Manufacturing
Connectivity and
Data Integration
Contents
Advantages of Greater Connectivity........ 3
Downside Risks of
Heightened Connectivity.......................... 4
Setting a Mobile Device Policy................. 5
The Connected Enterprise in
Action: Delivering Results....................... 5
The Roadmap to The
Connected Enterprise............................... 6
Investment Rising for Analytics,
Remote Monitoring & Mobility................ 7
Manufacturing Connectivity
and Data Integration
T
oday’s manufacturers can take advantage of a new
era of connectivity promising greater productivity,
improved utilization of assets, and better decisionmaking. Driving much of this change is the ability to
smoothly mesh information technology with operations technology, enabling businesses to more fully leverage the
value of their plant floor information.
While many manufacturers, primarily the larger enterprises,
have made substantial progress connecting plant floor data to the
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company network, the full benefits of The Connected Enterprise
remain largely untapped. The reason is that integrating plant floor
data with enterprise systems—not to mention bringing Internet
connectivity to production operations—poses substantial challenges. Foremost among these are cost, the complexity of integrating
technologies from different vendors, and security concerns.
Despite these hurdles, bridging the gap between plant-level
information and systems at the corporate level promises significant business value for those manufacturers willing to overcome
them. Among the potential payoffs are
faster time to market, lower total cost
of ownership, improved asset utilization, and more effective enterprise risk
management. Those are only a few of the benefits
derived from a broad vision of enterprise information that connects the
plant floor with enterprise systems in a
seamless and secure fashion utilizing new technologies such as mobile
devices, the cloud, and big data.
But to reap the full advantages of
The Connected Enterprise and the fast
emerging “Internet of things” (IoT),
manufacturers still have a ways to go.
In a January, 2015 IndustryWeek survey
of 581 manufacturing executives and
managers, less than a third (28%) said
their plant floor data was Internetenabled. Equally telling, of the larger
companies with sales of $1 billion
or more, just 8% said their company
infrastructure was “completely ready”
to benefit from the new Internet based
technologies such as data mobility,
cloud computing, and big data.
Manufacturing Connectivity
and Data Integration
Although larger industrial firms have made significant
progress enabling business decision makers to fully access operational data to make more informed decisions, many midsize
and smaller manufacturers have yet to achieve interoperability.
In fact, the survey results tell a story of relative technological
“haves and have-nots”: the larger companies with sales of $1
billion or more tend to have already achieved far greater connectivity with plant floor data internally and to the Web when
compared to their midsize and smaller manufacturing brethren.
Advantages of Greater Connectivity
The benefits to industrial organizations of meshing production
information with the company’s business systems are many.
Instead of having to return to headquarters from the field to
firm up a shipping and delivery date of a customer order, a
sales representative can use a mobile device to check on plant
production schedules. Similarly, a supplier’s real-time access to
a manufacturer’s just-in-time schedule helps ensure the smooth flow of parts essential to a
lean manufacturing environment.
Internet connectivity for plant floor equipment is viewed by manufacturers as being
valuable for supply chain efficiency, as well as for driving six sigma efficiency improvements. Nearly half (45%) of companies responding to the IndustryWeek survey said
Internet-enabled equipment is valuable for supply chain efficiency, while 40% indicated
that such connectivity is valuable for enabling six sigma gains. In addition, half of all
respondents said they found Internet-enabling of devices to be valuable for predictive
maintenance. Similarly, 59% found it valuable for quality and inventory control and 56% for
uptime.
Corporate-wide visibility into production data typically pays off in better informed
decision-making throughout the enterprise. Some of the benefits are smarter management
of inventory, reduced consumption of energy, and gains in throughput.
For example, a leading global cosmetics manufacturer installed Rockwell Automation
FactoryTalk® Metrics software to monitor, collect, and analyze production data at its Dallas
plant. A new production line had been added, plagued by disappointing output and frequent
line stoppages. To improve measurement of overall equipment efficiency (OEE) and gain
greater control over the efficiency and quality of the new line, Lewisville, Texas-based
Prime Controls installed FactoryTalk Metrics on a local server, connecting the program
directly to the plant’s network.
After migrating the existing application to the FactoryTalk database, engineers analyzed
the line in running mode. They found that the machine with the highest OEE rating was running at maximum level while other machines were either starved or blocked—a condition
that was not visible to the human eye.
Engineers executed the necessary fixes to boost production while eliminating the
faults in the process that had caused downtime. The FactoryTalk software was configured
to calculate and visualize OEE for the monitored equipment. The result is that now when
After migrating the
existing application
to the FactoryTalk®
database, engineers
analyzed the line in
running mode. They
found that the machine
with the highest OEE
rating was running
at maximum level
while other machines
were either starved or
blocked—a condition
that was not visible to
the human eye.
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operators are notified of an alarm, they can quickly understand the
root cause of stoppage or inefficiency, and access the necessary
data to identify actions needed to resolve the problem.
Downside Risks of
Heightened Connectivity
Industrial enterprises seeking to tap the benefits of broader connectivity within the organization as well as with suppliers and customers must come to grips with the need to mitigate the potential
risks, not to mention the cost of upgrading their existing devices,
networks and infrastructure.
In many instances, industrial control systems already incorporate both logical and mechanical provisions designed to enhance
both safety and reliability. These systems typically include a mix
of old and new components that have evolved over time. Thus, a
common plant floor environment consists of a mix of old equipment and new systems, some of which may be readily compatible
with today’s newer technologies, and some less so. Often these
heterogeneous control environments unavoidably result in greater
exposure to a new set of cyber risks when opened up to greater
connectivity and data accessibility.
An infrastructure designed to mesh operational technology
at the plant level and the information technology throughout the
rest of the business works best when built upon open architectures using Ethernet and the standard internet protocol (TCP/IP)
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to enable interoperability with a variety of systems and applications. EtherNet/IP™ is the world’s leading open industrial Ethernet
network designed to connect across systems and subsystems
and from the end customer’s IT infrastructure to the instrumentation level. EtherNet/IP uses the same Ethernet and TCP/IP protocol
suite that is used for email, the Internet, and other commercial
applications, providing the performance, resiliency, and security of
traditional fieldbus solutions.
Although this openness and increased interoperability affords
considerable benefits, it also opens the enterprise to potential cyber
threats from outside. In fact, larger industrial companies with sales
of $1 billion or more tend to be more concerned about the security
issues surrounding greater connectivity with the plant floor than
manufacturers of all sizes, according to the IndustryWeek survey.
Some 43% of large manufacturers cited security as a barrier to
enabling machinery to have Internet connectivity, compared to 32%
for manufacturers of all sizes.
For this reason, industrial enterprises that embrace greater connectivity within and outside the organization must adopt a security
strategy that covers both the plant and the broader enterprise.
Security must be designed into all levels of the IT architecture,
including devices on the plant floor, control systems, and the
networks that comprise plant floor automation. Companies need
to take a holistic view of industrial security, addressing people,
process, and technology risk to maintain operational integrity and
protect industrial assets.
In most cases, this means following a “defense-in-depth”
strategy that addresses both internal and external security threats.
This is based on the premise that any single point of protection or
individual firewall could, and probably will, be penetrated by the
persistent attacker over time. The most effective defensive solution
is to erect multiple layers of defense, including physical, electronic
and procedural. Under this approach:
• Security is built into the infrastructure and becomes a set of
layers within the overall network security;
• Attackers must first penetrate or circumvent each security layer
undetected; and
• Any single point of penetration can be backstopped by different
variables of capabilities provided by the other layers.
The explosion of data contained at the plant level—in production drives, servos, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs)—
warrants a high level of security to ensure that product and process
information remains adequately protected. The commonly accepted
notion that the PLC was the central point of information on the
production floor has been eclipsed as a greater variety of more
Manufacturing Connectivity
and Data Integration
powerful devices make up the automation environment in
today’s manufacturing facilities. Through The Connected
Enterprise, much of this plant floor data today is accessible
via smartphones and other devices—in effect, enabling this
information to move in and out of the machine zone as use
and demand requires.
Despite these benefits to be obtained from making
production data available over the Web to employees, customers, and suppliers, many manufacturers remain hesitant
when it comes to Internet-enabling plant-level information.
While the biggest concern over Internet enabling production
machinery is cost—50% of enterprises with sales of $1
billion or more said this was the chief barrier to Internetenabling plant floor devices—a close second was concern
over security (43%).
Setting a Mobile Device Policy
Security issues also loom large as industrial firms grapple
with the need to deploy IoT strategies. Despite the fact that just about every consumer
owns or uses a smartphone, the use of these devices by employees to access production
information remains relatively limited. Only one out of four manufacturers responding to
the IndustryWeek survey have made plant floor data available on their employees’ mobile
devices, and they have done so only for upper level managers or other select employees.
Just 5% of manufacturers have made plant floor data available to all employees via mobile
devices.
A majority (51%) of large manufacturers report security concerns over external mobile
devices. Many companies have dealt with this issue by establishing a clear policy for employees governing their access to company data—corporate and plant-based—using both
company-issued smartphones as well as employee-owned mobile devices.
Security concerns also are impacting manufacturers’ plans to leverage the cloud for
data storage. While 21% of large enterprises report storing plant floor data in a private
cloud, just 5% are using a public cloud for data storage. Overall, 16% of manufacturers
are storing plant floor information on a private cloud, but only 3% are doing so using
public clouds.
The Connected Enterprise in Action: Delivering Results
One of the most powerful benefits of The Connected Enterprise is the ability to visualize the
performance of operations and take quick action to stem production problems either before
they occur or early in their development. Industrial plants typically require different perspectives based on the operator’s role or the supervisory level of the viewer. For instance,
various groups such as engineering, maintenance, and operations all need visualization into
operations that is tailored to meet the needs of their roles in the plant.
FactoryTalk VantagePoint® EMI software from Rockwell Automation offers dashboards,
trending presentations, analysis, and reporting capability. It draws data from disparate
sources and brings it all together into a single format called the Unified Production Model.
One of the most
powerful benefits
of The Connected
Enterprise is the
ability to visualize
the performance of
operations and take
quick action to stem
production problems
either before they
occur or early in their
development.
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One company using the
Unified Production Model
(UPM) is Cybertrol Engineering, which used the UPM when
setting up a process for a
pipeline company that wanted
enterprise-wide visibility. The
pipeline company operates
150 pumping stations using
Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix®
PLCs at each station. The
UPM was used to historically represent a massive amount of data
from each remote station so that engineers could use the data for
decision-making. The flexible, off-the-shelf solution enabled pipeline operators to check the discharge pressure for each pumping
station using the UPM. The company found the UPM very effective
as a tool for troubleshooting and analyzing various conditions.
Another company that needed better visibility into operations
is Hillshire Brands, which ships 150 million pounds of Jimmy
Dean breakfast sausage annually. The company needed to control
and maintain an exact amount of product in each package. After
evaluating the entire production process, the company considered
various solutions, finally settling on three dashboards to monitor production. The result was the company is able to collect key
actionable data, spot trends, and make better decisions.
Being able to standardize its plant infrastructure using Rockwell
Automation integrated architecture with all Allen-Bradley controls
has enabled King’s Hawaiian Bakery’s 150,000-square-foot Atlanta
plant to deliver a high quality product while minimizing the learning curve for new employees due to a very user-friendly human
machine interface (HMI). Plant workers use Rockwell Automation
FactoryTalk VantagePoint to see production history as well as trends
in production as they occur. If a piece of equipment is starting to
fail, operators can identify the problem in advance and take corrective action.
In another case, a Canadian water/wastewater operation with
six treatment plants wanted to upgrade operations management
by implementing a manufacturing intelligence strategy. The goals
were to both reduce risk of downtime and optimize operations. The
company’s systems integrator, Grantek, provided a solution based
on Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk VantagePoint software. The
application provides visibility into production, putting all the company’s historical production data into context through a Web-based
reporting tool that gives users a comprehensive picture of factors
contributing to operational performance.
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Because the FactoryTalk VantagePoint user experience is very
intuitive, company operators can now access role appropriate
information with a simple click-through on the Web-based system.
While operators at one of the water/wastewater plants need specific
production information to make fast decisions, a manager often is
best served with a higher-level dashboard display that enables an
assessment of the entire system with a quick glance.
The result was that the water/wastewater operation’s information gathering and reporting process was reduced from a four-day
ordeal for two to four people to about half an hour for a single
employee. The company estimates annual savings of 720 hours
generating compliance and ad hoc reports.
The Roadmap to The
Connected Enterprise
As connectivity becomes more ubiquitous and the Internet of Things
becomes a reality for industry, manufacturers and industrial operators will adopt these new technologies in order to thrive in the new
fully connected world. Achieving this level of connectivity requires
forging a smooth bond between information technology and operations technology.
Clearly, much work lies ahead for today’s manufacturing
enterprises. Only 5% of companies responding to the IndustryWeek
survey say they are currently engaged in smart manufacturing
initiatives—defined as the integration of network-based data and
information that provides realtime understanding and decision
making. Nonetheless, manufacturers are intrigued by the promise of
smart manufacturing, with 48% of companies either “very interested” or “somewhat interested.”
Ensuring the readiness of the organization’s IT infrastructure to
benefit from IoT strategies is an essential first step to tapping the
benefits of these new technologies. But few industrial organizations are fully ready to take advantage of the IoT promise in their
operations. In the IndustryWeek survey of manufacturers, about half
(47%) said their infrastructure was “completely ready” or “somewhat ready” to benefit from IoT strategies, while an equal number
(47%) indicated that their infrastructure was not ready. Those asserting the greatest readiness (58%) not surprisingly were the large
($1 billion or more in sales) industrial companies.
Toward this goal of infrastructure readiness, Rockwell Automation has developed The Connected Enterprise Execution Model: in
effect, a roadmap for industrial companies seeking to bring their
equipment and systems into the modern information-enabled world.
Some key milestones on this journey include:
• Assess the organization’s existing IT/OT network;
Investment Rising for Analytics,
Remote Monitoring & Mobility
Allen-Bradley, ControlLogix, Factory
Talk and Factory Talk VantagePoint are
trademarks of Rockwell Automation, Inc.
EtherNet/IP is a trademark of the ODVA.
Trademarks not belonging to Rockwell
Automation are property of their
respective companies.
data analytics - 67%
remote monitoring - 65%
mobility - 54%
cloud computing - 48%
big data - 45%
• Secure and upgrade network and
controls;
• Define and organize working data
capital (WDC);
• Leverage the newfound IT/OT capabilities with analytics; and
• Utilize predictive capabilities to
optimize operations and improve
collaboration with suppliers and
responsiveness to customers.
Based on extensive experience
with the five stages of The Connected
Enterprise Execution Model, Rockwell
Automation works with manufacturers
and industrial organizations that are in
advanced positions, as well as those at
the beginning of their IT/OT intelligence
journey.
Industrial companies continue to further mesh operational data with business
systems, as well as to make production
information available to employees, suppliers, and customers over the Internet.
Leveraging this higher level of manufacturing connectivity and data integration
offers significant gains in productivity, efficiency and cost savings, while delivering
far greater visibility into operations to the
rest of the enterprise.
At the same time, manufacturers must
become more fully educated and aware
of the need to adopt an enterprise-wide
security strategy for securely connecting
plant floor automation with the rest of the
business. l
31%
45%
In an effort to assess the degree of connectivity
of plant automation as well as manufacturers’
24%
interest in pursuing IoT strategies, Rockwell
Automation worked with IndustryWeek magazine
to survey the manufacturing community on these
sales of $1
issues.
billion or more
Survey participants represent a broad crosssales of $100
section of U.S. industrial firms, with all industries
million to $1
and manufacturing sectors represented, with
billion
the largest groups being automotive, industrial
machinery, and aerospace & defense. All sizes of
sales under
companies were represented, including about one
$100 million
third (31%) with sales of $1 billion or more, one
fourth (24%) with sales of $100 million to $1 billion,
Over the next
and the remainder (45%) with sales under $100
five years,
million.
companies
Respondents were predominantly executive
are currently
(25%) or managerial (45%), with about one-third
invested in,
working in operations/production, and another 22%
or plan to
in general management.
invest in:
In the January, 2015 survey of 581 executives,
managers, and other employees at industrial
companies, the larger enterprises had achieved a
greater level of connectivity between the plant floor
and their corporate-wide business systems. Almost
half (48%) of larger firms had achieved plant to
enterprise data integration compared to just 28% of
the smaller companies.
When asked about plans to invest in IoT
technologies for plant floor operations, a majority
of respondents said their companies are currently
invested in, or plan to invest in data analytics (67%),
remote monitoring (65%), and mobility (54%) over
the next five years. Similarly, nearly half said their
companies are either currently investing in, or plan
to invest in cloud computing (48%) and big data
(45%) over the next five years.
Again, company size played a role in plans to
invest in the new IoT strategies. For example, 78%
of large manufacturing companies said they had
Manufacturers
current or future plans to invest in data analytics
with current or
compared to 59% of small manufacturers. The
future plans to
disparity in spending plans was even greater for big
invest in data
data initiatives, with one out of three (32%) small
analytics:
firms planning to pursue this technology compared
to three out of five (60%) of big firms.
The technology expected to see the greatest
78%
growth in investment by manufacturers over the
Large
next three years is data analytics. Some 46% of
companies
manufacturers anticipate increasing their investment
in analytics. Surprisingly, just 11% of respondents
said their firms would increase spending on big
59%
Small
data technologies during the same time.
companies
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