MARCH 2020

Inside:
Confab at ARC Forum p1
Improve OEE and uptime p2
Digital transformation
constraints p11

Supplement to Periodicals Publication Graphic courtesy: HighByte

 PRODUCTIVITY AND BEST PRACTICES: EDITOR’S COLUMN
Kevin Parker
Editor

The promise of a digital twin

I
t was with regret that this editor the last
several years didn’t have a chance to attend the
ARC Forum, but this year he did and was glad
of it, as it was a good opportunity to get caught up on
discussions about automation-based IT with suppliers,
analysts and fellow editors.
As is well known, Bentley Systems provides software
for engineers, geospatial professionals, engineers and
others involved in design, construction and operation of
industrial plants, utilities and digital cities.
The company says it’s committed to advancing the
digital twin in all its manifestations. For example, Bentley’s data historian supplier to the more expansive concept of
iTwin Services fundamentally ad-
For Yokogawa, with its control and measurement solu-
tions, digital transformation is a vehicle that leads users
to a portfolio of digital twin solutions, based on first-
principles models and technical expertise that at the end of
the day tells interested parties “what good looks like,” said
Kevin Pinnan, a systems consultant with Yokogawa.
Tell the truth
A conversation with Peter Zalevsky, an industry direc-
tor, OSIsoft, indicated that the company intends to stay
true to its roots in its evolution from being the seminal
operational intelligence and not

vance BIM and GIS to 4-D digital
twins.
Like looking in the mirror
‘
straying into the development
What was important was of machine learning or artificial
intelligence applications.
being able to combine operational “The truth is most companies

’
“Many companies have get value from the data because
embraced some aspects of the
and enterprise data. of its real-time availability. Take,
digital twin. But we see ourselves for example, an instance where
as ‘all digital twin, all the time.’ the performance of a process
This means taking applications that have been trapped degrades rapidly over a six-month period,” Zalevsky said.
and making them more accessible to a wider range of us- The company’s engineers were on the verge of chang-
ers. One example would be PlantSight, which brings ERP ing their maintenance strategy, but they were able to look
or other enterprise data to a wider range of people,” said at those pumps in the enterprise system and realized all
Alan Kiraly, a SVP for asset performance, Bentley Systems. the failing pumps were part of the same lot order.
Jointly developed for the process industries by Siemens “What was important was being able to combine
and Bentley, the software brings plant data and informa- operational and enterprise data. IIoT streams from non-
tion together, contextualizes it, and visualizes it, trans- traditional sources will lead to better decision making.
forming raw data into a digital twin. On the other hand, on the IT side, there’s been more ac-
The paradigm of accessing information through a 3-D ceptance of the idea of a master data pool or an opera-
model is one people are familiar with and a good match tional data pool. This always seems to lead to arguments
for those in an augmented planning or operational roles about the validity of the data.”
because it allows them to access information not part Finally, Ridchard Howells, VP of digital supply chain,
of their core job function without recourse to multiple SAP, told us that what users wanted from Industry 4.0 or
systems. IIoT is “personalization, visibility into supply intelligence
SYNCHRO, on the other hand, introduces the time networks, improved productivity and sustainability.” The
element into projects that involve multiple disciplines and SAP asset intelligence network makes visible an installed
ensures that changes made in one area of a project don’t base of equipment, such as pumps. Operators access
cause problems to other disciplines. Or users can tempo- maintenance strategies and manuals from manufacturers
rally “scroll” through a project comparing actual with the — and manufacturers automatically receive asset usage
planned or budgeted scope of work. and failure data, potentially across an entire industry. IIoT
www.controleng.com/IIoT Industrial Internet of Things MARCH 2020 | 1
THE AGE OF ANALYTICS
Use IIoT to improve OEE,
increasing ROI
Case-use examples illustrate the point
By Michael Risse
I
n the year 2020 discussing
overall equipment effective-
ness (OEE) seems a little out
of date. Whatever it’s called — OEE,
downtime reporting or asset utiliza-
tion — it’s not a new topic. It might
also have scenario-specific names like
clean in place (CIP), a variation on a
theme: how to quickly cycle a process
and return assets to availability.
Articles a decade or two old
describe how to calculate OEE or
measure asset downtime. It’s been
a foundation of Lean or Six Sigma
methodologies for years. So, what has
it to do with the Industrial Internet of
Things (IIoT) and analytics?
Use of OEE as a metric improves with
IIoT and advanced analytics.
First comes relief from years of mis-
ery mired in spreadsheets investigating
downtime issues. Second, significant
savings arise from insights uncovered
by downtime analytics. Finally, acceler-
ated decision making and taking action
leads to business transformation. These
substantial benefits reinforce the im-
portance of downtime reporting.
But before we look at success
stories, let’s take a deeper dive into
downtime reporting and OEE.
Downtime is descriptive
Downtime reporting is an example
of “descriptive analytics” because
it describes what happened, a term
2 | MARCH 2020 IIoT For Engineers
associated with reports and data
visualization: static and historic. Even
if the reports are updated periodically,
often using a dashboard, they are still
descriptive analytics. Although the
numbers may not be static, the calcu-
lations and parameters (fault codes,
measurements, etc.) are fixed at the
point of design (Figure 1).
‘
Downtime reporting
is an example of
descriptive analytics
because it says what
’
happened.
Therefore, descriptive analytics is
considered basic. It calls out what
is looked for, defines calculations
in advance and then measures and
presents in past or present form. But
as we all know, things are always
changing in industrial plants and facili-
ties, with various factors laying waste
to the best laid plans. As Helmuth van
Moltken famously said back in 1880,
“No plan of operations reaches with
any certainty beyond the first encoun-
ter with the enemy’s main force.”
The enemy here is change and its
potential negative effects on OEE,
downtime and asset utilization.
The fact that downtime reporting is
based on a calculation determined in
advance of plant operations means
that as soon as something interest-
ing happens — as soon as there is an
encounter with the enemy — then the
report’s value as a picture of the past
rapidly decreases.
A new approach is therefore re-
quired to deal with the enemy, with
process engineers leading the charge.
Engineers into the breach
When insight is needed to solve
an unknown issue — for example to
figure out what happened that wasn’t
expected, why the metric is below
plan or to understand causation —
then downtime analysis is required,
along with a subject matter expert
such as a process engineer. This ap-
proach puts process engineers where
they should be, at the frontlines of
insight. With advanced analytics they
have a solution that is radically faster
than the spreadsheet approach.
In analytics terms, what has hap-
pened is a transition from descriptive
analytics to diagnostic analytics (Figure
2). If descriptive analytics is a report,
diagnostic analytics is interactive
investigation and discovery, in some
cases a root-cause analysis. Diagnostic
analytics is how cause is determined
and correlations found, and it can
include discoveries of best practices
and comparisons. All these insights
are arrived at very quickly by leverag-
ing computer science innovations
www.controleng.com/IIoT
FIGURE 1. Reports as depicted in this
screen view are a form of descriptive ana-
lytics, describing what happened or what is
happening. All figures courtesy: Seeq Corp.

(big data, machine learning, etc.) that

enable the “advanced” in advanced
analytics applications.

Diagnostics in action
To take one example, when drying
different products, to identify the
optimum endpoint, it is important
to understand the impact of various
parameters on drying time. According
to Dr. Robert Forest, a development
engineer with Bristol-Myers Squibb
(BMS), the fundamental question is:
“How long should we dry the wet
cake to meet our drying endpoint?”
If the product is dried for too long,
it increases cycle times unnecessar-
ily. But if the product is not dried
long enough, it could fail the process
control sample, which is a waste of
analytic resources.
Prior to using Seeq, BMS collected
many different data points from the
OSIsoft PI tag data, using a simple
summary of the statistics to help
determine drying times. The company
would review the minimum, maximum
www.controleng.com/IIoT
FIGURE 2. Process engineers and other experts can use advanced analytics to quickly
diagnose problems and find root causes.
and average product temperatures; ag-
itator speed; jacket temperature; and
drying time. BMS would then compare
these data points to the actual solvent
loss measured by taking samples
throughout the drying process. Manu-
ally collecting the data was tedious,
time-consuming and error-prone. BMS
needed a more automated way to col-
lect and analyze these data.
The typical filter drying process
goes through three distinct drying
process stages (Figure 3). Stage 1
(static drying) starts out by heating
without agitation. Stage 2 continues
to heat, but with intermittent agita-
tion. In stage 3, heating continues
with continuous agitation. BMS
wanted to identify some of the key
parameters for each drying stage to
optimize drying for a range of differ-
ent batches. To do this, the company
needed to automatically find when
the dryer was operating by associat-
ing the drying phase with the drying
time, jacket temperature, product
temperature (maximum, minimum
and average) and agitator speed.
IIoT For Engineers MARCH 2020 | 3
THE AGE OF ANALYTICS
Coresight: Visualize three-stage drying process
The next step was to separate the
operations data by the distinct drying
stages. For stage 1, where there is no
agitation, Seeq was used to find the
needed data by simply searching for
periods of time when the agitator was
turned off for extended time periods
(rather than intermittently) and com-
bining these data with search results
with a high jacket temperature (to
indicate that the dryer was operating).
To find the summary data for stage
3, search was set up to first find those
periods of time when the agitator was
turned on for an extended period,
and then combine these with high
jacket temperatures. Identifying the
parameters for stage 2 was a little
trickier because the agitator is turned
on and off intermittently, so there is
no constant signal value upon which
to base the search.
To find stage 2 data, BMS uses the
system’s pattern-searching capability
to find all batches in which stage 2
agitator on/off behavior is displayed.
Seeq enables BMS to create a pattern
search for the square waveform of the
4 | MARCH 2020 IIoT For Engineers
FIGURE 3. It was possible to quickly diagnose this
drying system and optimize its operation.
agitator intermittently cycling on and
off. This pattern search allows the user
to specify a similarity heuristic to hone
the search results. It also enables the
users to combine the pattern search
results with the jacket temperature.
With the combined results, BMS could
exclude periods of time before drying
actually started, i.e., stage 2.
As illustrated above, Dr. Forest’s
team at BMS, in their journey of diag-
nostic discovery, was able in particular
to separate the data into all three
stages and automatically calculate the
needed statistics. According to Dr. For-
est, the ability to use Seeq to search
by specific data and overlay batches
reduced the time needed to collect
the data and saved on average one
hour of analysis time per batch.
Sharing results
Using advanced analytics, as in-
sights are found, they can be pub-
lished to colleagues as web pages,
PDF documents or updated images.
Engineers using advanced analytics
thus have an integrated approach to
both diagnostic (investigation) and
descriptive (publishing) analytics.
Of course, integrated investigation
and publishing is a benefit as com-
pared to using two different tools,
but just as important is the fact that
engineers can create, publish and
update the analytics — without any
required intervention from IT person-
nel or specialists.
Unlike traditional OEE reports which
are set up by IT departments or plant
administrators based on a design that
can drift away from plan (new assets,
new recipes, new season, new raw
materials, etc.), advanced analytics en-
ables the front-line process engineer to
quickly iterate the underlying calcula-
tions and source data as necessary to
represent current plant conditions and
associated opportunities. The investiga-
tion is faster, publishing is integrated
and usage is self-service for the em-
ployee closest to the process or asset.
Predicting the future
Process engineers take the next step
in their efforts by incorporating
www.controleng.com/IIoT
THE AGE OF ANALYTICS
predictive analytics (Figure 4). Predic-
tive analytics completes the range
of data from historical (diagnostic)
and present (descriptive) to what is
expected to happen. Instead of an
unplanned downtime event, engi-
neers can avert downtime with an
early warning system that provides
anything from hours to weeks of
advanced notice, depending on the
process, the data and the engineer’s
expertise.
For customers interested in mov-
ing from scheduled to predictive
maintenance, for example, the ability
to evaluate when maintenance is
required and what parts to order is
critical. The goal isn’t to measure the
history of asset failure in downtime
or OEE reports, but rather to avoid
unnecessary downtime to the greatest
extent possible.
Fixed bed catalyst prediction
The challenge for one refinery
was to optimize near- and long-term
economics by predicting end-of-run
for a fixed-bed catalyst system. This
required selection and examination of
historical data for training the corre-
lations, which were auto-updated as
new data became available. Another
FIGURE 4. Predictive analytics empower engineers to identify potential problems before
they impact operations.
6 | MARCH 2020 IIoT For Engineers
challenge was to provide insights
to enable collaborative analysis and
investigation between the refinery
licensor and the catalyst vendor.
The solution was to use Seeq
formulas to implement first-principles
equations to calculate normalized
weighted average bed temperature
(WABT) for the fixed-bed reactor
system. The next step was to normal-
ize WABT for feed rate, feed and
product quality, treat gas ratio and
so forth. Seeq prediction features
were then used to create a model
to predict normalized WABT as a
function of time within steady state
conditions. This enabled the refinery
to determine the end-of-run date
versus the known WABT performance
threshold, and to apply this method-
ology to their other fixed-bed catalyst
processes.
Benefits included monitoring of
catalyst deactivation to allow co-opti-
mization of near-term economics and
risk-based maintenance planning. Bet-
ter prediction of end-of-run allowed
more effective analysis of the tradeoff
between rate reduction and main-
tenance costs. Calculation of end-
of-life for the catalyst enabled rapid
detection of unexpected changes and
performance of corrective actions.
Final words
Diagnostic, descriptive and predic-
tive analytics can be performed on
existing data from SCADA, historian
and other manufacturing data sets
— and there’s one more form of
analytics. Unlike the other terms, this
last analytics type doesn’t have an
established name, but is the ultimate
objective of all analytics: do the right
thing.
Yes, it sounds silly, but engineers
using Seeq have been emphatic on
their enthusiasm for its effectiveness
for quickly figuring out the right
thing to do to improve operations.
In the past, the time to insight in a
spreadsheet was ominously long and
the work was onerous, so they simply
were not able to do the necessary
calculations in time to impact and
improve production outcomes.
But with Seeq applications, days
and weeks become minutes and
hours, enabling analytics over time to
make a difference, consider tradeoffs
and optimize for the big picture.
Downtime reporting and its vari-
ants like OEE are not a new concept.
They are a staple of every operations
playbook. But that doesn’t mean
there isn’t an opportunity for a fresh
look at the potential of advanced
analytics applications to improve all
types of analytics. IIoT
Michael Risse is the CMO and vice
president at Seeq Corp., a company
building advanced analytics applica-
tions for engineers and analysts that
accelerate insights into industrial
process data. He was formerly a
consultant with big data platform
and application companies, and prior
to that worked with Microsoft for 20
years. Michael is a graduate of the
University of Wisconsin at Madison,
and he lives in Seattle.
www.controleng.com/IIoT
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BIG INDUSTRIAL DATA
How to make industrial
data fit for purpose
Seven steps as a practical guide to data management
By John Harrington
I
t seems to me that most
of the manufacturers I talk
to are drowning in data,
and yet they are struggling to make it
useful.
A modern industrial facility can eas-
ily produce one terabyte of data each
day. With a wave of new technologies
for artificial intelligence and machine
learning — on top of real-time dash-
boards and augmented reality — we
should see huge gains in productivity.
Unplanned maintenance of assets and
production lines should be a thing of
the past.
However, even in 2020, this is not
the case. Access to all this data does
not mean it is useful. Industrial data is
very raw. The data must be made “fit
for purpose” to extract its true value.
Also, the tools used to make the data
fit for purpose must operate at the
scale of an industrial facility.
With these realities in mind, here
is a practical, step-by-step guide for
manufacturers and other industrial
companies to make their industrial
data fit for purpose.
STEP 1: Start with the use case
Information technology (IT) and
operations technology (OT) projects
should start with clear use cases and
business goals. For many manufactur-
ing companies, projects may focus
on machine maintenance, process
improvements or product analysis to
8 | MARCH 2020 IIoT For Engineers
improve quality or traceability. As part
of the use case, company stakeholders
should identify the project scope and
applicable data that will be required.
Make sure the right cross-functional
stakeholders are in the room from
the project beginning, and that all
stakeholders agree to prioritize the
project and can reach consensus on
the project goals.
‘
Make sure the right cross-
functional stakeholders
are in the room from the
’
project beginning.
STEP 2: Identify target systems
With the use cases and business
goals identified, the next step requires
identifying the target applications that
will be used to accomplish these goals.
Characterize the target application by
asking these questions:
• Where is this target application
located: at the Edge, on-premises,
in a data center, in the Cloud or
elsewhere?
• How can this application receive
data: MQTT, OPC UA, REST, data-
base load or other?
• What information is needed for
this application?
• How frequently should the data
be updated and what causes the
update?
Document your responses and then
move on to the next step in which you
will identify your data sources for the
project.
STEP 3: Identify the data sources
Industrial data is an important com-
ponent for addressing industrial and
business use cases. However, there are
some major challenges with accessing
this data and converting it into useful
information.
Volume. The typical modern
industrial factory has hundreds to
thousands of pieces of machinery and
equipment constantly creating data.
This data is generally aggregated
within programmable logic controllers
(PLCs), machine controllers or distrib-
uted control systems (DCS) within
the automation layer, though newer
approaches may also include smart
sensors and smart actuators that feed
data directly into the software layer.
Correlation. Automation data was
primarily put in place to manage,
optimize and control the process. The
data is correlated for process control
and is not correlated for asset mainte-
nance or product quality or traceabil-
ity purposes.
Context. Data structures on PLCs
and machine controllers have minimal
descriptive information — if any. In
many cases, data points are refer-
www.controleng.com/IIoT
enced with cryptic data-point naming
schemes or references to memory
locations.
Standardization. The automation
in a factory evolves over time with ma-
chinery and equipment sourced from
a wide variety of hardware vendors.
This hardware was likely programmed
and defined by the vendor. This has
resulted in unique data models created
for each piece of machinery and a lack
of standards across the factory and
company in all but the very largest and
most sophisticated manufacturers.
You can better understand the
specific challenges you will need to
overcome for your project by docu-
menting your data sources. Charac-
terize the data available to meet the
target system’s needs by asking these
questions:
• What data is available?
• Where is it located: PLCs, machine
controllers, databases, etc.?
• Is it real-time data or informational
data (metadata)?
• Is the data currently available in
the right format or will it need to
be derived?
STEP 4: Select the integration
architecture
Integration architectures fall in two
camps: direct application program-
ming interface (API) connections
(application-to-application) or integra-
tion hubs (DataOps solutions).
Direct API connections work well if
you only have two applications that
need to be integrated. The data does
not need to be curated or prepared
for the receiving application, and the
source systems are very static. This is
typically successful in environments
where the manufacturing company
has a single SCADA or MES solution
www.controleng.com/IIoT
that houses all the informa-
tion, and there is no need for
additional applications to get
access to the data.
Direct API connections do
not work well when industrial
data is needed in multiple ap-
plications like SCADA, MES,
ERP, IIoT Platform, Analyt-
ics, QMS, AMS, cyber threat
monitoring systems, various
custom databases, dash-
boards or spreadsheet ap-
plications. Direct API connec-
tions also do not work well
when there are many data
transformations that must
occur to prepare the data for
the consuming system.
These transformations
can easily be performed in
Python, C#, or any other pro-
gramming language but they
are then “invisible” and hard
to maintain. Finally, direct
API connections do not work
well when data structures
are frequently changing. This
happens when the factory
equipment or the programs
running on this equipment
are frequently changed. For
example, a manufacturer
may have short-run batches
that require loading new
programs on the PLCs; the
products produced may
evolve and require changes to
the automation; the automation may FIGURE 1. Integration hubs are an alterna-
be changed to improve efficiency; or tive to using application programming
the equipment may be replaced due to interfaces (APIs) solely when managing the
age and performance. many types of data associated today with
Using the API approach buries the automation projects. Diagram courtesy:
integrations in code. Stakeholders HighByte
may not even be aware of integrated
systems until long after the equipment An alternative to direct API connec-
has been replaced or changes have tions is a DataOps integration hub.
been made, resulting in undetected Integration hubs are a new approach
bad or missing data for weeks or even to data integration and security that
months. aims to improve data quality and re-
IIoT For Engineers MARCH 2020 | 9
BIG INDUSTRIAL DATA
duce time spent preparing data for use
throughout the enterprise. An integra-
tion hub acts as an abstraction layer
that still uses APIs to connect to other
applications but provides a manage-
ment, documentation and governance
tool to connect data sources to all the
required applications.
An integration hub is purpose-built
to move high volumes of data at high
speeds with transformations being
performed in real time while the data
is in motion. Since an integration hub
is an application itself, it provides a
platform to identify impact when de-
vices or applications are changed, per-
form data transformations and provide
visibility to these transformations.
STEP 5: Establish secure
connections
Now that the project plan is in place,
begin system integration by establish-
ing secure connections to the source
and target systems. Understand the
protocols worked with and the security
risks and benefits they provide.
Many systems support open pro-
tocols to define the connection and
communication. Typical open proto-
cols include OPC UA, MQTT, REST,
ODBC and AMQP — among others.
There also are many closed protocols
and vendor-defined APIs for which
the application vendor publishes the
API protocol documentation. Ask
yourself: Does the protocol support
secure connections and how are these
connections created? Some proto-
cols and systems support certificates
exchanged by the applications. Other
protocols support usernames and
passwords or tokens manually entered
into the connecting system or through
third-party validation. In addition to
user security, some protocols support
encrypted data packets so if there is
a “man in the middle” attack they
cannot read the data being passed.
10 | MARCH 2020 IIoT For Engineers
Finally, some protocols support data
authentication. Then, even if the data
is viewed by a third party, it cannot be
changed.
Security is not just about usernames,
passwords, encryption and authentica-
tion but also about integration archi-
‘
Protocols like MQTT
require only outbound
openings in firewalls,
which security teams
’
prefer.
tecture. Protocols like MQTT require
only outbound openings in firewalls,
which security teams prefer because
hackers are unable to exploit the pro-
tocol to get on internal networks.
STEP 6: Model the data
The corporate-wide deployment
and adoption of analytics or IIoT often
is delayed by the variability of data
coming off the factory floor. From one
machine to the next, each industrial
device may have its own data model.
Historically, vendors, systems integra-
tors and in-house controls engineers
have not focused on creating data
standards. They refined the systems
and changed the data models over
time to suit their needs. This worked
for one-off projects, but today’s IIoT
projects require more scalability.
The first step in modeling data is
to define standard models required
in the target system to meet the
business goals of the project. At the
core of the model is the real-time
data coming off the machinery and
automation equipment. Most of the
real-time data points will map to
single-source data points. However,
when a specific data point does not
exist, data points can be derived by
executing expressions or logic using
other data points. Data also can be
parsed or extracted from other data
fields, or additional sensors can be
added to provide required data.
These models also should include
attributes for any descriptive data,
which are typically not stored in the
industrial devices but are very useful
when matching data and evaluating
data in the target systems. Descrip-
tive data could be the location of the
machine, the asset number of the
machine, unit of measure, operating
ranges or other contextual informa-
tion. Once the standard models are
created, they should be instantiated
for each asset, process or product.
This is generally a manual task but
can be accelerated if the mapping al-
ready exists in Excel or other formats,
if there is consistency from device
to device that can be copied or if a
learning algorithm can be applied.
STEP 7: Flow the data
When the modeling is complete, the
data flows should be controlled model
-by-model. This typically is performed
by identifying the model to be moved,
target system and frequency or trigger
for the movement. Over time, data
flows also will require monitoring and
management.
Wrap up
Making industrial data fit for pur-
pose will be critical to manufacturers
looking to scale their IIoT projects
and wrangle data governance. I
hope this article serves as a practical
guide to getting started on your next
project. IIoT
John Harrington is co-founder and
chief business officer at HighByte.
www.controleng.com/IIoT
OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
Small-to-midsize manufacturers face
digital transformation constraints
IT and OT software and platform convergence moves forward
Joe Brooker
A
successful digital transfor-
mation involves increasing
integration among the en-
terprise systems that govern enterprise
transactions and the systems that
manage factory operations. Potential
returns from industrial internet of
things (IIoT) investments won’t be real-
ized unless the information technol-
ogy (IT) and operations technologies
(OT) are more closely aligned. Yet
fewer than 10% of companies have
combined OT and IT departments,
with the IT function more frequently
representing corporate interests and
the OT function representing plant or
unit priorities.
Given these challenges, it is no sur-
prise almost 75% of companies having
IIoT initiatives say they do not consider
them a complete success. Despite this
low success rate, managements see
digital transformation as key to long-
term success — nine out of 10 indus-
trial companies are investing in digital
factories. If manufacturers successfully
digitalize production, it can pave the
way for flexible, just-in-time produc-
tion, with the goal to reduce invento-
ries even while increasing revenue.
While the IT and OT disconnect is a
hurdle impacting digital transforma-
tion success, it is not the only reason.
More than 90% of U.S. manufactur-
ing companies are small businesses,
and the majority have fewer than 20
employees. These small companies
www.controleng.com/IIoT
probably don’t have dedicated IT de-
partments, so they face a more basic
question: Can we dedicate capital to
an experimental project that may fail?
The answer: probably not.
Connected applications
Transforming operations in a small
to mid-sized company is no small feat
and will likely encounter pushback
from various business and sup-
ply chain functions,
including the back
office, suppliers,
customers and the
plant floor.
The many
challenges
associated with
digital transfor-
mation mean
few companies
will complete
the transition alone. Stra-
tegic partnerships with IT
and OT providers are important.
As IIoT platforms are integrated
and implemented, connected ap-
plications have emerged. The value
of investing in IIoT platforms will
come from applications that take
advantage of connectivity to ad-
dress business needs. The platform
is, or will become, a commodity. If
every business has one, there’s no
competitive advantage. If the focus is
on improving operational efficiency,
this doesn’t necessarily require major
business transformation.
Connected applications may not
necessarily be branded as IIoT. Cloud-
based solutions allow smaller compa-
nies without dedicated IT departments
and operating under capital and labor
constraints to implement connected
solutions that deliver business value.
Finding IIoT that works
Companies that can dedicate
capital and labor to an IIoT initiative
will be able to exploit
the benefits of digital
transformation. This
transformation will
require IT
(enterprise)
and OT (fac-
tory/operational)
changes. Having
available resourc-
es doesn’t guar-
FIGURE 1: Cambashi connects
nine IIoT market areas. All
graphics courtesy: Cambashi
antee success, however. Operating at
scale is often accompanied (particularly
in larger, well-established companies)
by siloed, disconnected operations.
While IT departments always seek
to exploit emergent technologies for
competitive advantage, for OT, it is
very different. Reliability is critically
important. Operations executives are
more concerned about what works
than what’s new. If technology does
need replacing or upgrading, they
IIoT For Engineers MARCH 2020 | 11
OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
want something that can be imple-
mented with minimal disruption.
Neither is this disconnect confined
to the factory. IT and OT departments
will each have preferred suppliers they
are accustomed to engaging with. That
separation adds to the complications of
digital transformation projects.
Operations technology provid-
ers, such as Siemens, Bosch Rexroth
and Honeywell, among others, have
invested heavily in IIoT and connected
applications. IIoT offerings that once
spanned several solution providers
are gathered in one business unit. GE
spun off its IoT unit, GE Digital, into a
separate entity. These entities work at
the plant level rather than enterprise
level for security and technological
reasons.
Despite restructuring, it has not
been plain sailing for global giants GE
and Siemens. GE’s software business
has struggled to achieve profitability
since being spun off into a separate
subsidiary. For Siemens, despite a
third-quarter decline in digital in-
dustries revenue, software revenues
increased. Siemens says partner-
network applications for its IIoT plat-
form, MindSphere, are growing more
than 25% per quarter.
A brief review of the online mar-
ketplace for MindSphere applications
include offerings to explore IoT data,
develop dashboards, and automate
analytics to create actionable intelli-
gence. Operations-rooted applications
emphasize machine connectivity, con-
trol and efficiency. It seems inevitable
that operations technology providers
will increasingly incorporate IT stan-
dards and protocols in their solutions.
Blurred IT/OT distinctions, however,
present challenges to IT providers as
well. It will be harder for IT providers
to offer OT software because of the
machine-level domain knowledge
needed for OT software.
12 | MARCH 2020 IIoT For Engineers
Help from IT providers
Enterprise software providers of-
fer IIoT solutions that allow users to
incrementally adopt IIoT. These include
IBM, Software AG and PTC, which of-
fer cloud networks, IoT platforms and
connected applications. Microsoft (with
Azure) and Amazon (with AWS) offer
open, cloud-based capabilities and
support a partner ecosystem. Focusing
on a digital transformation initiative
can seem overwhelming to even the
largest corporations. Enterprise provid-
ers increasingly offer industry-focused,
packaged software solutions.
‘
It will be harder for IT pro-
viders to offer OT software
because of the machine-
level domain knowledge
’
needed for OT software.
Revenue growth of OT/industrial and
IT/enterprise providers can be com-
pared for 2017 and 2018, the most
recent years with available figures.
The data shows IT/enterprise providers
grew by 65%, compared to 29% by
OT/industrial players. While OT provid-
ers started from a higher base value,
it still holds true that IT providers are
making advances in their connected
application offerings. This is consistent
with statistics showing IT/enterprise
providers are outperforming OT coun-
terparts in year-over-year growth. OT
and IT providers are increasing their
focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
More blended IoT offerings
Analysis of the IIoT market shows
a changing distinction between the
IT- and OT-rooted approaches. OT sup-
pliers increasingly are offering IT solu-
tions, while both IT and OT providers
are forming strategic partnerships.
In one example, PTC and Rock-
well Automation have entered into
a strategic partnership to expand
coverage, from design operations to
plant floors,through creation of a joint
product factory software suite.
The software combines Rockwell
Automation’s automation technol-
ogy and domain expertise and PTC’s
product design and product lifecycle
management knowledge. These hybrid
solutions are in place in Ford Motor
Co.’s manufacturing systems for auto-
mobile and truck manufacturing.
Volkswagen announced it will jointly
develop the Volkswagen Industrial
Cloud using Amazon AWS technology
and Siemens as the integration partner.
Siemens will be responsible for ensur-
ing the equipment and machinery at
Volkswagen’s 122 plants are efficiently
networked in the cloud. Siemens also
will make connected applications from
its own IIoT platform, MindSphere,
available in the Volkswagen Industrial
Cloud. This will enable greater data
transparency and analysis, which will
lay the technological foundations for
Volkswagen productivity improve-
ment. The agreements with AWS and
Siemens pave the way for Volkswagen
to digitalize production and logistics
across a global supply chain.
Connected market areas vary in
growth. In 2017, for example, con-
nected asset and connected produc-
tion were prevalent, with many diverse
companies appearing in the market
to offer applications. Connected asset
and production are still big players,
but over time, other market areas are
emerging. These include connected
transportation and connected product
initiatives. IIoT
Joe Brooker is industrial IoT analyst
with Cambashi.
www.controleng.com/IIoT
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