IEN: How are manufacturers using existing technologies in new ways?
Dinsmoor: Internet technology (Browsers, TCP/IP Ethernet, and wireless PDA connections) has become "existing technology" for many of our customers, the trends and solutions used in the office are moving to the factory floor because the customer is already comfortable with it, and the price/performance is good enough to use on high availability manufacturing systems.
IEN: What are the major concerns facing this sector in the next few years?
Dinsmoor: There are two major concerns:
1. Cost competitiveness of off-the-shelf solutions with highly targeted embedded solutions:Even with the decrease in their cost/performance, PCs cannot compete with the reliability, deployment cost, and long term support costs of single purpose machines such as thin clients and embedded HMI panels that are used for a single task. PCs will continue to dominate in applications where either a rich graphical environment is required (3D Graphics for example) or where a single HMI will be used for a variety of tasks.
2. Scalable solutions that can be migrated with new hardware as it is introduced:An HMI needs to "live" for the life of the machine it is attached to. Since it is usually attached to the plant information infrastructure (network, software environment, etc.), it needs to be usable as the standards advance and evolve. In our experience, solutions that use open connection technology survive the best over the life of the equipment. This means, with today's technology solutions like browser-based interfaces over custom displays, simple interfaces over complex solutions. A good example is Web servers. Fanuc Robotics offers a Web server as an option on our robots, which lets the robot user build customized pages of information on the robot and its operation. The user can then access the pages from anywhere on his factory network via a standard browser. Fanuc Robotics also includes standard pages that provide diagnostic information on the robot to support remote troubleshooting if there is a problem with the robot. This version of human machine interface will be around for the life of the robot even if things like networks, PCs, and browsers change, since it is all built around standard (and open) components.
IEN: What innovations are in store for users?
Dinsmoor: Browsers and thin clients (standalone browsers) everywhere. One good example would be portable HMIs that travel with the plant person rather than being attached to the equipment. In addition, you will see equipment without attached human machine interfaces, where access is available via an Ethernet connection or via a wireless connection bridged to Ethernet. Remote access for both the plant person and the equipment vendor will be available so equipment can be monitored and serviced remotely.
IEN: Are we entering a new era of E-manufacturing?
Dinsmoor: Yes, but at manufacturing's pace, not necessarily at Internet speed. The reason is equipment and manufacturing processes have to work and be reliable, with very, very high availability at the lowest possible cost. The manufacturing system needs to be easy to support and live for years and years since they are expensive to build and sophisticated to engineer. The trick for today's manufacturing engineer is to apply the best from the Internet world in ways that make sense for the nuts and bolts world of manufacturing.
IEN: How will the drive toward lean manufacturing impact this sector?
Dinsmoor: Value and reliability are key. Systems that are hard to build, difficult to maintain, or are quickly obsolete by changing standards will not be the lean solutions needed to be competitive in the 21st century.
