February 2020

n NEWS 8 February 2020 www.drivesncontrols.com A GLAXOSMITHKLINE pharmaceutical plant in Hertfordshire has become the first UK factory to be selected to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse network of frontrunners in applying Industry 4.0 technologies. The plant, in Ware, is one of 18 sites around the world that were added to the network at the WEF’s recent meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The network, established in 2018, now consists of 44 factories around the world that are intended to act as benchmarks for the global manufacturing community. The aim is to share and learn from best practices, and to help other manufacturers to deploy Industry 4.0 technologies, adopt sustainable practices and transform their workforces. The GSK plant has applied advanced technologies throughout its manufacturing operation, using advanced analytics and neural networks to process data. This has improved line speeds at the site by 21%, cut downtime, increased yield, and delivered an OEE (overall Equipment effectiveness) improvement of 10%. GSK has applied deep-learning image recognition to detect quality defects, and is using artificial intelligence to optimise machine throughput. By implementing digital twin technologies, it has boosted capacity by 13%, while cycle time monitoring and the use of digital visualisation tools have cut cycle times by 9%. Other companies with plants in the Global Lighthouse network include Phoenix Contact, Schneider Electric, Renault, BMW, Ford, Unilever, Siemens, Danfoss, Bosch, Procter & Gamble, and Hitachi. The network is managed by McKinsey & Co in collaboration with WEF. “The 44 lighthouses are trailblazers in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR),”says Enno de Boer, partner and head of McKinsey’s Global Manufacturing Practice.“Manufacturing is often the starting point for innovating a new, company-wide operating system powered by the latest technology to achieve new levels of sustainability, agility, speed-to-market, and productivity. The value doesn’t stop at the factory door: instead, Lighthouses find impact across the entire end-to-end value chain, from suppliers through to customers. “This year, we believe the Global Lighthouse Network has found the secret sauce to overcome pilot purgatory and generate impact at scale,” he adds. “Moreover, by now the frontrunners have two to three years’ head-start compared to their peers. That should set off alarm bells for all manufacturers that are still busy trying to prove technology’s value instead of using technology to change the way they work.” WEF has published a 40-page report outlining lessons learned from the Global Lighthouse network so far. It reports that 14 of the organisations have extended their 4IR activities beyond their plants to create end-to- end (E2E) value chains that demonstrate what is possible when the thinking that is transforming their factories is appliedmore widely, resulting improved productivity, operating costs and speed-to-market. In a second report, the WEF estimates that 70% of the 169 targets underpinning its sustainable development goals could be enabled by using 4IR technologies – such as artificial intelligence, blockchains, the IoT, 5G and drones – that already exist. www.weforum.org A US ORGANISATION has compiled a knowledge base of the techniques that cyber-criminals use when attacking the industrial control systems (ICSs). The effects from these attacks can range from disrupting operations to harming human life and the environment. The ATT&CK for ICS database has been created by the Mitre Corporation – a non-profit company that operates federally- funded r&d centres and public-private partnerships in the US, aimed at tackling problems that challenge safety and stability. The knowledge base describes the actions that adversaries might take when operating in ICS networks. It is intended to characterise and describe their behaviour after compromising an ICS installation, helping potential targets to prepare better for such attacks. Mitre suggests that the knowledge base could play several roles for defenders, including helping to establish a standard language for reporting incidents. It could also be used to develop ways of responding to incidents, prioritise defences and find gaps, report threats, train analysts and emulate adversaries during exercises. “Asset owners and defenders want deep knowledge of the tradecraft and technology that adversaries use in affecting ICS to help inform their defences,” says Otis Alexander, an engineer who focuses on ICS cybersecurity at Mitre. “Adversaries may try to interrupt critical service delivery by disrupting industrial processes. They may also try to cause physical damage to equipment. With Mitre ATT&CK for ICS, we can help mitigate the catastrophic failures that affect property or human life.” More than 100 participants from 39 private and public organisations contributed to the database before its launch. They included cyber-intelligence and security companies that focus on ICS, manufacturers, national labs, research institutes, universities and government agencies. Austin Scott, principal ICS security analyst at Dragos, says that the new database“shines a light into the unique threat behaviours leveraged by adversaries targeting ICS environments. It is a huge win for the front-line ICS network defenders who now have a common lexicon for categorising ICS-specific techniques to support reporting and further analysis”. Contributions to the knowledge base can be sent to attack@mitre.org . https://attack.mitre.org/ics Knowledge base will help users to prepare for ICS cyber-attacks UK plant is first to join global elite in applying Industry 4.0 principles GSK’sWare site: joining the global frontrunners in applying Industry 4.0 principles