Most industrial companies still tend to make decisions based on habitual ways of doing things, tribal knowledge, rules-of-thumb, and the opinions of in-house experts.  But leading companies are moving to an information-driven culture and business model in which all decisions are made based on analysis of operations and business process data.  Throughout the organization, these companies employ software to collect, contextualize, visualize, and analyze data to gain new insights.  The common question is, “What does the data tell us?”  Armed with new insights, organizations can anticipate changes and drive better business results.  

It is clear that the use of analytics in industrial companies is growing rapidly.  With the industrial space becoming much more dynamic, manufacturers are turning to advanced analytics and machine learning to support predictive and prescriptive solutions.   More companies are pursuing analytics solutions and more employees throughout the enterprise want more and better decision tools.  And the increasing focus on Smart Manufacturing, Industrie 4.0 (I4.0), and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is driving demand for predictive maintenance and operating performance improvement solutions, which rely on advanced analytics.

This program will: 

• Cut through the confusion surrounding 'analytics' in the industrial space
• Provide a useful conceptual framework for differentiating modern analytics platforms from previous approaches
• Highlight new technologies, platforms, architectures, and processes
• Present case studies and examples from early adopters of new analytics systems
• Provide industrial companies the information they need to begin their own analytics journey

Asset Performance Management incorporates Industrial IoT (IIoT) and new analytics solutions like machine learning.  It uses information from production management, control systems, and asset management applications to provide new opportunities to optimize asset availability and operational performance.  This optimization goes beyond functional silos and occurs between silos where significant inefficiency, waste, and sometimes dysfunction often reside. 

Balancing the objectives of operations for on-time delivery, volume, and quality with those of maintenance for asset availability, longevity, and reliability requires sharing information and harmonizing these objectives with the goals of the enterprise.  New information technologies provide functionality to intensify cross-functional collaboration, business process improvements, and higher levels of performance to achieve asset performance management (APM) excellence. 

The ability to interact with equipment – like a variety of devices on a single site, or widely dispersed machines – presents new opportunities for industrial companies, utilities, and equipment suppliers.  These networks provide a new “connected ecosystem” of equipment manufacturers, systems integrators, and end users.  Some manufacturers and utilities have begun adopting these technologies.

Those attending this asset performance management program will learn what was successful, and gain insights into what is next.  The objective is to make fact-based decisions using reliable information that aligns with the organization’s objectives.  An APM strategy helps ensure the best possible returns on capital investments over the lifecycle of the asset.  If you are involved in operations, maintenance, or industrial IT, you will want to attend these program sessions.

We have entered a period of intense innovation in industrial automation.  In the areas of high value-added manufacturing there is growing global competition.  Countries with developed economies want to maintain and grow their existing competitive advantages and support their exporting industries.  Countries with developing economies want to improve their competitiveness as well.

This competition is, in part, taking the form of national initiatives to improve manufacturing competitiveness.  These initiatives are found in Germany, the US, Japan, Korea, and China.  In the US the Industrial Internet Consortium has formed. Platform Industrie 4.0 is the German initiative; the “4.0” referring to a 4th industrial revolution (following steam, mass production, and IT).  This can be thought of as a set of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital, and biological worlds, and impacting all disciplines, economies and industries.

Some of the topics that will be covered in the sessions for this program include:

FDI, OPC UA, and Ethernet for Process Field Devices
The FieldComm Group and the OPC Foundation will explain and demonstrate their newest technologies for process automation. This will be a multi-vendor/multi‐protocol device-to-cloud demonstration of both FDI and OPC UA.  Also, as part of a new supplier consortium, FieldComm Group will explain its conformance program for devices that will use the future 2‐wire Ethernet standard now in development by the IEEE 802.3cg committee. This 2019 standard will enable high speed communication to process field devices over distances as long as 1 kM.

The Open Process Automation Forum:  The Latest Update
The Open Group’s Open Process Automation Forum is noteworthy for several reasons.  First, because of its genesis within ExxonMobil, a leading international oil company with a long reputation for operational excellence.  Second, because the products of this program will be technologically quite different from the process automation systems used today.  Third, because the value chain envisioned for this program is also quite different from the way the process automation market works today.  The latest developments in this initiative will be presented and discussed.

Industrial Automation and the Industrie 4.0/Industrial Internet Initiatives
What will be the impact on manufacturing and automation of these major national initiatives?  How will the process industries, discrete manufacturers, and automation suppliers adapt and change their products in response to these programs?  What are thought leaders in Europe and North America doing now and planning for the next few years?

TSN, OPC UA, and Future Industrial Automation
Time Sensitive Networking, or TSN, carries huge implications for industrial automation, for existing industrial Ethernet protocols, as well as for OPC UA and for all types of industrial middleware.  TSN is an effort to bring much higher and more adjustable quality of service to standardized networks.  TSN is needed for “network convergence”; when a single physical network replaces multiple dedicated-function networks.  In such cases, network traffic needs to be managed so that the applications using the single converged network continue to experience their normal quality of service.  Where are the biggest cases for network convergence today?  The largest unit volume opportunity is for converged networks in automotive on-car applications for future smart and autonomous cars and in industrial automation.

Industrial Software Defined Networks
Technologies of software-defined networking (SDN) that have recently been applied in actual industrial control systems are quite promising in that they may deliver substantial improvements in the properties of networks of both new and existing industrial control systems and IIoT infrastructure.  These networks promise greater security, performance, and even ease of device mobility.  ARC plans to have several end users report on their experiences.

Autonomy and intelligence embedded pervasively in automation equipment is one of the key attributes to realization of connected smart machinery.  Connected smart machinery is important in virtually every application imaginable, but is even more valuable in cases where there is limited communications.  Machinery that analyzes and compresses large data sets are essential to ensuring that the data traffic on the Internet does not overwhelm the system or data can be analyzed local to the device.  The connected smart machine will require not just more sensors, but also more intelligent sensors.  Sensors must perform more sophisticated signal processing “at the edge” to provide accurate signals that filter out the noise before it gets to the automation system. 

In this program, machine builders employing intelligent sensors into the machinery to perform complex condition monitoring algorithms into automation systems will be highlighted.  Key topics for discussion include:

• Creating new maintenance service revenue streams for machine builders
• Development of equipment protection algorithms that increase resilience of machinery to stay operational for much longer periods of time.
• Adaptive control algorithms allowing systems to operate over a wider range.
• Predictive condition monitoring systems that use real-time control algorithms to provide a new level of maintenance information.
• Exploring the potential of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to combine the benefits of multivariate analysis, predictive modeling, and inferential information to preempt abnormal situations.

Challenges continue to grow for people responsible for the cybersecurity and safety of operational technology.   Broad OT deployments are expanding the use cases requiring protection.  Resource shortages and siloed efforts are undermining the effectiveness of established defenses.  Blurring boundaries between IT, OT, and IoT are increasing the need for more integrated, collaborative cybersecurity strategies.  Attacks on protective equipment have raised the urgency of close coordination between cybersecurity and safety efforts.  

Industrial plants and infrastructure systems need secure control systems to ensure safe, reliable operation.  But they remain at risk of cybersecurity attacks.  Many organizations lack the internal resources and expertise to sustain defenses, and safe, secure methods for external support.  Growing use of cloud-based solutions are undermining the ability of in-house teams to govern security practices.  Deployments of IIoT strategies are proceeding without solutions for critical issues like secure devices and vendor support.  Segregating cybersecurity responsibilities by technology is no longer a sustainable approach.  Organizations need integrated strategies that combine IT, OT, and IoT security. 

Widespread use of operational technologies in smart cities make them susceptible to similar risks.  Compromised systems jeopardize citizen safety, business continuity, and effective delivery of critical services like power, water, and sewage.  To avoid incidents, smart city planners need people who understand operational technology and the associated cybersecurity and safety challenges. 

Safety is a major concern in the design of every OT system and today this needs to consider cybersecurity.  Redundancy and protective devices used to address conventional risks are already being targeted by cyber-attacks.  Managing these additional safety risks requires close coordination between safety and cybersecurity efforts.   

The Cybersecurity and Safety Forum program explores these issues through informative workshops, panel discussions, and case study presentations.  It is the ideal venue to learn what others are doing, how they are doing it, and the benefits they are achieving.  Attendees also have ample opportunities to discuss their unique challenges with peers, researchers, educators, service providers, and solution providers.

This program is unique.  Other conferences discuss cybersecurity from a single perspective, like IT or OT.   The safety implications of OT cybersecurity are not even on their agendas.  ARC’s program is the only event that brings together people who understand all the cybersecurity and safety challenges of industry, infrastructure, and smart city organizations.  Attendees leave armed with the information they need to make significant improvements in their cybersecurity programs.

Stakeholders in IT, automation, operations, safety, product development, business improvement, and city planning efforts can all benefit from this program.  They will gain a solid understanding of the challenges and the actions needed to avoid major cybersecurity incidents.  

Industrial Internet platforms are emerging as pivotal, value-added components of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) architecture.  These platforms add incremental value by functioning not only as the glue linking connected industrial devices to higher level performance-enhancing applications, but also as the execution environment for the applications themselves.

Industrial Internet platforms play an integral role in analytics, big data, remote asset monitoring, performance management, decision support, universal visualization, and the value chains for connected products and products-as-a-service.  The ability of these applications to access, analyze, and process industrial data is central to the IIoT value proposition. 

Industrial Internet platforms architecturally reside between intelligent devices and higher levels of the enterprise architecture.  Device connectivity platforms monitor, collect, process, and transmit data from a variety of intelligent sensors, devices, machines, products, and other assets to higher levels of the architecture, while analytics, big data, machine learning, and numerous other applications that deliver incremental process improvements typically reside in enterprise-level platforms.

This program will look at the central role of Industrial Internet platforms in the emerging Industrial Internet of Things and how to use them to achieve incremental business benefit.

The IoT network edge has emerged as a primary vehicle for delivering incremental business value via internet-enabled business strategies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industrie 4.0 (I4.0), and Smart Cities and Infrastructure. 

Escalating demands to feed information from data-rich intelligent edge devices to the cloud is one of the most pressing issues facing OT and IT professionals in the era of internet-enabled business strategies.  Standard options include support of common API or protocols, but cloud-based agents themselves are migrating into network edge devices.  These agents are increasingly viewed as not only vehicles for closer edge-to-cloud integration, but also as platforms for edge computing applications that execute locally, offloading processing from the cloud and providing enhanced security and closer to real time performance. 

This program will highlight current and prospective demands on both network edge infrastructure, such as gateways, routers, and switches, as well as smart end devices that function as edge nodes in the IoT architecture.  In addition, this program will focus on edge to cloud integration options with an emphasis on embedded cloud integration and edge computing.

An important enabler for innovation in industrial companies is the convergence of IT (Information Technology at the enterprise level), OT (Operations Technology, the information and automation technologies employed in the plant), and ET (Engineering Technology, the newer technologies that create virtual models).  IT/OT/ET convergence is among the drivers of the digital transformation that leading companies are embarking upon.  A wide range of technologies, such as Ethernet/Wi-Fi, virtualization, cloud, SaaS, analytics, Big Data, mobile, social, modeling, augmented reality, machine learning, remote monitoring, and digital twin are now being employed in industrial operations to improve operating performance, create a virtual environment, or introduce the Industrial Internet of Things.  But the big payoff comes when companies begin to operate in new, collaborative ways across the whole of the enterprise.

This program features speakers talking about how they utilized the IT/OT/ET enablers of digitization and innovation to improve performance in their production operations and throughout their organizations.

The concept of a smart city is not new, but it is still nascent and the definition remains quite heterogeneous.  Broadly, a smart city is connected, intelligent, and optimized by a municipality to reduce costs, increase safety, attract investment, be sustainable, and enhance livability.  To get there will require smart governance, the education of a smart workforce and smart citizens, the digital transformation of assets, and the deployment of sensor networks with ubiquitous multimodal connectivity. 

As computing power, bandwidth, and the cost of microprocessor electronics and sensors all approach zero, the ability for municipalities to deploy massive wide-area networks of intelligent devices is slowly becoming reality.  Smart cities present tremendous opportunities for industrial IoT vendors, but the technical challenges, vast number of players in this ecosystem, and the fact that it bridges private, public, and consumer realms makes navigating and succeeding in this market a challenge.  Cybersecurity, connectivity, and working with municipal bureaucracy remain the biggest challenges, but other obstacles include exponential data volume growth, data cleansing speed, the need to go from cloud to edge architectures, quantifying results, interoperability, and human fears/resistance to transformational change such as AI.

ARC has identified 12 key smart city application sectors:  Smart Transportation, Smart Utilities, Smart Environment, Smart Public Safety and Security, Smart Governance, Smart Buildings, Smart Education, Smart Health, Smart Retail and Logistics, Smart Manufacturing and Construction, Smart Finance and Banking, and Smart Amenities.  This program will feature expert panels and case study presentations showcasing successful deployments of key smart city IIoT technologies.  Topics for discussion include:

• Cyber-secure smart city ecosystems
• Smart utilities:  Self-healing grids and smart water networks
• Intelligent transportation and traffic systems
• Moving from centralized to edge architectures
• Lighting networks as the IoT backbone for smart cities and buildings
• Advanced visualization including Digital Twin & AR/MR/VR platforms for cities and buildings
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence for cities and buildings
• Leading-edge enablement technologies such as SD-WAN, HD video analytics, and extreme data processing at the edge