electronica Nov 2014
16
I
NTERNET
-
OF
-T
HINGS
Competing nowadays in global economy
requires the ability to adapt quickly to chang-
ing consumer demands. Manufacturers need to
stay lean and flexible while maximizing capa-
bility and capacity to take advantage of new
business opportunities. They need real-time
data to make informed decisions to improve
efficiency, effectively manage the supply chain,
and generate new revenue streams.
Real-time visibility into manufacturing oper-
ations requires integrating plant floor equip-
ment with business systems and applications.
Data from disparate devices and machines
made by different suppliers, using different
technical protocols, and connected via differ-
ent private or public communications channels
across campus, cities, or around the world adds
a layer of complexity that means many manu-
facturing and IT departments are spending too
much time and money on custom-program-
ming and complex home-grown solutions.
To reduce complexity and save money, lead-
ing manufacturers rely on new technology
platforms to connect and integrate all their
on-site and remote production assets with
their own business systems, as well as those
of their suppliers and customers across their
entire ecosystem. Innovations in this new
connected industrial world – often referred
to as the “Industrial Internet of Things” – are
transforming the way businesses operate
around the world.
A key component in unlocking the full poten-
tial of the industrial IoT is the application
enablement platform (AEP). An AEP is a
purpose-built software platform that can
collect and process data from any device,
anywhere. It provides seamless connectiv-
ity and integration of data – both directly to
existing enterprise IT systems and Cloud plat-
forms and services for web-based and mobile
applications. An AEP that is easy to deploy,
requires no custom programming and can
save time and money versus custom home-
grown configurations.
One of the leading enterprise automation
solutions for the Industrial IoT is the device-
WISE AEP from ILS Technology, a Telit
company. The deviceWISE AEP is designed
to easily connect production machines and
processes with enterprise resource planning
(ERP) and manufacturing resource planning
(MRP) systems and SCADA applications
without programming. It enables bi-direc-
tional data communication between factory
floor machines and to enterprise IT systems
and databases. This AEP supports all popu-
lar PLCs from Siemens, Mitsubishi, Rockwell,
Omron and most widely used production
equipment, and is compatible with virtually
any database, message queuing and applica-
tion server system available, including IBM,
SAP, ORACLE and Microsoft.
As a key enabler of the Industrial Internet
of Things, deviceWISE also provides seam-
less and secure integration with the Cloud for
remote control and monitoring of business
operations and equipment by company per-
sonnel or authorized third parties via web-
based and mobile applications and dashboards.
This optional Cloud integration lets companies
improve operational efficiencies and create
business innovation around collaboration, pre-
dictive maintenance and big data analytics with
secure, role-based access to managed assets.
For example, companies can react quickly to
emerging supply-chain and market condi-
tions to drive operational excellence and cost
savings by: monitoring real-time demand and
inventories to improve production scheduling
and logistics, resulting in sizeable operational
efficiencies and profitability; integrating pro-
duction with the enterprise via manufacturing
execution systems that drive and track consis-
tent workflows, materials consumption, and
inventories; and taking advantage of new part-
nering opportunities by using collaboration
tools across an extended IT framework (e.g.,
remote access, messaging, and file sharing).
Additionally companies should leverage knowl-
edge across the entire supply chain to address
business challenges, collect performance data
of field equipment ensuring maximum equip-
ment uptime and reducing scheduled main-
tenance costs of mission-critical systems, and
improve vendor documentation for regulatory
compliance.
For manufacturers, an increase in emerg-
ing technologies and smarter devices on the
factory floor means larger data sets from
diverse PLCs. Each machine might use a dif-
ferent method of communicating to the ERP/
MES systems, resulting in slower integration
speeds and reduced data quality. The ideal
solution is a single enterprise-grade industrial
automation platform that can communicate
with all the machines on the network and pro-
vide aggregated data to the ERP/MES servers.
Benefits of deviceWISE include: improved
resource utilization by eliminating the use
of intermediate PC technology, resulting in
enhanced security and reduced system inte-
gration cycles; more informed decision mak-
ing with real-time communications between
production equipment and enterprise serv-
ers; a scalable architecture that is configu-
rable to any manufacturing environment in
any industry by leveraging the vast library
of built-in standardized drivers and connec-
tors; easy on-site installation and mainte-
nance; and Store-and-Forward functionality
to ensure that no data is lost in the event that
the connection with enterprise applications is
interrupted. Data is automatically saved, and
will be delivered when access has been rees-
tablished.
Plant floor IT managers across Honda automo-
tive facilities inNorthAmerica were challenged
with integrating disparate PLCs from Omron,
Rockwell, Mitsubishi and others with propri-
etary (MES) applications and widely used DB2,
MSSQL and ActivPlant. They were tasked with
improving IT resource utilization with sim-
ple common tools, increasing commonality
between tools and plants, and improving data
quality. The team needed the ability to ramp
up based on market demands while keeping
their staff sizes the same. They needed to stay
lean and flexible while maximizing capability
and capacity. In addition, they were collect-
ing more data using more advanced tools to
get better quality results, which meant poten-
Factory automation: vehicle robots
