Industrial Automation in
the New Digital World
Jim Pinto
Technology Futurist

Accelerating Future
 The future is coming at us fast!
 Major changes in past decades
 Globalization
 Technology acceleration

Global Economics
 Today’s Markets are Global
 Old - Production Limited
 Make more
 New - Consumption limited
 Sell more
 Era of giant production factories is over
 Production
 Small, custom, distributed
 Suited to local needs and styles

Staying Globally Competitive
 Many products have become
commodities.
 Increased competitive pressures -
many global producers accept lower
profit margins
 Producing high value-added products
is part of the solution.
 Compete with best assets - knowledge
workers, technology, innovation, agile
response

Faster, Cheaper, Better
 Productivity has become a
global race
 Those who can produce
materials and products
cheaper, faster, better – win!
 Fierce, head-to-head
competition between regions
and nations
 Reason: It is the source of
wealth

Demise of Size
 The age of large factories is over.
 Advantages of BIG factories now liabilities.
 Size inhibits growth - some of the biggest
companies are ailing and failing.
 Today's markets are consumption limited,
not production limited.
 Stop manufacturing commodities
 Become innovators and specialists in new
types of high-value manufacturing

Old Automation Tech
 For the past decades,
automation technology has
had only changes around
core developments:
 PLCs, DCS and SCADA
commodity hardware
 Migration to networked and
Internet-connected systems

Consolidation
 Automation majors are changing
old product-centric approach to
systems and services for large
end-users (lower margins)
 Opportunities for manufacturers,
software developers and systems
integrators to fill the gaps.

Digital Technology Shift
 PC to Thin-clients
 Tethered to mobile devices
 Wired to wireless connectivity
 Client-server to cloud-based
 Centralized Deterministic to
Distributed peer-to-peer based
 Machine-to-machine (M2M)
 Robotics & smart machinery

Post-PC Era
 The PC-centric period winding
down.
 Thin-client computing delivers
vastly improved productivity at
lower cost.
 Information and displays accessed
from anywhere with smart-phones
or tablets.
 Superior security protection
against introduction of external
worms or virus attacks.

Mobile Devices
 Exploding commercial use
generating industrial applications
growth
 Reduced costs
 More functions
 Improved operating efficiency
 Boosts productivity
 Increased throughput using existing
people and resources.

Security – Primary Issue
 Post Stuxnet awareness
 Many suppliers consider Security
“after incident service revenue”
 Wireless creates new targets
 Cloud services – new security issues
 Social media provides new
mechanisms for network penetration
 Mobile Devices Embedded IP-
cameras - image-recognition before
access

Wireless networks
 Wireless sensor networks will
provide vast arrays of real-
time, remote interaction with
the physical world
 Wireless connectivity is
already wide spread in office
and consumer environments
 Manufacturing is already
taking advantage of the
overwhelming benefits.

The Cloud
 More than just conventional data
center model
 Fundamentally changes how
masses of data can be stored for
interaction.
 Services on demand at the
infrastructure, platform and
software levels.
 Big data, the cloud and analytics
combine to offer breakthrough
productivity solutions.

Internet of Things (IoT)
 Next huge leap in productivity
 Transform the next decade
 Everything connected
 Significantly reduce operating
expenditures
 Manufacturing devices, sensors and
actuators become Internet-enabled
devices.

Machine-to-Machine
 End-users will manage their own
assets
 Complete revolution of conventional
services
 Operating return on investment (ROI)
on all equipment assets available all
the time, any time
 Efficient way to collect and analyze
data from wired and wireless systems
across the enterprise.
 Cloud-based M2M storage reduces
the burden on IT staff and enable
scalability with pay-as-you-go

 Self-diagnostics — not only
showing causes of failure
after failure has occurred, but
also predictive (before
failure), preventive
(precautionary and deterrent)
and advisory (maintenance
instructions).
Predictive Diagnostics

Robots & Smart Machines
 200 years ago automation
eliminated 70% of Farm Jobs
 70% of today’s job being replaced
by smart machines
 All routine information-intensive
activities will be eliminated

New automation leadership
 The new automation leaders
will be those who can
demonstrate that their
products and services can
yield significant productivity
improvements, and can meet
the demands of rapidly
changing global markets.

 Globalization – Markets & Suppliers
 Faster, Cheaper, Better Wins
 Old Automation – PLC, DCS, SCADA
 Digital Shift
 Post-PC Era
 Wireless Everywhere
 Mobile Devices
 The Cloud
 Internet of Things
 M2M
 Smart Robots & Machines
 Industrial Internet
Pinto's Pointers

Related Links
 Automation Innovation Paradigms:
http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/innovationparadigms.html
 Mobile Devices in Automation:
http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/mobiledevices.html
 Post-PC Era:
http://www.jimpinto.com/enews/22feb2013.html#5
 Industrial Automation and the Cloud:
http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/indautocloud.html
 Automation Internet of Things:
http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/automationiot.html
 Smart Machines Eliminating Human Jobs:
http://www.jimpinto.com/enews/22feb2013.html#3
 GE Targets Industrial Internet:
http://www.jimpinto.com/enews/19mar2013.html#1
 JimPinto.com:
http://JimPinto.com e-mail: jim@jimpinto.com