Is That SCADA or IoT?

Clearly, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and IoT (Internet of Things) are very different things, right? We typically don't create new terms to describe things for which we already have terms, so yes. They are different, but maybe not as far removed from one another as we may think. As revolutionary as the end results may be, the truth is that the IoT is just a new name for a bunch of old ideas. In fact, in some ways the IoT is really just a natural extension and evolution of SCADA. It is SCADA that has burst free from its industrial trappings to embrace entire cities, reaching out over our existing internet infrastructure to spread like a skin over the surface of our planet, bringing people, objects, and systems into an intelligent network of real-time communication and control. 

Not entirely unlike a SCADA system – which can include PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), HMI (Human Machine Interface) screens, database servers, large amounts of cables and wires, and some sort of software to bring all of these things together, an IoT system is also composed of several different technologies working together. That is to say you can’t just walk in to the electronics section of your local department store, locate the box labelled “IoT” and carry it up to the counter to check out.

It also means that your IoT solution may not resemble your neighbor’s IoT solution. It may be composed of different parts performing different tasks. There is no such a thing as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ IoT solution. There are, however, some common characteristics that IoT solutions will share:

• Data Access
  It’s obvious, but there has to be a way to get to the data we want to work with (i.e. sensors).
   
• Communication
  We have to get the data from where it is to where we are using it – preferably along with the data from our other ‘things’.
   
• Data Manipulation
  We have to turn that raw data into useful information. Typically, this means it will have to be manipulated in some way. This can be as simple as placing it in the right context or as complex as running it through a sophisticated algorithm.
   
• Visualization
  Once we have accessed, shared, and manipulated our data, we have to make it available to the people who will use it. Even if it’s just going from one machine to another (M2M) to update a status or trigger some activity, we still need some kind of window into the process in order to make corrections or to ensure proper operation.

There could be any number of other elements to your IoT system – alarm notifications, workflow, etc. – but these four components are essential and will be recognized from one IoT system to the next. Coincidentally (or not so coincidentally), these are technologies that all cut their teeth in the world of SCADA.


The IoT is the Next Generation of SCADA

Again, In many ways the IoT is a natural extension and evolution of SCADA. It is SCADA that has grown beyond industry and seeped into our daily lives. The IoT is essentially SCADA plus the new technology that has evolved since SCADA was first devised. Just like how in the late 18th Century, steam power put a hook in all other industrial technology and pulled it forward into a new era, electric power did the same thing a century later. Several decades later, with the advent of microchips and computer technology, once again industry was swept forward into a new era by the gravity of a single revolutionary technology. As we sit here today, well aware of the revolutionary power of what we call the ‘internet’, we are now feeling that gravity once again pulling us toward a new era.

Object Virtualization: Digitizing the World

We are changing our world. With the advent of new sensing and communication technologies, we are finding ways of making everyday objects more intelligent and connected. As we connect more and more things to one another, however, we are finding a need to democratize the process. We have to make different things the same, or at least equal. We are still trying to answer the Mad Hatter's famous riddle: How is a raven like a writing desk?  

Though Alice's time in Wonderland may have come and gone, ours is just beginning. While we may not be connecting ravens to writing desks (though nothing would surprise me at this point), we do have a need to connect seemingly unrelated objects in new ways.

One solution to this dilemma is the process of object virtualization. By creating virtual models, or representations, of the things you want to monitor and manage, you are putting 'things' on equal footing, creating new opportunities for analysis and task automation. 

To understand object virtualization, consider the contact list in your phone. A contact can be thought of as a virtual model of an actual person. It is something like a digital identity. Imagine you have a contact named Mary Smith. Mary has a name, a phone number (or two), an email address, maybe a photo. Mary can have a Facebook profile, a Twitter alias - you can even assign Mary a special ringtone. All of these things combine to create a virtual model of Mary stored in your phone.  

Now, to make your model of Mary a bit more intelligent and useful, you could add her date of birth, her hair color, her favorite book, her pet cat's name, or any number of different properties of Mary. If we slapped a bunch of sensors on Mary, we may know things like her current location, current body temperature, her heart rate, her blood pressure. If this information is communicated to your model in real time, you have an active, living representation of Mary that tells you more about her than she may know herself.

Imagine applying this same process to your house, your car, your toaster, or your favorite pair of socks. Now, maybe you can't think of a good reason for your socks to talk to your toaster, but they may have a thing or two to share with your washing machine. And maybe your house and your toaster can have a nice conversation about lowering your electric bill. Of course, your things aren't just talking to your other things. They can talk to other things anywhere. Do you think it might be helpful for your air conditioning system to know something about today's weather forecast? Or for your car to know about that new road construction on your way to work?

Your virtualized house doesn't care that it's a house. It may as well be an elephant or a water balloon. The same is true of your car, your refrigerator, or your lawn sprinklers. Virtual models can share information with other virtual models without regard for where the data is coming from or how it got there. Virtualization can make every "thing" accessible to every other "thing", and ultimately to you.


**B-Scada's VoT (Virtualization of Things) Platform allows you to create virtual models using data from multiple  and disparate sources, providing a simple platform for creating powerful and intelligent IoT (Internet of Things) applications. Learn more at http://votplatform.com.

Engineering a System of Systems (SoS)

"Everything affects everything else in one way or another. Whether you are aware of that or not does not change the fact that this is what is happening. That's why I say a business is a system ... any action will reverberate throughout the entire company."  - John Woods (Work in Progress)

The evolution of an enterprise resembles the evolution of any other type of organism. Processes become more complex as the enterprise grows; job requirements become more compartmentalized. Over time, complex and varied systems are developed or implemented to help personnel perform their very specific sets of tasks. Many enterprises today are composed of many of these separate silos of activity that do not share information with each other - and when they do it is not in real time.

This organizational model has served us well, generally helping to improve operational efficiency, increasing productivity, and providing better tools for people to do their jobs. Now, as we enter the era of connected devices and the IoT (Internet of Things), it is becoming more apparent that these old models that were designed to make things more efficient are actually serving as obstacles to taking the next step.

Before now, these separate silos of activity allowed people to focus more specifically on the task at hand without worrying about any other tasks. Today’s reality is that an enterprise truly operates as more of a continuum. All of these separate systems must work in concert to ensure the health of the organism as a whole.

Imagine your own personal organism. How would your lungs work correctly without information from your circulatory system? And how could your circulatory system deal with injuries without information from your nervous system? Our brains, hearts, lungs, stomachs, kidneys and livers must be in constant communication with one another at all times. And any one of these systems can be impacted at any time but new information pulled in from outside through our senses. A healthy organism is not one where each individual system performs its specific tasks as efficiently as possible. A healthy organism is one in which every system is constantly striving to ensure the greater good of the entire organism. 

Many enterprises are discovering today that they need to implement a system of systems.  

Implementing a system that encompasses all of your existing systems can increase your capacity for management, analysis, and understanding of underlying business problems and opportunities. Gain real-time insight into how altering just one component of a process can impact all other processes. For instance, witness in real time how a change to a maintenance schedule effects productivity and asset performance. Discover opportunities to reduce energy consumption or create greater coordination between your production schedule and your supply chain. 

A system of systems can promote greater high-level situational awareness, increase your capacity for interdepartmental collaboration, and allow for entirely new models of analysis and automation. Imagine the following scenario: a plant floor machine's throughput drops below what's expected; immediately, an alarm notification is sent and the machine is automatically shut down for maintenance. Another task is triggered to generate a work order; the work order is automatically assigned to the technician who is closest and best able to perform the work (the technician is notified in real time on his smart phone or tablet). While the maintenance is performed, all of the day's numbers related to production, profit, warehousing, shipping, etc. are automatically adjusted to accommodate the downtime. Meanwhile, the technician is able to perform the maintenance, test the machine, and update the work order right there on the spot (on his phone, for instance). All other systems are automatically aware of the work order's completion in real-time and everything is adjusted again accordingly. 

Imagine creating custom interfaces for each role in your organization. Depending on an individual's job responsibilities, he/she could have real-time access to all data necessary to do their jobs - regardless of where that data was generated or where it is stored.

With a little imagination, there is a seemingly endless number of possibilities revealed when all of your data systems and personnel are working in a network of continuous communication. And the best part is that implementing an SoS does not require removing or replacing any of your existing systems. The software application or suite can be installed as a sort of top layer that ties all of your systems together. Keep your SCADA/DCS system. Keep your CMMS, your ERP, and any of the other useful systems in which you have already invested enormous amounts of time and money. They will still provide value. Your SoS is not intended to replace these systems, but to weave them together into a single fabric of continual intelligence and agility. 

Are Farmers Leading the Way to the IoT?

We have all heard the banging of drums declaring the Internet of Things to be the next great technological revolution. The IoT is expected to make production processes more efficient, reduce waste and resource consumption, improve customer service, and provide a wide array of new products and services that will change the way we all live and work.

It is already impacting manufacturing, retail, utilities, and myriad other industries all looking to get a jump on the next big thing.

It may come as a surprise to some, but of all the many industries investing in and adopting IoT (Internet of Things) technology, the most prolific may in fact be the agriculture industry. Farmers have been very eager to adopt the IoT, and have already had a significant amount of success.

There are a number of reasons for this:

Ease of Deployment

Inexpensive sensors placed in various parts of a cultivated field can quickly yield very useful actionable data – whereas in an industrial environment adoption would require modifying or disrupting existing networks and software systems.

Instant Value

Pre-existing metrics of precision agriculture can be applied more easily, maximizing the already-known benefits of established practices (knowing what types of crops to plant when, knowing when and how much to water, etc.). Farmers have also had success safely and naturally controlling pests through the intelligent release of pheremones. Of course, there is the obvious and very tangible benefit of decreased resource consumption and increased yield.

Continual value

In agricultural IoT deployments, the same practices that provide instant value will continue to provide value for as long as they are employed. Conservation of water and waste reduction provide repeated value, as well as the increased yield brought on by precision farming.

Early adopters have primarily been large commercial farms, but smaller farms are finding ways to leverage sensor data and remote monitoring to make incremental improvements to their yields as well. In fact, the IoT may eventually serve as a sort of equalizing factor that allows smaller food producers to compete with the larger commercial growers.

So, not only is the IoT revitalizing an essential industry, it has the potential to solve some very serious problems related to food shortages and ever-increasing populations. This, of course, is in addition to reducing the environmental impact of farming and bringing the family-owned farm back into the global marketplace.

That’s not bad for technology that many people think is confusing and consider to be a bunch of “hype”, is it?

Industry 4.0 - The Industrial Revolution Continues

"In times of change, learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

It is becoming a matter of common knowledge that we are in the midst of a fourth industrial revolution, alternatively referred to as the Industrial Internet or Industry 4.0. This circumstance resulted from the usual combination of capability and need, and as usual, participation will not be optional. In each previous period of revolution, companies that wished to remain competitive in the marketplace had little choice but to embrace the march of technology and leverage the same revolutionary tools employed by their competitors. In the late 18th or early 19th Century, when Jim's Widget Factory down the street bought a steam engine to power his production processes, how could you hope to keep your widget factory afloat? No clever re-organization of your business processes or motivated personnel could ever hope to compete with a steam engine. The reality is you had to get one too. The same holds true when you move into the next period of revolution (Industry 2.0), marked by the introduction of the moving assembly line and electrically-powered production. Obviously, it didn't happen overnight, but when your toughest competitors began to employ this new technology, there was no way to pretend your comparatively slow manual assembly line could ever hope to compete. The inevitably ubiquitous nature of these technological advances is exactly what made them "revolutionary". Flash forward to the advent of the microchip and personal computers - Industry 3.0 - and an obvious pattern emerges. Industrial revolutions don't just affect the few companies that have the resources to leverage the new technologies; they affect the entire industry. Whether you and your organization choose to embrace the revolution or ignore it, there is no way to stop it and there is no way to shield yourself from its influence on the marketplace. So, What is Industry 4.0? The latest industrial revolution centers around the new world of smart, connected objects. This is the realm of autonomous factories and self-healing machines. This is the world depicted in the science fiction of the mid-twentieth century. Through the convergent development of advanced computing power, sophisticated network technology, sensors, robotics, and analytic techniques, we are seeing the integration of systems both vertically and horizontally. We are seeing machines communicating with other machines and making decisions based on real-time data. We are entering a time when new rules are emerging and business processes are being evaluated anew. Much in the same way that previous revolutionary advances forced themselves into the awareness of business owners and managers, the time has come to face reality of the industrial internet. Of course, a unique thing about this fourth industrial revolution is that its benefits extend beyond the marketplace. Whereas previously advances were made by increasing the scale or speed of production, the new paradigm focuses on increasing efficiency, reducing resource consumption and eliminating waste to find opportunities for greater profit. The new industrial landscape of smart, connected devices will incidentally lead to a cleaner, safer, more sustainable planet. Industrial enterprises that have embraced the new paradigm have seen measurable results. Real-time consumer data is helping companies be more responsive to the needs and expectations of their customers, and helping to eliminate gaps between supply and demand. Predictive analysis is helping to reduce maintenance costs and incrementally improve production processes through systems of continual improvement. A plant floor machine can now be aware of its current condition and environment and make decisions about its operation - or even the operation of other machines. The fourth industrial revolution is every bit as revolutionary as the previous three, and the evidence surrounds us. We are living in a smarter, connected world full of "smart" cities full of "smart" buildings, and this is only the beginning. By 2020, what we now call Industry 4.0 will be known simply as 'industry'. Where will you and your business be?

OPC UA: The Communication Standard for the Internet of Things?

As we prepare ourselves for the expansion of the IoT (Internet of Things), many businesses today are looking ways to take advantage of the opportunities that are beginning to present themselves. Of course, as with anything new there are many questions and concerns.

Many organizations are struggling with interconnectivity. How do we get existing information systems to communicate with new information systems? If leveraging the IoT requires a wholly rebuilt information infrastructure and a complete reformatting of business processes - well, that's just not going to work for most people.

There are also organizations who will have questions about how to make use of the unstructured data coming in real time from any number of different sources. How can they create the context to translate this endless stream of raw data into useful information?

And what about the scalability and flexibiilty needed to deal with growth and change. After all, if the changes implemented today need to be undone in order to keep up with the future needs of your organization, then is it really worth it?  

Another common concern is that of security. Are we going to push sensitive information up to the cloud, where it may be exposed to any number of potential threats ranging from cyber-terrorism to corporate espionage? And even if our sensitive data is not being broadcast over the internet, how do we protect these interconnected systems from internal threats? How can we ensure that our employees and contractors have access to all of the information they need to do their jobs and nothing more? 

These and many other questions are preventing some organizations from realizing the many benefits of the IoT. Some think it will be too difficult or expensive to implement; others may question the value of it. Fortunately for us all, these questions have been asked for several years, and there are answers.

The communication protocol often cited as the best fit for IoT applications has already been developed, tested and deployed in live environments around the world since it was fully released in 2009.

OPC Unified Architecture (UA) is platform-independent, service-oriented architecture developed and maintained by the OPC Foundation. As the interoperability standard for industrial automation, OPC has become an integral part of most SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems. As data systems expand beyond their traditional roles to include more sensor data and consolidate data from multiple systems, it makes sense that the OPC Foundation has remained at the forefront of the standardization process and and have developed a communication standard that has been embraced by proponents of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things - companies like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, GE, and many others, 

OPC UA is universally embraced because it directly addresses the obstacles faced by organizations involved in IoT implementation projects. The problem of interconnectivity, for example, is exactly the problem that the communication standard was developed to address. Today, OPC drivers exist for thousands of different devices, and many devices today are manufactured with embedded OPC servers to allow for exactly this type of interoperability with other devices and systems.

The concerns about the usefulness of multi-system data is addressed by information modeling. The OPC UA information modeling framework turns data into actionable information. With complete object-oriented capabilities, even the most complex multi-level structures can be modeled and extended. Information modeling also makes an OPC UA-based system significantly more customizable and extensible. As virtual representations of actual systems, information models can be modified or expanded to meet the changing needs of a modern company.

Of course, one of the most important considerations when choosing a communication technology is security, which is one of the great benefits of OPC UA. Security is provided in a number of ways, including: Session Encryption, Message Signing, Authentication, User Control, and Auditing of User Activity.

While it is difficult to say that there is anything "standard" about the Internet of Things, OPC UA is the closest thing we have to a communication standard, and every day it is becoming more widely accepted and adopted. To learn more about the synergy between OPC UA and Industrial IoT applications, read the following whitepaper: https://opcfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/OPC-UA-Interoperability-For-Industrie4-and-IoT-EN.pdf

** B-Scada's IoT software is built on OPC UA and leverages the full power of these capabilities to provide fully customizable and extensible applications that consolidate and organize data from disparate sources for secure real-time visualization on any device. Learn more at http://scada.com

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): Are We There Yet?

The cat is no longer in the bag. In fact, she's already rummaging through businesses and homes in your hometown - maybe in your neighborhood. Before our eyes, the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved from a nice idea to a measured experiment with tangible results. As expected, early adopters are primarily large enterprises with significant resources to dedicate to new technology, but the IoT does not always require a substantial investment. Sometimes, it is as simple as finding a better way to use your current technology and associated data. Some industrial enterprises have already seen the benefits of machine intelligence and the marriage of people and processes. Other organizations are using the IoT to provide better customer service and more targeted marketing.  Is it safe to say the experiment is over? Have we burst through the hype bubble to arrive at a practical understanding of what's at stake?

The Industrial IoT promises more efficient production processes, reduced resource consumption and waste, safer workplaces, and more empowered employees. There are many success stories already, and more are sure to come.  Honda Manufacturing of Alabama Honda's largest light truck production facility in the world - a 3.7 million square foot plant - was faced with a problem all too common to large manufacturing facilities. Over the years, a number of different automation systems were introduced to help streamline production. With operations including blanking, stamping, welding, painting, injection molding, and many other processes involved in producing up to 360,000 vehicles and engines per year, it is not surprising that they found themselves struggling to integrate PLCs from multiple manufacturers, multiple MES systems, analytic systems, and database software from different vendors. Of course, on top of these legacy systems, Honda continued to layer an array of smart devices on the plant floor and embed IT devices in plant equipment. The complexity introduced by this array of automation systems turned out to be slowing down the operations they were intended to streamline. After reorganizing their business structure to merge IT and plant floor operations into a single department, Honda proceeded to deploy a new automation software platform that enabled them to bring together PLC data with the data coming from MES and ERP systems into a common interface that allowed the entire enterprise to be managed through a single system. This also allowed Honda to manage and analyze much larger data sets that revealed new opportunities for further optimization. While this reorganization required a significant investment of resources, they were able realize benefits immediately, and ultimately positioned themselves to maintain a competitive edge through the next decade or more. ABB As one the world's foremost suppliers of industrial robots and modular manufacturing systems, ABB has had their finger on the pulse of industrial technology for years. As the IIoT emerged, ABB was quick to find ways to take advantage of the opportunities presented. The company has installed more than 250,000 robots in numerous industries worldwide: plastics, electronics, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and many more.  Before the IIoT, in order to provide service ABB needed to dispatch technicians to remote sites to perform diagnosis. Today, a small operations team in a centralized Control Center are able to monitor in real-time precise and reliable information about each robot's current status and activity. This has not only enabled ABB to substantially reduce the cost of their maintenance and operations, but the data collected has allowed them to develop a set of predictive KPIs to anticipate problems before they occur, helping their customers benefit from less downtime and increased productivity. Kennametal Kennametal was able to increase the productivity of their discrete manufacturing operations by using machine tool data and complex event processing. Whereas the traditional approach to increasing productivity was to reduce downtime, Kennametal focused on improving productivity by reducing cycle time. The solution employs complex event processing software that gathers and analyzes production data in real-time. Kennametal was able to understand which operators out-perform the production plan and guide less-experienced operators toward improvement. As an example: in one machining operation it was determined that taking a fast, shallow cut reduced cycle time by 16% over the slower, deeper cut the production plan called for. Best practices of this sort have been shown to reduce Kennametal's cycle time by 20-40%.  The examples provided by Honda, ABB, and Kennametal are just a few of the hundreds of different IIoT success stories that can be found on the internet. Companies like GE, Ford, Intel, and dozens more are pouring literally billions of dollars into IIoT technologies this year alone. This is not an investment in possibility and hope. The IIoT is very real and it is happening right now. Of course, as with anything new there will be plenty of hurdles and blind alleyways, but many of the initial obstacles have been discovered and overcome. The foundation is in place and the arrow is pointing up. Companies are no longer asking: Should we? They are asking: How can we and how quickly?

**B-Scada has provided best-of-breed data visualization solutions since 2003, providing industrial and commercial customers the tools they need to transform their processes and empower their personnel to maximize efficiency, productivity, and safety. Learn more at http://scada.com.

The Many Faces of Data Visualization

Data Visualization has become one of the common "buzz" phrases swirling around the internet these days. With all of the promises of Big Data and the IoT (Internet of Things), more organizations are making an effort to get more value from the voluminous data they generate. This frequently involves complex analysis - both real time and historical - combined with automation. 

A key factor in translating this data into actionable information, and thusly into informed action, is the means by which this data is visualized. Will it be seen in real time? And by whom? Will it be displayed in colorful bubble charts and trend graphs? Or will it be embedded in high-detail 3D graphics? What is the goal of the visualization? Is it to share information? Enable collaboration? Empower decision-making? Data visualization might be a popular concept, but we don't all have the same idea about what it means.

For many organizations, effective data visualization is an important part of doing business. It can even be a matter of life and death (think healthcare and military applications). Data visualization (or information visualization) is an integral part of some scientific research. From particle physics to sociology, creating concise but powerful visualizations of research data can help researchers quickly identify patterns or anomalies, and can maybe sometimes inspire that warm and fuzzy feeling we get when we feel like we've finally wrapped our head around something. Today's Visual Culture  We live in a world today that seems to be generating new information at a pace that can be overwhelming. With television, the Web, roadside billboards, and more all vying for our increasingly-fragmented attention, the media and corporate America are forced to find new ways of getting their messages through the noise and into our perception. More often than not - when possible - the medium chosen to share the message is visual. Whether it's through an image, a video, a fancy infographic or a simple icon, we have all become very adept at processing information visually.  It's a busy world with many things about which we feel a need to be informed. While we all receive information in numerous ways throughout the course of any given day, only certain portions of that information will have any real effect on the way we think and act as we go about our normal lives. The power of effective data visualization is that it can distill those actionable details from large sets of data simply by putting it in the proper context. Well-planned data visualization executed in a visually-appealing way can lead to faster, more confident decisions. It can shed light on past failures and reveal new opportunities. It can provide a tool for collaboration, planning, and training. It is becoming a necessity for many organizations who hope to compete in the marketplace, and those who do it well will distinguish themselves.

**B-Scada has provided best-of-breed data visualization solutions since 2003, providing industrial and commercial customers the tools they need to transform their processes and empower their personnel to maximize efficiency, productivity, and safety. Learn more at http://scada.com.

From BIM to Facility Management

BIM (Building Information Modeling) has become an essential tool in building architecture and construction. Creating a logical, structured model of all information related to a building project can help the project move seamlessly from one phase to the next.BIM helps keep building projects on schedule and on budget. It helps ensure regulatory compliance. It helps facilitate the necessary collaboration that must occur between a project's planning and eventual construction. A quality BIM also helps keep stakeholders involved in the process, adding a kind of transparency that inspires trust and confidence.

A typical BIM will include not only detailed renderings of the planned building, but also specific information related to the engineering, construction, and operation of the building. This information can include designs, architectural specifications, site information, material sheets, budgets, schedules, personnel and more. BIM is not only useful in the design and construction of a building, but can also be very helpful in the management of the building once construction is complete.   

For most people, the notion of a Building Information Model implies a detailed 3-dimensional rendering of a building. With the 3D imaging and design software technology available today, it is true that designers and architects are enjoying powerful new tools to do their jobs, and these 3D models are in fact a big part of BIM. They are not, however, what BIM is all about.


COBie

In 2007, a pilot standard was developed by Bill East of the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the delivery of building information that is essential to the operations, maintenance, and asset management of a building once construction is complete. COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange) was accepted by the National Institute of Building Sciences in December 2011 as part of its National Building Information Model (NBIMS-US) standard.

COBie is used to capture and record essential project data at the point of origin, including: product data sheets, spare parts lists, warranties, and preventive maintenance schedules. COBie's popularity is increasing, and in September 2014 it was included in a code of practice issued as a British standard (BS 1192-4:2014 "Collaborative production of information Part 4: Fulfilling employer’s information exchange requirements using COBie – Code of practice"). This standard will require contractors involved in the construction of government buildings to comply with COBie when delivering facility information to the building owner after construction is completed.

While this expectation in Britain is controversial, and it has been characterized as "unrealistic", it is becoming increasingly clear that the information involved in Building Information Models can, should, and will be used to aid in the maintenance and management of the building after its construction. This is where BIM becomes facility management, and this is where some enterprising software developers are creating a new market for themselves.

Some developers of BIM software have expanded their product portfolios by including Facility Management products that transfer the information from BIMs into a useful format for operating and maintaining the constructed building. This seems to be a natural extension of BIM, and these companies will benefit greatly by placing themselves ahead of their competition in what is nearly certain to become a large and lucrative market.

What does this have to do with SCADA?

In the space between BIM and Facility Management, there is often a need for greater automation. The exchange of building information today frequently requires a tremendous amount of labor - an amount of labor described in man-years. 

Often, facility managers are provided several large boxes of paper documents, from which they must manually retrieve asset information and maintenance schedules to be entered into Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). This process usually involves pallets of boxes full of paper of operations and maintenance manuals and drawings. Imagine the time required to create, review and transcribe hundreds of pages of documents, validate the transcriptions, and manually enter data, assuming a system like a CMMS is even used.

Even if a CMMS is used, maintenance technicians often still need to search for information in these paper boxes to complete many of their jobs. As time passes, documents can be moved or lost, increasing the cost of maintenance activities and potentially increasing downtime in mission-critical facilities. A study in 2011 suggested that 8% of annual maintenance budgets could be eliminated if open-standard electronic information were made available to technicians before starting complex work orders.

This is where some BIM software developers are finding a new market by providing the tools to painlessly transfer BIM information into a facility management system. This is also where there are still many who would benefit from an open software platform that allows users to consolidate and organize disparate information, making it available for real-time visualization on any device.

An open platform like B-Scada's Status Enterprise can provide this type of value to a number of different stakeholders: 
 

• BIM software developers who would like a customized, branded software solution for facility management they can use to extend their own products or to add as another product in their portfolios.
• Facility owners who have received a BIM related to their newly-built facilities and are looking for a way to remotely monitor and manage their new assets.
• Facility managers charged with operating and maintaining multiple facilities, and who would benefit greatly from a remote monitoring solution that allows them to automate processes and monitor real-time activity from anywhere at any time on any device with a web browser.  

 

To learn more about how Status Enterprise can help you reach your facility management goals, visitwww.scada.com.

The Missing Piece in Facility Management Systems

It seems that the "smart building" of tomorrow has become a reality today. With an ever-expanding array of sensors and intelligent devices, modern buildings are able to automate everything from heating and lighting to security with nothing more than software. The occupants of the building are no longer required to manually adjust these systems by flipping a switch or turning a thermostat. These sensors and devices can share this information with each other, and make decisions based on predetermined schedules or conditions.

Oh, the wonders of the modern age and the promise of the Internet of Things!

There may be a problem, though. Some of a building's most essential assets - and incidentally some of the most reliable sources of relevant information about the building - are the building's occupants. However, all too often this essential data source is ignored or at least marginalized in a facility management system. 

Employees who work in these "smart" buildings often report that they have limited options to report and resolve obstacles they encounter in the workplace, whether it's a broken printer, a slip hazard, or a flickering light.  They can call facilities, deal with it themselves, or report it using an overly complex, web-based software that doesn't communicate with the facility management system. In all situations, the outcome of their efforts is uncertain and feedback is limited.

For all of the convenience and efficiency offered by today's automation systems, this seems to be a significant oversight.

Is it possible to create a system that incorporates the benefits of machine-to-machine communication and the benefits of real-time user input? If a building is going to make decisions about what temperature a room should be and whether or not to turn the lights on, wouldn't we want to know something about how the people in that room feel about it? After all, sensors can fail and data can be corrupted. And what about incidents that occur outside of the perception of the sensors?

While it is certainly very nice that buildings can be aware of their conditions and make decisions based on information they learn from themselves, it may be time to allow the building's occupants to teach it as well. While there may be danger in allowing people to override a building's systems, there is no reason that an occupant's real-time feedback can't be made available to the facility managers and maintenance technicians who will make decisions about it. After all, shouldn't a building work for the benefit of the human beings who use it?  

A New Focus for Power Companies

A somewhat unexpected news story broke last month when the United States and China issued a joint statement announcing a series of targets established for reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss the efforts the two economic superpowers have been making toward creating a cleaner, more sustainable society for future generations. While nothing monumental was announced, this is yet another clear indication that companies involved in the business of converting fossil fuels into consumable energy are going to have to change some of the ways in which they do business.

In China, where soaring electricity demand has led to a surge in coal-fired generation facilities, severe air pollution has forced the government to enact new environmental policies and establish new goals. At the end of 2013, about 10% of China’s power came from non-fossil fuel sources. The new goal is to double that percentage to around 20% by 2030. China is also committing to peaking its carbon dioxide emissions by that time, despite the growing demand for power.

In the United States, where similar commitments have been made in recent years, new goals were established. The U.S. intends to reduce carbon emissions from existing power plants by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. This represents a substantial reduction in emissions that has already been characterized as “unrealistic”. U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell has suggested that the U.S. economy could not sustain such a drastic change.

While these new targets may require some drastic changes for power companies, and perhaps the goals are even unrealistic, there is no denying the fact that changes are inevitable. It is time to start investigating the options available to companies who want to start complying.

Obviously, updating equipment at power plants will be a necessity in many cases, as newer technology is inherently more efficient. Another option that should not be overlooked is the possibility of improving efficiency and reducing emissions by using software that empowers process optimization. It has been demonstrated many times in many different industries how the right software tools can improve efficiency, increase production quality, improve safety, reduce downtime, and reveal new opportunities for optimization.

Existing power plants must find a way to decrease emissions by 30% while keeping up with the substantial demand of the average consumer. That will likely mean they have to find ways to get the same amount of accountable power generation from fewer resources. Ultimately, the solution for most companies will require an investment in both new hardware and new software. Before you go out pricing the latest, cleaner generating technology, take some time to consider the software options that may be available to help you get more from your current processes.

Smart Grids and the Future of Energy

By now, we've all heard about "smart" electric meters and a "smart" power grid. While some might see the concept as nothing more than a new way for Big Brother to stick his nose in our personal business, others see a natural continuation of technological evolution that will ultimately lead to cleaner, more efficient power systems and lower utility bills.One thing about which most will agree is that our power infrastructure is outdated and inefficient. Composed of a patchwork of technology from different eras, there are portions of the power grid that can be dated back as far as 1890! As our power lines and substations have aged, new technologies have emerged. Why, then, should we be concerned about advancing this technology forward?

Most have probably heard about the “smart” meters power utilities are installing across the nation. As could be expected, there have been some concerns about health and privacy associated with this new technology. The health concerns center around the RF radiation generated by the meters’ communication with a central computer system. The radiation generated is similar to that generated by cell phones or Wi-Fi routers, and there are people who believe that this type of radiation can contribute to cancer and other health problems. Verifiable research thus far has been inconclusive, but since the meters are located outside – unlike phones and routers – and are communicating less than 1% of the time, any potential danger is significantly less than that posed by these other technologies (cellular and Wi-Fi) that most people have willingly accepted. There are others who are concerned about privacy issues. Smart meters are designed to both send and receive information, and some citizens are concerned about the meta-information that power utilities will now have access to as a result of smart meters. For instance, metered data can be used to learn about the kinds of devices individuals use in their homes, to map movements of individuals from one room to another, or learn about when people are not home and for how long. Privacy has become a sensitive issue with the advent of “green” technology, and it is not an insignificant concern. In truth, however, with the progress made in satellite imagery, the implementation of public cameras and face-recognition technology, the vast databases of personal phone calls and emails retained by the NSA, and the numerous other intrusions into our personal lives, smart meters may in fact be the very least of our privacy concerns.

How will smart grids work? When we move beyond the perceived dangers, there are a number of very real benefits proposed by smart grid technology. A smart grid can diagnose problems and automate solutions. For example, power outages can be reported automatically as soon as they occur. A work order can then be automatically generated and assigned to the nearest technician. In fact, some problems can be discovered and corrected before an outage even occurs. This could significantly reduce the cost of system maintenance and increase service recovery time in the event of an outage. That mean better customer service and lower cost. Usage data collected by smart meters can also be used to help consumers understand their own usage patterns and find ways to reduce energy consumption and lower their bills. That means lower bills and energy conservation. A smart power grid will be more efficient, more cost-effective, and less wasteful. There are so many benefits to employing smart grid technology that there is really no reason to expect the power grid to simply stop evolving and maintain the status quo.  If you consider the advances already made in the last century, many of which were accompanied by health concerns and concerns over property rights, the burgeoning smart grid is really nothing more than a continuation of the progress we have already made. If you were not concerned about the waste created by power plants or the radiation generated by the high voltage lines running through nearly every town, it doesn’t make much sense to be concerned about today’s advances, particularly in light of the fact that they are likely to lead to a cleaner, safer electrical infrastructure. New advances will happen, and the technology that enables these advances will continue to evolve as well. If a person wants to draw a line in the sand and say “this far and no further”, it could be said that the line should have been drawn long ago. Many will continue to maintain that there is no point in using electricity – or doing anything for that matter – if we are not interested in doing it to the best of our ability.

SCADA in the Cloud

One of today's hottest buzzwords in the world of computing and information technology is 'cloud computing'. With many large and well-known companies adopting cloud-computing concepts, it is becoming clear that this may be something more than a passing fad.

As industrial enterprises seek greater opportunities for data management and integration, cloud-based solutions are one of many on the table. As with any new innovation, there are certainly pros and cons, and when dealing with something like process control, there can be some very real concerns.

What is the Cloud?

First, let's take a moment to define exactly what we are discussing. What exactly is "cloud computing"? In very simple terms, cloud computing involves utilizing a number of different technologies to achieve a system of sharing or restricting access to a particular collection of resources. In application, cloud computing involves networking large groups of remote servers to allow for the centralized storage of and online access to data.

Cloud computing has already proven to be useful enough to justify millions of dollars of capital investment from very successful companies like Microsoft and Google. Smaller companies are already reaping benefits as well. Things get a bit more difficult, however, when considering the notion of remotely monitoring and controlling sensitive devices and proprietary processes in cloud-based systems. After all, a large part of our infrastructure - including oil pipelines, power utilities, water treatment plants and mass transit systems - is controlled by SCADA software.

Are we comfortable putting these processes in something as ubiquitous as the cloud? As the introduction of this article suggests, there are many perceived benefits and risks to putting SCADA systems in the cloud.

Many of the perceived risks revolve around the sensitive data that could be available to malicious parties. Additionally, there are concerns that the actual operation of these essential systems could be vulnerable to attack, which could be devastating. Many of these concerns are more closely related to what information should be included in the cloud rather than whether or not the cloud itself is secure.

While security concerns are certainly valid - as they have always been - there are some undeniable befits to cloud-based SCADA, including:

• More cost-effective subscription-based pricing for smaller companies that may not otherwise be able to afford a SCADA system
• Enhanced scalability for large or growing organizations
• Lower cost of implementation and maintenance
• Greater accessibility
• Greater ability to collaborate
• Easy and affordable upgrades or add-ons

Many other risks and benefits can be listed, but the question is not really about whether or not cloud-based SCADA is a good idea – it is about whether cloud-based SCADA is a good idea for you and your organization. The major questions now revolve around how much control should be distributed through the cloud. Many engineers will insist that control be limited to local PLCs, and cloud-based information should be read-only. Others may suggest that control should be distributed as well.

There are no right or wrong answers at this point. It is fairly clear that the perceived benefits of cloud-based SCADA will outweigh the perceived risks - and probably rightly so. There is no reason that SCADA systems should not evolve to take advantage of the latest technology as they always had.

As smart devices and sensors evolve and become more affordable, more businesses are going to want to automate their processes. The subscription-based pricing of hosted SCADA software will make it accessible to organizations that otherwise may have been unable to afford it. This will allow smaller companies to begin to compete in the marketplace in ways that were impossible before. The industrial workplace is changing worldwide, and cloud-based SCADA is one way that change is being realized.