Industrial Automation Magazine India

Blockchain brings the provenance tracking from source to destination

Published on : Sunday 01-03-2020

What is the kind of impact emerging technologies are having on industrial automation?
Emerging technologies are bringing digital transformation for industrial automation. These technologies bring agility and concept of minimum viable product and market product faster than competition. These technologies are conceptualised with the need of solving pain points for the customers. The solutions are customised to individual needs. The fundamental compute and storage for these technologies are provided by cloud computing be it SAAS, PAAS, IAAS, CAAS and overall XAAS – Everything as a Service. Top up is the AI layer which brings the data points and analytics suitable for the product or platform development. Blockchain as an enabler brings transparency, Immutability with Privacy and security to the whole ecosystem.

Industrial automation with all of these becomes decentralised and runs in self-reliant mode. The emerging technologies for industrial automation is the web 3.0 in the Industry 4.0 subject area.

How is Artificial Intelligence helping the cause of fully autonomous manufacturing?
Artificial intelligence gives a multi prong approach for the autonomous manufacturing. The technology brings the required intelligence for the machines, shop floor, the EHS parameters and the maintenance of the machines. The step by step approach is visible for autonomous manufacturing. First steps is gathering the data from various sources having both structured and unstructured data. As a second step is to use the data platforms like Hadoop and no SQL DBs to parameterise, build rule engine and query the data with multiple systems like Sqoop, Pig, Kafka
kind of tools for the various business process and identifying the heat maps for the autonomous manufacturing. The third steps are to define the machine learning and deep learning architecture to identify the steps that are required to automate the manufacturing engine. The final steps are to capture the entire system using visualisation techniques to control the manufacturing with resource optimisation and build/create the full autonomous manufacturing facility. The data capture happens through the various sensors and are stored in Edge computing devices and the connectivity layer can happen through any of the wireless mechanisms. With the creation of the end-to-end system we see AI helping the use cases of autonomous manufacturing with least human interference.

Despite the many advantages, there are trust issues when it comes to Cloud Computing. Are the fears exaggerated?
There are many advantages with cloud computing but the issues that many are facing are the shared services that are being offered for many customers using the same infrastructure. Also the entire development and infrastructure is outsourced which the enterprises may not have direct control. The issue may be security issues like data theft in public cloud which acts a threat to the enterprises. These concerns are now handled and now it is safe to use cloud as the technology. We have resources that can solve the issues and challenges that have been traditionally faced in the legacy and initial implementation of the cloud resources.

Can a technology like Blockchain reduce the inefficiencies in manufacturing operations, especially in supply chain?
Blockchain is a decentralised technology. The technology is running with the ledger and across ecosystem players with immutability, privacy and common interests. The duplicate records are not manifested and the contracts are signed with line of code using smart contracts. The manufacturing operations are streamlined with the common database and recognising the business process in the supply chain system which are creating issues for the entire manufacturing operations.

The blockchain brings provenance tracking from source to destination, i.e., from the producer to the consumer. The blockchain reduces fraud in the system. It creates more trust with the consumers. The inventory management required for the manufacturing is optimised thereby reducing cost, we can define this as blockchain – Single source of truth for the manufacturing operations

Is the pace of technology too overwhelming for most enterprises, especially MSMEs?
Industry 4.0 is bringing digital transformation across the industries. The technology can be adopted by any company irrespective of size. The beauty of the transformation is that various solutions based on the use case of the industry even at affordable cost. There are so many open source solutions that can be utilised by MSME. The digital scaling as they call in transformation can help MSME based on need. The technology is overwhelmed as it brings that kind of benefits for the companies.

So a proper due diligence is required for the adoption of technology. The enterprise can have internal team to discuss this or they can engage an external consultant to oversee the entire technology transformation.

This can help build a pipeline of technology integration with the legacy mapping and create a long term roadmap for the MSME’s

What should be the roadmap companies should follow in adopting these technologies?
The roadmap should be simple, cost effective, business need and should be agile. The roadmap should follow the customised map. The elements of the tools, process, training, culture, adoption and ROI have to be captured with rigorous inputs from across the layers of the organisation. The roadmap should have a self-healing and fail fast concept integrated with the technologies. The industrial automation transformation should have clear steps of they are doing legacy modernisation for the various schedule of the activities that can bring definite benefits to the enterprises.

The roadmap will include the vendors for the tools implementation and also the schedule of the various categorisation of the systems.

The systems can be classified as Business critical, BAU and least activity which can take longer times to implement. Also the inefficiencies can be listed as best practices which can be synchronised in future when implementing green field project.

The schedules should have training, incentives for employees who are the main authority to drive the change for the systems.

Overall the plan should have cost, resources, processes, tools, technologies, challenges, rewards, incentives, training plan, adjudication mechanism, resolution clauses and the senior management commitment with the implementation be it top down or bottom up the organisation.

 

Anand V is a Technology Entrepreneur and an Alumnus of BITS Pilani and IIPM New Delhi. Anand V has 20 years of corporate and startup experience and is currently Managing Partner of Anasup Consulting and Silverz – a smart Jewellery Brand which is 100 years old. Anand V specialises in emerging technology projects for clients including Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Internet of Things. He is on the board of advisory of startups like Wealthman, Invacio and Oryx Prive LLC. Anand V is a hands-on person in working with startups and help them scale up technology strategy and funding. Anand V has experience in Telecom, Healthcare, LifeSciences, BFSI and Retail Verticals.