Equip, utilize, make it actionable – steps to realizing the Industrial Internet

Data doesn’t lie, according to Harvey Shovers, the President of MSI Data. In baseball, for instance, it’s a commonly known fact that all of the teams today analyze huge amounts of data that is produced on the field. In 2013, the Pittsburgh Pirates managed to break their 20 year losing spree by applying sophisticated data analytics to the baseball field. The same idea can be applied to different manufacturing industries like the steel industry.

“With the steel industry being one of the oldest industries out there, you can imagine it is very traditional when it comes to managing. These kinds of industries have been pretty reserved of the idea of managing by data.  But the steel industry, just like everybody else, is going to benefit from the capture and analysis of that data”, Shovers says.

If you take the right mix of experience and reliance on the data that you have never been able to act on before, the steel industry, like any industry, is able to make better decisions that can more quickly affect the manufacturing process.

As an example, for service technicians, having the right data means that they can update their old methods of doing maintenance.

“It isn’t beneficial for the service technician, or the customer, to come on site and not be able to identify the problem, and then have to come back again and again. It’s expensive and it doesn’t drive good relationships with the customer. Now, with the proper data, the technician can come and fix the problem before it occurs and come equipped if a problem does occur. With access to machine data, the technician knows exactly what the problem is and how to fix it. This way the first-time fix rates go up and the service technician gets his job done faster, better and more professionally. This improves the relationship with the customers. It’s a win-win-situation,” Shovers says.

Getting everyone on board is key

Speaking on the hot topics in Industrial Internet, Shovers mentions that there’s a difference in the emphasis between the consumer side of the IoT and the Industrial Internet. When thinking about the Internet of Things, people tend to associate it with consumer-type applications.

“For most people, they like to think of things you can do with your smartphone. The Internet of Things makes day-to-day activities for people easier. We now have apps to control the lights in our apartment, to record TV-shows and to change the thermostat. On the industrial side it’s more about collecting big data.”

According to Shovers, the companies on the leading edge are the ones who are already capturing data and are starting to utilize it. The main problems companies face in getting to this point is getting the whole company on board and having a clear vision as to why other companies are already collecting data and most importantly being able to see what the payback is.

Three steps to an Industrial Internet

For Shovers, the implementation of the Industrial Internet takes place in three distinct phases. The first one is making everything internet-enabled. For example, in the auto industry, most cars that ship today are equipped with some kind of data-collection and telematics devices.

“Not all of the data that can be collected from devices is actually used today, but everyone is putting hardware and software into their products,” Shovers says.

The second phase is capturing the big data, and then being able to utilize it.

“That data helps companies drive their business decisions, or manufacturing and design decisions faster.”

The third phase is making that data actionable. The end result might be, for example, that we have a car that drives itself, compared to cars now that can already change lanes for you automatically, or notify you if something negative is about to occur.

What kind of advice would Shovers then give for company CIOs in charge of implementing any of these three phases?

“I’m a big proponent of taking steps to get things started now, because you can talk about these things forever, just like anything else,” Shovers says.

According to Shovers, an ideal scenario for a company would be to come up with a multi-year plan of where the company aims to get to and of the results they aim to achieve with the implementation of the Industrial Internet.

On the way there they should be able to report back to their stakeholders every step along the way, within or outside the organization, of the progress they’re making towards achieving these long-term goals.

“The point would be to get started now; don’t wait. The technology is already here, and if you wait two or three years for the perfect solution to become available, you’re going to be behind everybody else”, Shovers says.

Finally, coming back to baseball, only 20% of the data-collecting teams make their decisions based on it. The ones using data to guide decisions also happen to be the ones leading the surge and becoming the winners in their sport.

Harvey Shovers is the President of MSI Data, a Wisconsin based company that is the leader in field workforce automation software.

Image credit: vetre / Shutterstock.com

The most read articles of Industrial Internet Now in 2015

The past year has brought numerous new advancements in the field of the industrial internet, and also sparked a great deal of thought-provoking discussion and articles. Some of the most discussed topics this year include those relating to hackathons, leadership and the change in the tasks of the industrial workforce. Below are the five most read articles in Industrial Internet Now in 2015.

5. Big data a key factor at the beginning of the supply chain

Jacqui Taylor, CEO of FlyingBinary, explained why people are the key for the Internet of Things. Taylor gives concrete advice on what a company should pay attention to when the transformation initiated by big data starts. Taylor explains that the technology on its own is there, but the question is what you can do with it, and how you’re going to explain the impact and the transformation that is needed in the organization. Nonetheless, using big data technology to construct the supply chain in a new way allows you to put your focus on the customer in a way that has never been possible before.

https://industrialinternetnow.com/big-data-a-key-factor-at-the-beginning-of-the-supply-chain/

4. Industrial Internet changes the way we approach a machine

How has the way of operating a machine changed with the Industrial Internet? Juha Pankakoski, CDO at Konecranes aims to explain how the changing technology gives us new ways to operate machinery, and what possibilities this brings for businesses. According to Pankakoski, new technology and the Industrial Internet enable us to rethink existing processes. In his experience, the amount of possibilities and benefits brought on by those applications often exceed all expectations.

https://industrialinternetnow.com/industrial-internet-changes-the-way-we-approach-a-machine/

3. How to hack an industrial crane

First ever IndustryHack Hackathon event was held on February 6-8. The Hackathon was the first to be organized as part of the IndustryHack series of ten industrial Hackathons, and the article addresses some of the key results from the event. The winning application in this Hackathon was an application developed by Valuemotive. The winning team’s idea focused on the customers’ challenges and included integration of ERP systems and crane operation.

https://industrialinternetnow.com/how-to-hack-an-industrial-crane/

2. Key findings from the Industry of Things World Survey report 2015

A report on a large survey sent to hundreds of IoT-professionals around the globe. Although many of the results were as expected, there were also a number of striking findings. Maria Relaki, Director of Product & Content at we.CONECT Global Leaders, shares some of the key insights the study found. According to Relaki, a decisive factor for companies aiming to be the early birds in IoT adoption is the presence of an innovative and forward-looking leadership.

https://industrialinternetnow.com/key-findings-from-the-industry-of-things-world-survey-report-2015/

1. New renaissance in manufacturing

Gary Mintchell, an acclaimed writer, advisor and speaker on technology and manufacturing shared his thoughts on the ups and downs of digitalization and what role humans play in the process of manufacturing goods in the future. The technological developments allow us to focus on how we can further use technology like robotics, working alongside people to make processes more effective and, furthermore, how we can have people and technology working together safely.

https://industrialinternetnow.com/new-renaissance-in-manufacturing/

Image credit: Nomad_Soul / Shutterstock.com

Industry of Things World: Collaboration is the key in Industrial Internet

Industry of Things World 2015 brought together leading industry innovators in an event that is destined to shape the future of the Industrial Internet

More than 700 attendees participated in the conference, which took place at the Berlin Congress Center on September 21-22, 2015.  83 speakers gave over 160 hours of inspirational presentations on the challenges and opportunities of the Industrial Internet. Maria Relaki, Event Director, youCONECT and responsible for Industry of Things World shares the key issues that the event brought to light.

“One of the entry points that we wanted to do with this event was bring together people from different industries that are all facing the same challenges. It’s a chance to speak to each other and say ‘hey, the same problem that you’re facing, I’m facing.’ A lot of connections were made that wouldn’t have been made otherwise”

The crucial role of collaboration in the Industrial Internet

The event focused on real-life case studies, illustrating how co-operation and forward thinking will be essential to maximizing the full benefits of the Industrial Internet for businesses.

Relaki explains, “Everyone is realizing the importance of the Industrial Internet. Collaboration is a must. People need to come together to figure out ways to harness this technology and get the results they need to make everything more efficient. Trying to do that in a separated way will not be as successful.”

Other areas of critical importance the event concentrated on were ways in which to deal with the sheer amount of data produced by sensors, security in a connected world, and the challenge of standardizing connectivity.

Relaki goes on to say, “Juha Pankakoski from Konecranes mentioned the opportunity of new business models arising through the use of new technologies.”

Konecranes’ upcoming webinars to further discussion of the Industrial Internet

Pankakoski, Chief Digital Officer of Konecranes, attended the two day event, finding it a hub of discussion about the hottest topics around the Industrial Internet. He says, “There’s a lot of good movement overall in developing and maturing the concepts, standards, and platforms, associated with Industrial Internet. Early adopters in this area are now really starting to gain momentum and putting these things into use; the concept is really picking up pace.”

Pankakoski delivered the closing keynote address of the event, sharing his experiences of the digitalization of Konecranes. He spoke on the topic of creating value with the Industrial Internet in the world of material handling, and the benefits this brings to traditional heavy industries, “We have been able to learn from the use of the Industrial Internet. The technology change is a business model change. Konecranes already combines the equipment and service element. This mixture of both the physical product and the service presence allows us to change the values from one area to another. This is often required when you start implementing these new ways of creating business value.”

Pankakoski will be expanding on these issues at Konecranes’ forthcoming webinars, allowing an even wider audience the opportunity to participate in the cutting edge of the Industrial Internet.

The first webinar will start at 3PM (UTC +2h) on October 28, 2015. Sign up at www.konecranes.com/webinar

Image credit: Industry of Things World Berlin

IoT represents the breaking down of silos – but not without open source thinking

“Open source’s influence extends far beyond sharing code,” writes Gordon Haff in his Open Source article. According to him, open source thinking is needed if we want to improve and fasten the adoption of IoT solutions. In addition to this, there are several other developing processes running to make IoT implementation easier than it is. “A number of technology trends are coming together to make IoT solutions more practical: low-power and inexpensive processors for pervasive sensors, wireless networks, and the ability to store and analyze large amounts of data, both at the edge and in centralized data centers,” he writes. Read more of how the open source culture could create a better IoT at: http://opensource.com/business/15/4/better-internet-things-open-source-culture

Image credit: Gustavo Frazao / Shutterstock.com

When worlds collide, innovations are born

Jarkko Vesa, Founder & CEO of management consulting company Not Innovated Here, has had the opportunity to get thoroughly acquainted with the possibilities that the industrial internet brings in different industries. As the technology enabling the required connectivity and data gathering has become more common, the question on everyone’s minds is how to find new business models from these new opportunities. Vesa thinks that the solution for finding new innovations lies in bringing in experts from very different backgrounds to the planning table.

According to Vesa, one of the most prominent opportunities for finding new ways of utilizing the technological advancements comes from the cooperation of start-ups, hackers and industrial companies, coming together and trying out new things.

“I’ve attended various industrial hackathon events and found that we have a lot of analytics tools and start-ups that offer great visualizations. This world can be swiftly utilized when the Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) are opened in a controlled manner. This way the traditional industries are able utilize the know-how of start-ups, and this is where the real potential lies.”

Vesa points out that the main idea is to bring applications of the consumer world and the industrial environments closer to each other.

“Opening the interfaces in the industrial internet enables this culture. That’s how we get into the same kind of buzz that’s been happening in consumer services, enabled by Google, Apple and other operators alike. What we’ve witnessed in industrial hackathons is that these two worlds can be quickly combined together.”

One of the developments in the industrial internet is that it improves user experiences in industrial environments and new solutions are introduced at a rapid pace.

“There is a lot of utilization of motion detection features nowadays, where a crane can follow its operator or a welding machine can follow the movement of the welders arm. A lot of the solutions involve intuitive interfaces, such as smart glasses, speech recognition or other convenient ways of communicating with machines.”

The world can’t be built in a day

Vesa sees that one of the keys to unlocking new business benefits lies in utilizing a start-up mentality in finding new solutions. He argues that in the start-up world, large questions are not solved all at once, but rather with quick and dirty and good enough type of solutions.

“This sort of lean thinking enables solutions to be developed through new versions and it also provides the ability to make changes faster“.

In Vesa’s opinion, there are certain similarities in the current state of the industrial internet to where the telecoms industry was in the late nineties.

“I wrote my thesis on the development of mobile technology back in the turn of the millennium. Back then the tele operator business resembled the traditional industries a lot. Everything had to be 100 per cent tested and confirmed. And suddenly these internet geeks started showing up and doing things with a good enough attitude. This was the focal thinking of the new generation – it doesn’t hurt if everything is not tested thoroughly. The ethos was that the users will give feedback and the product will be developed based on it. This sort of thinking horrified the traditional telecoms industry. They said that they can’t build critical systems with that sort of mentality”.

Vesa points out that security, safety and quality issues need to be managed, but adding a certain open mindset and courage to research and development will lead to innovations.

“Of course there needs to be the right places where to experiment. But in suitable places and instances, where risks are managed, the development teams should be given more freedom to try things out. I think the industrial hackathons are a perfect place for that – a sandbox to experiment in, within safe boundaries”.

Industrial internet or industrial intranet?

A lot of the new innovations around industrial internet have, however, focused on improving productivity on a machine level, ranging from predicative maintenance to wearables in an industrial environment.

In Vesa’s opinion, there will be a lot of innovations on a machinery level in the near future, but getting the solutions to the next stage in the evolution will require more time.

“The development stages are in order: machinery, factory, supply chain and ecosystem. In the large scale of things, I believe that in the beginning the first big success stories will be the interfaces, which are relatively simple and fast to build”.

This leads to the question, whether we’re really in the age of an industrial internet or an industrial intranet?

“If we look at existing business cases, we are managing, monitoring and operating on a machine level, but we’re only just moving towards conducting these on a factory level. Managing a whole supply chain or an ecosystem is still far away. There are certain challenges of systemic innovation, where the whole chain needs to reach a certain level for it to spread”, Vesa says.

What would need to happen in order to reach the level where the machinery of different operators or even industries could communicate seamlessly with each other?

“Recognizing things is one of the challenges here. The machines, equipment and products need to be equipped with RFID’s or some other tags. When bar codes came along, it was a huge step forward at the time. In order for them to spread it required a few big operators in retail who decided to start using them and demanded the supplying industries to start using them as well. That was back then, but which operators these days would be powerful enough to start driving this kind of change? Of course many industrial companies are in a position where they have their supply chains well managed and can use their power to implement new solutions”.

First step: Just do it!

When all the right components are in place, Vesa gives three key things to consider when innovating new business models or solutions based on the industrial internet.

“The first one – Just do it. Here in Europe, we have a tradition of planning for a long time before moving to execution, where as in the United States it’s quite the opposite. This affects everything we do, from legislation to standardization. I think the most important thing is just to get going”, Vesa starts out.

“The second point is about agility and speed. There has been an increase in the Lean and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) thinking, where one does not aim for perfection right away, but for a good enough version, which can be developed further based on the user feedback. The important thing is not to get stuck on the planning for too long, but to bring the product out and test it with the clients”.

“The third point regards cyber safety. It is pretty common that this takes first place and then security issues become a top priority. When everything is done very cautiously and thoroughly, there is a risk that the information security starts to drive the business itself. I claim that an information system cannot be developed information security first. You have to create it business first and then make sure all of the security issues are in order”, Vesa states.

“This is an area where it is very easy to start seeing threats everywhere, raising concerns and portraying scenarios where cranes are being high-jacked in ports or something similar. In reality, everything is planned thoroughly and the risks are managed, for example, using data diodes, which transmit information only to one direction”.

“The industrial internet is too important a matter to be left solely in the hands of the cyber security experts. It has to stay on the business agenda”, Vesa concludes.

Jarkko Vesa is the Founder & CEO at Not Innovated Here – Laboratory of Creative Destruction

Image credit: loreanto / Shutterstock.com

New renaissance in manufacturing

Smart manufacturing is changing the way we look at automation and manual work. Gary Mintchell, an acclaimed writer, advisor and speaker on technology and manufacturing, shares his views on what are the pros and cons of the digitalization that is currently revolutionizing manufacturing. What will be the role of humans in the process of manufacturing goods?

Mintchell views the development as a natural part of evolution in industrialization. People have always tried to lighten the burden of manual labor with technical solutions and innovations. This has freed their time to focus on other things and has also made work more secure.

“What we are really doing is making things safer – we have removed people from potentially dangerous locations in various sides of manufacturing, for instance in painting and automotive plants. We have always focused on an ergonomic way of doing things in order to prevent repetitive stress syndrome and all that. Current technological developments allow us to focus on how we can further use things like robotics, working alongside people, to make processes more effective and, furthermore, how we can have people and technology working together safely.”

New types of jobs will emerge

With smart manufacturing reducing the need for human labor, some jobs will probably vanish – but new ones should also emerge. The challenge with this is that we don’t yet know what those future jobs could be. Mintchell thinks that new types of employment come from the visionary people that develop new products and services, of which we may not know about today. On the other hand there are actually a lot of jobs that require people skills or relationship skills. That is likely to stay that way.

“I think that people will be displaced from one kind of work and hopefully they will be put into another kind of work that is more human. Work that requires more of the entire human being – not just their hands or their back.”

What will smart analytics mean for manufacturing businesses’ efficiency or their supply production chains? Well, those are also going through a paradigm shift. By harvesting all the data in a plant it is possible to monitor the performance in real time, noticing what works and what doesn’t minute-by-minute. No more monthly reporting that lets you know what happened in the past when it’s already too late to change it. Smart analytics can help reduce the very costly stoppage times and provide better tools for planning all turnarounds and downtime in plants.

“Maintenance people are learning that there is this existing technology in their plants that they didn’t know about that has the ability to monitor things and stop wasting time. No more sending people off to lubricate some bearings or replace some valve just because it’s always been done every five years – no matter whether it actually needs to be done or not. Less money and time wasted.”

Helping and empowering people to adopt new tools

The biggest hurdle with these smart analytics is that people might not know how to use them. Properly capitalizing on industrial internet requires a change in human behavior. This won’t happen overnight.

It takes some time and effort to motivate people and explain the advantages of the tools at hand. Unfortunately there are even examples where the technology is there but it has been deliberately switched off because people still believe they can spot things better with their own eyes than with the help of technology. The innovations can’t help you if you don’t let them.

“There is, for example, a technology called HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer). Many of the instruments in plants are enabled by HART which is a digital technology over an analog signal. Some people are only using the old fashioned analog signal and have not even turned on the digital part that would provide valuable information to them.”

One way of getting people to use the technology is improving the user interface. According to Mintchell, a lot of effort is being put towards this as we speak. Overall, it has a lot to do with our willingness to try and learn new things and open our eyes to the possibilities of the new era.

“It’s about how we can help people become better business managers. How we can use these technologies for business problems, not just for control problems. Instead of thinking about automation as the end, automation is just a platform where we can control things better and enable people to make the appropriate decisions. I think we are on the verge of a new renaissance in manufacturing.”

Gary Mintchell works as an advisor and speaker. He is also the editor of The Manufacturing Connection: http://themanufacturingconnection.com/

Image credit: Levent Konuk / Shutterstock.com

CIOs can help to integrate technology into decision-making

Integrating innovative thinking on all stages of company management requires a new level of technology-savvy capability. A CIO could be in the position to facilitate driving technology all the way to the board and upper management. Hunter Muller, President and CEO of the CIO network HMG Strategy, LLC, proposes that companies should open the doors for their CIOs to truly become CEOs of technology and lead companies towards the future.

Innovation in, for example, manufacturing companies usually takes place in product development and processes inside different business areas or units. Hunter Muller from HMG Strategy, LCC, firmly believes that managing progressive technologies should not only happen on this level, rather it should be relevant all the way up to the top of the company.

“Everyone can innovate, and moving forward does not always result in the development of a new shiny object. Innovation happens at the core of the company when people, chains and business units interact, and the role of the C-suite should be to elevate those core initiatives. In my view, it has to be driven by the CEO and the C-suite, because otherwise innovation can be continually intermediated, cut down or even cut off”, Muller argues.

Especially now during the emergence of the industrial internet, taking technological issues into consideration when making important decisions would be in the best interest of an industrial company. This requires the willingness to transform the company – and giving the CIO a bigger role in compiling the company’s overall strategy would not be a bad idea either.

“The CIO must become the CEO of technology in order to facilitate, lead and enable true innovation. The industrial internet and IoT are largely about innovation and including customers representing different fields and markets in the innovation process. Companies that find a CIO who is equipped with interpersonal skills and can think like a CEO are going to win today, tomorrow and in the future.”

In the people business

Muller emphasizes that in order to propel technology-savvy thinking to reach a company’s management, certain renovations must be made. This requires the right people and the CIO should have a key role in the process.

“To make changes to a company’s culture you need champions of innovation, but also virtual platforms and tools to ensure that new ideas can spread across the whole company.”

In Muller’s view, strategic personal interaction has a strong role in increasing the relevance of technology in the C-suite.

“It’s all about people, and if you are not invited to take part in the right strategic discussions it’s hard to place technology at the forefront. The CIO has to understand the markets and the culture of the C-suite. You have to dial into the company culture and see what works and what doesn’t, a view many CIO’s lack at the moment. Much of the strategy is handled by business executives, and the CIOs are usually more a part of the after plot.”

Many new qualities are required from a skillful CIO and enhancing their role in companies would most likely be very beneficial. According to Muller, however, some companies are finding it a challenge to enable this.

“The CIO must be confident in and conversant with the latest technologies in the context of what matters to the business. They have a unique view across the enterprise and are able to see where all of the data, processes and people are. The CEO would like nothing more than to see the CIO take care of a whole strategic piece to help drive innovation. However, things like sensor technology and IoT are likely beyond the CIO’s reach, because he or she is often just keeping things running in terms of the core business and transactional systems.”

New management approaches

In order for a CIO to succeed, they also need the right talent behind them, Hunter Muller argues.

“Industrial internet has huge implications towards talent recruitment and poses a big task for companies. Companies across the globe are searching for talent specializing in new technology. It’s a long and tough road ahead for a CIO if he doesn’t find the right kind of people.”

Even though Muller considers that there are still a few obstacles barring access for CIOs inside companies to harness their full potential, he has a positive view of the future.

“Looking at the future of technology from the viewpoint of value-creation, competitive edge and leadership style, there has never been a brighter moment in the history of business. It really comes down to the CEOs responsibility and allowing the CEO of technology to be a key executive. As I see it, at the end of the day, the dusty old automotive or insurance companies will eventually be technology companies.”

Hunter Muller is the President and CEO of HMG Strategy, LLC, the fastest growing provider of innovative thought leadership and networking events for CIOs and senior IT executives. Hunter is a globally respected IT strategist with more than 25 years of experience in IT leadership consulting and research.

HMG Strategy is the world’s foremost provider of pioneering networking events and thought leadership to support the 360-degree needs of the CIO/IT leader. The HMG Strategy global network of more than 80,000 senior IT executives, industry experts and world class thought leaders is the strongest and most trusted network of executives in the world.

www.hmgstrategy.com

Image credit: EDHAR / Shutterstock.com

Big data: a key factor at the beginning of the supply chain

Big data can create huge business benefits in process industries – but for this to happen, your organization needs to understand the impact and the transformation that is needed. Jacqui Taylor, CEO of FlyingBinary, explains why people are the key for the Internet of Things (IoT).

“Material handling is a key factor in process industries, such as steel or automotive, because it is at the beginning of the supply chain. In order to reap the benefits of IoT, you first have to plant the data seed”, Jacqui Taylor begins.

In order to make the best use of IoT in a sector like this, it is important to understand your organization and how ready it is to embrace IoT. In order to gain the value from IoT, it is important to understand data. How data literate is your organization? How mature are you at handling data and driving the value from data? These are important issues to consider.

“Data is a key resource, but having data doesn’t get you anywhere. Lots of companies will tell you that they’re drowning in data, but they have no information. What you’re doing with the data is the key”.

One component of that is sensor data and the immediacy it allows, for example by creating live data streams and basing key decisions on that data. This change is essential to reap the benefits for material handling and the transformation of the supply chain, because it helps in understanding the heartbeat of processes and contains the key to delivering the efficiencies of real-time data streams.

Big data technology can also deliver evidence of the challenges that are currently unknown in an organization, it will highlight the key areas of focus to gain maximum benefits for moving into this new arena. This allows a board to change strategy and to drive innovation, Taylor says.

Articulating the art of the possible

Big data also starts to transform the organization.

“People are the key. You have an organization that is set up to do one thing, and that legacy has set up the current supply chain, however people understand the inefficiencies of this and with data can use their domain knowledge to spot the opportunities for change, once they have the data. Ultimately sensors and the changes for IoT need to be embedded across the supply chain, but you can’t change all of this at once, but you can’t ignore it either, data allows you to select the best area of focus”, Taylor says.

To create the change that is needed, people need an understanding of which direction to take and why. This comes down to changing mindsets and being able to articulate what is possible to achieve, with the help of big data technology.

“You choose wisely where you start and what you do, and you do it with confidence. It’s not only about the process in the organization itself and what you’re creating with materials, but also your impact on the ongoing supply chain. The technology on its own is there, but the question is what can do with it and how you’re going to explain the impact and the transformation that is needed in the organization. So it’s a strategic approach more than something that is missing”.

Change can of course confuse or scare people. Therefore Taylor suggests starting with a pilot plan to create an understanding of what is possible. Looking at a specific project or proof of concept, the understanding then goes into the organization of the challenge that has been solved and the opportunity that exists.

“If you enable people to understand, then they will take those steps – not everybody, you do need the right people to make this transition. If we’re going to change something, you need to understand why. But if we don’t understand what the problem we’re solving is, change won’t be transformative”.

Moving towards results

If you understood what the possibilities were, and the competitive advantages this brings, organizations would rush to do them. To put this in context, Hollywood current invests in a movie with a return of x 3 for every dollar invested. Our clients have evidenced that for every £1 invested in this approach the return is between £2 and £40. Taylor explains.

“Officially, now we’re in a world where we have done digital, and the industrial internet is next. Those people who are going to lead this whole concept will rise above the competition in all sectors by having game changing access to and understanding of the data for the industrial internet. You can’t underestimate the importance material handling will have in this, because it is the beginning of the supply chain. The companies that are involved in this sector have a huge opportunity to make a difference”.

According to Taylor, using big data technology to construct the supply chain in a new way allows you to put your focus on the customer in a way that has never been possible before.

“For example, manufacturing is a global business, and with IoT and Big Data across the supply chain it is possible to understand the bottlenecks and opportunities which exist for any product being manufactured anywhere in the world. Using data from sensors through the production process would mean any delay in the delivery components or raw materials, or an extreme weather event would enable supply chain data to be re configured, allowing pre-production and production processes to be moved to new schedules, “inflight“.

“Whilst there is an opportunity to use big data across many sectors such as construction and advanced manufacturing the fact that you can say, as a material handler, what’s possible and what’s not, is because you’re at the beginning of the supply chain, the rest of the supply chain can’t do that. This makes a material handling business responsive, and it allows for big data to really start delivering on its promise for organizations ready to embrace this paradigm shift”.

The downside of this new approach is that it means using different technologies than those the organization is familiar with. This is not necessarily a problem – it just shows that there needs to be a shared understanding in the organization that in order to get to the benefits, you need big data technologies, Taylor says.

And this, again, brings the people into the spotlight.

Jacqui Taylor is the founder and CEO of FlyingBinary, a web science company that changes the world with data.

Image credit: © morganimation – Fotolia.com

What industries need to understand about 3D printing

3D printing is slowly but surely revolutionizing how we think about manufacturing products and components in terms of availability and customizing. Jouni Partanen, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Aalto University, Finland, considers that the main implications of 3D printing for the future are clear, and engineers should always keep them close to mind, when designing new products.

As one of the prominent future-now areas in industry, 3D printing gives wings to imagination, when thinking about material use in manufacturing. Jouni Partanen describes the current use of the technology in industry.

“R&D is a definitely a hotbed for 3D printing, and has been already since 15 years in for example automobile industry. It is possible to shorten the R&D process. This area makes up two thirds of the industrial use for the technology. One third is in manufacturing, mainly in producing lighter shapes”, Partanen states.

A famous case from China witnessed the printing of complete houses in a fairly short time. Partanen also mentions companies from California, who are looking for financing to develop printing of buildings on a commercial scale. He also weights in that despite the promising news – and the fact that 3D printing business is growing 50% yearly in some areas – the field is still relatively small.

“These types of exotic news are driving things forward at the moment, but 3D printing hardware is at a challenging phase in industry in my opinion. The business share of 3D is under a billion dollars worldwide at the moment, whereas the share of other forms of manufacturing is over ten to hundred times bigger. Development in the software side is incredibly fast, but the limits are on the hardware side. Many engineers, who are involved in product development, have still to grasp the full potential of 3D printing.”

To integrate the benefits of 3D printing better in industry, Partanen encourages engineers to keep three key aspects in mind: the possibility to optimize and customize material, short manufacturing runs and digital warehousing of spare parts and products.

“3D printing is already strong in different shapes and forms. Before this technology became available, strength and lightness were difficult to optimize. The principle is to remove material from all other places, except where it is needed. Conformal cooling is one of these applications, which are already working. Cooling conduits, which used to be straight, can be modelled and optimised according to purpose, made for example lighter. The shape is not limited to only, what some old drill can perform. This type of form optimization is still fairly expensive, but has been applied in for example jet engine design.”

In addition to optimising material composition in products to improve lightness, making it adapt better to different atmospheric conditions, or saving raw material, customizing is a proved advantage.

“Customizing is a broad field. For example personified hearing aids that are completely inside the ear, are currently produced completely by 3D printing, because the size of the run is basically always one, and when the object might be lost, it can be easily replaced by retrieving the custom specifications from a database and producing another one. The combination of the shortness of the run, customization and digital warehousing all come true in this case.”

At some point 3D printing might also make it possible to produce completely new materials by combining existing materials into new compounds. According to Partanen this is not yet a reality, but a realistic direction nevertheless.

“New material compositions are a very strong vision. Many actors on the field have started using the concept of digital material. An extension of this idea might be a tool, which has a firm surface, but a well conductive inner-side, allowing heat to exit quicker. This is one of the concepts, which are understood currently and estimated probable.”

Possibilities in the short run

In some cases there might be a limited amount of a certain machine in use in industry around the world. Using mass production methods for casting moulds and producing for example spare parts for a machine like this is not cost efficient, and Jouni Partanen brings in 3D printing as the natural way to go.

“In manufacturing small runs by traditional means, the costs of a tool or a mould can rise extremely high. In this situation 3D printing provides a better option. In practice, 3D printing is not used much in making spare parts, because the technology is still not on a suitable level. In the future, this will become relevant, since warehousing spare parts is definitely an issue for businesses. These new methods can make spare part warehouses completely digital, and production can be optimised completely by where and when the items are needed.”

By cutting corners in the manufacturing chain with 3D, the process will be quicker and it also allows products to be tested in use, while keeping expenses low at the same time.

“Getting products to the markets fast is key here. First run of a particular product can be printed, and after the business is understood better, a mould can be casted and the product can be put to mass production by conventional and cheaper means. This has come true in the case of a particular robotics company, which used 3D printed components in the start-up phase and after the product had been tested and proved suitable for the markets, they moved on to injection moulding.”

For some companies, 3D printing might be the only reasonable manufacturing method.

“A company, which produces 360 degree cameras for helicopters decided to adopt 3D printing as their primary manufacturing method, because the short runs made it sensible. For very small, but complicated objects, 3D printing might even become a viable mass production method in the future”, Partanen offers.

Jouni Partanen works as Professor of Advanced Production Methods at Aalto University

Image credit: nikkytok/Shutterstock.com

Digital platform as a foundation for products and services

Integrating industrial processes, machines and devices even more in depth with intelligent software is an on-going effort in companies. With extensive experience in computer technology, Martti Mäntylä, a professor at Aalto University School of Science in Finland, knows his way around at the cross-section of ICT and industry. In his view machine intelligence shouldn’t just be added value, but the basis for product and service development.

At the moment sensors and data analysis are often an afterthought to improve efficiency and safety issues in existing products. But should the process of product development be thought over, so that data would have a fundamental role in it from the start? The industrial internet specialist Professor Martti Mäntylä sees this to be an appealing direction.

“Currently we usually have industrial products and devices, where ICT provides added value for the process, but more often solutions appear, where ICT has been the basis for building an industrial machine. The direction is definitely towards not applying intelligence to machines, but applying machines to intelligence. In this case a particular solution would be designed from the start with keeping a wider context or system in mind, so that data could be gathered, and connected with other data, analysed, and used to improve the operation of the whole system”, Mäntylä predicts.

There is also a different way to remodel businesses with ICT. Mäntylä highlights one success story, where a data analysis service component is built around an existing product, and designed to appeal to a critical need in the customer’s end.

“There is a case concerning a company in the welding system business. The company started providing better service to its customers by gathering and processing data from welding seams for certification purposes, an operation, which is mandatory but difficult for the client to do on their own. In addition the company is offering its service to customers, even if they are buying their welding systems from someone else. The customer’s crucial problem is solved, while also providing added value to the product itself.”

This type of service model is currently in the mind of several companies. Mäntylä wonders for example, if instead of selling a diesel engine for a power plant, the same company could take charge for operating the whole plant. This way the customer would buy in fact capacity for electricity production, not just a production tool.

“Remote operation is another direction, which could be based on ICT. Some industrial project might be in a tricky location, in the middle of desert for example. It might be difficult to get highly trained professionals to operate this type of system on site. Doing it remotely becomes appealing in this case. Offshore services can also be done with remote control. Why would you need personnel on a ship, when it’s at sea, other than at the harbour ends? This way the capacity of the ship could be used more efficiently for the primary function, which is shipping cargo. This may sound like science fiction, but the leading ship engine producer Rolls Royce has in fact published a concept for unmanned ships. To me it appears that the obstacles for realizing it are not so much in technology, but in regulation and business issues, such as the reaction of insurance companies.”

Early on, computer systems had their humble beginnings in close relations with industry from military systems to manufacturing. After the turn of the millennium ICT has taken accelerated steps forward bringing data and information to users worldwide in increased speeds and quantities.

“From an ICT point of view it is clear that there has been an evolution towards platforms, which has made technology more easily available, flexible, simpler, and cheaper. What was once thought of as rocket science, has somewhat transformed into something else”, Mäntylä argues and goes forward with discussing the current trends in ICT solutions.

“If there is interest to develop sensor technology, microprocessors or such, open source tools are available, and also widely in use. There is a complete ecosystem of specialists working on this field constantly. This phenomenon explains a major part of the contemporary start-up boom, much different from the dotcom boom ten years ago.”

It can be argued that the strength of the current ICT activity compared to the one before, is that it is founded on a much more concrete base of commodities and technologies. They are as Mäntylä views, also more easily accessible and smoother to operate.

Big data does not lead to a crowded bandwidth

Big data is estimated to generate increased amounts of traffic on the information highways. Mäntylä states that we shouldn’t be too worried about rising data transfer levels.

“There is already tons of data moving through the system, video streams accumulating the biggest quantities of data, with 4K video crowding the bandwidth. All things considered, sensory data is pretty compact. There are scenarios about world having a trillion sensors in the near future, which I deem is realistic, around a hundred per person.”

On the other hand, the question of latency should be addressed in the future, especially in industry related processes. For example a moving, remote controlled machine should have latency inside one millisecond, so that the proper operation of the control loop can be guaranteed. Mäntylä indicates that solutions are already in the pipeline.

“Next generation web technologies should solve these issues. 5G technology, which is currently under development, is partially designed to widen the applicability of new software solutions into industrial processes. Being a thousand times more powerful than the current solutions, it has the capacity to bring the industrial internet to the mainstream with increased bandwidth and decreased latency”, Mäntylä promises.

Martti Mäntylä works as Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Aalto University School of Science

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