Efficient Plant October 2017 - 18

feature | industry views

Focus on Datasets

Use Standardized Controls

Ian Fountain, Director Industrial

Aurelio Banda, President

IoT Business Segment, National

and CEO, Beckhoff

Instruments, Austin, TX, ni.com.

Automation, Savage, MN,
beckhoffautomation.com.

My best advice for how to sustain,
expand, and/or exploit IIoT use in
an enterprise is to focus on organized
datasets with relevant metadata. These datasets can be asset-health
measurements, energy consumption, production performance,
control-system parameters, and/or manufacturing test data. Poor
performance of one system can have an impact on the performance
of another; rippling through until a KPI is in jeopardy.
If data is the new oil, large organized datasets are reserves to
be processed for an increasing amount of business insight as IIoT
technologies advance. Technologies such as analytics and machine
learning will continue to mature but, regardless of location on the
adoption curve, will always need data to mine for useful information. Businesses should focus on their data reserves now to prepare
for this while infrastructure and technology companies continue
the drive to improvements in processor performance, network
bandwidth, communication, and security. Deployment and positive ROI won't happen before the technology is available, but if you
have organized stores of operational data, you'll be ready when the
technology arrives.
A good place to start applying IIoT technology for PM/PdM is at
the edge, connecting operational assets to enterprise systems. Many
assets today are monitored on a manual route or not monitored at
all. Assets not connected are not even part of the IIoT, making it
difficult to use new technologies to drive optimization. For assets
that are manually monitored, connecting equipment with permanent online monitoring systems has several advantages. Online
monitoring reduces the chance of human error from inconsistent/
improper sensor placement (magnetic mount), instrument settings,
or missed routes all together. Additionally, IIoT hardware technology for monitoring has enough processing power at the edge to
screen high-speed sensor data 24/7, looking for early signs of failure
and making it easier to capture interesting datasets such as startups,
shutdowns, or peak-load conditions. Finally, with connected equipment and intelligent screening at the edge, maintenance professionals spend more time looking at early finds and less time walking
around plants and factories making measurements.

| EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

The best advice I can give
in the use of IIoT technologies is to build your system
architecture on control solutions
that are standardized, open, and able
to multitask. While conventional PLC technology has
existed for much longer, it is PC-based control technology that is the most mature, best-proven platform
today in terms of automation technology and IT
Build your
convergence (AT + IT).
This is critically important
system on
because IIoT is the latest
control
major example of AT + IT,
solutions
so PC-based controllers
that are
have the most built-in
standardized,
capabilities in terms of
open, and
hardware, software, and
able to
networking to realize
cloud connectivity. This
multitask.
means users of PC-based
controls are less likely
to need complex managed switches and IoT gateways
from multiple vendors. It will also reduce the need for
multiple edge-computing devices.
Beckhoff can make the existing standard machine
controller an IIoT device, while also handling the PM/
PdM system by connecting to standard I/O devices that
gather and interpret measured data. Our approach also
ensures that a universal programming environment
crosses all specialties in a plant-from PLC, to motion
control, robotics, safety, condition monitoring, IoT,
cloud connectivity, and data analytics. Enterprises will
gain considerable IIoT insight and additional leverage
for future scalability by applying PC-based control
technology. EP

OCTOBER 2017

http://www.ni.com http://www.beckhoffautomation.com http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Efficient Plant October 2017