Manufacturing Technology

Derek Austin, Interactive Technologies Manager for Nuance Communications, looks at speech recognition software and how it will help shape the way people interact with their world in the future. Speech recognition provides perhaps the most natural way for humans to interact with computers. Whether it is a case of the fun filled antics of Star Trek or the more serious interactions that went on in Space Odyssey 2001, we know that somewhere in the future, our destiny is to talk to computers rather than use a keyboard. But how far will speech recognition help define this future and what can we realistically expect in the next few years? Speech recognition technologies in general are now accurate and there are two broad forms of recognition technology – speaker independent and speaker dependent. Speaker independent technologies work anywhere and at anytime. For instance, you can dial into a call centre and the computer usually recognises what you say without having to know who you are. This is the easiest way to talk to a computer. However, the problem with speaker independent technologies is that the level of accuracy is limited in such situations. The computer has a much harder job of understanding what you say if you can be anywhere, using any kind of accent, and speaking any language. Speaker dependent technologies offer the highest accuracy, as the computer knows who you are. Speaker dependent technologies keep a profile of how you speak and what you say. These systems provide the most accurate transcription for writing business or personal correspondence, documents, scientific articles and the like. Over time, these two forms of technologies will converge so that computers will recognise what you say no matter who you are, or the accent you are using. The technology should even be able to understand which […]

– Dieter Adam, CEO of the NZMEA The next wave of technological developments, described as Industry 4.0, have the potential to substantially change the nature of manufacturing, around the world and in New Zealand. Though its future  and realities are uncertain, it could represent huge opportunities for those who can leverage technology, and risks if we cannot keep up. Take networked manufacturing. At the core of this is the idea that the physical elements on the factory floor – machines, tools, transportation systems and products are all networked; they can send data to a central control point and to each other and receive instructions from a central control point and from each other. Centralised monitoring and control of production equipment is not new – the interconnectivity of all elements and the potential to process and learn from large amounts of data, however, is new. This technology could give manufacturers the ability to monitor and record the performance of pretty much any tool or machinery on a production line in terms of each individual action. Beyond the immediate quality control, this will allow far-reaching retrospective analyses of potential mechanical failure when the cause of a vehicle accident is investigated, for example. Other uses could include fully autonomous local logistics, self-managing the flow of materials through a process line and factory, or physically attaching further-processing instructions to semi-finished products on a line (via RFID) to allow automatic variations within the production process. It will provide more flexibility to use input from other parties to define customisation without having to manually change tools or adjust production lines. At the macro level (systems level), Big Data systems will allow the analysis of ever more complex sets of data to identify and predict the occurrence of (rare) events. One of the most potent Big Data […]

By: Gavin Coulthard, Systems Engineering Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Palo Alto Networks Networked devices and computer-controlled machines are nothing new in the manufacturing industry, but the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) is seeing an unprecedented number of devices connected to the internet for monitoring and control purposes. There are applications for IoT devices in almost every industry, and the manufacturing sector has much to gain from this technology. In many ways, the industrial control and automation systems commonly used in manufacturing processes have, for a long time, acted as precursors to the connected devices that are now available to consumers. However, today’s development of IoT technology delivers new capabilities for businesses as well as individuals. These connected devices and systems can offer better management of industrial control systems (ICS). IoT technology supports a granular quality of control and monitoring data, which can benefit supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems or distributed control systems and, in fact, any industrial automation system. We’re talking about large volumes of sometimes very complex data. When used well, IoT technology provides an extremely useful tool. While these new capabilities can lend enormous value to manufacturers, they also come with new problems. First among these is the issue of information security. Mixing operational technology systems and information technology systems by way of IoT devices increases an organisation’s threat surface and opens up new ways for hackers to breach sensitive organisational networks. In some organisations, this can result in data and financial losses. But for manufacturers, it can lead to infrastructure and reputational damage, and even open up the possibility of personal harm to workers. In 2010, for example, centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility failed due to malware called Stuxnet. Now considered a cyber weapon, Stuxnet has since been followed by […]

Anyone with a smartphone or tablet now can connect securely in an industrial setting to access performance metrics and data analytics. By Kyle Reissner, mobility platform leader, Rockwell Automation You can use any digital device to easily access performance metrics and data analytics from your plant floor and machines. How are you using that freedom? Your smartphone is now as powerful as your desktop. That mobility is more than viewing a webpage or report on your tablet; it’s a fundamental shift in how we live our lives. Seventy percent of us carry a smartphone or tablet into the office. We are mobile. Yet many of us still live as if the world is flat. You know the analogy. For thousands of years people lived like they would fall off the edge of the earth if they ventured too far from what they knew. Then we realized the world is a sphere, and that opened a world of possibility. Since the 1980s, we’ve used the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture to define clear layers between systems. Our first shot at mobility was the replicate a web browser in a Palm Treo. It was a good start, but it fell short of the ultimate user experience. Some people are using the latest devices to extend 20-year-old technology. That type of mobility is resulting in very small increases in productivity, in the range of 1 to 2 percent. I suggest a loftier goal for mobility —10 percent — and for everyone in the plant, not just one or two people. It’s possible because we now have the technology that lets people do things they couldn’t do before while reducing the cost of curiosity to literally zero. Now, anyone with a device can connect securely, expand their area of influence, deploy a system more quickly […]