Ready for Wireless?

Ready for wireless?
Experts see plant-level uses for wireless Internet technology, as do manufacturers including Boeing, Tillamook

Manufacturing Systems - May 2001
by Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor

Seattle-based Boeing needed a way to monitor the pressure of the rivets being punched into the wing-skin of its 747 airliners. The rivet device in the manufacturing plant is suspended on a block-long track that swings out over the wing. How on earth do you hard-wire an impact sensor across a constantly moving apparatus? Wires? Who needs wires?

"Physically, it was impossible to hard-wire it, but Boeing wanted to monitor the upside pressure of the riveting," says Dick Slansky, senior analyst at ARC Advisory Group, Dedham, Mass., who, prior to joining ARC, was with Boeing. "Now they're collecting the data from wireless sensors."

Boeing's use of wireless technology is but one example of a trend that is gaining momentum. Tillamook County Creamery Association, a major cheddar cheese producer based in Tillamook, Ore., needed to monitor its inventory levels during manufacturing. "Until recently, there wasn't any technology to do wireless," says Tim Fief, chief technology officer at Progressive Software Solutions, an Albany, Ore.-based systems integrator that assisted Tillamook in deploying an industrial automation software solution from Wonderware Corp., Irvine, Calif. "Now Tillamook uses wireless inventory control, and can display its entire inventory on a handheld device. It uses vehicle-mounted radio units to scan inventory, and the payback is more information going back to inventory staff."

Tillamook uses Wonderware's FactorySuite industrial automation software suite for plant-floor management and supervisory control. The work-in-process tracking application of the suite is integrated with a wireless data collection system to provide the wireless inventory control capability. The company also is looking at using Wonderware's thin-client supervisory control software to remotely monitor and control a new plant from its main location.

Ripe, or hype

The use of wireless technology is getting hyped on a level that challenges the dot-com exuberance of 1999. While use of wireless technologies on the plant floor still is considered to be in its infancy, in a world where information rules, wireless connectivity is seen as a natural.

"Wireless technology enables the mobile consulting, service, and support necessary in today's customer-driven economy," says Craig Resnick, senior analyst at ARC. "With wireless information, people are kept informed, they can respond quickly, and they can even take action remotely. Wireless local area networks [LAN] have been available for more than two years, but they are just now achieving high enough data rates and low enough selling prices to be considered for industrial automation applications."

In a world of high-tech crashes, it can be difficult to read the play card on what's really useful and what's hype. "The hot thing right now is wireless," says Russ Agrusa, president of Iconics, a Foxborough, Mass.-based provider of plant-focused wireless applications. "There are lots of applications coming along. It's compelling. I don't think it's a lot of hype."

ARC's Slansky agrees. "In process manufacturing, you have valves and pumps in difficult-to-reach areas. A wireless device can be handy. The technician can walk a certain range to check on the condition from a handheld device. He can download it, or process it on his handheld. It doesn't make any difference whether it's a valve, a gauge, or a pressure sensor�it can be embedded with connectivity. I can see wireless replacing control networks, replacing sensors, replacing LANs."

Yet the world of wireless applications is still very new. "Except for portable bar-code readers and data terminals, wireless applications are in their infancy," says Richard Caro, an ARC vice president. "Narrowband RFDC [radio- frequency data communications] has been around for several years, but it required a license and was expensive. For new wireless applications, I prefer the term embryonic."

Process manufacturing

Though wireless applications in manufacturing are in their infancy, wireless devices are showing up for inventory monitoring, for Web-enabled supervisory control, and for use with so-called "plant portal" software.

Most major supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) vendors offer some means of Web-enabling their SCADA screens. From that starting point, company intranets and wireless LAN technology can be used to provide mobile, Web-based supervisory control.

Standard browser screens, however, often don't translate well to the small form factors of today's wireless devices. Wireless application protocol (WAP) is more suitable for certain wireless applications, such as receiving alerts for exception management, or the delivery of key performance indicators. Another perhaps more impactful trend in the long run is the rapidly maturing eXtensible markup language (XML), a standard for passing messages via the Internet.

Vendors of industrial automation software are using XML as a means of wrapping messages from process control systems for transmission to higher-level manufacturing execution and enterprise systems. Intellution, Foxborough, Mass., is using XML as a wrapper for messaging within its new Java-based open control software platform, called iLogic, which will be introduced later this year.

Plant information portals, also called enterprise manufacturing intelligence solutions by some analyst firms, comprise another application category that appears ripe for wireless use. Lighthammer Software Development, Exton, Pa., offers a version of its Illuminator portal, called Illuminator Anywhere, for wireless functionality, according to Russell Fadel, CEO.

"Illuminator extracts data from plant systems, aggregates it at a Web server, and then performs �just-in-time' transformation into the optimum format for the wireless device," says Fadel. "So the same request for data, such as current inventory or line status, can be delivered to a mobile phone using WML [wireless markup language], a Palm Pilot, or a wireless Pocket PC device."

Wireless Internet technology, in concert with intelligent plant-floor equipment and devices, also can capture information that was previously difficult, if not impossible, to reach. "On the process side, there is a real need to get into the sensor level," says George Heath, an industry marketing manager at eMation, Mansfield, Mass. a provider of Internet-based industrial automation software solutions. "If a chemical manufacturer is getting the wrong output, he needs to be able to collect information that is difficult to access."

Closer to the process

Even with the expense of wireless, the ability to monitor processes that were previously out of reach can create maintenance efficiencies that ultimately mean potential malfunctions can be prevented. "The convenience factor is huge," says Slansky. "If you can get the wireless device established in the refinery or chemical plant, you can make someone's life a lot easier. "These are complex systems that people have to crawl around. With wireless sensors, worn-out parts can order themselves."

Heath agrees that catching parts before they break is a big benefit of wireless sensors. "The wireless device senses when the cutting tool is getting dull," says Heath, "and the replacement tools are shipped when that's identified."

Device relationship management, or DRM, is the term eMation is using for remote management of intelligent devices. The DRM system that eMation offers is meant to be deployed by the equipment OEM, so that it can monitor performance of its products as used at customer sites. "We have a DRM product that bears a lot of similarity to CRM [customer relationship management] solutions," says Heath. "DRM lets people monitor and service equipment via the Web."

The DRM solution from eMation leverages its Web@aglance plant portal software to provide some of the system's core monitoring capabilities. According to Heath, the Web@aglance software is proven on its own. For example, says Heath, GE Plastics, Pittsfield, Mass., uses it to monitor its plant floors around the world.

Dilbert-like no more

Wireless monitoring allows plant personnel to unshackle themselves from the computer desk. "The mobile HMI can deliver four types of information," says Iconics' Agrusa. "You can view an Excel spreadsheet; you can access single-server databases; you can access alarm information to find out if there's a fire, or if something is not running; and you can get an actual connection for real-time OPC [OLE for Process Control, an open standard for data integration at the process control level] data. You can look at real-time manufacturing data and change it from your telephone."

Another benefit of wireless technology is the ability to reconfigure plant-floor automation systems and equipment without the expense and inconvenience of running cable in awkward locations. "The obvious point is the cost of the cable from a maintenance standpoint, as well as installation," says Rob McKeel, a vice president with GE Cisco Industrial Networks, Charlottesville, Va., a provider of industrial-grade Ethernet networking solutions. "The other advantage is mobility. If you have a situation wherein you need to rearrange frequently, wireless helps. You don't have to worry about cable."

One vendor offering wireless solutions at the process control level is Opto 22, Temacula, Calif. Its SNAP Ethernet I/O is an open solution for input/output (I/O) systems used at the plant-floor level to connect control devices to plant-floor networks. In partnership with Symbol Technologies, a Holtsville, N.Y.-based provider of wireless LAN infrastructure products, Opto 22 has combined Symbol's Spectrum24 wireless LAN solution with its SNAP Ethernet I/O to provide wireless, Ethernet-based I/O for process control.

A new topology

Analysts and commercial application providers believe the greatest benefits of wireless are yet to come. "Wireless will start picking up as the technology develops," says McKeel. "Standards have to be developed. Larger radiuses of communication and spans of coverage need to be developed for networking the big plants."

On the "get-small" side, wireless sensors must reach into tighter spaces, and monitor smaller components. "We will see a point where there are embedded Web applications in pump valves," says Slansky. "They're going to be able to grab data down deep. It will be embedded in a bearing. Then you can move that data up to the enterprise level into asset management."

ICONICS Background Information

Founded in 1986, ICONICS is an award winning leader in the development of Web-enabled industrial automation and manufacturing intelligence software for Microsoft® Windows® operating systems. Our solutions are certified for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista. ICONICS has successfully deployed more than 250,000 solutions in over 60 countries worldwide. Its solutions meet diverse customer needs in a variety of industries including Automotive, Building Management, Food & Beverage, Oil/Gas/Petrochemical, Machine Builders, Pharmaceutical/Biotech, Security, Water/Wastewater, Utilities, Government Infrastructures and more.

ICONICS’ corporate headquarters is located in Foxborough, Massachusetts (USA) near Boston. The company has offices throughout the United States, as well as in Australia, China, France, India, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and United Kingdom. ICONICS also has a joint software development and sales office in the Czech Republic.

© 2010 ICONICS, Inc. All rights reserved. Specifications are subject to change without notice. GENESIS64, GENESIS32, Pocket GENESIS, BizViz and their respective modules, OPC-To-The-Core, and Visualize Your Enterprise are trademarks of ICONICS Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Ready for wireless? Experts see plant-level uses for wireless Internet technology, as do manufacturers including Boeing, Tillamook

ICONICS Background Information

Ready for wireless?
Experts see plant-level uses for wireless Internet technology, as do manufacturers including Boeing, Tillamook