International. From the entry of the Internet of Things (IoT) into the production chain, nothing will be the same again in the factories. The term 'robo-trend' that implies the increase of Artificial Intelligence in the factory, and the fact that the industrial sector is launched to the use of these technologies will bring with it the development of paradigmatic scenarios.
In this sense, the arrival of the 'robo-workers' as a new workforce is obvious; but the loss of jobs in the production chain will be offset by the need for talent that is capable of developing intelligent systems and autonomous processes.
To unravel the review of paradigmatic conclusions like this, reached last year by engineers such as Bejoy George of HCL Technologies, along with others related to hot aspects of IoT in manufacturing today, such as the criticality between IoT and cloud; or know how DevOps provide security mechanisms to IoT applied to manufacturing processes, --among other aspects--, the next 25 to 27 October 2016, experts from all over the planet will meet at IoT Solutions World Congress 2016, at the fira de Barcelona facilities in Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona).
In its second edition, IoT Solutions World Congress has become a benchmark in technological innovation, presenting the trends that will transform business processes in the IoT ecosystem dedicated to the industrial area.
The hottest topics of IoT oriented to the production chain
In a unique scenario in which the avant-garde in IoT will have a place hand in hand with innovative and disruptive proposals for the production chain, one of the key elements of this year is to transform the digital manufacturing plant into a User-Centric environment.
In this context, Greg Conary of Schneider Electric will present at IoT SWC 2016 how the application of user-centric technologies proposes solutions anticipating the resolution of future problems that may arise in the production chain. Based on agile methodologies for the construction of simulation tools, the use of user-centric implies the application of representation and calculation models that evaluate both the capacity of the systems when it comes to increasing production and their response to unexpected situations or operational changes.
Fog Computing applied to manufacturing is another innovative concept in IoT that will have a special role in this year's show. In the evolutionary journey that involves moving from the Internet of Things (IoT) to the Internet of All Things (IoE), expanding its reach to virtually all domains, the use of massive processing and analytical systems becomes essential, along with increasingly shorter response times.
Meeting such requirements is problematic through current IoT models, equipped with centralized circuits and empowered by cloud-based management models; however, models equipped with decentralized architecture that has fog computing are capable of bringing computational resources and services to the ends of the infrastructure, managing to build an effective link of continuity between the data source and the cloud. In this line, Lynne Canavan of the Open Fog Consortium will offer a vision of how to bring the advantages and computational power of cloud computing processes to the point of origin where the data is generated.
Security in manufacturing processes connects IoT and DevOps. The challenge is in the cloud
Applied to Internet of Things infrastructures, DevOps involves the automation of agile manufacturing processes, employing tools and methodologies that eliminate the traditional latency that usually takes place in application development. DevOps transformations are systemic for both enterprises and independent software developers (ISVs). Everyone knows the criticality of making the best possible use of cloud computing, big data and, now, IoT. The moment an Internet of Things application goes live, the testing tools built into DevOps check the level of security of the information coming from the sensors– which are the most vulnerable entry points – to traverse the entire IoT application to ensure that exposure has been minimized.
The connections between IoT and DevOps are evident and manufacturing processes can take advantage of the marriage between both technologies once they have assimilated the connections and advances in their trajectory towards the synergy of the processes. For companies, the IoT-DevOps dialogue represents a novelty and it is only a matter of time before one cannot exist without the presence of the other. In the course of the conference "Robot-DevOps in the era of automated IoT deployments", the company SAP will offer the keys to this technology in IoT SWC 2016.
What do ioT analysts say about manufacturing?
Predictions from leading industry analysts such as Gartner and IDC offer a targeted look at the digital future in a world managed by algorithms and smart devices, where people and machines will have the need to define and develop relationships in harmony. Forecasts like this are of great help when assessing the radical changes that we will face shortly in the digital world.
From a general perspective, the macro-figures to which analysts allude point out that, this year 2016, spending on hardware for IoT purposes is exceeding 2.5 million dollars every minute and, in 2021, every hour 1 million IoT devices will be acquired and installed in the world. This level of density in the deployment and use of sensors, big data and analytics will bring with it the emergence of highly complex challenges for companies and organizations when it comes to managing the monitoring of activities that take place in the Internet of Things ecosystem.
Main conclusions and challenges posed in IoT SWC 2015 in manufacturing
In addition to HCL Technologies' vision for the robotization of factories, smart factories need to break down the barriers between logistics processes and machines, establishing communication on an internal scale, but also connecting and providing valuable information from the supply chain to the supplier and also to the customer, "an aspect that is achieved by establishing a relationship between logistics processes and the intelligent factory", according to one of the conclusions reached at the round table "Enabling machines to talk each other", of IoT SWC 2015.
Along with the need for an M2M dialogue of all the components that make up the production chain, the new concepts addressed by 3D printing, technological democratization, and the increase of mathematical processes in the factory of the future, were some of the main issues and challenges addressed at the IoT SWC 2015 congress that will be reviewed in this year's edition.
