When it comes to technology investments, the factory floor and warehouse typically get the least attention – and yet they are critical to the operations and survival of any company.
Brendan Cuthbertson, head of Commercial, Enterprise and Regional Public Sector Sales at Cisco South Africa, points out that the Covid-19 pandemic drove home some hard lessons around the role of technology in the business.
“The big one was how technology enabled work from home,” he says. “But the focus was so much around the challenge of getting office workers connected that we possibly missed the fact that factory workers were affected too.
“A lot of industrial people were also forced to work remotely. Obviously, key people had to be on the ground to keep the operations running, but whatever could go remote, did.”
Work from home for office workers was relatively easier compared to the challenge faced by factory workers, Cuthbertson adds.
“Those customers who had started the Industry 4.0 digitalisation journey were better positioned to move resources to remote working.”
For factories and assembly lines, a critical concern is always downtime, he explains. “So computer programmes that could enable remote diagnostics were set up to allow for technical support, management, monitoring and analytics. Those that had already taken the first steps to digitalisation found it easier to keep their operations running with a skeleton staff on the ground, backed up with remote support.
“Some companies, with less digitalisation in the manufacturing environment had to keep people onsite, with all the attendant risks.”
What the recent interruptions highlighted was the disconnect between information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) that is still a feature of many companies.
“The CIO has typically been tasked with keeping white collar workers up and running, but Covid showed that industrial and manufacturing systems need the same level of care to keep products rolling off the production line.”
One of the biggest challenges that companies ran into is that IT and OT have traditionally been managed separately. There are historical reasons for this, Cuthbertson points out. “IT typically looks at networking, applications, access, the user experience into the data centre, the application cloud, and providing availability of collaboration tools.
“On the OT side, there are different protocols used in mining and manufacturing which are considered to be specialised and in a category of their own.
“So, generally, IT was looked after by one team, OT by another – and there was very little cross-pollination and interoperability.”
But customers are now questioning why this should be: “Ultimately, what is fundamental to both environments is that the network provide communication between the individual, applications and devices.
There is a realisation that we need cross-pollination – engineers in the manufacturing plant are just as reliant on network access to communicate with people on the ground, with suppliers, and with the business.
“It no longer makes sense for one part of the business to work on one communications platform, and another part of the same business to work on another platform.”
But it’s not as simple as just extending the corporate network on to the factory floor, Cuthbertson explains. “One of the reasons this granularity exists is because there are specialised OEMs supplying technology in the industrial space and they have developed this with their own automation machinery running on their own proprietary platforms.
“This is why Cisco has developed a close relationship with these suppliers, so we can start aligning the systems.”
Cisco’s IoT solutions
Cisco has a long history of operating in the manufacturing environment providing connectivity. “So we have always worked closely with a lot of the manufacturing OEMs and integrated a lot of these technologies in the development of our IoT portfolio,” Cuthbertson says.
“At the most basic level, we have modified our Cisco switches and routers to operate in what can often be a dusty and hostile environment,” he says. “Essentially, we have taken the best of our Cisco connectivity solutions and re-engineered them to survive in tough environments, integrating IT and OT.”
As well as bridging the divide between IT and OT, to succeed with IoT, manufacturers require operational resilience, protection from security threats, and help deploying and managing solutions at scale.
Cisco’s IoT solutions securely connect assets, applications, and data in realtime to apply transformative business changes in both carpeted and non-carpeted spaces.
At the foundation, they provide network connectivity, extending the familiar and trusted Cisco network using industrial network and automation tools.
Cybersecurity is built-in, giving greater visibility and control across the entire network to help protect both IoT deployments and the business.
Connectivity management helps to meet the needs of both IT and OT with familiar, easy-to-use network management tools.
Edge computing allows for the development of IoT applications at the edge to accelerate business outcomes and scale flexible deployments with realtime data.
Simplified edge-to-multicloud data flow is enabled by efficiently extracting, transforming and delivering data to business and industrial applications.
Industrial sensors simplify asset and facility monitoring with Cisco’s all-in-one cloud-managed sensor solution.
Security is at the foundation of Cisco’s IoT solutions and is built into every part of the portfolio. “What sets Cisco apart is that we didn’t simply build a lot of products – we have also created an environment that secures every bit of information,” Cuthbertson says.
Agility and latency are absolutely critical for the manufacturing environment, he adds. “Communication has to be almost instant – and security has to be almost instant too. In the industrial environments where these solutions are deployed you need to have instantaneous reactions that are completely automated.
“Automation is being driven by cost-cutting, improving the speed of communication, reducing human error, safety and security,” says Cuthbertson. “It’s all about giving manufacturers a competitive edge.”
The bottom line, he adds, is that manufacturers are having to digitalise. “Typically, these industrial environments are seen as difficult to change. But Covid opened people’s eyes. Now the CEO and the CIO are looking ahead to the next crisis and need to ensure they are in a better position. They recognise that having agility gives them an edge over other, possibly bigger, environments that are maybe not so agile.”
The South African experience
South African manufacturers have a strong appetite for Industry 4.0 solutions and are keen to make the move, Cuthbertson says.
“Many local companies have made great strides in the right direction and we see a lot of innovation in this market.”
The important thing to remember is that Industry 4.0 isn’t a destination, but a journey, he adds.
“In the next few years we will see the emergence and adoption of technology advancements like artificial intelligence (AI) – there is going to be a lot of evolution in this space. So it’s not a race to the finish line.”
Cisco will continue to evolve its IoT portfolio in line with industry trends, he adds.
“Our IoT strategy is not something we just picked up. We have developed it over the years and have come a long way. Now, customers can connect most things – with the sensors and integration we are able to collect big data and start to deliver business value. Things like AI and automation will drive further advances in the years ahead.”
Partnering for success
Cisco is a partner-led organisation, and its IoT portfolio is delivered via partners as a licenced product, as a managed service and in the cloud.
The company is moving towards making more of its products available for partners to offer as a service. “Our customers have told us they want to consume services rather than buy products,” Cuthbertson says. “Already, a lot of our products are cloud-managed and can be consumed in the cloud through hyperscalers and traditional partners.”
All Cisco products and services are available through partners, and the IoT portfolio includes partners that are not considered “traditional” IT resellers. “We are focused on helping niche partners to build their capabilities.”
For more information on Cisco’s IoT solutions, contact Brendan Cuthbertson brcuthbe@cisco.com