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IT IN MANUFACTURING
News and insights relating to manufacturing IT and business systems
Applying systems thinking to smart plants
A systems thinking mindset is a useful tool for analysing the smart plant by considering the system as a whole, as a complex network of many interconnected elements.
An example of control and automation using IIoT, edge computing and the cloud
Countries are looking towards more sustainable, cleaner energy solutions. Renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and biogas are very promising, but the transition cannot happen overnight. It is predicted that over the next 10 years the overall energy mix in...
Finding the common thread in process industries
During the 1970s, the process industry was at the forefront of digitalisation. At the time, the vision of a single integrated system running on a database became what would later be known as ERP (enterprise resource planning). The earliest large-scale deployments of...
AI in manufacturing – revolutionary opportunity or well-trodden path?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a catchphrase used by marketers that attributes the characteristics of human intelligence to a computer system. AI incorporates concepts like machine learning and pattern recognition. It is impressive that facial recognition can...
Integrating IT with Operations Technology – a CIO perspective
Over the past few years, there has been a growing realisation that traditional IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operations Technology) must work very closely together in order to unlock new value. Digitisation projects, spurred on by Industry 4.0 and technological...
Preparing fertile ground for a successful IIoT project
In common with many engineers, I do enjoy shopping for new power tools for my workshop. I therefore often find myself totally absorbed in hardware stores, captivated by new innovative devices for solving almost any problem. The low cost of modern mass-produced tools,...
Now might be the time to have a talk with your IT service provider
The Gartner hype cycle provides a simple graphic representation of how emerging technologies are adopted in the market. The principle is quite simple: a new technology (such as augmented reality) will start moving up the hype cycle curve as a result of an innovation...
New toolkits for innovation
Back in the 1980s, as a junior process engineer, I spent a great part of my first job working with DCS and SCADA systems. At the time, I was working on a synfuels plant that made use of a Honeywell TDC3000 DCS. Most of the field instruments were connected to the...
How adding services to products could start your journey towards an Industry 4.0 solution
Digital transformation, according to Microsoft, is about reimagining how you bring together people, data and processes to create value for your customers and maintain a competitive advantage in a digital-first world. For manufacturers, digital transformation involves...
How real is augmented reality?
The early morning air was still cold when I arrived together with a colleague at the mine for our underground visit. Our hosts were keen to show us the practical challenges of the drilling and blasting operation, and the many ways in which rock fragments containing...
Digital twins, science-fiction or reality?
Industrie 4.0 introduces the somewhat abstract concept of a ‘digital twin’. But is this really new, does it actually exist anywhere in practice, and if so, what steps should be followed to build one? A process control engineer who is already familiar with CAD, SCADA,...
Using predictive analytics to improve planned maintenance
During my days as a process engineer, I worked on an amino acid fermentation plant where it was very important to keep the process sterile at all times otherwise entire batches could be lost to contamination. Dozens of automated diaphragm valves were used to control...
What is the future of blockchain in manufacturing?
Blockchain technology has recently come into focus with Bitcoin’s prominence as a viable cryptocurrency. In manufacturing circles, it is probably fair to say that there is some uncertainty as to exactly what future impact blockchain may have on manufacturing systems....
Innovating in the process industry with PLM
There is no doubt that with Industrie 4.0 there is a lot of innovation taking place in manufacturing IT. But ‘innovation’ is not only the creation of a new idea out of nothing but more often the combination of two existing ideas in a new way to create something...
The potential value of manufacturing analytics
Process manufacturing plants create enormous amounts of data every day, much of which is captured and stored in SCADA systems. At the same time business ERP systems also contribute to the volume of data collected and stored. Documents in e-mail systems contain...
How will digital manufacturing impact on IT outsourcing?
IT in manufacturing is changing fast as companies introduce technologies that reach beyond the factory boundary in line with trends such as Industrie 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). At the same time, executives are looking to make organisational...
The role of the Chief Digital Officer in industrial manufacturing
As manufacturing companies look to leveraging the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) they might appoint a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) to lead their digital transformation. What then is the role of the CDO and what are the success factors in the job? Like the...
EAM software – what business leaders need to know
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) is the process of optimising business value from assets across business units, locations, and facilities. EAM is concerned with the total asset lifecycle. This lifecycle typically starts with design and specification and then...
How to build a cloud IoT system around a manufacturing process
To increase their competitiveness, a number of manufacturing companies are starting to incorporate cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) using simple architectures that extend the existing plant and business systems. Cloud-based IoT is a potential game-changer that...
How to determine the business need for industrial Internet applications
Manufacturing companies have to plan for a future where the industrial Internet is going to change the way their business is managed. Capital investment in the industrial Internet in Europe alone is expected to be around EUR140 billion every year until 2020,...
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