A Connected Life

 A connected life during Covid 19.

Fear ! Everyone today is experiencing a level of fear most of us have never experienced in our lives. We all need to adopt a system of social distancing and this is problematic for those of us who are older and have been very social creatures in the old face to face way. Our younger society members have had a level of social interaction virtually, they’re entire life! We can all take a page from this book as we adapt to a connected life.

When I think back a long time ago to my childhood, the technology landscape was very different. We didn’t even have home computers in most households. Now today, kids are bombarded with technology. I suppose this made for a simpler time but does that mean better? No, I wouldn’t say so.

In these days when most homes now are semi, self quarantined its even more important to stay engaged.

Many yearn for the old days but I say we are in the golden age of technology. Kids today live a connected life. It was even recommended during this time that we play video games to keep from getting too restless.

Does your technology make your life worse? I wouldn’t think so. Some people want to pick and choose the technology they would live without. 

Would I want to live without electricity, air conditioning or indoor plumbing? No, not by a long shot. There are many books out there published about a simpler life, engaging home farming and taking these creations to times when most everyone was a farmer, no matter how big or how small, most everyone farmed. According to pbs Death of a Dream - sustainable future (1) 90% of the population in the 1800 s lived on farms. Today only 1%. Is this good or bad? I think it would be better if we all did some farming to help offset our usage, same as doing something to reduce our garbage and something to offset our electric use, etc. With the pandemic we are currently experiencing it would have been better if we all had some level of self sustainability. All are a good thing and provide benefits. Some though would have us go back to the Stone Age when humans were fewer and had less impact and influence.

I for one am happy for the technology today and the opportunities it brings to us. Our children have never had the struggles that those in the 1800s dealt with and that’s good. They have modern medicine, technology beyond our wildest dreams and a lack of fear that allows them to pursue their dreams. 

The connected life allows them to adapt to the modern computer and the sequence of operations much quicker than we have in our lives. Have you ever handed a child a smart device and watched them maneuver quickly from page to page, while we flounder to figure out what we are looking for and how to find it? Their level of understanding is so much better than even their parents.

Younger generation move on quickly when a poorly designed app or a lousy interface doesn’t function correctly. They do not tolerate sub par programs. They have grown up with easy to use interfaces with intelligent and intuitive controls. These are all designed so that someone who has never picked up a device can move quickly. 

The curse of knowledge that older people have is they are used to older programs and interfaces and the way those function and we don’t adapt well to the newer connectivity. 

Since these programs are, for the most part designed by the younger generation, for the younger generation and start by not being tied to older systems and their antiquated designs. They are designed not engineered, meaning, they want the look and feel to be as important as the function. Be functional and fun if you’re trying to be part of a connected life.

Even for the more seasoned individual you find that your life is more connected whether you want it to be or not. Try to find an account you have in your life that is not connected? Most banking is now online and most services you pay for are paid online. Money? Cash? What is that? You find more people carrying less cash and live their lives via their credit card or bank card. Less checks are used as we use electronic transfers.

How do we balance our lives? Just because we exist in a connected world does not mean we can’t still enjoy the outdoors. When Pokémon go came out it looked like a scene from the walking dead. Pale teenagers who hadn’t been outside in months walked like zombies searching for their next find. Too often we look at how smart devices add a level of disengagement but there are opportunities for the opposite

In a recent article (2) the benefits of a smart home are discussed such as energy consumption. When you have smart controls in your home you can adjust the time of the usage, the duration, temperature, heat or brightness. All of these can reduce your electric bills. So often we find ourselves looking at the disengaged.

Amidst these challenges in the covid 19 smart devices can be a means of escape, a level of information, emergency preparedness, connectivity, and even our source for food.

Recently the food delivery services have seen a significant spike in deliveries and orders. For many trying to maintain the secure in place attitude, these services provide food but many others deliver much of our other essentials. 

For those working from home the services like zoom have had a huge increase.

For some business services like toastmasters (speaking and leadership) which was a business 90% face to face, now they are forced to adapt to the virtual world for their meetings. It’s impossible now to achieve these without a virtual component. Most meeting places, churches, restaurants, schools, senior living facilities are all on lock down. Business has changed completely. It will not go back anytime soon. Even after the safe in place discussion ends and we resume a normal life, we will find that businesses will adopt a greater level of working from home and virtual meetings.

Even for the gaming world which was almost exclusively online, now has to deal even more online so their face to face tournaments are now closed to the public and only exist in the virtual world.

The need for virtual products and using video remote in is becoming mandatory.

Adjusting to this new life has been easier for those who have lived it their entire life! The younger generation has been surrounded by electronics and has used this form of communication their whole lives. They have not seen the stir crazy results that many of us who have always travelled or spent much of our lives on the road are now experiencing. Your home can start to feel like a prison as all of the social engagement you had is taken away.

We can learn a lot from a lifestyle that we may not understand. The communication via devices, the social aspect of computers, all of what may feel new may just be the new norm. Precision Metalforming Association President, David Klotz was on an episode of Destiny of Manufacturing podcast (3) where he talked about how they are even adding a happy hour zoom meeting where all of the office people get together over a network while they have a happy hour cocktail and discuss the week and even share some of their life experiences dealing with working from home and the Covid 19 Virus.

Working from home challenges some of our systems. IoT provides a level of connectivity to manufacturing plants. You can now remote in or use web publishing to view production status, shipping numbers, downtime causes. All of these systems now become even more important. 

Stay safe, work and live smart!

1 PBS Death of a dream - sustainable future

2 the Tennessee magazine- smart answers to smart home questions 

3 Longevityindustries.com Destiny of manufacturing ep0318 David Klotz

IoT and Artificial Intelligence, Full Steam Ahead

 IoT and AI forge ahead in technology 10-7

Many of you have heard how Artificial Intelligence is going to change our lives. If you wonder what to think about this; expect this to be an understatement. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will touch every part of our lives. Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), are connecting devices across our vehicles, throughout our homes, in every facet of business, and are changing the factory floor.

Sensors and smart devices are gathering data in copious amounts. The data is building our profiles through voice-operated devices in our homes and on our phones. Every piece of data that is gathered expands your profile outline. If you and I both log into amazon, our pages will most likely look very different. My interests and data build my profile and your info builds yours. This allows for customized experiences. I want to emphasize the word “custom”. 

It is this personalized and custom experience that makes us use these tools to purchase since it allows for quickly retrieving our past viewed items but also to view similar items. This is further experience through renewable items that are on subscription. Like reminders from our dentist to replace our toothbrush, you will receive reminders when your past purchases are set for renewal or you can further establish the time saving using subscriptions.

This same experience is being copied and mimicked throughout our lives on Facebook, Google, and many other data-gathering platforms. Data is the new currency. Amazon doesn’t manufacture products but fills your needs by providing solutions.

Whether you gather this data through hardwired switches or through sensors in our vehicles or temperatures in our homes. All of these help us find solutions. The gathering of the data can be done in numerous ways but the gathering and moving to the cloud is only the first piece of the puzzle

The next piece is processing your data. The process of data gathering has become much easier through the internet of things. Information is relayed nearly instantaneously from the source to the internet and quickly processed and compared, then transmitted into the proper format to your tablet, phone, or computer. If you live in a world where hierarchy and immediacy are important edge computing can add value. If you look at many of the machine controls, they have this strategy typically implemented where they can process safety and important data locally and pace the non-important information at times when the communication system is off-peak. This is often referred to as the Edge tier. Many systems gather through discrete sensors and switches and process through compatible SQL server systems and these can come in many forms including machine controls.

The way we actually gather the information has become simpler with integrated sensors and measuring devices. These connected or smart devices are all connected in a way that makes this information accessible from your location, as remote as it may be from the actual source.

Processing is where we actually do something with the data, even if that something is nothing more than moving it from one pile to another. We put the data into registers and compile the information. It may need to be added to the previous data or moved onto other systems. These memory registers typically hold the data for a short period as it moves it along to the next location.

Data comes into processing in many ways, it can be manually entered, it can come in from system processes or even be data brought in from outside. Think about in your home, your smart thermostat is constantly and directly monitoring data, you may have a camera which only gathers data when the sensor actuates from motion so it is remotely triggered and then we have things like your phone or other voice actuated device that requires you to actuate it in order for it to start acquiring data. All of this data is then processed through a modem and up to the cloud.

This acquisition phase may have some processing capability. In a factory, many sensors are tied into a system that compares the data at the machine level to determine if its good or bad part. In your home the voice actuated devices start to compile and determine if the command requires addition to files like adding to your shopping list or if it needs to go and retrieve data. These can act as bi-directional systems. Very handy when you want to look at a part print on an operator interface.

Other systems, such as the enterprise tier that may already exist, implement, and manage your business. These are shown above as Enterprise Integration. These systems run most of your existing back office and warehouse supply chain. In many cases, these systems are doing other purposes like inventory management, preventive maintenance, production scheduling, and quality tracking.

Integration is part of the next phase, this is where you are comparing against parameters from existing data or external systems. This is the first stage of the AI process of comparing the actual results benchmarked against historical results and anticipated outcomes. These neural networks developed automatically help us to have smarter and more intelligent expected outcomes. These lead to higher expectations and also give us more value from our data.

Adjustments based on current and past actual results mapped to the occurrence history. When we build up our information we increase our knowledge. We now need to convert information to knowledge to enlightenment. The information must produce improvement and a level of enlightenment which creates a new path of impactful details. 

The above picture from NIST represents a hardwired version of analysis, however in true artificial intelligence, the systems must be able to learn and develop its own networks that are responsive to what is learned based on what is important but also what level of impact that information has in the formula. Therefore the gates must be able to be turned on or off as to whether they are part of the formula and have an impact. You also need a way to vary the impact in that formula.

Think about a formula, a+b / (5*c)= result. We may determine that changes are occurring and require us to adjust the formula. Perhaps “b” doesn’t have an impact at all, or maybe b has twice the impact. Artificial intelligence must be able to expand and not have only hard-wired decisions where it would require a person to go in and reprogram these alterations.

Increase intelligence without human intervention, this is our dream scenario. Our long term desire is that the system will learn on its own and not require any influence. A baby learns items are different. A bottle is different than a cork. It’s different in size, in weight, in required strength to lift each item, how tight you have to grip, range of motion to carry it without running into things, inertia, etc. Even though the child doesn’t know why it’s adjusting to these differences, they will adjust to compensate for the difference. This is our desire for machinery to learn in this way. 

Language in the way we communicate we must have a common understanding. This could be a language or mapping issue. I don’t always need to understand a language if I know casa means house or home. I can map a table so when the word casa is uttered I can refer to the table which tells me house. 

Improving our lives. The results of our improved teaching would minimize our required input. Let’s say a thermostat could understand our comfort level. If I am sweating it’s too hot, if I shiver, it’s too cold. Adjust by how much? What if there are 5 people? Not everyone’s comfort is the same. Maybe they are sweating but they are wearing a sweater.

AR and VR Integration with IoT

 AR / VR ( IoT and AI integration)

What is reality? Some doctors say if you perceive it to be real your body will fill in the blanks to make it a reality.

By now we have all seen this. Unfortunately, it’s not completely true and makes many assumptions, there is some science behind this. Our brains interpret what it “expects” to see. (1)

Virtual reality is similar in some ways, we are accepting that this virtual world has some omitted items but, it doesn’t take away from the experience. My Dad used to get sick at IMAX movies because it was immersive and gave you the impression you were flying or driving, etc. To him, perception was reality!

Virtual reality can give us the same interaction with the Internet of Things (IoT). Experience! When we experience things we react. Our pupils dilate, our muscles contract, our breathing and heart rate changes. Based on these feedback mechanisms we can read back a person's sensations to a virtual experience. 

Using sensors we can tell how someone is reacting. 

This is expanding on how the VR / AR experience is improving. The newest version is not a display only, it also tracks our eye movement and the reaction to what we see. This helps programmers and Artificial Intelligence systems to recognize that their representation on the screen is confusing or misleading. If the user is looking to the right but the direction should be taking them to the left, we know the graphics need to be corrected. We are using the IoT feedback through the self-facing camera to tell us the individual’s reaction. If the instructions become confusing we can sense through expressions and pupil reactions that the user is becoming frustrated. We can also position them using GPS and the forward-facing camera, where the frustration is occurring. 

The programs are self-evolving now to determine that what is being transmitted via the cloud to the user is not producing the desired response. If a technician is using AR goggles to walk them through a repair using tags on a piece of equipment along with global positioning, then we can tell if the AR tags are in the right locations or if they are getting lost. The feedback from the sensors tell repetitive actions because they are walking through the steps numerous times. 

With AR being incorporated for so much more technical work, it just makes sense you would want to close the loop using IoT and sensors for feedback and Artificial Intelligence to make the system more immersive and user friendly. The Augmented Reality can help walk the user through an activity. Whether you are using the technology to speed up bin-picking or giving directions for assembly. The AR using tags on the equipment for locating speeds up the process and also add an element of error proofing by integrating the forward-facing camera to verify that where something is being placed is confirmed. The IoT loop verifies the activity and using the AI to learn from errors as to why the instructions or indicators were confusing really improves the instruction set for all tasks.

Assembly and warehouse systems are improving their efficiency and accuracy using tools like google glass being integrated into supply chain systems that work to improve the bottom line by reducing mistakes and speeding up the process. (2)

Warehouse service companies are training with this equipment currently and while it doesn’t solve every challenge, it does benefit a lot of the applications.

Some of the systems such as pick-by-vision (3) are looking to show metrics that benefit the company in the two main factors, accuracy and speed. The systems are of course dependent on the inventory management systems and the warehouse location system into which you will integrate. The pick-by-vision systems are using augmented reality which allows the actual vision of the individual, will be the base for which all the other information systems will overlay. It overlays mapping information, directions, photos of the item to be picked, and bar codes to be compared. The great part of the systems is the can be real-time and improved through AI.

Much of the success and failure of these systems comes through the quality of the vision system and the cameras. Of course the higher the quality, the more data and slower the response time can be unless your complete system is upgraded to utilize the data from the camera. This is also why many of the systems opt for cheaper GPS technology and scanning tags. These can allow for lower resolution but the trade-off is the finite analysis the higher quality vision systems will offer. 

The displays don’t have to just be glasses style, they can be a smartphone or tablet but then you take away the hands-free advantage. The image is scanned and compared against a database and orientation is also determined in order to factor in directions and mapping. As you approach your location the more detail you receive.

When using a slower system or an interface that has a lot of detail some issues can occur such as the person using the device may walk past the location because the feedback took too long. This is a problem and one you need to address early on in order to make sure your system is robust enough to handle the interface.

The vision systems give you the advantage of recognizing and comparing location based on visual cues. The simpler versions use tags similar to the QR tags. These scale the distance based on a known location and size of the tag. This can be confusing though as the angular distortion and change of position can take away some of the accuracy. 

Determining the picking order or assembly order is where most of these tools really excel and make these tools more than a glorified laptop, tablet, or smartphone; Hi-tech programs that take information from IoT and then use the positioning data to determine the optimized flow really capitalizes on the tools system but next they can use AI to learn the best flow sequence.

The key for much of these systems is that you need the feedback loop from the IoT, sensors, or tags. This must be communicated elsewhere to compare and feedback with information. The glasses don’t have enough on board to act alone.

In warehouse systems the keys mainly do you pick the right part and how long did it take? In assembly systems, these AR and VR tools can integrate to produce an obstruction that isn’t there but is anticipated to be installed. This way you can run analysis checks and ergonomic assessments prior to installing the equipment that will be causing the obstruction. 

These tools can really benefit from training. VR creates an environment similar to the one the trainee will be working on without investing millions in equipment and in training machines. This can greatly reduce the learning curve. These digital twins allow you to train but more importantly, create a duplicate environment to simulate conditions without the cost or the engineering levels. Many companies are producing these VR simulations prior to final assembly and testing. This allows the final systems to be tweaked before a hard tool is produced that can take weeks or months and cost thousands of dollars. 

The key to the success of AR and VR in your plant will be integration with your IoT and by extension your AI analysis system. If our systems don’t get smarter we will be spinning our wheels for a long time. Think in terms that the AR and VR is the train riding on IoT rails and AI is the conductor… All Aboard!

1- science daily - how our brain fills in the blanks. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/06/000601164617.htm

2- augmented reality- researchgate.net

Stoltz, Marie-Helene & Giannikas, Vaggelis & Mcfarlane, Duncan & Strachan, James & Um, Jumyung & Srinivasan, Rengarajan. (2017). Augmented reality in warehouse operations: Opportunities and challenges. IFAC-PapersOnLine. 50. 10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.1807.

3- pick by vision 

https://jasoren.com/augmented-reality-warehouse/

Artificial Intelligence In Medical

 AI in medical

Some of the most amazing technology aspects we see in Artificial Intelligence are in the medical industry comes from the swarm or hive philosophy. This strategy is founded on taking the group approach as you might find in the insect world of working toward a common goal. (1) In all of the studies, the addition of swarm concepts and deep learning artificial intelligence has yielded improved results over groups of humans working independently toward Pneumonia studies.

None of us are individually as strong as all of us. Working toward common goals and solutions. This has been especially proven in the current world crisis with the coronavirus. Swarm or hive mentality is oversimplification when it comes to research a better description might be hyper-focused or singularly focused; since to say that insects are smarter might be a bit generous but when focused on one singular task and ignoring all other distraction and not concerning one's self with who gets the credit might yield some greater results. 

The AI component should not be overlooked in this study also since maximizing the speed with which we gather the data is a big part of how soon we can find solutions.

If we break the details down, how do we work toward a solution? By taking small bits of data from around the world no matter how seemingly minute and allowing computers to mathematically find commonality and just as important, rule out the unimportant data.

The Swarm AI allows for us to improve our predictive analysis. It makes better use of the data and works on incredibly sophisticated algorithms and is able to utilize doctors to be the eyes and ears of the patients. 

The applications for this data in manufacturing, business, and in our real lives, should not be overlooked. 

With the COVID 19 virus. Researchers claim to have predicted this before it happened! Bluedot, AI warned its customers to avoid Wuhan on Dec 31. It used world health data to caution it's travelers to avoid the area because of data and the modeling used to track and predict how diseases spread. Some have said it had already spread by that time and the symptoms were slow to reveal themselves but in either case early detection and isolation have proven to be crucial in limiting the spread of the virus. 

How quickly the virus was detected and identified was also a limiting factor for the model since it took much longer to identify that this was not just the flu or other regularly seen virus. Since it spreads much quicker and has been more difficult to detect it has complicated matters. The beauty of AI is it can sift through large amounts of data to find common points. (2)

Metabiota is another company using data to track health information. More data will make us healthier and protect us from the outbreak as well as help us predict what will happen and when it will happen. 

There are some concerns that data overload can make us paranoid as we receive predictions of every perfect storm scenario. Is too much data healthy? If you're safer hiding at home in your basement from every possible illness are you truly living? Poor data and bad assumptions have created doubt in some of the models. 

Artificial Intelligence is gathering data, tracking trends, building simulation models, and assisting to develop treatment plans and more importantly preventive care assessment that will help us live longer and healthier. Imagine predicting drug interactions we are not even aware of today. If a cure comes for cancer AI will be part of that solution. If our data continues on the current path we will see a greater analysis of pre-existing conditions and work to minimize their impact.

With telemedicine, we can monitor more data by remote and maintain better records. If you look at hypertension and compare it with your meals you can track how sodium is impacting your health. High blood pressure can be monitored and compared against your current prescriptions. No longer would you need to wait to go to the doctor to get updates on your health. Now you can get instant updates, predictive analysis and determine your health. 

AI is also found in medical manufacturing. Since we have so much more technology going into monitors, pacemakers, etc. Manufacturers have more of a need to inspect, track, identify, and predict data around their parts and devices. The tighter the regulations the more of a need to identify your when problems occur. Along with inspection, you need identification so you can track when a device or component is manufactured. This tracking ability has proven to be crucial when a failure occurs, you need to identify if this is a one-off problem or if it's a batch problem or if it comes down to a complete design and product failure. This can impact the amount of recall or service work you need to address. 

From the aspect of hospitals and doctors who rely on trust, it can make or break their business if the patients can't trust the products or solutions that medical personnel are proposing. Failures can crush a medical office when it results in an insurance claim. A single anomaly failure is bad but not as bad as a recall. Large hospitals like to know that the products they use have a long track record and have large paperwork files that show the history of reliability.

The way AI factors in is that you can develop a track record without having one if your inspection is done with proper modeling software. This predicts failure rates and what you are doing to reduce the risk or hazard. Artificial Intelligence works well to analyze short term data to have predictive data regarding failures in the long term.

Determining how patients respond to treatments is probably the most interesting are for AI since it gives patients a historical model to understand how treatments and diseases progress and the effectiveness of drugs works within the patient. We have existing models that show how drugs have negative effects on our organs and that some drugs need to have dosing increased as a disease progresses. Take for example type 2 diabetes. We have a lot of data representing how the disease progresses if you do nothing, we have models of the progress when you get worse or gain weight and we have models showing the benefits of weight loss and exercise. AI now can take these models and factor in dosing for current levels and show the long term effects and the ramifications of each model. We can also factor in homeopathic results in these models and the long term benefits and concerns patients should address when deviating from the prescribed treatment.

The number of Artificial Intelligence patents alone have gone up dramatically over the last 3 years. This graph shows how we are just beginning to understand all the possible applications. The changes in the medical industry and the demand more a quicker turnaround from a new breakthrough until it becomes available is far too long and faced with extensive delays and costly research projects. 

AI can be applied to patients, med-devices, drugs, treatment, age-related disease progression, and far more, we will see changes from doctors visits to medical files. AI will allow us to live longer and healthier lives.

1- Unanimous.AI - Nature - New Study Published in Journal Nature, Digital Medicine Shows Power of Swarm AI

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-019-0189-7

2- Singularityhub.com - How AI Helped Predict the Coronavirus Outbreak Before It Happened

https://singularityhub.com/2020/02/05/how-ai-helped-predict-the-coronavirus-outbreak-before-it-happened/

3- WebMD- 

https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/artificial-intelligence-helps-health-care#1

Spend your IoT money wisely

 Be SMART with your IoT dollar

Where should you invest in IoT? It’s easy to say just throw money at your weakest areas or go and spend money without knowing about the payback. If we want to be a good steward of our resources we need to be smart with our resources and specifically your money!

Baseline , where are you? In what level does your IoT program currently reside? Think of this in terms of Dante’s Inferno, no wait, all of those rings are in hell and none of the IoT scenarios will get you banished to eternal damnation. Instead lets look at this as rings that extend to prosperity. This is not quite Dante’s Paradiso or Heaven but let's call it Paradise City.

In Zaid Dahhaj’s article, (1) he talks about the 4 stages of learning. In a similar view we can talk about the 4 circles of productivity.

Outermost ring, is ignorance or as sometimes referred, “unconscious ignorance”. You don’t know what you don’t know. You can't blame someone who has no idea of the information they should know already. Many companies run along blissfully ignorant as they slowly lose market share and fall further behind. The problem is today, it is too hard to keep up with companies who can out spend you. Continuous improvement and constant commitment is what can keep you in the game. 

It seems like you can always find another company who can out spend you in your market. This means making better decisions on your resources and with your resources.

This is also the most difficult circle to move past because so many of us believe we are experts in all areas. However, truth be told, all of us can use advice and wisdom from others. But recognizing we don’t know what we don’t know is a very complicated task. Awareness is the crucial aspect here. Can you hear that knocking in your engine? Sometimes you have trained yourself to ignore the sound, this happens in many plants.

The next ring,  sometimes referred to as conscious incompetence.You are now aware of the problems. You’ve taken inventory of your needs. 

Moving past this ring is complicated, mainly because, I believe, this ring has 3 levels within the main ring. The first is that of “waste”. It seems like many companies in an effort to get on the train of Industry 4.0 are trying to out spend their competition. Million plus dollar ERP systems with integrated plug-ins are all the rage. Money can cover up a lot of ignorance and bad decisions. Eventually it comes time to pay. This is the ring where some might say is the most painful because you realize that people know what to do but still refuse to do what is needed. I’ve seen many companies go out of business in this ring.

This level is also that of the “slow and indecisive”. Often caught between 2 IoT solutions they hem and haw until the train has left the station. Paralyzed by fear of a bad decision and unable to progress, they know what needs to be done but never make the critical decisions that are required to move forward.

The next level are the “blamers”. They blame every other person, cause and effect in an effort to deflect blame from their iot solutions or lack thereof.

No matter what ring you currently find yourself in today, the great thing is, nothing is written in stone at this point. It is getting close, but there’s still time. 

In this ring you develop the “How” 

The next levels is the the road to solution, (I believe this was a Bing Crosby & Bob Hope “road” picture, if you’re under 40 look them up). 

Conscious Competence. You know your shortcomings and are making a conscious effort to correct them. This is an incredibly powerful moment when you are now being impactful and making a difference on the future of your company. This is also the execution phase. The problem in this stage is people become very invested in their solution and start to become emotionally attached to the solution and it can, at times, cloud their judgment. Stick to your metrix. Remember this is the foundation that all of your IoT will be built. The investment should provide you the greatest ROI for your time frame.

What are the Solutions? First establish your destination, 3-5 years, what should your IoT look like? Is it integrated? If so, to what extent? How hands off and automated should it be? Don’t pull out your Scrooge McDuck, this is a time for optimism and dreams!

If you’re currently satisfied with your ERP system then integration with your existing system will be your concern. Every day, the issue many plants talk about is their need for the systems to talk to each other. You even see it in your home; does your smart speaker work with all types of voice systems and apps? Probably not. You need to make sure the same is true plant wide. How will I get information from my machines into the system where I need it?

 Don’t build beyond your scale. Too often people don’t balance their infrastructure with their needed capacity. Imagine buying a building with 800 offices for a staff of 60. Be careful not to slip into scope creep.

Knowing the platform your system is programmed is very important when investing your money intelligently. If most of your systems use SQL server as their main system, excellent. Maybe you have several open platforms or IO interfaces. These are nice from a programming standpoint as long as you have a programmer. Maybe you want an out of the box system. Realize that most out of the box systems will have the limitation that you need to adapt to your platform.

Your solution may require multiple sources. Establish this path and the resources necessary to make the leap and don’t look at the long term as a destination but instead establish the milestones or stage gates. Break these down into smaller pieces that might be acceptable and have an ROI greater than the sum of the parts.

Expectations, where do you want to be? 

Understand all of the parties needs and expectations. This needs to be not only the desired information but the format it needs to be in and the cost or value of the information.

What is information worth to you and your company? When you hear this you may be taken a back since you may only look at the information you gather currently. You may also look at the way you gather this data. Remember, even in the matrix there are gaffs; acknowledge yours and determine where you need to invest. This doesn’t automatically mean to back fill with information that has no value. Instead, determine what information you need, various ways to achieve this gathering and the costs of each, followed by the value of each.

How do you put a dollar figure on a value? That’s related to the next 2 questions, what is it you’re gaining from this information? Second, what is the cost of not knowing this information? This tends to be the big impact.

The final ring is that of Unconscious Competence. This is the level where you are running on autopilot and you have moved to a level of Artificial Intelligence that is no longer requiring a conscious involvement.This is also where its ingrained into the process. This is where Automated Processing takes hold. Often in systems like Lean you find that the process is the most important structure. If your process isn’t solid it becomes apparent when they remove the key individual from the activity.

Don't think this is the end, when was the last time you bought your last and final computer?? You can’t think of your 5 year plan as an end all goal, it must be evolutionary as well as revolutionary.

Apply smart technology that will give the greatest return on your investment. 

1- Zaid Dahhaj - How to master the 4 stages of learning - Medium.com 

Oak Ridge National Lab, Technology of Tomorrow

 Oak Ridge National Lab leading technology of tomorrow

On a recent visit to Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL) I lost my breathe with all the technology that ORNL was taking the lead on in development alongside partnering with manufacturing.

Oak Ridge has some of the most impressive histories found anywhere.

Many of you may know of Oak Ridge National Lab because of their research on the Manhattan project ending the war and preventing more Allied casualties. They did astounding work at the Y-12 side of the facility which is a fairly top secret development of defense usage and nuclear design.

Some may know ORNL as the power development for nuclear power plants and building the state of the art systems that are safer and more productive energy design.

Maybe you know ORNL as the home of the supercomputer. The fastest and most powerful computer is housed there.

But we are going to talk about manufacturing and their use of IoT and additive to produce the latest products for companies and doing research into the latest additive materials.

This area of ORNL is called MDF (Manufacturing Demonstration Facility) 

This state of the art area not only utilizes the latest and greatest technologies but is on the cutting edge of developing materials that can function in similar ways to the parts we currently use. Many will often say if you build it using another process then why waste time developing other ways to accomplish the same task.

It’s not building the same part, it’s more about how to design one part that replaces 20 parts formed in another process then assembled. If you can develop a part that does this then you can justify the design change.

The Oak Ridge MDF is an amazing think tank of technology and one that has led to some amazing developments. Their BAAM additive  itiative was one that caught the eye at a previous IMTS show when the vehicle was completely printed on the show floor. 

(1)The world’s first 3D-printed composite body for an automobile. Conceived as a showcase for large-scale additive manufacturing capabilities developed through a public/private partnership anchored by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN), the passenger cell or tub (seat frames, cockpit, hood and tail) and four fenders — five pieces total — for the 680-kg, battery-powered two-seater Strati were printed in 44 hours. The car subsequently was assembled in two days and driven off the IMTS Emerging Technology Exhibit stand before show’s end to cheers from the crowded exhibit floor. 

The demonstration project took advantage of the large-format printing capabilities of the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) machine, built by Cincinnati Incorporated (Harrison, OH) in cooperation with ORNL.

 

This was the beginning and launching point of developing what is possible. On a podcast, The Destiny of Manufacturing (2), Dr Amy Elliott discusses what is possible by thinking outside of the box. Not only does additive give you the ability to build specialty designs but regional printing can reduce transport of huge parts like those of props for wind farms that can be difficult to ship and a risk to move over those great distances, now they can be printed at the sight or near the location with limited transport. Reducing risk and expense.

They constantly are looking at new systems for printing bigger parts and using technology to close the loop on their measurements by adding sensors everywhere they can to give more information to the systems and tie in additional data from other databases and measurement analysis. 

Moving this data back and forth between systems has been a primary focus of Oak Ridge’s newest resident genius Dr Tom Kurfess

Dr Tom Kurfess who was recently elected to the National Academy Of Engineers

Is the Chief Manufacturing Officer at Oak Ridge National Labs MDF.

Data not just for the sake of data but data to drive improvement is what Oak Ridge is striving to achieve. Making the systems communication transparent has been a goal they work on daily in order to achieve a seamless transfer from process to process and machine to machine.

Not a group to rest on their Laurels they set their sights on speed, a Shelby Cobra, and using additive processes to fabricate the vehicle. It is an amazing vehicle and a lot of technology to show what is possible in the new additive world. 

Design and build of Shelby Cobra using additive manufacturing processes.

Some people feel that the technology is limiting and can not replicate strength. ORNL proved this wrong when they built the first parts for an excavator and integrated the hydraulics into the framework. It’s a breakthrough not only for the process or additive but in material science that can balance strength and weight.

The world's first additive excavator with integrated hydraulics.

How can we build what is not possible?

The MDF is not a limited application research facility. Their daily tasks include improving the competitiveness of US manufacturing and finding solutions for partnering companies who are interested in sharing information to build a better mousetrap. 

Energy is one of these areas in the wind and nuclear power production but aerospace and consumer electronics have partnering companies also. The goal is to improve productivity and improve processes and gather data that can benefit all of manufacturing and take our competitiveness to the next level. 

In the area of additive Oak Ridge doesn’t limit itself to only one technology they are exploring every solution for the best process and the optimum solution. Walking around on their research floor is like a cross between the state of the art and an evil genius lab where no idea that is plausible will be ignored. Just a short walk from the Summit supercomputer ( worlds fastest supercomputer) is where bailing wire meets fiber optic laser used for exploring the speeds that can be used in laying down a melted bead of material. If one welder is good, 3 must be better when exploring the possibility of reaching an optimum productivity that cannot be achieved using just one.

Research is explored on a molecular level to determine the properties that work best together in order to achieve properties of wood with plastic blended together. Material science is held in highest regard as research leaves no stone unturned when we look at what tomorrow will yield on our production floor.

Revitalizing US Manufacturing , The Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), established in 2012, is the Department of Energy’s only designated user facility focused on performing early-stage research and development to improve the energy and material efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness of American manufacturers. Research focuses on manufacturing analysis and simulation, composites and polymer systems, metal powder systems, metrology and characterization, machine tooling, large-scale metal systems, and robotics and automation.

The MDF comprises a 110,000 sq. ft. facility housing integrated capabilities that drive the development of new materials, software, and systems for advanced manufacturing. From binder jetting to 3D tomography to in situ monitoring, the MDF leverages a range of equipment and expertise designed to deliver results that generate energy efficiency improvements in the manufacturing sector, efficiently utilize abundant and available domestic energy resources, and support the production of clean energy products with benefits extending across the nation’s economy.

 

Factory 4.0

Revolutionizing advanced manufacturing with the digital factory

A thriving manufacturing sector is vital to the nation’s economic health and global security, yet few companies possess the research and development capacity essential to staying competitive. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) draws upon unmatched capabilities in materials, neutrons, and computational science to develop innovative manufacturing technologies, helping large and small companies alike. These efforts are directed toward solutions that will drive US economic competitiveness and energy productivity.

Using ORNL’s world-class resources for scientific discovery, such as Summit, the world’s fastest supercomputer, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), researchers can examine microstructures to better design new materials and fabrication methods, leverage multidisciplinary expertise for the development of new bio-based materials, and measure residual stress to certify printed components.

If you need to find a research home for your next project don’t ignore partnering with a government supercharged solution at Oak Ridge! 

1 composites world 3-2-2015

2 The Destiny of Manufacturing Podcast, EP 0119 Amy Elliott