Gary On Manufacturing - Gary Mintchell

Years ago machine and process safety were first ignored and then addressed as an add-on Then engineers began evaluating the problem and engineered safety from the beginning design. Not only was safety enhanced, but also reliability and productivity improved as well.

We are seeing the same thing already in response to solving problems due to Covid-19. I take a look at a variety of responses just in the first couple of months of the crisis.

This podcast is sponsored by Inductive Automation and its flagship Ignition 8.

Whether you are building machines to a spec or some other product or you are a systems integrator or supplier--experience shows that those who think laterally and find a value add are more likely to get more business from good customers. I even share a story about a software developer who started playing with 3D printing and then organized a manufacturing line to produce face masks for Polish hospital workers in response to SARS CoV 2. Check out The Podcast https://thepodcast.fm/episodes/206 .

This podcast is brought to you with support from Inductive Automation. Discover a whole new view with Ignition 8 by Inductive Automation. Packed with features for the modern control system like unlimited licensing, high-powered tags, and a mobile-first flexible design environment for all devices, Ignition 8 supports enterprises of any size. See all Ignition has to offer at inductiveautomation.com

Check out my blog at https://themanufacturingconnection.com

When I would go to NI Week, National Instruments would always talk about solving big problems. I began to approach the history of digital transformation that same way. GM had a problem involving the changeover of machines from one model year to the next. It took too long to change the machines due to the relay logic. They went to Odo Struger of Allen-Bradley and Dick Morely who then founded Modicon for a solution. Each built a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to solve the problem and the race was on. We can then look at all the digital advances from then to now as the solving of successively more difficult problems. Today we have IoT, data science, edge computing, analytics, visualization, AR, VR. And we go on. It is a journey not a destination.

This podcast is sponsored by Ignition by Inductive Automation.

This episode is an interview with Yuval Boger, CMO of Wi-Charge, who talks about wireless remote power for charging IoT devices with light. There was a gap between this and my last podcast. In the interim, we sold a house, bought a house, and moved to another state--all at the beginning of the covid-19 rise and the shelter-in-place orders. It has been crazy times. Now, we've plenty of time to get used to the new house. I hope everyone listening is doing well.

Computing at the Edge was a constant theme in the two tech forums I visited in early February. Mostly what that means is that many enterprise applications need data from the plant or process. Data must be unlocked. Other topics included speculation over anticipated benefits of 5G and a sprouting of Open and Open Source initiatives.

In the late 1970s I worked in an engineering department where one of my responsibilities was the custodian and distributor of all engineering data. In addition, I did all the corporate new product quoting--such things as UPS truck bodies and the bodies for the original Atlanta Airport People Movers. Everything was paper and manual. Drawings to bills of material to routings to costing.

Today we do the same tasks, except that everything is digital. The drawings are all digital files, the BOM--digital, sorting/costing/checking all faster and digital. We adapt and adopt technology to do things better.

The problem remains--leadership and management of the systems to implement all these technologies in order to reap the rewards.

That--is the challenge before us.

You are an engineer in a factory or plant. The machine or process is down. Production has stopped. The general manager is yelling. The CEO has vowed to investors, customers, and media that he'll sleep in the plant until production is back up. I've never had it as bad as the people at Tesla with Elon Musk beating on them, but I've lived that life.

I helped start a magazine with the stated editorial goal of writing about the intelligent application of automation.

After several years of Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems, Industry 4.0, digital twins, digital transformation, I think it is past time to look at our projects in terms of how do we employ technology intelligently for improved profitability, work conditions, quality, customer satisfaction, supplier satisfaction, and environmental sustainability.

Thank you to my sponsor for another year--Inductive Automation.

Recap of previous 199 episodes over the past 12 years. We reviewed Ethernet (when it was new for manufacturing), safety, video interviews, and thought pieces. Looking ahead, we are challenged to get tech out of the way while we support Lean, human decision-making, making work more meaningful, and solving difficult manufacturing/industrial business problems.

Despite all the dystopian views of technology promulgated over the past 20 or so years, artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool for solving some complex problems. We in industrial applications need it as part of the tool kit.

It's all about data. No matter if I attend an IT conference, like recently at Hitachi Vantara, or an OT conference, such as recently at Emerson Automation and Schneider Electric (Foxboro and Triconex), we are discussing and learning about data and digital technologies.

Data must be discovered, gathered, trusted, secured, analyzed, and used. It is the basis of the Digital Transformation and used for the Digital Twin and Internet of Things.

Then I digress into youth sports and how some leagues, coaches, and parents still don't get it.