Whitepaper

Smart Factories Need Smarter Machines

Edge Computing platforms offer new revenue and cost reduction opportunities for machine and equipment manufacturers

What is the best way to develop new generations of smarter equipment that meet customer demands? Edge Computing is an important approach to consider.

While automation has been an integral part of machine design for many years, new concepts such as Digital Transformation, Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are being increasingly applied in the machine world to deliver differentiation and competitive advantages.

Learn what machine builders and equipment manufacturers can do to embrace these concepts, and how technologies such as Edge Computing can meet machine builder and end customer requirements in this info-packed whitepaper.

Introduction

There are many different types of businesses and companies in the machine and equipment manufacturer (OEM) space but one challenge is always the same—the market is highly competitive. Each generation of equipment offers price/ performance improvements over previous generations. Design, engineering and product management departments must constantly evaluate the tradeoffs between new technology improvements and associated cost increases as they bring new designs to market.

Automation has been an integral part of equipment design for many years, new concepts such as digital transformation, Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are being increasingly applied in the manufacturing world to deliver competitive advantages. This paper focuses on what machine and equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can do to leverage these new concepts and how Edge Computing can meet their unique needs as well as their customers’ requirements.

Smart factories and smart manufacturing need smart machines

In the same way that machine automation, using PLCs and PACs, revolutionized equipment design a generation ago, Smart Factories and Smart Manufacturing are evolving the industrial world again. Applying digital transformation concepts enables companies to operate at peak performance by leveraging the data collected by control systems and sensors. This approach provides real-time analytics to operators, inputs that help improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and data that can be collected and analyzed locally. Data can also be sent to the Cloud for deeper analysis in a variety of applications. Applications can include optimized maintenance, supply chain agility, and increasing yield across multiple facilities engaged in similar production.

Machines and OEM equipment are fundamental elements of production. Smart Factories and Smart Manufacturing can only be achieved by Smart Machines operating as designed by their OEM or specified by the end user. Embracing digital transformation enables machine and equipment builders to enhance design and supports the development of new services around equipment performance and maintenance. An important question is, what is the best way to develop new generations of smarter equipment, or enable existing designs and deployments to meet the requirements that customers are demanding? Edge Computing is an approach that can solve many of the key design requirements.

What is Edge Computing?

Edge Computing comes in many forms and can be broadly defined as any computing that takes place outside the data center. With such a broad definition, it is not surprising that there are many confusing definitions that span both the IT industry and the automation and controls industry, that we refer to as Operational Technology (OT).

Gartner, a major analyst firm, has published a simple topology that enables everyone to understand what type of Edge computing might be useful to them. This topology image demonstrates an infrastructure technology stack that shows the types of servers, devices, or platforms that can be characterized as Edge Computing and where they reside from the physical endpoint “at the edge” of the data source. It alludes to the types of computing power, collection, analysis, and data movement that is available outside the actual data center. Edge provides extremely important benefits for equipment manufacturers and their customers.

From this topology, it is easy to see that the Device Edge through the Compute Edge are applicable to machine and equipment builders. In practice, all machines and equipment today have aspects of the Device Edge with PLCs, and some have Gateway Edge devices. In some respects, Industrial and panel PCs used by machines or equipment fall into this Gateway category. They may be the first “point of contact” for a device edge PLC. Yet IPCs have limited computing and analysis power or suffer from common reliability and usability issues that are similar to a typical PC or server that is not manufactured for harsh environments. So, other types of purpose-built Edge compute platforms are required to meet customer needs.

When it comes to the modernization of machine control and automation systems, it is the Compute Edge that should be the focus for equipment builders. Edge Computing delivers all the characteristics and capabilities necessary for machine and equipment manufacturers to enhance their current designs and transition to the delivery of even smarter equipment.

Edge Computing enables smart machines & equipment

Edge Computing is a scalable modular technology that supports the development of standardized, modular software components and applications to increase efficiency.

It can help enable equipment manufacturers’ existing applications—such as monitoring and control software—to be consolidated onto a single platform while enabling other critical applications to run on the same platform. This makes it easier to develop smart, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-enabled machines and equipment, and to easily add future applications that support customers’ evolving Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing demands.

When implemented, Edge Computing can facilitate a smooth evolution from the equipment of today to digitalized machines that are integrated into a customer’s operations. This includes multiple capabilities such as on-prem or Cloud connectivity to fully-integrated Smart Machines that embrace Digital Transformation without the need for complex retrofitting and redesign.

Edge Computing characteristics for machine and equipment builders

While the Compute Edge category is quite broad, there are a number of key characteristics that narrow the types of functions that apply specifically to a machine or equipment manufacturer.

Support for existing automation and control applications

Edge Computing platforms must be capable of running existing control and automation applications in a modular way, without the need for significant re-architecting. Virtualization is a key technology. Essentially, each existing IPC can run as a “virtual IPC” or virtual machine on the Edge Computing platform. This enables consolidation of all existing IPCs onto a single platform. None of these virtual machines are aware of the other virtual machines so all applications continue to run independently.

Modifying and upgrading existing control applications

With a virtualized Edge Computing platform, it is now possible to add much bigger degrees of flexibility to machine and equipment operation and monitoring. For example, with the traditional IPC/HMI approach, each station on a machine or piece of equipment is limited to what that IPC/HMI can display so only a single operator can monitor complex equipment from a single location. This is not an ideal model. Using virtualization, equipment manufacturers can achieve increased flexibility for their customers by having multiple people remotely access data and applications at different stations. This autonomous model is preferred and provides customers more options.

Addition of new analytics and Digital Transformation applications

With virtualization it can potentially be easier to add new applications simply by creating a new virtual machine on your Edge Computing platform. This paves the way to add new applications without impact to existing applications. This can include localized data collection, real-time analytics and data filtering before transport to external locations, such as a customer’s data center, or to the Cloud, perhaps your own. This can also depend on such things as data privacy laws and, of course, assumes you have a scalable Edge Computing platform as needs expand.

Support for OT/IT convergence

This is perhaps a topic not often considered by machine and equipment builders, but it is increasingly important in Digital Transformation initiatives. The control and automation applications that operate the machine are well understood by your design engineers and your customers who operate the machines. They are focused on the Operational Technology (OT). The expertise to develop sophisticated analytic capabilities, perhaps involving machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), plus the capability to securely transfer appropriate data to a data center or to the Cloud is often the domain of Information Technology (IT) experts. Edge Computing platforms can support both OT and IT requirements. It is important to ensure that a platform that supports multiple types of operations applications is simple to deploy and maintain, and easy to manage by both OT and IT professionals.

Edge Computing platforms offer equipment and machine manufacturers the possibility of new revenue generating services while helping to reduce costs and improve TCO.

New revenue opportunities

Many of the capabilities and new applications that Edge Computing platforms support create the possibility of new revenue generating services, or the optimization of existing service and support capabilities. For example, a trend that is beginning to emerge is the concept of the “machine as a service” or “equipment as a service”, whereby the end customer pays based on time or usage instead of a traditional capital purchase. To successfully implement and maintain such a model, the machine or equipment manufacturer must understand the performance and maintenance profile of equipment, and have the ability to accurately collect and analyze the appropriate data.

Simplifies service

Compact , fan-less, wall or DIN rail mountable

Industry rated

  • –10 to 60 °C (–10 to 140 °F)
  • 10 to 95% humidity
  • 3 Grms (5 to 500 Hz)

Hot swappable, self-recognizing and auto synchronizing

Ruggedization

For a machine and equipment manufacturer, this is perhaps obvious, but Edge Computing platforms are supplied by a variety of vendors – not all of which are aware of the equipment’s final operating environment. It is not just about ruggedization, but also about eliminating downtime, making maintenance and support as simple as possible, and offering remote monitoring. Similarly, Edge Computing platforms in the OT world must be prepared to operate autonomously for long periods of time as often there may be no connectivity to the outside world.

Cost reductions

Ultimately, adopting Edge Computing only becomes viable if it meets the stringent cost constraints of the highly competitive markets in which equipment builders play. When evaluating Edge Computing platforms, it is important to consider capital costs as well as development and ongoing costs. In addition to the savings from things like virtualization, cost is a function of value. More expensive platforms provide a much higher set of value and benefits than simple devices or gateways with lower computing power. This approach will reduce other costs such as manual monitoring, downtime, staff resources, and application efficiency. Some of these costs can be less tangible, but as industries move to automation, Digital Transformation and related initiatives, such as Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing and IIoT, equipment manufacturers must consider future applications and changes in the customers’ environment.

Edge Computing platforms must be simple, protected, autonomous

There are three key tenets that govern truly effective Edge Computing Platforms. You should keep these considerations in mind when selecting the right Edge Computing platform for a customer’s needs:

Simplicity

  • An Edge Computing platform should be easy to install and deploy in minutes.
  • It would offer an easy-to-use and intuitive management interface and, in the case of redundant systems, if a unit needs to be replaced, restoring a system to full operation requires only a single button push.
  • Non-redundant systems can maintain an image backup in the cloud that can be automatically restored if needed.

Protection

  • Seamless failover in redundant systems in the event of a failure, or if the platform proactively detects an upcoming problem.
  • The platform should include embedded security features.
  • All external, unused ports, such as USBs, are disabled and if required must be explicitly turned on.
  • Password changes are required upon initial login to avoid common security exposure by known and simple passwords and these platforms have an embedded firewall capability supporting white-listing and black-listing of IP addresses.
  • The platform includes the capability to monitor the basic health of all applications running on the platform to alert users to potential application problems, or that rogue applications have been deployed on a platform.

Autonomy

  • Are your edge computing platforms designed to run for long periods of time without connectivity to the outside world? The predictive health monitoring and seamless failover enables redundant systems to keep running.
  • Platforms should automatically manage themselves, performing such functions as automatic load balancing as application loads vary.
  • An edge compute platform should be remotely managed, either through a cloud service, or they can be embedded into an equipment builder or customer management solution through a set of standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

Saves you time and effort

  • Supports OVF appliances, including VMware images
  • Consolidate both current and legacy applications
  • No redundant mode or clustering configuration necessary

Summary

The machine and equipment manufacturer market is entering an evolutionary period that will bring as much change as the introduction of the PLC a generation ago. Edge Computing is a critical technology that will enable and ease this transition. Edge Computing platforms will play in integral role in expanding the traditional control and automation capabilities of equipment. They will also provide the bridge for equipment manufacturers to embrace Digital Transformation initiatives for themselves and to integrate with initiatives of their customers.

More information

For more equipment and machine manufacturer information, visit: https://www.stratus.com/oem/

For more information on the Stratus ztC Edge product line please visit https://www.stratus.com/solutions/platforms/ztc-edge/

Stratus ztC™ Edge platform for machine builders

The Stratus ztC Edge product line is a range of Edge Computing platforms specifically designed to meet the requirements of industrial plants and remote locations. As such, ztC Edge platforms are ideal for machine and equipment builders as they upgrade their capabilities in traditional control and automation applications and move towards Smart Machines that support Digital Transformation initiatives such as Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and IIoT.

Connect your Smart Machine to the Enterprise and Cloud

The ztC Edge platform is unlike IPCs which do not sup­port a wide range of applications concurrently—virtualiza­tion enables it to support multiple diverse applications which include more capable Edge gateways that focus on providing data access with limited functionality. ztC Edge platforms also differ from IT-class servers that are not designed for harsh environments, as they are rugged to withstand ex­tended temperature ranges and have no moving parts.

The ztC Edge product line is unique in the way it addresses fundamental challenges faced by machine and equipment builders. Each ztC Edge comes with a pre-integrated virtualization layer and is pre-configured so that it can be up and running in under 30 minutes.

About Stratus Technologies

Stratus takes the complexity out of keeping business critical applications running 24/7. Stratus’ technologies proactively preventinstances of unplanned downtime both in the data center and at the edge, and our services ensure any issues are addressed before customers need to. Global Fortune 500 companies and small to medium-sized businesses in a wide range of industries across the globe have been relying on Stratus for operationally simple, continuous availability for more than 35 years.

Learn more at stratus.com today.

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