March 2019

37 www.drivesncontrols.com March 2019 EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINT n manufacturers have not realised the potential of fully digitising their business. When implemented, 4.0 technology can facilitate communications between devices, control systems and cloud data systems to ensure that the best decisions are made, no matter the time or location. Using this in conjunction with analytics can help manufacturers to optimise their production processes. To embrace a smarter, more digitised factory, manufacturers need to take every chance to adopt smarter, more connected technologies now. Each new item of equipment must be connectable from inception to allow manufacturers to reap long-term benefits. There are a plethora of examples of IIoT technologies already providing significant benefits. It isn’t simply new greenfield facilities that can benefit. With the addition of connected devices and edge control, brownfield sites can also see significant improvements. The food and beverage industry, for example, is ripe to benefit from automated technology, particularly in the areas of picking and packing. Huge productivity gains can be made, freeing workers to focus on more important tasks. With today’s IIoT solutions, it’s possible to have fully optimised, online condition- based maintenance. In essence, cloud- based systems can look at the overall performance of every machine cycle, while simultaneously running analytics in the background. This can show whether performance is deteriorating and the most suitable time to schedule remedial work to minimise the effects on production. Equipment uptime is crucial to productivity – if machines break down, products cannot be produced and output slumps. Another technology underpinning Industry 4.0 is connected sensors. These can identify trends in temperature, pressure, location and so on, and issue alerts before a failure occurs in the production process. This allows for real-time preventative maintenance to eliminate potential catastrophic failures, ultimately extending the lifespan of the equipment. Robotics and AI When it comes to robotics and AI, there is much more that manufacturing industry needs to do. The advantages of automation through the use of robotics, machine-learning and artificial intelligence need to become more widespread for ROI to improve. Right now, there are only 71 robots in the UK for every 10,000 manufacturing employees, compared to more than 300 in Germany. The UK needs to invest more to fully realise its potential. Robots can enhance productivity hugely. Their ability to work 24 hours a day and to produce a consistent output make them a no-brainer for manufacturers. This, alongside artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), will allow operational changes to be made at a much faster rate. There is still a long way to go in the Industry 4.0 journey. Manufacturers need to improve productivity and profitability by consistently optimising processes with more connected and smarter technologies – and quickly. n building with no doors and windows is very well protected, but is totally useless if no one can get in or out. Finding the balance is the best way to have effective security, or, in other words, reducing the risk of unplanned downtime or damage as a result of an incident, no matter what the intent. Unfortunately, many industrial products – PLCs included – implement security as an afterthought and readily- available online information makes them easy targets for cyber-attackers. Of course, additional hardware and system architecture can be used to mitigate this and reduce the risk. This is why we are now seeing a proliferation of PC-based industrial controllers that can natively incorporate high-level protection as they naturally reside in the same world as IT equipment where there is vast knowledge available to protect them as part of a company’s IT infrastructure and security policies. This needs to be tempered by the differences in use and the challenges that are faced by industrial equipment and its users. IT security policies need to reflect that control equipment is different from what they normally protect. The Center for Internet Security (www.cisecurity.org ) offers a prioritised list of critical security controls and procedures that can be worked through in order, but security devices are not always the “silver bullet” that the people selling them might have you believe. These procedures begin with compiling an inventory of authorised and unauthorised hardware assets, which is unglamorous and time- consuming, and is never fully completed. Security should always be considered as an ongoing and iterative process. Often, though, it is this grind that has the biggest impact on the security of systems. After the hardware audit, these same procedures need to be applied to the software. The list goes on, with seemingly obvious things to do. Is the problem that it is easy to forget about leaving all of the doors and windows open if you can’t see them? Perhaps you consider security to be someone else’s problem? Ask yourself what would happen if a single one of your systems or machines stopped working – this time it’s not a mechanical failure, but a cyber-attack; not because you are being specifically targeted but simply because the security vulnerabilities of the equipment you have used happen to be seen as a hacker’s low-hanging fruit. If you don’t have the answers, then maybe it’s time to be asking some tough questions. n