridges can set up queues of similar priority frames. Algorithms would then determine the next frame per queue to be sent. This would imply the possibility that queues with lower priorities never get sent. Instead, priority queues are replaced by a repetitive cycle of time slots to ensure frames of all priorities can be sent. This is known as a time aware shaper (TAS) and is analogous to a city bus timetable. Every time slot starts with high-priority frames. Next in line are low-priority frames. Finally, the remaining time in the slot is filled with best-effort frames that do not rely on time awareness. In this way, all priorities get transmitted while maintaining determinism for high-priority traffic.

end of the slot or not. If not, these frames are split into fragments, transmitted separately, and recombined at the next bridge. This procedure is called preemption. It minimizes the size of the guard band, eliminates latency and congestion loss, and maximizes timeslot utilization (i.e., best-effort traffic throughput).

Preemption

TSN boundaries

At the end of each time slot, the TAS creates a short time window called a guard band. Its purpose is to ensure that the transmission of best-effort frames do not spill over into, and therefore delay, high-priority frames in the next slot. Often, best-effort frames are relatively large. In this case, the guard band must be as large as the transmission time for the potentially largest frame. The TAS is inefficient with its bandwidth in this way. Instead, time-aware bridges can calculate the transmission time of these large best-effort frames and then decide whether they can complete their transmission by the

This illustration shows how traffic from outside a TSN domain can be interspersed with time-sensitive traffic to enable converged networks.

In converged networks, it is likely that a TSN domain will be connected to non-TSN capable devices, or even another TSN domain. Ports on bridges connected to devices outside the TSN domain are known as boundary ports. To protect network resources inside the domain, boundary ports invoke a function known as the ingress rate limiter. If we return to the vehicles on a roadway analogy, the ingress rate limiter works like a highway onramp traffic light. The light regulates the access of vehicles to the motorway based on the traffic density on the highway. These TSN boundaries are smarter than

This illustration depicts the operation of the Network Management Engine, handling the configuration of a TSN network.

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your typical traffic light, however. They can individually assign priorities, effectively allowing vehicles to join the HOV lanes directly. In technical terms, this is the remapping of priorities and VLAN assignments.

Network management engine

If all of this sounds terribly complex, that’s because it is! Even Ethernet today, if you were intimately aware of its inner workings, is quite complex. And yet, Ethernet is incredibly easy to use. The same applies to these complex TSN features. The software that enables and handles these mechanisms, according to IEC/ IEEE 60802, is the TSN Domain Management Entity (TDME). Within Profinet, we call this the Network Management Engine (NME). The NME takes care of all calculations, planning, configuration, and resource allocation to make the administration of a TSN network easy—if not invisible to a user. You may be asking yourself: Why do all of this? Don’t some features like these already exist in certain industrial Ethernet protocols (e.g., Profinet)? The answer is yes, but we’re not in it for the features, we’re in it for the benefits they yield. For example, because of IEEE standardization, a wide variety of hardware is available thanks to off-the-shelf TSN-capable Ethernet chips. This is beneficial to automation component vendors as it lowers costs and drives competition among technology providers. For end-users, the benefits are clear: Converged networks based on TSN enable plugand-produce manufacturing. New machine and network concepts are now made possible by this technology.

7/27/21 2:25 PM

AW AUGUST 2021 / SPONSORED CONTENT

How Cyber-Physical Systems Extend Mechatronic Capabilities As exemplified by the Festo Motion Terminal, the use of cyber-physical systems is extending the capabilities of automated devices—even pneumatic ones—in preparation for Industry 4.0. By Philipp Wahl, Product Marketing Manager, Festo

mart cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are completely new and are set to increase production and make it much more flexible by enabling autonomous production with self-regulating systems. As such, they are also set to change traditional processes in the value chain by simplifying them—this is what we call digital simplicity. An example of the kind of smart CPS I’m referring to is the Festo Motion Terminal, which is being used to future-proof new plants for machine and system builders as well as for operators. With its digital pneumatics, the Festo Motion Terminal combines maximum standardization with a very high level of flexibility. It is also enabling Festo to propel pneumatics into the age of Industry 4.0. The technology behind the Festo Motion Terminal unites the benefits of traditional pneumatics with those of controlled and complex electrical motion. Despite the simplicity, it integrates more functionalities than conventional technology.

Intelligent automation

The trend in automation towards networked, decentralized, and intelligent systems with optimum function integration is unstoppable because technical and economic requirements are constantly on the increase. The demand for additional features, such as the interpretation of environmental information, is also on the rise in the age of Industry 4.0. New communication opportunities, including the ability of components to communicate with each other, are opening up completely new areas of activity. This not only allows for more specific preventive maintenance, but also clears the way for autonomous produc-

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The Festo Motion Terminal. Source: Festo tion with self-regulating systems. Because automation needs to continually be ever faster and more diverse, as well as more flexible and more intelligent, greater availability and flexibility are required along with productivity, energy efficiency, and cost-effective just-in-time production down to batch size of one. However, this is where conventional mechatronic systems reach their limits.

Cyber-physical systems

Digitization will profoundly alter the world of production. For the first time, cyber-physical systems are enabling solutions that combine mechanical systems, electronics, and software. CPSs also prepare systems for Industry 4.0 applications, including pneumatics. Compared with modular mechatronic systems, CPSs offer an impressive combination of maximum standardization and a very high level of flexibility. Since the Festo Motion

Terminal uncouples pneumatic functions from the mechanical hardware and makes them available via apps, a wide range of pneumatic motion tasks can be performed with just a single valve type. This offers many measurable benefits along the entire value chain. The Festo Motion Terminal as a CPS solution enables complex movements like gentle retraction into the end position as well as various speed profiles or positioning tasks that were formerly only possible with servo-pneumatics or electrical automation. It also makes it easy to realize a wide range of functions such as condition monitoring and preventive maintenance while reducing energy consumption. Any higher purchase costs associated with CPSs are quickly compensated for by hugely simplified processes, increased productivity, and process reliability.

7/27/21 2:25 PM

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28 MES AND SCADA AW AUGUST 2021

The growing overlap in functionalities between MES and SCADA are likely to continue with tighter integration in pursuit of a single pane of glass.

By Beth Stackpole Contributing Writer

Ve increasing signs of overlap between SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and MES (manufacturing execution systems), the two automation mainstays are more likely to co-exist as a tightly knit couple rather than re-emerging as a single powerhouse manufacturing platform. SCADA systems tend to the sub-second communications work of devices such as PLCs and sensors to monitor and control the nitty-gritty machinations of shop floor equipment and workflows. MESs operate at a higher level, serving as a control center for oversight of production scheduling, quality control, and traceability, among other critical operational aspects. As a result, these systems have historically been siloed to target different aspects of the manufacturing spectrum. But their functions have started to coalesce. SCADA is being augmented with advanced functionality such

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as built-in intelligence, relational databases, and limited track-and-trace capabilities, and MES systems are taking a turn with real-time production monitoring and direct communications with growing and more sophisticated sensor networks. Rather than one system enveloping all the functionality of the other or coming together as a consolidated replacement, experts say the platforms’ shared destiny is tighter integration and a blurring of the lines as manufacturers strive for that so-called “single pane of glass” that is the key to faster and more effective decision making. “It’s not about MES vs. SCADA, it’s about what people are trying to achieve,” says Ranbir Saini, director of product management, automation software, at GE Digital. “That’s all about increased efficiency, reduction in costs, and making personnel more effective. To do so, requires a single pane of glass, especially

with operators today more technically savvy and expecting a unified experience on a tablet.” With the single pane of glass concept, plant floor operators, supervisors, and other manufacturing professionals can gain access to all the data they need about individual equipment assets, line performance, and top-line factory floor metrics in consolidated dashboards and visualizations as opposed to the siloed data points and myriad HMI screens of the past. “In the end, the MES or SCADA [debate] simply describes a set of capabilities that support interoperability and data exchange in a contextualized way so everyone can see all the data and make use of it for informed decision making,” Saini explains.

Two speeds of operation

As the missions of MES and SCADA merge around device data acquisition, visualization, and overlapping functionality, it raises

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the possibility for convergence. But there are reasons why a wholesale consolidation of MES and SCADA systems doesn’t make much sense. Viewing the systems through the lens of the ISA 95 or Purdue Model, a hierarchical structure for industrial communications, SCADA systems operate on Level Two, meaning a sub-second rate to exchange real-time, time-series data with PLCs and other low-level controls. MES, on the other hand, operates on a much lengthier time scale—as opposed to sub-second control data, MES serves as a transactionbased system, drawing on data in hours or sometimes even days and weeks. Consider the real-world example of monitoring a batch tank. SCADA is monitoring temperature every second; if a change outside the range is detected, a course correction is initiated to bring temperature back in line. MES is also concerned about tank temperature, but from the point of view of whether the out-of-spec reading is cause for an exception that will ensure future quality control. “The systems operate off a different time

scale—SCADA is tied to time-series data like monitoring temperature at a very fast tempo to ensure safety and that everything is working properly,” explains Rashesh Mody, senior vice president and head of monitoring and control at Aveva. “When combining millisecond data with the larger timescale of MES transaction systems, it is more difficult [and] with a lot of coordination involved.” The differences in speed also affects the protocols each system uses to interface with other systems. SCADA leans on industrial protocols like OPC, EtherNet/IP, and Modbus while MES supports a wider range of protocols because it needs to talk to SCADA and other business systems like ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, typically using web services and other protocols through the protection of a firewall. Despite these differences, the argument for “flattening the stack” and consolidating platforms lies in the fact that both systems are pulling from the same data sources and thus could benefit from the opportunity to streamline the human interface, notes Sam Russem, direc-

tor of smart manufacturing for Grantek, a systems integration firm. “It can simplify the experience for operators and everyday users of the systems,” says Russem, explaining that, oftentimes, line operators in charge of running equipment need to interact with the production scheduling system to determine specific recipe instructions or tap into data that can help address equipment alarms. “In older systems, the scheduling happens in MES and the control of equipment in SCADA,” he adds. “The idea of having all that information presented to one person who needs it through a single interface makes the experience smoother.” In fact, Grantek has worked with a manufacturer to integrate MES functions into a SCADA backbone to much success. By adding MES-like functions—like calling out to the ERP to pull down production orders and using that data to schedule orders on a line via SCADA— the manufacturer was able to reduce overall infrastructure costs while providing centralized data visualization for operators. “By designing SCADA screens with access to MES

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30 MES AND SCADA AW AUGUST 2021

GE's vision is for a single pain of glass that affords manufacturing personnel access to key data in a contextualized way, eliminating data silos and enabling smarter decision making. Source: GE Digital data or vice versa, there’s an opportunity to think about screens in ways you couldn’t have before and add value to what operators and planners are doing every day,” Russem says. “Part of the convergence story is breaking down data silos and data democratization.”

Data to the people

Recognizing the need for eliminating silos of data in manufacturing, providers of SCADA and MES software are adding features that blur the lines between the two platforms through tighter integration and an embrace of open standards. At Inductive Automation, the convergence of MES and SCADA is possible through the modularity of its Ignition server platform that leverages open technologies like OPC UA and MQTT to serve as a hub for plant floor resources. With this approach, Sepasoft’s MES modules can plug directly into Ignition as an add-on to address a variety of MES functions from a combined platform—for example, product genealogy, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), downtime, statistical process control (SPC), recipes, and connection to an ERP system. “Organizations are tired of having silos due to proprietary solutions, lack of integration options, and legacy pricing models,” says Travis Cox, co-director of sales engineering at Inductive Automation. “In the age of digital transformation or Industry 4.0, organizations want to bend the worlds of OT and IT, bring systems together, achieve greater access to data, and provide data to more people.” The benefit of a “merged” platform is the single pane of glass, which allows operators to get SCADA and MES data on the same screen with a higher level of context, without having to toggle between disparate systems, Cox says. In addition, developing in a single, unified platform avoids the complexity of different development environments and mapping the same data to multiple places. “While Ignition provides integration with third-party

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MES or business solutions, it can be difficult to get the systems to work together without documented APIs (application programming interfaces) or open standards,” he explains. “With a unified development environment, you can solve challenges and build solutions faster. It also lays a foundation for the future… via the ability to expand the system.” The notion of a “merged” MES/SCADA platform might work at the level of a single asset or even small manufacturing line, but in most instances the call is for fully featured, best-of-breed platforms that support a higher level of integration than what’s been delivered in the past, contends Aveva’s Mody. Key to the Aveva vision for higher-level integration is a model-driven architecture that bridges its System Platform SCADA and InTouch HMI platforms with MES and other enterprise software. The model-driven architecture allows modular MES applications to be deployed for greater extensibility and ease of customization along with the ability to define operational practices as digital workflows that can cut across applications. Rockwell Automation has melded its core platform by adding some MES-like track-andtrace functionality at the SCADA level, but its real focus is on integration—albeit, integration of a different kind than a direct linkage of MES and SCADA. “In the past, integration would be a project; you’d take MES data and send it down to the SCADA level, but there were different data structures and a lot of transformation required,” explains Todd Montpas, a product manager in Rockwell’s MES business. “Now we’re making it simple and easy to do.” The simplification comes through “smart objects,” the construct for identifying discoverable data points and the data relationship model, which is now configured at the control level as part of the tag structure. This approach streamlines the integration process even before the machine sets foot on the plant floor, Montpas says.

Beyond higher-level integration between the two platforms, contextualization is another big part of the convergence story. GE addresses this via custom views and rolespecific dashboards, which transform data from myriad platforms and resources into insights that drive better decision making. For DelmiaWorks, formally IQMS and now part of Dassault Systemes, adding SCADA-like capabilities such as real-time production process monitoring to its MES platform has been a priority, but the reality is SCADA systems aren’t going anywhere, so integrating and optimizing use of that data is central to a co-existence strategy. “Our platform from day one has been able to integrate SCADA data and continue to add value at the MES level by bringing greater adaptive and contextual intelligence into the data,” notes Louis Columbus, principal of DelmiaWorks and senior industry marketing manager at Dassault Systemes. Even with siloed or blended replacement scenarios off the table, contextualization and integration efforts will continue to foster a more intelligent and productive partnership between SCADA and MES. “It’s not about one system replacing the other—it’s about sharing data both systems provide,” says Oliver Gruner, Iconics’ corporate account director at Mitsubishi Electric. “It’s using the best parts of both systems to turn data into information.”

Learn why the Purdue Model may no longer be relevant. awgo.to/1228

7/28/21 10:58 AM

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32 AUTOMATION TRENDS AW AUGUST 2021

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7/28/21 10:58 AM

AUTOMATION TRENDS 33 AW AUGUST 2021

Top 5 Spending Areas Data Acquisition and Analytics Cloud computing Cybersecurity Software/ IoT Platform Software

Data Acquisition and Analytics/IoT Platform Software

IoT Platform Software

Cybersecurity Software

Data Acquisition and Analytics

Remote Access

Sensors

Simulation/Digital Twin

Robots/Cobots

Edge Computing

Cybersecurity/ Cloud Computing

discrete manufacturing

continuous processing

batch manufacturing

not make it into the top five for discrete manufacturers. However, cybersecurity, which ranked third for discrete manufacturers, also ranked third for continuous processors. Rounding out the top five for continuous processors are two technology categories that did not rank among the top five for either discrete or batch manufacturers. These technologies were simulation/digital twin and edge computing. “These results fit with the idea that digital transformation is driven by advanced process optimization and other data-centric initiatives, and that is certainly what we see from our customers,” said Josh Eastburn, director of technical marketing at Opto 22. “They are seeking faster, more efficient data acquisition options to feed and expand essential process monitoring and maintenance analytics, to connect these systems to others, and to use that data and connectivity to gain new insights.” Kevin Finnan, Yokogawa industry consultant, noted that nearly all continuous process industry digital transformation programs deploy technologies such as advanced analytics, IoT, digital twins, cloud, and edge technologies. “The primary application of our edge

technology is for high-speed processing where the cloud would introduce too much latency. For example, our AI-based pump cavitation solution with IoT sensing has a cycle time of 100 milliseconds. Another key reason for edge deployment is to isolate intellectual property from the internet. To address this issue, many end users are operating proprietary analytics and control algorithms in edge devices rather than in the cloud.” Pointing to the pandemic as a major driver of remote access technology use in continuous processing, Finnan said, before last year “only a few of our customers were using it. Most of the industry had been avoiding it over cybersecurity concerns. Now, remote access has been incorporated into digital transformation programs. Some users have even realized more benefits than expected. For instance, we’ve conducted numerous virtual factory acceptance tests. Our customers have been able to meet all testing objectives—without the time, costs, and scheduling issues involved with travel.” “I think [this shows] we are in the data revolution,” said Jesse Hill, process industry manager at Beckhoff Automation in response

aving assessed the responses to our survey of technology suppliers about expected automation purchasing and use trends in the discrete (awgo.to/1161) and batch manufacturing (awgo.to/1188) industries, we now turn our attention to the continuous processing industries. This survey was designed to help us better understand how automation technology suppliers see their customers reacting to the economic and societal changes that impacted industry in 2020. Just as we found overlaps in expected spending trends between the discrete and batch manufacturing industries, a few of the same overlaps exist with the continuous processing industries as well. For example, IoT (Internet of Things) platform software, which ranked in first place for batch manufacturers and third place for discrete manufacturing, tied for first place for continuous processing with data acquisition and analytics (which came in first place for discrete manufacturers and third place for batch manufacturers). Remote access, which ranked second for batch manufacturers also ranked second for continuous processors. This technology did

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7/28/21 11:43 AM

34 AUTOMATION TRENDS AW AUGUST 2021

Simulation using MatLab/Simulink, which can speed up commissioning efforts and increase system availability, can be performed in the TwinCAT environment. Source: Beckhoff Automation

to a review of the top five spending areas projected for continuous processors. “For instance, most instruments don’t provide just a process variable. They often also provide data on the health of the device and even configuration or parameterization data, all of which is valuable. The problem then is how to make that data useful while also having the bandwidth to transmit that data. This is where technologies like edge computing can be very useful…to process live information and take action on premises rather than having to send massive amounts of data up to the cloud first. This approach reduces bandwidth use and also reduces latency.”

Digital transformation drivers

Focusing on the perceived benefits driving digital transformation projects in the continuous processing industries, Aaron Crews, director for modernization solutions and consulting at Emerson said, “Continuous processing organizations often embrace digital transformation to increase performance by reducing variability, improve throughput and

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quality, reduce unplanned downtime, and drive down production costs.” To do this, they need access to the critical production data residing in the control system. “Not only is it important to gain access to that data, but it also needs to be moved securely to the enterprise level,” he said. “Legacy control systems may not support the secure digital technologies that organizations need to access all the data that moves through the control system. To enable their digital transformation, many organizations are modernizing their control systems and moving toward new advanced control software that allows them to enhance their levels of automation and leverage techniques like state-based control. Many of them are doing this by digitalizing control systems and adding edge gateways that put data in context and builds a smart manufacturing infrastructure from the field to the enterprise. Once the right people have access to plant data in context—whether in the plant or in the business office—they can more effectively improve control strategies to make the nec-

essary improvements.” Michael Risse, vice president and chief marketing officer at Seeq, concurred with Crews’ observations about quality, yield, availability, uptime, and throughput driving the digital transformation in continuous processing, adding that sustainability has also joined this list. He noted that Seeq’s customers are increasingly focusing on carbon capture, renewable energy, optimization of energy and water use, as well as greenhouse gas detection and mitigation. “Everything comes back to improved performance and looking at the cloud and analytics to make a material difference—and soon—in business and production metrics,” he said. “This is in the context of oil going negative last spring, demand swings due to COVID-19, and the rebound that’s expected in months ahead, [that’s why it’s] time to land innovation to drive impact including cloud via IoT platforms, data with new sensor deployments, and execution at the edge. Of course, across all of this is advanced analytics for insights and improved outcomes.”

7/27/21 2:16 PM

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36 AUTOMATION TRENDS AW AUGUST 2021

Simulation and digital twin

One automation technology area that ranked among the top five categories only in the continuous process vertical was simulation. This technology has been used widely for years in the oil and gas industry as a means of operator training. It has also been adapted for virtual reality immersive training applications. Beyond these training uses, the bigger potential for simulation technologies in the continuous process vertical, as well as the discrete and batch industries, is in digital twin applications. Explaining the higher interest in simulation technologies in the continuous process industries, Beckhoff’s Hill said, “Process control systems have a unique scope and scale in terms of deployment and commissioning. A typical DCS (distributed control system) or control system upgrade or migration requires a shutdown of the process; and anytime a process stops, so does revenue generation. As a result, upgrades and migration projects within the process industry are typically done less frequently and on a larger scale than in discrete manufacturing. Therefore, anything that can be done to decrease the timeline of the shutdown or turnaround is critical. Simulation using MatLab/Simulink and digital twin technologies provide benefits in many areas, such as virtual FATs (factory acceptance tests) and commissioning, to ensure a swift, smooth and efficient upgrade or migration with reduced downtime.” As to why increased spending on simulation technologies is expected more highly in the continuous processing industries as compared to discrete manufacturing, Emerson’s Crews said, “Much of the choice around simulation comes down to the need to reduce risk to processes and personnel, and those needs break down differently in discrete and continuous manufacturing. Discrete industries are often used to operating with lower overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and uptime metrics than continuous manufacturing, where 90% or higher uptime is common. There are many strategic levers that organizations can pull in discrete industries to improve operations before they choose to explore simulation. Discrete manufacturers also commonly use less-complex processes with fewer gradations in production quality than continuous processing plants. In continuous processing, simulation is critical for identifying how the repercussions of a changed setpoint will cascade across the

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process, requiring testing of a wide range of options to determine an ideal. The equipment adjustments necessary to improve performance in discrete processes are no less essential, but they are less likely to have cascading effects across the process.” Finnan added that several Yokogawa customers continue to operate linear programming models and have recently added artificial intelligence and digital twins. “Operators can use digital twins to create high-fidelity models for performance monitoring, simulation, and optimization to deliver enhanced yield performance, flow assurance, energyefficiency improvement, enhanced reliability, and operator-capability assurance,” he said. “Understanding when and where products are in demand allows end user companies to adjust production and labor needs while exploiting market opportunities. Data analytics that operators derive from digital twin applications are invaluable when predicting market demand.” As much potential as digital twin technologies hold for the continuous processing industries, Seeq’s Risse said that some users in this vertical are “frustrated by the digital twin language. They’ve been building models of processes and assets for decades and consider the digital twin language to be marketing hype. With the data in historians and context from manufacturing applications, advanced analytics, and an asset framework—such as OSIsoft PI—there is a lot you can do with the real data, not a twin of it. But asset models in place are too few and far in between; perhaps [increasing interest in] digital twin highlights the lack of asset frameworks.”

The control divide

When thinking about control systems in continuous processing, distributed control systems (DCS) tend to come to mind first. But the reality is that programmable logic controllers—the common controller used in discrete manufacturing—are used widely in continuous processing as well. The push toward greater levels of open systems use across industries appears to be driving higher levels of interest in PLC use in continuous processing. “We are absolutely seeing that [increased interest in PLCs versus DCS] across all process industries,” said Beckhoff’s Hill. “Historically, DCSs have been closed, proprietary systems that rely on a specialized workforce. They also limit vendor choices across the process infrastructure, whether it be control

and I/O systems, communication media, or instrumentation and sensing. As the convergence of IT and OT organizations and systems continues—with IT having more influence in decisions across the enterprise—process engineers will look even more for open solutions that are scalable and that their current workforce understands.” According to Emerson’s Crews, much of the recent use of more robust PLCs in processing comes from adopting functionality that “used to be more common in a DCS,” he said. “New and automated connectivity options between PLCs, or between a PLC and a DCS, help users avoid creating islands of automation and stranding data. While the DCS is still the most efficient and effective solution for most continuous manufacturers, PLCs have adapted to a wider variety of use cases than in the past.” He added that continuous processors are also “embracing controllers designed to operate standalone—for processes that aren’t yet DCS ready.” Crews said these controllers can be “natively integrated into control systems for fast scale-up or scale-out as an organization expands manufacturing. These systems offer many of the flexibility benefits of a PLC and can also provide a single database with a smart I/O infrastructure and distributed control to meet the critical goal of keeping data in context flowing to all levels of the organization.” Further clarifying continuous processors’ increasing interest in PLCs, Yokogawa’s Finnan said, “The continuous process industries are using PLCs more in OEM, skid-mounted equipment, and process units. While the PLCs are tightly integrated in those units, they interface with the DCS that controls the entire plant process. In our case, we have developed PLC interface applications that allow engineers to considerably reduce the number of project hours required for integration, testing, and commissioning.” Finnan added, however, that Yokogawa is not seeing a major trend away from DCSs toward PLCs in continuous processing. “The PLCs apply best to non-critical equipment and processes, whereas the DCSs are used for critical processes and those in which downtime is very expensive,” he said.

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38 CASE STUDY AW AUGUST 2021

Credit: Noosa Yoghurt

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7/27/21 2:15 PM

CASE STUDY 39 AW AUGUST 2021

fruit flavor in a 40-minute changeover process that repeats 12-13 times per week. In addition to the TDC for clean-in-place (CIP) procedures, Noosa lost about 15.5 lbs. of product during each cleaning cycle—totaling more than 200 lbs. of product lost each week. Second, Noosa was losing 115 lbs. of product each time the honey-recirculation line was cleaned, for weekly losses totaling 345 lbs. Finally, depending on the specific product recipe running through the blending skid, Noosa lost an additional 65-95 lbs. of product each week during cleaning. Beyond those product losses, Noosa was using water and chemical rinses to power through lines filled with product. All-in-all, Noosa recognized the potential to save thousands of dollars each month through better product recovery and system cleaning. One way that Noosa looked to improve the evacuation of its product lines and increase product recovery was through check valves, which are used to push residual product downstream at the end of a process while preventing product backfill during cleaning. Nick Hansen, Noosa’s improvement engineer, set out to find a sanitary air blow check valve to do the job.

Capable of clean in place

rocess downtime can be costly. Almost 80% of facilities are unable to estimate their downtime accurately, and those that try often underestimate their total downtime cost (TDC) by 200-300%. Processors who take reducing TDC seriously have the potential for a massive ROI through process improvements. Located 70 miles north of Denver in a small agricultural community, Noosa Yoghurt has grown quickly in the nine years since selling at local farmers markets to distribution nationwide. With this rapid growth has come a need for increased output to meet demand—and, in turn, the need to find new ways to decrease downtime for system cleaning while maintaining sanitary standards and increasing product recovery.

Reducing lost time and product

Noosa sought to improve its processing and reduce TDC in three primary areas. First, fruit line piping must be cleaned after each

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The downside of standard 3-A certified air blow check valves is that they must be cleaned out of place—a manual cleaning step that adds costly downtime and introduces the possibility of human error. Because food, dairy, and beverage products are intended for human consumption, sanitary standards for production are high, and a great deal of attention must be focused on valve cleaning. But every manual step added to the cleaning process creates a potential failure point, so Hansen wanted to avoid the standard check valves. After extensive web searches, Hansen found the TrueClean CIP’able air blow check valve, which he and his director of quality knew immediately was the best option. The patented valve from Central States Industrial (CSI) is the only sanitary air blow check valve approved by 3-A Sanitary Standards for cleaning in place. With an air blow check valve that wouldn’t need to be disassembled to clean, Noosa could increase cleaning efficiency while also maintaining product integrity. With increased levels of automation as well, Noosa operators could cut 40 minutes of work during a flavor changeover down to 45 seconds. Multiplying those savings by 13 changeovers per week,

the savings started adding up. “It was a no brainer to make the purchase,” Hansen says.

How it works

The TrueClean CIP’able air blow check valve has a compact design that can easily replace an existing standard air blow check valve. Typical uses include air agitation, air-drying lines, and product recovery. While product is flowing, the primary valve stem is closed, preventing backflow into the air line. A secondary o-ring seals the air line. When air pressure is applied to the primary air inlet, both the primary and secondary seals open to allow air to flow into the process line. During CIP, air is applied to the actuator inlet to open the primary valve stem while keeping the air line closed. CIP fluid flows around the primary valve stem and within the valve internals, thoroughly cleaning the unit.

Quick benefits and ROI

The automation and pre-programming capabilities also simplified the product changeover process. “The automation allows us to fine-tune our process to make sure we can recover as much product from each line as possible,” says Chris Rivoire, automation engineer for Noosa. “The changeover process is a moment where a lot of different things need to happen. Having this level of automation gives us more time to do those other tasks—it’s more time, at the right time.” Just six months after the new valves had been installed, Noosa had already realized $16,000 in savings—full ROI in just two months. In addition to the increased recovery, Noosa has been able to save about 19 minutes of operator time during each flavor changeover. That equates to more than 200 personnel hours per year—five weeks worth of work—that operators can use for completing other tasks. Based on these results, Noosa expects that implementing 13 more valves across all of its processing lines will save the company $350,000 a year. A system upgrade that prevents waste and does not sacrifice cleanliness standards also aligns with Noosa’s company culture and brand. “Since the beginning, Noosa has always focused on using our minds, with new technologies, to ensure we continue to produce the best yogurt in the world,” Rivoire says. “These new valves fit right in line with those ideas.”

7/27/21 2:15 PM

40 NEW PRODUCTS AW AUGUST 2021

High-Precision Solenoid Pump

Spartan Scientific, spartanscientific.com The SSDP from Spartan Scientific is a miniature fixed-displacement solenoid pump. The pump was designed to meet the rigorous requirements of demanding industrial environments. The SSDP works like an automatic syringe. An internal diaphragm uses little power to draw media into the device when energized and expels and seals off flow when deactivated, eliminating the need for an external shut-off valve. This process is repeated to deliver the necessary amount of media based on the application requirement. The pump is also capable of self-priming when located up to three meters above its fluid reservoir. In addition, manual priming is possible by cycling the pump rapidly until no bubbles are visible in the outlet tube or by applying a vacuum to the outlet after the pump is actuated to draw fluid. Once primed, each valve should yield a consistent dose volume. Operating frequency can be varied up to 5 Hz to affect the flow rate of the pump.

High-Flex Cable Assemblies

L-com, l-com.com These short, flexible Cat 5e cable assemblies feature a high bend radius that can be routed in small spaces without loss of performance. The Ethernet cable assemblies are available in 15 cm to 10 m lengths and feature SF/UTP double-shielded TPU jackets with RJ45 connectors. Each assembly has been fluke tested to channel standards and are wired to the TIA 568B. They are suited for use in tight spaces and are designed to bend or be routed at tighter angles than standard cables. Possible applications include: Data centers, enterprise networks, industrial networks, and any other application where space is confined.

Profinet Option Card

Hardy Process Solutions, hardysolutions.com This Profinet Option Card from Hardy Process Solutions works with the company’s HI 4050+ weight controller. Profinet is a fieldbus protocol compatible with Siemens PLCs that is widely used in Europe, Asia, and Latin America and is increasing in popularity in the United States. The Hardy implementation supports two-port Profinet with MRP (Media Redundancy Protocol), which enables the HI 4050+ to join into a ring topology network (Conformance Class B or CC-B). The card installs in the communications options slot and automatically scans for Profinet networks.

Pneumatic Valves

Festo, festo.us Festo recently introduced the manually operated VHEF and the mechanically operated VMEF pneumatic valves. Whether the valve is triggered by a workpiece, a component, or a person, manual and mechanical valves are the most direct way to control a process. VHEF and VMEF do not require energy conversion, additional reaction time, or long cables. The actuated plunger switches the valve and triggers the next step in the process. Given that conditions in the field are sometimes harsh, for example with sawdust in furniture production, these manual and mechanical valves are designed to withstand environmental stresses.

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7/27/21 2:15 PM

NEW PRODUCTS 41 AW AUGUST 2021

Network Security Proxy Device

Rockwell Automation, rockwellautomation.com Industrial companies can now implement CIP Security expansively in their systems with the Allen-Bradley CIP Security Proxy. The CIP Security Proxy allows users to implement CIP Security on most devices on their network to protect plant operations, even with older systems. The CIP Security Proxy helps to provide security to the entire network by working with EtherNet/IP-compliant devices. CIP Security is part of the defense-indepth strategy, which can help defend against attacks where threat actors can remotely access a network and act maliciously. With the ability to provide CIP Security for a single device, a layer of security is added that can help protect the system.

Arduino-Compatible Controller

AutomationDirect, automationdirect.com The open-source ProductivityOpen platform provides all the features of a standard Arduino plus the added power and reliability of an industrial controller. The processor circuit of the P1AM-100 Arduino-compatible CPU is designed to mimic the Arduino MKRZero microcontroller. The P1AM-100 is compatible with most available Arduino MKR format shields, and/or the industrially-hardened ProductivityOpen shields, and can utilize most Arduino sketch programs found on open-source websites. Using the Arduino integrated development environment, the P1AM-100 is programmed using C++ code; the ProductivityBlocks graphical programming interface uses a more visual approach that simplifies coding and reduces syntax errors.

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7/27/21 2:14 PM

42 INDUSTRY VIEW AW AUGUST 2021

Manufacturing Trends and Technologies in the Automotive Industry By Dick Slansky Senior Analyst, ARC Advisory Group

utomakers began to reinvent themselves as digital companies a few years back, but now that they are emerging from the business trauma of the pandemic, the need to complete the digitalization journey is more urgent than ever. They will have no choice as more technology-focused competitors adopt and implement digital twinenabled production systems and move forward with electric vehicles (EVs), connected vehicle services, and eventually autonomous vehicles. Car makers will make some tough decisions to bring software development inhouse and some will even start building their own vehicle-dedicated operating systems and computer processors or partner with some of the chip makers to develop next-generation operating systems and chips to run on-board systems for future autonomous vehicles.

How AI is changing production operations

Automotive assembly areas and production lines are using artificial intelligence (AI) applications in several ways. These include new generations of smart robots, human-machine interaction, and advanced quality assurance methods. While AI is being used extensively in vehicle design, car makers also currently use AI and machine learning (ML) in their manufacturing processes. Robotics in assembly lines is nothing new and have been used for decades. However, these were robots in cages that operated in strictly defined spaces and did not permit any human incursion for safety reasons. With AI, smart collaborative robots can work with their human counterparts in a shared assembly environment. Collaborative robots use AI to detect and sense what human workers are doing and adjust their motions to avoid injuring

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their human co-workers. Painting and welding robots, when powered by AI algorithms, can do more than just follow a pre-programmed routine. AI allows them to identify defects or irregularities in materials and components and to adapt the process accordingly, or to issue quality assurance alerts. AI is also being used to model and simulate production lines, machines, and equipment, and to improve the overall throughput of the production process. AI enables production simulation to go beyond a one-time simulation of a pre-determined process scenario to dynamic simulations, which can adapt to changing conditions, the state of materials and machines, and alter the simulation. These simulations can subsequently adapt production processes in real time.

The rise of additive manufacturing for production parts

Using 3D printing to fabricate production parts is now an established part of automotive production, and this industry is second only to aerospace and defense in the use of additive manufacturing (AM) for production. Most vehicles produced today have a wide assortment of AM fabricated parts incorporated into the overall assembly. This includes a range of automotive parts from engine components, gears, gearboxes, brake components, headlamps, body kits, bumpers, fuel tanks, grills, and fenders, to frame construction. Some car makers are even printing complete bodies for small EVs. For the burgeoning EV market, AM will be especially significant in terms of weight reduction. While this has always been desirable for traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles for improving fuel efficiency, this concern is more important than ever since lower weight can mean much longer battery life between charges. Additionally, battery weight itself is a downside to EVs where the batteries can add more than a thousand extra pounds to a midsized EV. Automotive components can be designed specifically for AM fabrication to be much lighter with a vastly improved weight-tostrength ratio. Almost every part in every type of vehicle can now be made lighter through AM fabrication rather than the use of metals.

Digital twin optimizes production systems

By using a digital twin in automotive production, it is possible to plan the entire manufacturing process in a fully virtual environment before physically building production lines, conveyance systems, and robotic work cells, or installing automation and controls. Because of its real-time characteristics, a digital twin can simulate a system while it is operational. This allows manufacturers to monitor the system, create models for adjustments, and make changes to the system. The implementation of a digital twin enables the optimization of each phase of the production process. Capturing sensor data throughout the functional components of the system provides essential feedback, enables predictive and prescriptive analytics, and minimizes unplanned downtime. Additionally, virtual commissioning of the automotive production line works in conjunction with the digital twin process by validating the operation of the controls and automation functions and providing the baseline operation of the system.

Recommendations

The automotive industry is entering a new era, challenged by the imperative to move to an entirely new product based on a complete change in propulsion used for mobility. The change from ICE vehicles to EVs is being mandated because of the clear need to reduce carbon emission output and mitigate the increasing warming of our planet. The automotive industry is meeting the challenge to design and manufacture the next generation of EVs by embracing emerging technologies to make radical changes to its manufacturing processes. Additionally, they have embraced the science and technology of AI and AM along with implementation of the digital twin to meet these challenges. Other industries would be well served to follow the example of the automotive industry in using technology and science to move their industries into the 21st century.

7/28/21 10:57 AM

INTEGRATOR VIEW 43 AW AUGUST 2021

T�ree Scale-Up Pitfalls for Manufacturers By Gary Powell Vice President of Life Sciences, E Technologies Group

eing involved in developing a manufacturing scale-up project, especially for an early-stage company, can be similar to being in the “fog of war”—when you’re in the middle of a battle, things are coming out of nowhere and 95% of the plans you’ve made are going out of the window. The landscape is constantly changing and you can’t see a way out of it. We’ve navigated many of these manufacturing scale-up projects with companies and have seen some common scale-up pitfalls. These are our top three:

Pitfall No. 1: Believing that you can just hand the project off to someone else

It can be tempting to believe that, once you’ve brought an automation integrator onto the project team, that you’ve just solved a big problem and now you can focus on other big problems. Expecting your automation supplier to just “go away” and come up with a design that will fit your needs isn’t a good plan. The process needs to be collaborative for it to have a good outcome. At this stage of a scale-up project, there will be a lot of effort around establishing requirements, exploration, discovery, and iteration. We don’t want to burden the client, but they’re hiring us to help them and that requires a feedback loop, being able to make decisions and recognition as a partner and not a simple transaction-handler. A good automation integrator can effectively drive and manage this process while the client’s needs are evolving (often daily or weekly), and there isn’t a lot of static information. The first question on the client’s mind is how much is hiring an automation integrator going to cost me? More often than not,

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there is no way to accurately estimate what it will take at this early stage. We try to make that very clear and suggest establishing an agreed-upon set of deliverables and a budget that we’re all working towards. We give our clients transparency on the rate at which the budget is being spent and on what the progress towards deliverables is. If something in the project changes, being in that constant feedback loop also gives clients the control to more effectively manage how the budget is spent. If a change occurs and the project needs to pivot, we can discuss and agree on how we’ll best use the remaining budget. This also gives clients the ability to pause or shut down certain aspects of the effort that might have shifted to a lessor priority.

Pitfall No. 2: Wanting what you used to have

Most of the people we work with have come from other manufacturing companies with relevant experience and have that as a reference point for their automation requirements. One of the challenges is that they are used to a more established company with a more mature manufacturing environment and that becomes the basis for what they want to implement. But, as my dad used to say, this often creates a “champagne diet with a Kool-Aid budget” problem and being able to scale back their expectations can be challenging. The company’s upper management know what they want at a high-level and have real project constraints pertaining to money and time. The project team is challenged with taking high-level requirements and turning them into usable detailed requirements and solutions—not all of which fit within the project constraints. The project team members are thinking about where they came from and the automation bells and whistles they had at their prior companies, which often leads to misalignment and ongoing adjustments between their expectations and reality. An effective automation consultant can help resolve the champagne/Kool-Aid conflict by doing things like coming up with creative alternative solutions, helping differentiate true “needs” from “wants”, and developing rough cost and time estimates to help clients make informed decisions.

Pitfall No. 3: You don’t know what you don’t know— and fail to recognize it

It’s one thing for a client to keep having to lower expectations as described in Pitfall No. 2 but it’s all the more difficult with this last pitfall. Often, by the time we are brought on to a scale-up project, we are presented with a litany of rough automation goals along with a preconceived set of ideas on what it takes to implement these requirements—as determined by folks who are not automation engineers but like to play them on TV. Many times, these preconceived ideas are not aligned with an automation engineer’s reality, and we can spend quite a bit of time trying to calibrate the client’s idea of what it really takes to do what they want. The people making these judgments have a lot of experience using automation systems—but have never had to implement them—so along with their ideas, they also make assumptions about what it will take to do something. Another problem that can occur is they think that they often give you a high-level idea of what they want and then expect that it is enough to get an accurate estimate of what it will take to do it. If companies can be realistic about the limits of their automation expertise, they can avoid all the time and sideways energy that comes with having to be convinced they are off-base.

It’s not too early to start talking about automation

During a scale up project, one of the last areas of expertise companies bring into the mix are automation people and so they often come to us later than they should have. Companies tend to focus on architecture, utilities, permitting, etc. well before they engage with an automation integrator. Often there’s not a lot that the integrator can do to influence this. The best advice I can give to help deal with all of these pitfalls to companies looking to scale up manufacturing is to think about the automation and engage with a trusted integration partner earlier than you think you need to.

7/27/21 2:02 PM

44 ENTERPRISE VIEW AW AUGUST 2021

Moving From Digital Experimentation to Value at Scale By Brian R. May Managing Director, Industrial North America, Accenture

he digital transformation of industrial companies continues to gather pace. Whether it’s digital manufacturing and IoT connectivity on the factory floor, rapid prototyping and customer feedback loops in R&D, or streamlined automation in the back office, industry has woken up to the power of digital technology to transform the speed, performance, and profitability of manufacturing and operations. One of the big challenges of digital innovation, however, is turning great ideas into viable solutions that can deliver value at scale. Across industry, we’ve seen a lot of interesting experimentation with digital technology in recent years. But, so far, many companies have struggled to realize a significant return on those investments. Why is this? A common problem is the way innovation happens in pockets within organizations. That fragmentation means the company lacks a clear end-to-end proposition that everyone can get behind. It often means many different projects are competing with each other for funding and talent. And it can create unnecessary diversity and complexity in terms of both the technology and data being used. The result is that exciting digital projects often run into dead ends or get developed into point solutions with limited extensibility.

How to get serious about scaling innovation

To get past this, companies need to develop the ability to both continuously innovate and continuously scale up that innovation. Ideation and experimentation are still essential for managing constant change. But the emphasis needs to widen to include creating the value case for each digital concept and then scaling it up and out.

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Governance is also key to unlocking this scaling component. Companies need to be able to focus their digital capabilities better while industrializing their innovation processes. A powerful way to do so can be to create a new unit or organization to provide a centralized source of digital innovation, skills, focus, drive, and guidance for the rest of the business. At Accenture, we often call this capability a “Digital Service Factory”, which industrial companies are beginning to use to develop and scale digital innovation in operational areas like digital manufacturing, design and engineering, and back-office functions like finance. That has included projects to enhance operations with artificial intelligence and create a control tower to monitor data from plants and machinery.

Steps to move from experimentation to value at scale

Of course, restructuring your digital innovation organization-wide is a significant commitment—as well as an investment—and not something to be undertaken lightly. You will potentially need to establish new structures from scratch with clearly defined roles that result in pull from the rest of the organization. You also need to make sure you can attract the right talent—this is a crucial aspect of making sure the new model delivers the expected value. There are several things an organization can do to set itself up for success, including: 1. Clearly define the problems to be solved. In each digital project, it’s important to be precise about the business outcomes you’re targeting. Not only does this bring clarity to investment and scaling decisions, it’s also essential for measuring your eventual success. 2. Be lean, agile, and value-led. The organization should adopt a lean agile startup approach to digital innovation, with light but focused planning, rapid prototyping, early testing, and iterative execution. It’s also important to prioritize projects by the business value they’ll deliver. 3. Design-think everything. Given the emphasis on scaling up digital initiatives, humancentered experience design needs to be made a central theme. That should include the impact that digital solutions

will have on both internal and external customers. This is crucial to ensuring solutions developed are actually used by the people they’re designed for. 4. Build momentum. Early on, consider prioritizing well-supported projects with strong sponsorship from the rest of the business. Taking on too much too early risks the organization getting bogged down in complex projects that could negatively impact enthusiasm. 5. Plan for scale. Proactively plan how a solution will be scaled to other parts of the organization. Answer key questions such as where similar problems are being experienced, how to scale vertically within a plant and horizontally across plants, and who the key stakeholders are that will need to be aligned. 6. Stay focused and measure success. Whatever structures you put in place to scale innovation, you need strong governance around them. Every potential project should be filtered through a clear and consistent set of criteria focused on business value. That means being prepared to say no to projects which do not fall within the company’s priorities and which risk side-tracking the team. You also need to be measuring the value each project is generating—remembering that this value can extend beyond the immediate users of a digital solution and can flow out more broadly across the business.

Getting more value with an innovate-experiment-scale model

Of course, every industrial company will have its own business priorities for digital technology. The key point is to think about the governance and organizational structures that can deliver those priorities, whatever they may be. It does need commitment from the senior business leaders. But when the whole organization is aligned behind the concept of innovate-experiment-scale, it can be a very powerful way of making sure you realize the full potential of digital innovation.

7/28/21 10:57 AM

ADVERTISER INDEX 45 AW AUGUST 2021

COMPANY

TELEPHONE WEBSITE

PAGE

2021 Healthcare Packaging EXPO

312.222.1010

www.HCPELasVegas.com

2021 PACK EXPO Las Vegas

312.222.1010

www.PACKEXPOLasVegas.com

Automation24 Inc.

800.250.6772

www.automation24.com

AutomationDirect

800.633.0405 www.automationdirect.com/cmore-micro

CIMON, Inc.

800.300.9916

www.cimon.com

Digi-Key Electronics

800.344.4539

www.digikey.com/automation

Digi-Key Electronics

800.344.4539

www.digikey.com/automation

Domino North America

800.387.7972

www.domino-printing.com

Emerson Industrial Automation

888.889.9170

www.emerson.com/PACSystems

Fabco-Air

352.373.3578 www.fabco-air.com

Festo Corporation

866.GO.FESTO

www.festo.com/stars

Galco Industrial Electronics

888.526.0909

www.Galco.com

Hammond Manufacturing

716.630.7030

www.hammondmfg.com

Inductive Automation

800.266.0909

www.demo.ia.io/automation

Opto 22

800.321.6786

www.opto22.com

Pepperl + Fuchs

330.425.3555

www.pepperl-fuchs.com/pr-iot-master

PI North America

480.483.2456

us.profinet.com/go-digital

Tadiran Batteries

800.537.1368

www.tadiranbat.com

Telemecanique Sensors

800.435.2121

www.tesensors/com/XUMMini

Wago Corporation

262.255.6222

www.wago.us/IIOT

9 2 13

Select Issues 48

Cover-1

Automation World ® (ISSN # 15531244, USPS 22435) is a registered trademark of PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Automation World ® is published 14x a year by PMMI with its publishing office, PMMI Media Group, located at 401 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60611; 312.222.1010; Fax: 312.222.1310. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices. Copyright 2021 by PMMI. All rights reserved. Materials in this publication must not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Applications for a free subscription may be made online at www.packworld.com/subscribe. Paid subscription rates per year are $105 in the U.S., $147 Canada and Mexico by surface mail; $250 Europe, South America. $325 Far East and Australia by air mail. To subscribe or manage your subscription to Automation World, visit AutomationWorld.com/subscribe. Free digital edition available to qualified individuals outside the United States. POSTMASTER; Send address changes to Automation World®, 401 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60611. PRINTED IN USA by Quad Graphics. The opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of PMMI. Comments, questions and letters to the editor are welcome and can be sent to: editors@automationworld.com. We make a portion of our mailing list available to reputable firms. If you would prefer that we don’t include your name, please write us at the Chicago, IL address. Volume 19, Number 8.

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46 KEY INSIGHTS AW AUGUST 2021

Colgate-Palmolive is feeding wireless sensor data into Augury’s machine health software platform. This enables Colgate-Palmolive’s machine data to be compared with data from more than 80,000 other machines connected to the Augury platform around the world. David Greenfield on Colgate-Palmolive’s use of Augury’s Machine Health technology to improve its supply chain operations. awgo.to/1222

GE’s engineers are building a 3D-printed sump cover for the GE F110 engine. The sump is part of the oil lubrication system, and the sump cover is basically a cap, yet still a key part of the engine. Jeanne Schweder on the use of 3D printed parts by the US Air Force. awgo.to/1223

There is a new market for hardened firewalls in industrial control system environments that may be industrial PC form factors. These firewalls may be fanless or have specific temperature and dust ratings, but they operate the same way as any IT firewall, albeit with a few unique exceptions. Adam Jongewaard and David Smit of Interstates Inc. on control system firewalls. awgo.to/1224

The Litmus project will focus on connecting Litmus edge software to CNC machines at Bray International, a manufacturer of flow control products and accessories. The initiative aims to create a smart manufacturing profile for the production of valves that will optimize Bray’s maintenance procedures, increase uptime, and improve product quality. David Miller on new Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) projects. awgo.to/1236

The study underlines the importance of thinking differently about the kinds of skills required because the other challenge relates to the ongoing digital transformation, which means the skills needed to run a smart factory in the future will be very different than the jobs of today. Stephanie Neil on the manufacturing skills gap. awgo.to/1225

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