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Chemical Technology • September 2016
their operational systems may be compromised via their
IT systems, less than half have a strategy to address this.
Internet security – whether effecting industrial systems
or not – is a challenge for all businesses. A company that has
its billing and client management systems compromised will
suffer whether the factory is offline or not. Security can be
managed, and systems restored even if they are compro-
mised, if there are good strategies in place to address them.
Yes, this does make managing companies implementing
IIoT much more challenging.
Enter opportunities for engineering consulting firms. GE
has developed an aircraft maintenance business, expand-
ing from their jet engine manufacturing, to monitor and
predict maintenance for their clients. GE’s intention is to
offer their clients the ability to have no unplanned downtime
on their jet engines and locomotives. They have expanded
that software platform into Predix, which creates a digital
cloud-based replica of your systems via the various added
sensors permitting similar comprehensive management.
Michelin, similarly, is offering fleet managers to pay for
tyres on a kilometres-driven basis, and using sensors to
help reduce fuel consumption. Claas, a German agricultural
machinery manufacturer, produces one of the most sophis-
ticated combine harvesters in the world. Their equipment
can operate automatically, with sensors that monitor crop
flow and automatically optimises performance.
A company’s suppliers have the potential to be integrated
into the manufacturing and production process to a much
greater extent than ever.
The German Federal Government has termed this
next innovative wave in industry as “Industrie 4.0” and
a working group was established in 2012 to develop a
series of design principles to support this fourth industrial
revolution.
They include:
• The ability of systems, sensors and devices to be in-
teroperable. Given the potential for integrated systems
such as those promoted by GE, such interoperability
will be critical.
• Information systems must also be transparent, creating
a virtual copy of a plant as a digital model derived from
sensor data.
• Systems should provide technical assistance to improve
decision-making and reduce the need for humans to
perform boring, tiring or dangerous tasks.
• Lastly, systems must decentralise decision-making by
allowing systems to run autonomously, and – should
anything go wrong – informand delegate to a higher level.
Conclusion
Certainly, there are dangers from poorly implemented sys-
tems, and going from limited telemetry to a fully-integrated
system with thousands of new sensors in one step is likely
to lead to companies disrupting themselves. The oppor-
tunities are also tremendous. For existing plants, there is
the benefit of efficiency and safety. For innovators, there’s
the opportunity to create new types of services for others.
And, for me, there’s the opportunity to sleep in on Satur-
days if my wife can get an SMS directly from the fermenta-
tion tank only when it needs her help.