Washing machine experts

My wife called me in a panic as the washing machine had stopped working. One evening while spending time with friends, I mentioned that my washing machine was not working and that I would more than likely need to buy a new one. Suddenly I was surrounded by washing machine experts! When I say experts, I don't necessarily mean they were experts in the process of washing; their expertise centered around IoT and to be more specific a washing machine mobile app connected via Wi-Fi to the washing machine. After a long discussion about the perceived benefits, they convinced me to buy a washing machine with integrated Wi-Fi connectivity and a mobile app which allowed me to control and monitor the washing machine.

Plug and Play... or?

The next day we bought the washing machine, and it was delivered to our home, connected to the water supply, but not to the Wi-Fi network. However, this shouldn't have been a problem as IoT is all about plug and play, or NOT as we found out. We had to connect the machine via the WPS function in our router. Once it was connected, we were ready to use the washing machine mobile app. The washing machine can be controlled and monitored by the app, which is very impressive, considering it doesn't matter where you are located.

Everything seemed to live up to the expectations of what my washing machine expert friends had advised; however, there was still one challenge: you have to put the dirty laundry into the machine.
Let's be honest; it doesn't make any sense to use a mobile app to control or monitor the washing machine while standing in front of a user-friendly display and controls. During the washing program, I am not particularly interested in what is happening with the machine. Once the program is complete, the machine provides an audio alert to notify me, and this is more than satisfactory for me since we are not living in a castle and can easily hear the alert. Incidentally, you have to be at the machine to remove the laundry, in other words, why did we buy a washing machine with WiFi and a mobile app?

The washing machine and IIoT

So, what has my story to do with IIoT? In honesty almost everything. Regularly customers ask me without clear explanation or reasoning if we can deliver IIoT, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence for their Operational Technology (OT) domain. Reasons like cost reduction or increased asset reliability are too generic to understand why and how to deploy such technologies and realize tangible benefits. Similarly, the reasons for having a washing machine with WiFi and supporting mobile app were clear for my friends but afterwards were not beneficial for me.

Consider why you need IIoT

Many IIoT projects have failed for the same reason as the perceived benefits of having WiFi on a washing machine. The customer felt somehow pressured to consider and implement new technology without understanding how it could change their processes or business to deliver tangible value. Don't get me wrong, IIoT is a game-changer and unstoppable, particularly when correctly evaluated, aligned with business strategy/objectives and the value drivers are clear. However, let's be clear; IIoT is not a shortcut to success.

Is IIoT really cheap?

Recently Yokogawa has launched an open platform for IIoT devices, which is truly a game-changer for the OT domain. The cost for full installation and commissioning of a traditional transmitter of 1000 Euro is approximately 10.000 Euro (costs which include cabling, configuration, displaying and drawings) while installing and commissioning an IIoT device of 500 Euro can be less than 1.000 Euro. With IIoT technology and the same available budget, you could install at least ten times more IIoT sensors than traditional sensors. Can you imagine how this might change your maintenance strategy if you could install ten times more sensors? More and more people in industry are talking about switching from preventive maintenance regimes (i.e. carrying out maintenance before the occurrence of a failure) to prescriptive based maintenance (i.e. detecting a pending fault and prescribing a solution to it). Once IIoT data is received from equipment in real-time, analytics can be used to predictively identify asset reliability risks such as pump cavitation or damaged bearings. This is known as prescriptive maintenance. Prerequisites to realizing such advantages are more sensors with easy installation and configuration parameters so maintenance people can use the technology without being an expert.

The 1.000 Euro for IIoT deployment is only applicable when simple connectivity and open architecture platforms connect any IIoT device (from any supplier). Algorithms are utilized to analyze the data and predict your asset's behavior.

Open architecture platform

In Europe, we have noticed that customers are choosing open architecture platforms with data lakes from Microsoft Azure or Google. A data lake is a centralized data repository that allows you to store vast amounts of structured and unstructured data.

Data lakes are not specifically developed for IIoT, presenting a challenge for IIoT devices' connectivity and developing analytics for OT applications such as asset maintenance. This counteracts the plug and play and ease of deployment model for IIoT infrastructure. Furthermore, the IT department typically manages the data lake with specific business rules that often cause too many restrictions for the OT domain. Due to these reasons, Yokogawa has released a software environment, called a rules engine that manages IIoT connectivity, your data and runs specific analytics to predict your asset's behavior. This rules engine can run on top of many data lakes, connecting easily with any IIoT device. The analytics (often referred to as Machine Learning), is an integral part of the environment.

Machine Learning

Developing these analytical models requires specific domain knowledge which is not just a matter of entering data into a black box and expecting a prediction as an output. I wish it were that simple, but the reality is that these models are much more complex in nature. Advanced Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence are already being applied in the OT domain, and they are certainly going to become more prevalent in the future. In the meantime, the industry is cautiously engaging and learning every day how we can embrace these new technologies within the OT domain and realize the benefits they can bring to an organization.

How can your company benefit from IIoT?

If you really want IIoT, please first understand what IIoT can do for your company. Being surrounded by friends is good, but you must understand the impact and the benefits.

Author

Marcel Kelder is Director of Digital Enterprise Solutions for Yokogawa Europe. His Yokogawa career spans 30 years with experience across all aspects of Plant Automation. Marcel leads the European Strategy for the development and implementation of solutions in the areas of Digital Transformation, IIoT, IT/OT convergence and Operational Technology Security. Marcel was instrumental in defining Yokogawa’s Plant Security program which is supporting organizations in the energy supply chain to meet their regulatory objectives and reduce operational technology security risks.