Sunday 20 November 2011

MTConnect Legacy Connectivity Needs Survey

I was thinking that many people may not know what MTConnect is, but they do know the needs they have on their shop floor in terms of real-time information.

Our theme of Computer Integrated Manufacturing is a term at least 25 years old, but the realization of that goal was often expensive and complex with the host of proprietary protocols and closed hardware and software architectures of the past. Although progress has been made in this area, the 3 million plus legacy machines still are not open - yet our need for their information is getting more necessary every year. That is where MTConnect comes in, if it can be applied to the virtual united nations of machines out there that all talk different languages (if they talk at all).

As such, I have made a short survey to start a real conversation about what CIM (and MTConnect specifically) may be able to help you with. I encourage you to spend a bit of time filling this survey out and thus share your thoughts on the matter. Thanks...

MTConnect Legacy Connectivity Needs Survey - Click Here

(or add into your browser - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XHBYQW5)

Thursday 17 November 2011

BOF - Birds of Feather Conference Notes on Legacy CNC Connectivity

At the MC2 MTConnect Conference last week in Cincinnati, they had a type of conference session known as Birds Of a Feather (or BOF) where anyone with a hot topic can reserve a room and see if others come to talk about the subject. Late in the game I signed up to lead a BOF on the topic of "Legacy CNC Connectivity Strategies". At 8:30 pm over 30 people showed up to talk about this subject that I moderated.

I started by giving an overview of the topic and highlighted the importance of this discussion to the advancement of the MTConnect cause. Here are the notes:

MTConnect Adoption Constraint - Legacy CNC Connectivity

1. People need to know that MTConnect exists - a job for the Institute. members and media;
2. Since almost all factory equipment is not natively compliant, we need legacy connectivity support now;
3. Once the data is available, we need applications to deliver the business value.

In the MTConnect Connectivity White Paper, three strategies were highlighted:

1. MTConnect Native Machines or Devices (where data can be derived from the device right away as a standard or optional feature with no other devices - e.g. Mazak and OKUMA so far on their latest controls);

2. MTConnect Translation Devices (where a separate device can be added to a machine tool to take a rich inherent protocol and convert it into Ethernet-based MTConnect XML data - e.g. DNC2, FOCAS, etc);

3. MTConnect Connection (or Bridge) Devices (where data needed for MTConnect is gathered in hard or soft I/O, eavesdropping, DNC dripfeeding, Fanuc MacroB DPRINT commands, etc).

Finally, in an open forum the following good ideas were made:
  • Mazak has had a rich remote protocol option available on their Mitsubishi CNCs since 1996, but no one knew it and it needs to be translated to MTConnect;
  • people "don't know what they don't know" about their machines;
  • MTConnect should make available a resource guide for end users as connectivity solutions come on-line;
  • An MTConnect sponsored forum could help an open source way to share connectivity information - it could act as a repository for connectivity knowledge base;
  • Finally, it was mentioned that MTConnect needs to set up an "implementers group" to address these items, separate from the technical or evangelical group.
After a few compliments that this BOF was well run and informative, I left with a resolve to take on the leadership in this critical "missing link" of Legacy CNC Connectivity for the benefit of all. It will not be a trip, but an adventure I am sure...



Thursday 10 November 2011

MC2 - Information Technology Adopts Mfg

I listened to a fascinating keynote speech today at Day 2 of the MC2 Conference in Cincinnati from Chris Melissinos, VP Corporate Marketing at Verisign Inc

Chris proved to be an intelligent outsider looking at our industry and he brought encouragement and excitement to our efforts. With his background in Gaming at Sun Microsystems and a keen interest in Information Technology in general, Chris  added the following insights:

- the future is here - the Electrical Grid --> Computing Grid --> Manufacturing Grid
- we need to "tease the data out of the machine"
- when costs are driven down, distribution is driven up
- "No matter who you are, the smartest people don't work for you" - Quote from Bill Joy
- check out "MakerBot" at http://www.makerbot.com/ for a low cost ($1299) personal 3d printer to make your own parts
- we live in the "Age of Customization" - check out Ponoko http://www.ponoko.com for custom manufacturing at your fingertips - if you think it, they can make in a few weeks...

Chris introduced the concept of "Edge Manufacturing - enabling Anytime, Anywhere Manufacturing" - and he saw people furiously write the term down he told me - cool...

MTConnect - What Does It Take To Make It Take Off...

At the MTConnect MC2 Conference, Dave Edstrom the MTConnect Institute Chair (and former CTO of Sun Microsystems) asked the "64,000" question of the TAG and Conference - which is...

What does it take to make MTConnect really take off?

The answer to this question can be summarized as follows:

1. Evangelism - people need to know that MTConnect exists
2. Legacy Connectivity Support 
With 99.9999% of the world not MTConnect Native, the real issue is connectivity - enabling the existing 3 million machine tools and their controls (+ the 3rd party add-ons) to talk MTConnect
3. Applications 
Real value starts when data transforms to information and this is the domain of the apps. As important as MTConnect is - as an open source XML-based Connectivity standard - people don't buy a tool, they buy a solution to a limitation (a problem in other words).

Ron Pieper from TechSolve (Cincinnati) pointed out that this legacy support is mission critical and that early adopter application makers cannot wait forever for MTConnect to take off. It is also arguable that MTConnect, introduced at the IMTS machine Tool Show in 2008 is no longer "emerging". in some ways a critical mass of application is now available - from machine monitoring to Overall Equipment Effectiveness to adaptive control to MRO maintenance extensions. 

All we need is to get to a "Tipping Point" (thanks Malcolm Gladwell) of 2% of the machine tool population - about 60,000 machines (2% of 3 million) - to make the tidal wave take over. We have seen this before with USB, Java, cell phone, fax machine use, the Net, etc. Any new technology goes through the "technology adoption curve", and I think we are in the "Chasm" about to hit the bowling alley of carefully targeted applications that succeed because of their focus.

We are committed to attacking this legacy connectivity support as the limiting constraint for this MTConnect innovation. The world needs this to be profitable, healthy and sustainable into the future.

At the MC2 Conference last night, I led a Birds of a Feather (BOF) breakout on this very issue. About 40 people showed up and this key point was discussed. Neil Desrosier from Mazak pointed out that since 1996 the Mazak's Mitsubishi controls have had the capability to deliver internal data with the CPU Link protocol - but nobody ever knew it. Once again, information is everything, but the proprietary protocols didn't help real manufacturers - only MTConnect a web centric open platform can achieve this goal.

The Connectivity report from MTConnect about legacy connectivity - check out http://www.mtconnect.org/media/7312/getting_started_with_mtconnect_-_final.pdf - points out that there are 3 type of machine tool connections:

1. MTConnect Native Devices
2. MTConnect Translation Devices - converting rich (but proprietary CNC remote protocols to MTConnect)
3. MTConnect Connection Devices - these bridge devices connect everything else with hard I/O, soft I/O etc

In the end, legacy connectivity is everything for the MTConnect "Anytime, Anywhere Manufacturing" dream to be realized.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

MTConnect MC2 Conference Notes - Cincinnati Nov 7-8, 2011 - Day 2

I am here again at Day 2 of the MC2 MTConnect Technical Advisory Group in Cincinnati and want to keep everyone posted on what is happening.  Today the goal is to present the status of where the MTConnect XML Schema is at the moment.

Will Sobel feels that the standard has most of what people need for machine monitoring and inter-device communication on the shop floor. Next stage for Ver 1.3 could include the following items for May-June 2012 time frame:
- Accessory Equipment
- Metrology (popular choice)
- Parts
- Enhancement to alarms & Warnings

Other areas to look at:
- File Management
- Non traditional (like water-jet, etc)
- Enabling MTConnect write functions
- Operator Input

IMTS 2012 Machine Tool Trade Show - What to Do?

MTConnect not emerging anymore - but perhaps 2012 will be last time MTConnect will be added in. So MTConnect will be just an exhibitor using the same booth that MTConnect will be using with the Defense Manufacturers conference in December. A better focus on applications will be the highlight.

Notification Project Update:
Delivered by John Turner, Director of Tech, FA Consulting & Technology

Report of project called "Reduction of Unplanned Downtime in Defense Manufacturing MTConnect" Project steps included adding sensors with 76 Data Types extended to 2700. Tried to classify notifications from Project machines. Use this feedback to enhance the future MTConnect standard 1.3. All alarms could be classified in Release 1.2.

The challenge was that system type of alarms required a lot of text string parsing to fit it into the alarm categories. John gave an example of an overheat alarm on the X axes which showed up 3 different ways depending on what view you looked at. The Servo Motor Overheat was the same as a Drive Alarm was the same as the System Alarm - 3 alarms from one event!

The basic alarm information is not tagged to subsystems of the machine. The existing MTConnect schema is 1 dimensional now. We need alarms tied to components - a 2 dimensional capability is needed in real life.

- define Additional "Systems" to represent the Device in More detail
- Add Component Type "Composition" to provide more detail
- add "CompositionID" to Source Attributes

Devices
|
Device
|
Components
|
----------------------------------------------------
|                       |                 |              |
Controller     Systems      Axes      Door
                       |
                    Hydraulics
                    Electric
                    Pneumatic
                    Coolant
                    Lubrication
                    Tool Management
                    Chip removal
                    Probe
                    Loader
                    Other...

There is a limit to the levels of details that need to be modeled. The Law of Diminishing Returns may come into play here. The existing standard had a state only before - OK, Warning, Fault. Now we can add the 2nd level of basic detail to describe the situation more clearly without the baggage of full device status - color the data in other words. XML is self-describing, but the Law of Diminishing requires a simplification for future applications.

CompositionID Definition (New):

A unique identifier that references a specific Composition Source.

An example (for a "SoftThermal (OVC)" Servo Axes Motor Overheat Alarm):
<Source componentID = "CONTROLLER"
  compositon ID = "MOTOR"
</Source>

Issue was raised that the machine tool builders could be overwhelmed with trying to classify all their alarms and that they wondered who would use it. I pointed out that the maintenance departments and the MRO community could really use this extension. We used the basic 16 alarm categories that Fanuc used, but stopped short of encoding the 900 possible alarms, some not even used by the machine tool builder. This is the sort of compromise that we have been talking about.

An open source piece of software called the "Classifier Application" made by Will Sobel (System Insights) will break down the alarm text strings down and add the ComponentID source automatically. This requires certain rules, but greatly enables the addition of source data into the flow. I call this a message "sanitizer" for ease of implementation.

Also there is a challenge of which bucket certain alarms should go in - e.g. E-STOP. Also there is a lot of cause and effect issues - what is the root problem that caused all the alarms?

With the increasing complexity of machines and the declining number of highly skilled maintenance people, this advance and extension into alarm classification and sequencing. This could really help with the future of machine tool maintenance and reduced warranty claims for machine tool builders.

OPC-UA & MTConnect Collaboration:

An exciting alliance is MTConnect linked to OPC (OLE for Process Control) which is a standard for the PLC-based automation sector. MTConnect linking with OPC opens up a rich series of mature and robust SCADA type applications. With a MTConnect Universal Machine Gateway one can link CNCs and PLCs to the Human Machine Interface (HMI) industry.

With a mapping of OPC variables into the MTConnect name space, one can extend the MTConnect platform for special situations. MTConnect is extensible with these type of custom extensions.

John Synder from Benet Labs Presented the "Production equipment Availaility" Report - which is available from AMT at http://www.amtonline.org/AboutAMT/WhatisManufacturingTechnology/productionequipmentavailabilityameasurementguidelinefourthedition.htm. It unfortunately costs money, but the report is a good one for deciphering availability standards.



Monday 7 November 2011

MTConnect MC2 Conference Notes - Cincinnati Nov 7-8, 2011

I am sitting in the Hyatt Regency in Cincinnati and am happy to be back at the MTConnect Working Group Technical Advisory Group. Day 1 (Nov 7) is where the data and working groups get to meet - tomorrow (Day 2) will be the summary day. We are in a process to vote on introducing MTConnect XML Schema Ver 1.2 which ends Nov 30, 2011. Day 3 will be the first MTConnect Trade show and conference called MC2 (that ends day 4 - Thursday).

Section 1 - Standards Overview by Will Sobel from System Insights, Inc.

    Check out www.mtconnect.org for a free download of the the MTConnect standards
    Ver 1.1 Brought in Sensor Data - device, data item or 2nd/3rd level component
    Ver 1.2 Brought in Assets Detail
                * Part 1 - Overview & Protocol
                * Part 2 - Components & Data Items - work on sensors impacted this greatly
                                (moved from 76 data types, but after the statistics were put in with
                                30 different sensors - now have 2700 distinct data types
                * Part 3 - Streams, events, Samples & Condition
                                Minor changes - rearrangement

Mobile Assets:

Mobile Assets are something asscoiated with the manufacturing process that is not a component of a device, can be removed without harming the function o fthe device, and can be associated with other devices during their life cycle. A mobile asset does not have computational capabilities.

Cutting Tool:

Cutting Tool is an assembly of items for removing material from a work-piece through a shearing action at the defined cutting edge or edges. Follows ISO 13399 Standard.


-> Cutting Tool = Cutting Item + Tool Item + Adapter Item + Assembly Item (screws, etc)

Pull Stud (retention knob) not yet incorporated as a data item.
Interestingly, grinding is not yet been worked on...

Section 2 - Proposed Product Directory - by Paul Warndorf, VP Technology AMT

- Current Identifiers = Hardware, software Applications, Development Tools, Consulting Services, Training

Getting Started with MTConnect Connectivity Guide now available (something that we helped helped with). Click here - http://www.mtconnect.org/media/7312/getting_started_with_mtconnect_-_final.pdf

This report identified 3 types of
1. Native Devices
2. Translation Dependent Devices
3. Data Connection Dependent Devices  <--Nexas focus

Companies like Mazak have done a good job of describing how MTConnect can be implemented in Mazak Machine Tools - check out http://www.mazakusa.com/MTConnect/MTConnect_Brochure_7_15_2011_For_Viewing.pdf

Section 3 - Bar Feeding Group (MC2) - Randy Lewis, LNS America from Cincinnati, OH

Worked well with goals and deadlines - hard deadline for Mazak demo mid-October for integrating a LNS bar feeder via MTConnect to to a Mazak Machine Tool. Started with I/O, then more and more data. Demo went off without a hitch and the process led to enhanced automation possibilities.

Read - Read Concept = both bar feeder and machine tool cross read data simulates read/write as write is currently not supported. This format allows for equal automation components to cross-talk.

The I/O speed is quite fast - as fast as hard I/O - like 50 Milli-seconds, perhaps even faster with "push". Will Sobel pointed out that if you set the scan loop update to "0" no extra delays using a multi-threaded observer model (Report By Exception) rather than easier polling method. Randy was using local.host for this demo (one agent was handling both CNC and bar-feeder as the software was on the Mazak's PC).

Neil Desrosier from Mazak wrote the Mazak side of the bar-feeder and was impressed with the speed and openness and extensibility of the MTConnect solution. The MTConnect solution can add up the amount used and the amount available for better utilization and less scrap.

MACHINE TOOL              BAR FEEDER
                        Read
Agent+Adapter ------->      Client -------> PLC
|                                                                       |
|                                           Read                    |
CNC<----------Client         <------Agent/Adapter

Overview Video:

Check out https://github.com/mtconnect for source code for all demos.