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
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.
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.
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