FEATURE AI & VR
Artifi cial intelligence, edge computing and the cloud
There is certainly a buzz around the idea of digitalisation, for its ability to deliver benefits offered by greater visualisation and analysis of data and to gain a greater understanding of the root causes of unexpected downtime and production bottlenecks. But what are the options and how can they best be employed, asks Dan Rossek, Regional Marketing Manager at Omron
One benefit of digitalisation is its potential to escalate data to other systems and to make it possible to monitor plants remotely
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n addition to off ering greater connectivity of devices at plant level, digitalisation off ers one other great benefi t and that is the potential to escalate data to other systems, allowing remote in-depth monitoring of plants, over greater distances and longer periods than previously possible. Traditionally, manufacturing traceability would have been achieved via paper-based batch recording, but not so product-level traceability without digital technology. Predictive maintenance was possible, but only via periodic monitoring of devices. Hence, digitalisation introduces a host of valuable new functions that make use of the data that probably already existed on the production line but was stranded in disparate systems.
At its most simplistic, digitalisation is about integrating devices to gain information about them that helps rectify problems. However, the potential goes much farther, and the benefi ts of digitising
28 November 2021 | Automation
will be widespread, right across an enterprise. Visualisation, for example, can give greater insight into how productive and effi cient the entire manufacturing plant is at any point in time.
Barriers
The biggest barrier to adopting digital technology revolves around operational technology (OT), which traditionally was designed around the need for machine optimisation, employing architectures and networks that provide optimal performance for machines. But, since digitalisation nowadays relies on the IT and OT worlds merging, OT technology must evolve to be able to integrate it with the wider world, so, today, modern machine control solutions incorporate IT functionality. Omron’s Sysmac controller, for example, includes direct SQL database connectivity and can also be provided with OPC-UA, as well as MQTT, all allowing a simple and seamless method of escalating
Data-handling solutions On-premise servers off er good data- handling solution for applications that need fast access to it. When it comes to connecting the OT environment to the rest of the world, security is often a concern. However, if the intention is to analyse and store data in an on-premise IT server, security should already be provided by the factory fi rewall or existing security infrastructure.
But, because any connection point could be a potential security threat, there are always some security measures that need to be taken; Omron has addressed these through ‘trusted certifi cates’ – a recognised IT security measure.
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operational information from machine level to the IT environment, and vice versa. Middleware solutions are also available, which can act as a gateway to connect legacy devices to the IT world, where needed.
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