Industry continues to rely on breakthroughs in computing, networking, and software to increase efficiency, profitability, and quality -- with mixed results. Regardless of sector or focus -- process, OEM, heavy industry, assembly, material handling, metalworking, distribution -- many companies view e-manufacturing as the solution to all their goals. It's not that simple: e-manufacturing is a 21st century toolbox, and you have to know how to use your tools before you can build anything well.

According to a recent ARC Advisory Group study, for example, the worldwide market for EAM and CMMS will grow from $1.2 billion in 2001 to $1.8 billion in 2006. Notes ARC director of consulting and study author Houghton LeRoy: "The majority of the EAM market growth will come from Application Service Provider (ASP) web hosted solutions and electronic Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (eMRO) procurement. The EAM market has matured causing software license sales to decline and customers to request more services for better performance and continuous improvement." (For more, click here.)

"The latest trend in industrial automation systems is the migration of PC and network based technology to small industrially rugged platforms," says Todd Walter, distributed I/O product manager at National Instruments. "It used to be that a process engineer had to choose between the ease-of-use afforded by the PC and Windows, and the need for a reliable, rugged, and low cost controller," he points out. "This is why many systems today rely on PLCs performing embedded control in the field and a host PC running an HMI package that ties together all the small pieces of the system. What is happening now is that the PC technology has become such a commoditized and proven technology that it is now making its way to the plant floor," explains Walter. (For more, click here.)

In a white paper entitled Integrating Plant Floor Systems -- The Why and the How, Mike Pantaleano, RSBizWare marketing, RSSql product manager, Rockwell Automation states: "The newest frontier for the factory floor is integration of plant floor devices (and the information they generate) with the rest of the enterprise.There's been a lot of talk about factory floor-to-enterprise integration in the past, but two recent developments have made this easier than ever before -- new networks and better software." (For more, click here.)

Compatibility is a major issue, according to Geoff Walker, director of automation and control products at Schneider Electric/Square D. "Software and computer chip technologies are changing so rapidly that current systems quickly become obsolete, and therefore new products are often incompatible," which is why open standards are essential. "That's one of the reasons Schneider Electric has chosen Ethernet and other commercial information technologies as its platform for product development," Walker continues. "For example, Modbus TCP/IP, our major enabling protocol, is located at Port 502 on the Internet stack [while] HTTP is located on Port 80." (For more, click here.) (Schneider's TWIDO controller, pictured, fits large PLC capability into a very small package.)

Contemporary Controls president George Thomas points to durability as a major goal. "I think the biggest challenge is to accommodate standards developed in the IT arena, and make them work on the factory floor. We have to translate them to the rigors of the plant floor -- the IT world is accepting of short-life-cycle products, but not the industrial world where products are likely to be in use for 20 years." (For more, click here.)

And the pace of innovation poses its own problems. Notes John Rinaldi, president of Real Time Automation: "Before the latest technology can be absorbed, the next wave is washing over you. Before industrial Ethernet has a chance to gain a real foothold on the factory floor, wireless is all the rage. Before we can all adopt and absorb wireless technology, microelectromechanical systems will be upon us," Rinaldi comments. (For more, click here.)

The focus on speed-to-market is yet another driver. "This means using simulation tools that are continuously being updated for real-life accuracy, and effortlessly flowing them to manufacturing [situations] that are seamless and exactly match the simulations," explains Duane Lowenstein, global services engineer at Agilent Technologies, Inc. (For more, click here.)

Cost constraints determine how e-manufacturing is implemented, since companies expect a "fast return on investment," says Spencer Cramer, president and chief technology officer of ei³ Corp. "For example, application hosting is gaining popularity in the manufacturing industry for its cost, security, and increased data processing benefits." (For more, click here.)

The new IT-dominated industrial world will require growing amounts of reliable power, according to a white paper by Power Measurement's John Van Gorp and Bill Westbrock, Powering the New Digital Economy. Although most companies that need "high nines power incorporate an array of specialized equipment -- each component often operates independently. An enterprise energy management (EEM) system offers the distributed information and control capabilities that can help better integrate these components," the authors state. (For more, click here.)

Signs of Things To Come

More innovations are in store. "In the last decade, we saw PC technology adopted, often in place of PLCs or custom HMI equipment," says Mike Fahrion, product manager at B & B Electronics. "In this decade, we'll see communications technologies adopted from the consumer and IT sector at an even faster rate." Lowenstein expects "networks, network equipment, and devices that will have the ability to do diagnostics on themselves." This technology can be embedded in routers, switches, and base stations. (For more, click here.)

Rinaldi predicts that in the next 25 years "computers as knowledge workers will be common. Instead of processing sequential logic, these computers will evaluate their environment, evaluate alternative action plans, select and execute the best plan, and learn from their experiences." Microelectromechanical systems, along with further miniaturization of sensors and actuators, "will radically alter products for all of us," he believes.

In other signs of things to come, Hurst Manufacturing has introduced technology that allows customers to configure custom brushless DC motors online and receive a prototype in 48 hours. (For more, click here.) And Antelope Technologies Corp has signed a 10 year licensing agreement with IBM for Meta Pad, a research prototype portable computing device that transforms into a PDA, desktop, laptop, tablet, or wearable computer without rebooting. (For more, click here.)

Networks are advancing as well. "File (FTP) and web (HTTP) servers are now built-in, and the controllers can programmatically publish data to external FTP servers or other network servers and databases," NI's Walter tells IEN.

Adds Thomas: "The top trend in automation right now is networking, specifically migration from legacy networks and fieldbuses to Industrial Ethernet. Right now the marketplace is sorting through different protocols and levels of standardization. But in the end, data transparency from top to bottom will be a major objective in automation."

The greatest advances in networking will be made in devices, Ember Corp's Olivia Hecht forecasts. "In an industrial setting, devices or 'points,' which represent sensing and control equipment such as temperature and pressure sensors, actuators, and valves, are prime candidates to take advantage of advances in networking equipment, particularly in the realm of embedded wireless networking." (For more, click here.)

And application hosting allows single source deployments of software and services, including asset management, control and alarm maintenance, processing modeling and monitoring, and scheduling, Cramer notes, eliminating the "need to install and administer myriad software applications from multiple vendors," thus reducing costs.

"For the foreseeable future, Level O networks will continue to dominate the factory floor," Walker believes, as Ethernet is "rapidly adopted as the ideal network for monitoring and communications. While Ethernet can be used on the plant floor, the price is still too high."

Running a Plant In Thin Air

Meanwhile, wireless continues to make inroads. According to Intermec, this technology is a "natural for the plant floor since hardwiring Ethernet cables can cost more than the devices themselves. Even printers are going wireless to provide more flexibility in manufacturing lines," the company observes. "Security issues are being resolved. The biggest [problem] is more people just don't turn on the security they have." (For more, click here.)

Mesh-based technology increases reliability, Hecht says: "Star architectures, like those found in cell phone networks, 802.11 and Bluetooth-based networks, have a central access point through which all devices must send traffic. This architecture represents a single point of failure. Mesh-based topologies enable communications between neighboring points -- eliminating the single point of failure. Data is relayed through the network by neighboring nodes -- the addition of new nodes only adds to the reliability of the network."

Agilent's Clayton tells IEN that cost considerations may limit the use of wireless technology in existing plants, since the "needed information is already provided via fixed wired terminals" and aside from mobility, wireless "does not add a huge benefit." In new facilities, immediate benefits could be realized in such areas as "material supply, logistics, and shipping. In these operations access to information is critical and is not readily accessible," observes Clayton.

Concerns over stability remain, particularly in certain applications. Wireless is "quite convenient for data acquisition and monitoring," notes Thomas, but "I question its use for control until there's solid proof of reliability." Cautions Walter: "While industrially rugged wireless technology has proven itself in remote measurement and communication applications such as utilities and petrochemical installations, I do not think plant floor operators will be increasingly motivated to use it. Although cabling can be expensive in plants, the investment pays off quickly and is less prone to issues such as line-of-sight wireless transmission, EMI noise from machinery, etc."

As far as security is concerned, "the best hope -- is to leverage a common set of security services from within the hosting application, or integrating the operating system security into the applications," says Paul LeMert, director of programs and strategic marketing at Invensys Manufacturing Solutions (IMS) group. "Industrial applications often require extra context information when assessing user security and access levels. Sometimes this can be incorporated into an integrated security design." (For more, click here.)

And encryption provides a solution. "In the past, control systems acted as isolated islands, and whether wired or wireless, there was a strong push to get them networked," comments Hecht. "The moment these islands are joined with a network they are presented with all of the traditional security concerns as any typical enterprise business network. By incorporating encryption such as 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard, islands using embedded wireless technology can be secured."

Thomas has a simple answer to security fears -- if they're a big worry, "then just don't connect to the Internet." These concerns are largely overrated, in Rinaldi's view. "Security is very important in only a handful of applications," he contends. "If I am filling bottles on a large valve turntable do I really care if someone can eavesdrop on my messages telling my valves to open and close?"

E-Manufacturing Can Make You Leaner

Despite the costs associated with e-technology, proper planning and implementation translate into increased flexibility, throughput, and quality.

In the words of Brian MacCleery, distributed I/O product manager at National Instruments: "The pressure for increased efficiency and reduced cost is driving many in the manufacturing sector toward more user-defined rather than vendor-defined solutions. Full featured, flexible, and intelligent programming environments such as LabVIEW put the manufacturing sector in the driver's seat by allowing engineers to develop a customized solution that fits the exact needs of the application."

MaCleery recommends that companies "evaluate any control and instrumentation system in terms of its reliability and your productivity in using it" by asking the following questions -- "Does it offer the productivity features that will allow you to get up and running quickly and adapt to the changing demands of the market? Is it designed for harsh industrial environments? Does it offer a mean time before failure (MTBF) rating of 25 years or more?"

For some in industry, e-manufacturing carries the onus of high-priced "solutions" that seldom fulfill their promise. Much of this disdain seems misdirected. As Walker observes, "lean manufacturing has become the heart and soul of the flexible delivery systems companies like Schneider Electric are using today to meet customer expectations for just-in-time delivery and product customization."

He argues that the "reason ERP systems have been such a massively costly failure has been that too many companies have looked at e-manufacturing as a purchase, something that technology could solve. What they did was overlay ERP software over inefficiency -- manufacturing processes they shouldn't have been doing in the first place. . . . If you haven't gone through the lean disciplines first, you're wasting your money on ERP. You have to plan first and take the time to do it right. Technology can be a process improvement tool but there are no quick technology fixes," states Walker.

Connecting Old With New

How hard is it to layer breakthrough on top of existing equipment and systems? "Third party suppliers are responding in force to the need for legacy connectivity," notes B & B Electronics' Fahrion. "If there is a legacy device on your plant floor, the products are available today to integrate it at most any level desired. The capability for factorywide integration is here today."

Hecht agrees: "Looking to maximize every dollar out of their capital investments, OEMs can use embedded wireless communications platforms that are protocol agnostic. These platforms are capable of bridging proprietary protocols from existing legacy infrastructure, eliminating the need to deploy an entirely new infrastructure."

The software, protocols, and other integration tools are available, but "it's going to take lots of gateways, black boxes, and software tools like OPC," Thomas tells IEN. "Unfortunately, this one is a lot like security: It can always be done, but it's very context sensitive."

While current e-manufacturing can be integrated in most legacy systems, Lowenstein suggests a different approach: "Every once in a while it's time for companies to throw out the old and bring in the new. This seems to be harder and harder for us due to the fierce competition on time to market. The last time we saw this was the movement from thru-hole to SMT almost 15 years ago. The companies that went straight to maximize SMT, although struggling in the beginning, surpassed others in all aspects of quality, cost, and time to market," concludes Lowenstein