In today’s Breaking News, a malware named Triton recently brought down a Saudi Petrochemical Plant. Sounds like another shock & awe headline from this fall’s torrent of political ads? You might be surprised to learn it’s not fake news but a real-life industrial cyber-security threat that warrants a little more investigation. It’s all about Russia
My family and I love taking trips together and just like millions of others, we love hiking to beautiful waterfalls. In many cases, when we hike to see waterfalls they are overcrowded because they are so beautiful. However, in some rare cases, we may find that one gem of a waterfall where no other person
I speak and write frequently about Industry 4.0/Smart Manufacturing. My goal is to educate listeners and readers on how to apply the available modern technology stacks to real-life applications. Differentiating terms like IIoT and Industry 4.0 is helpful but the real outcome I am seeking is to provide solutions and architectures that solve problems. An
With wind in the sails of a record manufacturing economy, it’s worth asking: “How can we make sure we catch all of the wind possible to maximize success for our organization and our people?” Fair enough question? Most of us are aware that executives around the country are working diligently this quarter to create the
In 2013 an NSA employee named Edward Snowden allegedly stole documents from the Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center in Hawaii and shared them with the world. This alleged data leak raised enormous awareness about the challenges that businesses and governments face when securing their data and intellectual property. Some of the largest companies in the
Digital Transformation is a hot topic for manufacturing today and we often receive questions on where to start. There is no one-size fits all approach as each company’s most pressing issues vary as well as their readiness to “digitize” their operations. However, we have found Downtime Tracking and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) projects are often
I’ve often likened my job to the popular TV show, “How It’s Made”. Each month, I’m involved with dozens of client conversations. While the breadth of industrial applications and industries is wide, the issues these companies face are remarkably similar. One of the most prevalent is a desire to get accurate and timely information into
The economy is steam-rolling, and your manufacturing business is in full tilt. So, the question is, with your current plant floor operating philosophy and capability, are your customer’s more satisfied than before the uptick? Your customer’s satisfaction is based to a large extent on your operational team’s capability to hit targets related to the Big
If it walks like a duck and honks like a duck, it’s probably a goose… I was born and raised in northern Cincinnati and like many Midwest cities, we suffer from an extreme increase in the Canadian Goose population. These geese love to flit about in man-made water retention ponds, a result of new commercial
Sound counter-intuitive? I agree. Typically, when organizations are really busy, product and application training falls to a lower priority because our belief is that we just don’t have time; everyone is booked. I think this connects with all of us at some level. After all, if our teams are booked on projects and pressed to
“Where you stand depends on where you sit”, commonly known as Miles’ Law was coined by Rufus E. Miles, Jr. He was an assistant secretary under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. It was originally used when describing bureaucratic politics. From a more current perspective it just might offer some insights into organizational change, engagement, and
Here in the sunny state of Florida, hurricane season is never far from our minds. It signals an extended period of tropical storms, fully-fledged hurricanes and just generally more unstable weather patterns. For our larger water & waste water municipalities, having an alarm management system to triage their critical alarms vs nuisance alarms is absolutely