Automation, Engineering and Weekend Review

For the first time in 26 years, I am not in Dayton at 7:15 am getting ready to referee in one of the Midwest's largest soccer tournaments--the Warrior Classic. I'll be there later today, but a miscommunication happened and my travel schedule kept my attention elsewhere. But it's still a great experience. They have over 60 pitches going with more than 500 teams this year.

The SpaceX space station delivery launch and docking was a huge accomplishment. Certain projects need the investment of a large government to get them going, but often it becomes time for entrepreneurs to exploit the technology to take it to the next level of commercialization. This is great.

Of course, commercialization of NASA-developed technologies has been going on for a long time. Even back in the 80s when I was leading marketing and engineering for a small company in Dayton, I read NASA Tech Briefs searching for an expoitable technology to incorporate in what we were doing.

The Automation Conference went well. I liked what Bryan Griffen of Nestle had to say about standards and using PackML. When the OMAC Packaging Working Group first developed that state model, everyone touted it as a programming model. In reality, it's not so much about programming--although I'm a believer in structured programming and this is an ideal model to serve as an outline for programming machine control--it's really about consistent operation of a series of machines that leads to minimizing operator training and optimizing operator efficiency. When the HMI screens are similar machine to machine and the names and expected actions align, then operators will have an easier time running the machines and can operate more machines.

WBF and MESA International Merger

Earlier this evening I posted some news on Automation World about WBF and MESA International agreeing to merge.

Necessary Step

I see this as a necessary step of two organizations that have accomplished much in their time, but also two organizations that seem to be at an inflection point of what to do next. WBF developed B2MML and BatchML and has members committed to bringing some standardization to batch process automation. The members have done an excellent job of institutionalizing ISA-88 for batch control.

MESA International leaders beginning about 6-7 years ago brought new life to a stagnant suppliers' association, but it has lost momentum over the past couple of years. What leaders of the association seem to desire is to bring in more users of MES/MOM technology in order to have conversations between the vendors and users.

The best initiative going with MESA right now, aside from development of papers explaining MES/MOM, is its new education program. If the WBF people can add education in the area of B2MML to the decidedly discrete orientation of MESA, that can be a win.

Other Organizations

I look at OMAC similarly. OMAC, like WBF, fell into the sphere of ISA when that organization was looking for some new life and thought it would become an umbrella organization for all the production and automation associations. That federation was a costly (both in terms of money and momentum) decision for both organizations. OMAC also had its heyday several years ago when it developed a standardized way of looking at and describing packaging machines (PackML and PackTags). What it needs now is evangelization--some of which it is receiving this week at The Automation Conference.

There is probably more work to go for OMAC. But the work of bringing order to the PackML idea is going on in the ISA-88.05 working group. If this work is finished, then users, OEMs and suppliers would have the comfort level to institutionalize the ideas. That work, unfortunately, has stalled. I have also picked up vibes that there are tensions among various groups--never a good thing when you are trying to develop a consensus standard.

Disclaimer

I am a member of both MESA and WBF and have been very active with the marketing and technical committees of MESA, but I have to wonder about the long-term viability of both organizations. I will be awaiting a new vision statement from the combined organization to see where leaders think they can go.

So, I'm interested. What do you think these organizations should be doing? Or, do you care?

The Automation Conference

If you are reading this, chances are you missed it--The Automation Conference, that is. We have assembled a fantastic set of speakers who will share best practices and ideas about implementing automation to achieve business benefits. You can click the link to see updates of the presentations, special video interviews and other information. You can also follow on twitter at #TAC2012.

Speaking of automation and manufacturing, last night we had a reception for speakers with a featured speaker from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. William Strauss, senior economist and economic advisor at the Fed of Chicago, spoke on the status of manufacturing. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do it. He lays out a clear explanation of economic data. I know, that's almost an oxymoron, but he can do it.

Here are a few nuggets:

Watch out for the mis-use of statistics by politicians. It is easy to take the same set of data and show it in different ways to support political points of view.

If you obtain all of your information about the state of manufacturing from main-stream media, you will have a warped view.

Over a long period of time (about 70 years), manufacturing employment in total numbers has been stable, but manufacturing output has risen dramatically. The key is productivity. So if you look at the numbers of total manufacturing employment as a ratio of total US employment, then you would think manufacturing is in decline. If you look at the output of manufacturing in the US, then you would have an optimistic view of the state of manufacturing.

[As an aside, that is what we do, right? We help make manufacturing more productive. From an economic point of view, that is good. But, just as the percent of workers in agriculture that it takes to feed us had dropped tremendously over the past 180 years or so, just so the percent of workers it will take in manufacturing to produce all the goods we need will continue to decline over time.]

If you graph manufacturing productivity, you see an inflection point in 1979. Why? Development of CNC and PLC. Automation. What we do is good for wealth creation in the country. We just can't be the driver of full employment. The trends are against that.

12th Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cyber Security Conference

I've been talking with Joe Weiss about his Industrial Control Systems Cyber Security Conference. It always attracts thought leaders from government and industry about the topic. This year, it will be held the week of October 22, 2012 in Norfolk, VA hosted by the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC).

The main thing about Joe is that he doesn't talk only about the IT and networking aspect of cyber security, but he also brings in vulnerabilities and challenges around the control system itself.

Highlights of the conference include:

Most discussions on securing ICSs are concerned with new designs or to meet compliance requirements. One domestic utility is concerned with security impacts on the reliability of their legacy ICSs. Consequently, a “test bed” program has been established with various ICS suppliers to secure legacy ICSs for reliability. The utility and participating ICS suppliers will provide lessons-learned and an understanding of the size of the effort.

Aurora is a gap in protection in the electric grid (not just in North America). There has been a lack of implementing hardware fixes for Aurora as well as misunderstanding of what actually occurred with the 2007 Aurora test at the Idaho National Laboratory INL). Consequently, there will be discussions on what actually occurred at the INL test, dispelling myths about Aurora, and providing lessons-learned from implementing hardware solutions for Aurora. As Aurora affects almost every substation, these discussions should be of great interest in meeting expected NERC/FERC requirements.

An international utility has requested a detailed technical assessment of their nuclear plant control and safety system upgrade to understand their cyber vulnerabilities (not for compliance). The assessment is arguably the most comprehensive of any nuclear or non-nuclear plant nuclear plant. There will be presentation on the utility’s rationale for the assessment and the cyber issues identified.

Most discussions on securing ICSs are by security solution providers and do not address engineering issues. Many of the most significant ICS cyber incidents and vulnerabilities are not due to network issues. Consequently, a panel of ICS experts from multiple industries (chemicals, water, oil/gas, power, and DOD) will provide their perspectives on the functional requirements including engineering considerations needed to secure ICSs (security solution providers need to hear this!)

Additional discussions are expected to include:

• New incidents, such as the complete loss of all ICS logic in operating power plants

• Unpublicized water system compromises

• Cyber security of surface transportation systems, chemical plants, pipelines and micro-grids…

• A status of relevant standards for ICS security

• What makes quantifying risk unique for ICS cyber security

• Demonstration of selected ICS vulnerabilities

• International perspectives
  
• Finally, sponsors will discuss and display their solutions.
  
  For more information on the conference you can click the link above or call (408) 253-7934.

Hack College

I heard recently from Jennifer Yee who pointed me to a project pointed to university students called Hack College. The slogan is “Work Smarter, Not Harder”. She writes, "The face of education is changing, technology is king and we want to equip students with the knowledge to optimize their college experience from a technology standpoint. So far, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin Law School, University of Notre Dame, and University of Arkansas, among others, have listed the project as a resource link for their students."

Pass the word to anyone you think would benefit.