Industrial Internet of Things

Unleash the power of IIoT solutions with our expert, Santi Gomez, as he reveals the secrets of Industrial IoT growth. Elevate your automation game with OMRON's innovative solutions.

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Andrea: Hello everyone. Every day,

more and more,

we can control daily actions

thanks to a simple click of our

mobile phone. For example,

turn on and off the house

lights, control the garage door,

turn off the oven.

But what is the technology

behind this?

And what else does it cover?

Hello, Santi.

Santi: Hello.

Andrea: Welcome

to the second episode

of our Tech Talks.

You are the IIoT solution

engineer at ATC Europe.

So please,

can you explain to us this

technology called IoT?

Santi: Hi, Andrea.

Thanks for inviting me.

For sure I can.

IoT stands for Internet of

Things and refers to connected

devices and sensors through

the Internet,

sharing data and information in

real time between those devices

and from devices to data

centers at Cloud.

This process is made possible

thanks to data transmission

technologies such as wireless

connections like WiFi,

4G and 5G. About the fact

that with all these "Things"

instead devices is because

anything may become a data

generator in internet, if used

this technology properly.

Andrea: And what is the impact of

IoT in our lives?

Santi: Yeah.

Let me explain a simple example

that probably you

use frequently.

Have you ever thought

about that

maybe any one of us is acting

as an IoT device?

Andrea: No.

Santi: Yeah, for instance,

when you drive a car.

How Google Map knows that

there is a traffic jam?

Is anyone telling Google that

there is a problem at the road?

Indeed, any one of us,

when we are in the road,

we are generating data from

our mobile phone,

we are sending our localization.

Then Google services may look
for

the concentration of those

things like you,

your car and your mobile in a

road point and calculate the

speed of those "things" are

moving. So as a result they can

inform you to anyone of in real

time that there is an issue

on the road.

And even more, they can estimate

as well your expected arrival

time, et cetera, et cetera.

So same technology is applied

at the smart buildings,

home assistance, smart watches,

autonomous cars, et cetera.

Those devices can connect to a

global network - Internet and

share data to you, and as well,

globally. There are few

application cases. Indeed,

we are daily users of

this technology

and we don't realize that indeed

we are "things" for Internet.

Andrea: Wow,

it's really interesting to see

how IoT is everywhere and

we don't know it. Right?

Well,

you already explained about IoT,

but what is IIoT?

Santi: About IIoT,

it means the application of IoT

technologies at industrial field.

IIoT is the integration of

IoT hardware and software

technologies that connects

machines,

devices and people in a seamless

and secure way,

enabling real-time

data acquisition,

analysis and decision making.

With the collected data,

we can visualize the behavior of

our assets, if processed,

it may help to improvement or

in manufacturing and production

processes.

Andrea: Let's go to OMRON part.

How does it fit in the

IoT landscape?

Santi: Well,

OMRON has been at the forefront

of IIoT innovation,

offering a range of controllers

and other devices that are

designed to work seamlessly with

connected sensors and

other devices.

This is a fact that since years

ago we included open,

standard and secure protocols

such OPCUA,

SQL and MQTT inside

our controllers.

Our controller offer is wider.

Our solutions may cover from

machine to machine applications

and to machine to cloud

integration.

Our IIoT solution approach makes

it possible and easy

than ever to

capture any data from a process

or device and deliver this data

to a cloud service in a

few milliseconds.

This assures a timely reaction

and a real time data analysis

from any subjects of a

production process

Andrea: And

how you ensure this

real-time data analysis

Santi: A key

point to consider is that data

is available anytime and

everywhere, as it is transmitted

to Internet

it can be visualized and

processed from any device

connected. For instance,

you could see the production of

a factory in Mexico, Osaka,

Sydney from here,

Barcelona in real time,

even from your smartphone.

And it is because the data comes

from a data center from a cloud

based system that is somewhere

in the world.

Your data indeed could

be anywhere.

Certainly. This ubiquity is

achieved thanks to Internet.

This is the IoT technology and

cloud systems.

Andrea: And related to

what you're explaining now,

how is it changing

the way of business approach at

industrial automation?

Santi: Well,

there is no doubt that the IIoT

is one of the cornerstones of

the industry 4.0 as well,

with cloud computing,

data analytics, robotics,

AI, and machine learning,

The final goal of industry

digitalization is that from

machines to processes being

connected more and more each

other and to the cloud systems

will become more autonomous,

intelligent and interactive

to us.

This technology will enable the

factories to become a true smart

factory helping to a better

decision making on

our processes.

This creates a powerful

valuable weapon when combined

with other tasks in the factories

such as ERP and supply chain

offering a level of visibility

and insight achieved in

traditional manufacturing.

With

our IIoT solutions, we can help

to any manufacturing process on

optimizing their operations,

reduce downtime and increase

efficiency.

Andrea: And what type of
businesses

can benefit from using OMRON's

IIoT solutions?

Santi: Well indeed,

any business that relies on

industrial automation can

benefit from using OMRON

IIoT solutions.

This includes business in a wide

range of industries including

manufacturing,

logistics and energy,

just to mention some of

the most popular.

But eventually any kind of

business that requires

traceability,

data analysis and continuous

supervision.

We have been succeeding on

applying IIoT technology in

pharma industry, automotive,

food and beverage as well in

other fields such e-mobility.

We have been succeeding also in

other cases not related to

industry, for instance,

when we have applied as

well in agriculture,

in facilities supervision,

in buildings or in services.

Believe me that the scope of the

business that IIoT solution

may fit is huge.

Andrea: And how does OMRON
ensure the

security of its IIoT solutions?

Santi: Yeah,

it is a good question because as

you know, Internet is the

wild west of data systems.

There is a lot of threats when

you connect to Internet

such as identity fraud,

data sniffing or even data

alteration. In this direction

OMRON takes the security

very seriously and its IIoT

solutions are designed with

security in mind.

OMRON uses industry standard

encryption and authentication

protocols to ensure that data is

transmitted securely and only

can be accessed by

authorized users.

This is a must have when need

to connect to our solutions,

to our cloud systems.

And of course our solutions are

ready to connect your

data securely.

Andrea: And talking about
connections,

how easy is it to integrate OMRON
and

IIoT into existing industrial

automation systems?

Santi: Yeah,

OMRON controls are designed to

integrate easily into existing

industrial automation systems

from a factory level.

We use standard communication

protocols such as IOLink,
Ethernet,

IP EtherCAT, FINS, Modbus TCP
but

this is not much different than

our competitors, indeed,

but we are one step ahead.

In order to connect to the IT world
is

needed well known protocols,

such MQTT OPC UA, SQL are

protocols for IoT.

OMRON offers all in one

controllers full featured

for IIoT.

Those are perfect connection

piece to achieve a fast,

easy and reliable on factory

OT to IT communication.

So our controller may play as an

"IIoT enabler" devices on
machines

collecting information from

existing systems from Input

output level and as well by

using the existing networks,

as I mentioned before.

Finally we can wrap up this

information to IT systems such as

OPC UA, MQTT and SQL.

Andrea: OPC UA, SQL,

MQTT this rings a bell to me.

Trendy words nowadays, right?

Can you explain to us

some features regarding on this

concept?

Santi: Yes. For instance,

with OPC UA we can share

not only the data,

but its context in a very

structured way.

This protocol enables the

connectivity from machine to

machine between different

vendors and to machine to IT.

It makes ideal for to be shared

with in-factory IT systems

like SCADA, MES and ERP.

With SQL database connectivity
we

can directly record data history

from wherever to a database.

So it makes ideal for tasks on

traceability and business

intelligence.

And with MQTT we can connect

thousands of devices from our

controllers and from/to a Cloud

system, making possible a
complex

data collection network growth

without any matter where are the

assets are located in real time.

It is ideal for big data storage

at cloud and for real

time data acquisition.

Andrea: And what types of data
can be

collected and analyzed using

OMRON IIoT solutions?

Santi: Our solutions can

collect and analyze a wide range

of data including machine

status, temperature, humidity,

vibration or indeed whatever

you can imagine.

But eventually any kind of data

from the manufacturing process

involving sensors and devices

and as well production values

are a candidate to be sampled
and

to become a source of valuable

data that can be used to

identify inefficiencies and

opportunities for improvement as

well to optimize process, quality,

and reduce downtime.

Andrea: In our first episode I don't

know if you have listened to it.

I hope so.

Santi: Sure. Yes.

Andrea: We talked about
predictive

maintenance and how important

is nowadays?

Adrea: Can OMRON IIoT solution
be

used for predictive maintenance?

Santi: Of course,

OMRON's IIoT solutions can be

used for predictive maintenance.

Indeed it is one of our strong
point.

We have control platform and

devices that fits very well

for that purpose.

By using IIoT communication

protocols, we can send massive

data in real time for the whole

process to a server hosted

at Cloud. There at Cloud,

by using machine learning

services and other

tools available,

the system can identify when a

machine is likely to fail and

alert operators or to a control

center prompting to perform a

maintenance. In addition,

even it may trigger an automated

maintenance task such as request

and deliver spare parts for

replacement or even plan a stop

for executing the maintenance

works.

This is what I mentioned before,

that when combining IoT provided

information with the supply

chain and ERP,

it can minimize the troubles

for maintenance,

reducing the downtime machines

and improving the machine

and asset availability

Andrea: And Santi

To conclude this interesting

interview,

I would like to come back to the

name Industrial Internet

of Things.

Could you tell me three things

to summarize the importance of

this great concept which is

still growing and evolving?

Santi: Yes,

indeed,

there are many words that can be

used to summarize the features

of this huge topic.

But I would like to remark

maybe those ones.

The first one is connectivity.

Second is everywhere.

And third anytime.

Remember,

we say in our previous podcast

that who has the data has the

power and our IIoT solutions

gives you access to this power

anytime, everywhere.

Andrea: Thank you. Thank you so
much,

Santi, for this conclusion.

And for sure, thank you, Santi,

for being here today.

It was really interesting,

and very pleasant to

hear from you.

And for the rest,

our tech listeners, as usual,

see you the first Monday every

two months. Goodbye, Santi.

Santi: Thank you very much. See
you.

Bye bye,