Published on 07/06/2017 | Technology
In the light of the passing of one of the greatest rock and rollers David Bowie, I found myself making a comparison between one of Bowie's greatest hits and how owner-operators embrace industrial IoT. Not only was Bowie a great musician, but he was also an innovator and agent of change. Bowie's hit song called Changes - Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and face the strain), Ch-ch-Changes, don't want to be a richer man, Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and face the strain), Ch-ch-Changes, just gonna have to be a different man. Time may change me, but I can't trace time.
When considering the disruptive nature of the industrial internet of things, many decision makers are faced with a high degree of change, and the difficulty of moving beyond the traditional manufacturing technologies and deployment. The new Industrial IoT software deployment models are cloud-based according to my research partner David White, who wrote For the Industrial Internet, it's the cloud or nothing at all - which I would concur. The manufacturing technology decision makers who astutely made the decision decades ago to implement various technologies in support of operations and production did so with a technology stack resembling the Purdue Model for Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) and ISA-95 for control to enterprise integration. They are now being asked to consider the scope of something quite different - Industrial IoT that takes plant data outside the four walls of the company LAN, WAN and owned or rented data centers.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is about the transformation of industrial products, operations, value chains, and aftermarket services that is enabled through the expanded use of sensors, digitization, networking, and information systems. Industrial manufacturers are beginning to recognize that a new set of technologies and business practices are poised to disrupt their existing business process and even existing supply chains. Industrial IoT is leading to more efficient competitors, new and different business models and solutions, and new competitors in the marketplace.
Key stakeholders who hold the keys to the manufacturing level or plant information systems in many cases have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. This is due to a variety of factors related to risk tolerance, a level of understanding of IT technologies and company culture for innovation. One of my colleagues Greg Gorbach wrote Your Company Visionaries are Wrong About the Internet of Things. Well they may not be wrong, but perhaps they just have not become comfortable with the idea yet.
To help address company culture and organizational change, I read a thought-provoking article authored by PWC and Booze Allen Hamilton called 10 Principles of Change Management. This article describes company organizational change management. The people-side of change management is an often overlooked, yet is a critical aspect of any transformational business operations activity - especially for the technical organizations who can be often separate from a company business strategy. ARC also regularly holds workshops and consults with manufacturing organizations to help make the transition to Industrial IoT. ARC's organizational design process and maturity model considers the uniqueness of manufacturing technical, engineering and automation organizations. More about ARC's organizational change can be viewed by reading IT/OT Organizational Design Evolves.
More about this over at ARC's www.industrial-iot.com
