Challenges for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
- Internet Security: Internet of Things poses the inherent need to open those previously closed production environments. This poses the inherent risks of internet like hacking, theft of confidential information, etc.
- Collaboration among companies: There must be active collaboration among companies generally perceived as competitors having expertise in different domains to come together and deliver products for the industry. A recent example of this Industry 4.0 and IIoT ecosystems expansion is the opening of a new IIoT Lab by National Instruments at its global headquarters in Austin, Texas. The NI IIoT Lab fosters collaboration between different companies to help improve interoperability. In this space, companies with expertise in communications protocols, controller hardware, I/O components, processing elements and software platforms come together to help validate end-to-end solutions. Companies sponsoring the NI IIoT Lab include: Analog Devices, Avnu Alliance, Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Industrial Internet Consortium, Intel, Kalypso, OPC Foundation, OSIsoft, PTC, Real-Time Innovations, Spark Cognition, Semikron, Viewpoint Systems and Xilinx.There are several IIC (Industrial Internet Consortium) test beds at the NI IIoT Lab using which the participating companies can indulge with industry experts. NI IIOT lab has multiple test beds like test beds for Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance of Industrial machinery.
- A Micro grid Communication and Control test bed in which NI provided the monitoring, edge processing and control, smart inverter controller design, and software gateway services; RTI provided Data Distribution Service (DDS) communication technology and development tools; and Cisco provide the IT data communication infrastructure. The microgrid demo consists of a three-phase, low-voltage AC micro grid; instrumentation for power quality, monitoring, and phasor measurements; and smart inverter controllers with TSN technology. The grid is all inverter-powered, so no synchronous generation is needed, and has Active Sync capability.
- Communication Reliability and Determinism: The Machine to Machine (M2M) Communication should be reliable and deterministic. Industrial protocols like proprietary field buses and deterministic Ethernet (TSN) have provided some answers. NI has been actively engaged with the TSN group under the IEEE 802.1 working group and has developed products based on these standards that allow transmission of OT data and IT data on the same bus. The TSN for Flexible Manufacturing IIC test bed at the NI IIOT lab was built together by several industrial suppliers who are working on supporting TSN functionality, including Schneider Electric, Cisco, NI, B&R Automation, Bosch/Rexroth, Innovasic, and TTTech.
- Reluctance to adapt and change: There is in general reluctance in the already established manufacturing lines to change primarily because of investment, downtimes, and the loss of jobs.
- Lack of adequate skill-set: There is a lack of trained professionals and skill-set at most places in the world to transform the industries of today to the ones of the next generation.
India’s leap towards Industry 4.0
To encourage best in class manufacturing infrastructure in India and attract major industrial players to invest in the Indian economy, the Government of India launched its “Make in India” initiative. Backed by India’s strength in Information Technology and a large workforce of IT service professionals as well as its greenfield starting position (lower legacy issues of outdated systems and processes), India is ready to leapfrog over other developed countries in this space. Work has already begun with the Government of India’s initiative to establish 100 smart cities in the country.
According to a research done by PwC, “Most Indian companies expect to reach a digitization level of around 65% in five years”. And, India’s very own smart factory, the first one, is making progress at the Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM) with a seed funding from The Boeing Company to design a factory that is autonomous, thinks, decides, and works on its own.
One of the largest manufacturers of the Automotive Components- Bosch aims to implement smart manufacturing systems across its 14 manufacturing plants in India by 2018. Bosch also presented their plan to implement “Industry 4.0” to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India in 2015. Other major industrial players are also investing heavily on digitization in India. General Electric has invested USD 200 million in the digitization of its only factory in India.
