Contributed by Guo Tao
Edge Computing Is the Key to Digital Transformation of Industries, Especially the Manufacturing Industry
The biggest ever edge computing conference in Europe, the Edge Computing Forum (ECF), was recently held in Berlin, Germany. A wealth of experts in the edge computing field came together to share their ideas. What is more impressive is that the introduction of edge computing to the manufacturing industry sparks brilliant commercial opportunities in Germany, where Industry 4.0 originated. Edge computing is the key to digital transformation of industries, especially the manufacturing industry.
Edge Computing Boosts Digital Transformation of Industries
A recent survey into digital transformation conducted by Sino-Bridges Research and Consulting Ltd. for customers in the manufacturing, education, and medical industry shows that customers of the manufacturing industry are the most positive about the digital transformation to be implemented over the next 24 months.
It is a national policy to boost real economy development with innovative ICT technologies, and the manufacturing industry is an important component of the real economy. Enterprise management software vendors and cloud computing vendors I recently met are all excitedly talking about new opportunities presented by the transformation of manufacturing.
In the cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) era, the manufacturing industry is undergoing many changes. In terms of business and operation management, the current manufacturing industry is shifting from extensive operation to refined operation. In the past, customers of the manufacturing industry focused on cost reduction. Their focus is now on new technologies, which they hope to use to improve operation and efficiency. This is particularly obvious in the manufacturing enterprises that are pursuing value added. For example, 90% of the production lines of a semiconductor vendor in China are unattended, mainly depending on an automatic monitoring system. To implement refined management and accurately discover minor problems affecting production and efficiency to increase the yield, these manufacturing enterprises must rely on cloud computing, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), and other new technologies, as well as new infrastructure. Under pressure from business and operations, and also encouraged by development opportunities presented by technological innovation, enterprises have been proactively implementing digital transformation.
Strategies and outlines including Industry 4.0 (Germany), Made in China 2025, and the Industrial Internet (U.S.) accelerate the digitalization of manufacturing, as well as trigger a new industrial revolution (also called “the Fourth Industrial Revolution”). By leveraging smart manufacturing, the industrial revolution aims to integrate information technology and industrial technology. In addition, it uses a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) to enable independent manufacturing units to automatically exchange information, trigger actions, and implement control in the full product lifecycle, accelerating the transformation of traditional manufacturing towards smart manufacturing. The goal of smart manufacturing is to establish a highly flexible production mode that provides customized digital products and services, enabling interactions between people, products, and machines.
In the manufacturing field, it has become widely accepted that standard, secure, reliable, and cost-effective ICT technologies and products can be adopted to construct CPSs. This improves the manufacturing quality, efficiency and flexibility, and enhances competitiveness of enterprises. As the core of CPSs, edge computing closely integrates virtual spaces with physical entities, assisting customers in the digital manufacturing and network-based collaboration, as well as intelligent transformation. For example, an industrial control system with industrial Internet interfaces is actually a type of edge computing device, which can meet the industrial control requirements for real-time transmission.
In smart manufacturing, an end-to-end closed-loop system, edge computing plays a transitional role, implementing connections and mappings between the physical world and digital world. To meet the needs of smart manufacturing, the phases of digital manufacturing, including smart manufacturing, smart equipment, smart products, and smart logistics, are connected by edge computing.
Refreshed Industrial Applications of Edge Computing
One feature of the digitalization of global industries is the introduction of physical devices into intelligent interconnection. This improves the level of industry automation and intelligence. Edge computing is vital for achieving this goal.
Edge computing is not a new concept. People involved in industrial automation will be familiar with it. The widely used control system based on PLC, DCS, industrial PCs, and industrial network, as well as computing resources in the bottom layer or embedded in devices are basically edge computing resources. Today, edge computing is stressed mainly as a way to achieve breakthroughs. That is, edge computing establishes intelligent interconnections between the originally scattered, inefficient, and separately managed resources to meet the requirements of real-time transmission, security, and interoperability in modern application scenarios.
For example, automobile manufacturing is one of the largest market segments in the manufacturing industry. Due to the high automation level of automobile production lines, once a fault occurs, the yield and quality of the entire production line will be affected. Consequently, a remote monitoring system needs to be deployed to detect faults in time. Some automobile equipment solution providers in China have grasped this commercial opportunity, providing edge computing solutions. On the one hand, the solution can provide high-performance edge computing capabilities to implement pre-analysis on data at the edge. On the other hand, edge computing gateways can provide VPNs and support for multiple communication modes, including wired or wireless communication. This facilitates connections with public clouds, implements wired and wireless backup, and ensures security. Edge computing greatly improves the online monitoring, data mining, and customized after-sales services of automobile manufacturers’ production line control systems.
Another typical example is smart factory, which is a field that edge computing can be fully utilized in. For example, representing Chinese smart manufacturing, Haier established a digital connected factory a long time ago, upgrading the traditional production mode. The digital factory can realize on-demand design, manufacturing, and configuration, making the whole manufacturing process more flexible and meeting demands for customization. Leveraging edge computing, Haier digital connected factory achieves connections between people and machines, between machines, and between machines and things. More than 10,000 sensors are deployed in product lines, and only one worker is required per product line, creating an “unmanaged factory”.
In the metallurgical industry, some enterprises of a certain scale have made achievements in terms of ICT, but they still need improvement and optimization in endpoint intelligence and data processing. For example, if the problem of data integrity and consistency cannot be addressed properly, energy management and intelligent management will be difficult. Additionally, tracking the logistics of metallurgy is the typical CPS, and the control process is difficult. In these scenarios, edge computing plays an important role and serves as an effective supplement to industrial IoT technology.
In addition to the above examples, edge computing has been applied to many other fields, including smart manufacturing, intelligent equipment, and smart products. It promotes the implementation of applications such as Big Data analytics and IoT in different industries. Due to edge computing, the production plan can be adjusted flexibly and the manufacturing process can be customized on demand. Additionally, new products can be launched into the market quickly. Digital transformation of the manufacturing industry is the important strategy for promoting economic development.
Important Driving Force of Edge Computing
To accelerate the implementation and application of edge computing in different industries, the Edge Computing Consortium (ECC) was established in November, 2016. Members of the ECC actively streamline resources of the government, enterprises, academies, and research institutes based on edge computing. The ECC also formulates related standards and provides the test beds that apply to different industries and application scenarios. In this way, edge computing can match the needs of industries, helping industrial customers to achieve digital transformation.
For example, of the first 11 test beds launched by the ECC, there are four industry-oriented test beds, including the assistant experiment platform operated by intelligent collaborative robot, self-adaptive and modular manufacturing verification platform for personal customization, machine tool IoT test bed, and industrial robot predictive maintenance test bed. These test beds are the results of technological innovations of multiple institutions, including Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Huawei, Intel, Infosys, and many other companies, which received positive feedback after having been applied in some manufacturing enterprises.
There are now over 130 members of the ECC, and an expert committee has been established with more than 50 industrial experts. The ECC has made great progress in the industry expansion and cooperation of edge computing. For example, the Chinese Association of Automation (CAA) signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the ECC, officially establishing the Edge Computing Committee of the CAA. Future-proof new production models for personalized customization urgently require new technologies such as edge computing to further enhance the intelligence of machines and promote the development of industrial automation. CAA hopes to make intelligent manufacturing a starting point to promote the development and industrial implementation of edge computing.
Currently, there are many types of “computing” concepts, some of which remain in discussion and have not been carried out. The ECC does not want edge computing to be just a strategy without action. Instead, the ECC wants to establish a good application showcase by formulating standards and technological architectures as well as building test beds. The ECC quickly replicates multiple results of edge computing in many industries and, on this basis, builds an open edge computing ecosystem. The ECC focuses on Chinese markets and aims at expanding into the global market, allowing edge computing to support digital transformation of industries.
In the manufacturing industry, due to the emergence of edge computing, OT and ICT realize deep integration and collaboration. This greatly enhances the automatic level of the manufacturing process, makes it possible to implement personalized customization, and changes production modes, supply chains, services, and other things. Now, edge computing has become one of the enabling technologies of intelligent interconnection, acting as an intelligent driving force for the transformation of manufacturing.
The second ECC will be held at the end of November this year. Let’s look forward to the spectacle to be put on by industry players.
Register online:
https://www.ecconsortium.net/meeting/ECIS2017/english.html
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Source: Huawei Enterprise Blog
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