22 / May 2019 / ControlDesign.comprotects plant-floor devices, connects through edge control and
enables supervisory control all the way up to manufacturing
information systems. That’s been a part of our business for a
long time. We’ve grown with it; we are familiar with what our
customers need. We’re really excited about working with our
customers to take advantage of all of the technology of today
and looking at the technology of the future.
Rittal helps companies to transcend the traditional data
center. The data center is no longer this black-box room
within four walls of a company environment. Whether it be
a closet in a municipal police station, a container sitting out
on a transportation yard or a data center in a cave, we help
companies bring their vision of technology to life, and it’s tied
directly to the Industrial Internet of Things. It’s about, “How
do we get data and the nerve center closer to the heart of the
operation?” We’re not bound by that traditional data center;
Rittal can transcend that.Kevin Zak, vice president and general manager at Phoenix
Contact USA (www.phoenixcontact.com), To see the
potential impact of IIoT or Industry 4 .0 on our
industry and how it will shape our business strategies in the
future, we look no further than the effect on our manufactur-
ing processes. As one of the most vertically integrated
companies in our space, our internal digitalization efforts are a
fantastic model that will allow us to take lessons learned and
build them into our product and service offerings. An example
of this is in the development of a digital twin for our products
that creates enhanced value within the design and production
chains. Another is the development of network infrastructure
products that enable all relevant information safely and
securely to be available to the user as needed. In the end, our
strategy will be to deliver tried-and-tested IIoT-enabling
products to the market, allowing them to succeed in their
digital journeys.Holger Zeltwanger, managing director at CAN in Automation
(www.can-cia.org), IIoT solutions regarding CANopen
are standardized in CiA 3 09-5. They allow bringing
each CANopen sensors and actuator into the cloud for big data
processing.Kevin Barker, president at Beckhoff Automation (www.beckhoff.
com), IIoT has become a major focus at Beckhoff. This
started with technology concepts demonstrating how
standard, off-the-shelf PC-based control hardware can connectto the cloud with programming handled in the same engineer-
ing environment as the machine control code. Numerous
Beckhoff industrial PCs are now Microsoft-Azure-certified. This
concept has evolved and grown to include an Azure- and
Amazon-Web-Services-(AWS)-certified IoT Bus Coupler that
quickly establishes cloud connectivity via a simple Web-based
configuration page—no programming needed.
PC-based control technology is inherently suited to IoT
functionality. PCs have been the leading driver of automation
technology (AT) and IT convergence since 1 980. This is very
similar to the frequently discussed IT and operational technol-
ogy (OT) convergence in digitalization conversations. Beckhoff
has decades of experience applying Microsoft, Intel and other
IT standard technologies in industrial applications. We see IIoT
as the next logical progression of this technology convergence.Fran Bridges, vice president of engineering at Magline (www.
magliner.com), The IIoT helps in identifying opportuni-
ties to bridge technology with material handling
devices to create a stronger relationship, such as with produc-
tivity and ergonomics, between the user, the device and the
environment.How will machine automation and controls
alter the way companies staff their operations
in the future?
Kevin Barker, president at Beckhoff Automation (www.beckhoff.
com), We are witnessing a changing of the guard in
the engineering world, with many experienced
engineers retiring faster than new ones are entering the field.
To combat this challenge, customers are moving to free
themselves from legacy, proprietary hardware platforms and
programming standards and are instead embracing modern
open-hardware platforms and programming languages.
On the plant floor, customers are leveraging more tech-
nologies than in the past. For example, in the past, opera-
tors, technicians and managers could literally walk through
the factory floor and hear how well a machine was function-
ing—such as if a bearing was going bad. They had learned to
listen for subtle, audible changes and learned how to inter-
pret those sounds to diagnose potential problems. As that
expertise and experience becomes less available, incoming
engineers can use advanced measurement or other solutions
to extend and improve on those practices. Beckhoff pro-
vides the ability to measure, analyze, predict and enhancemachine input
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