Where is all the innovation on the plant floor? Most people feel that manufacturing lacks new ideas and innovations while the overall information technology (IT) space remains innovative. Venture capitalists and IPOs are back and, after the November elections, people feel the recovery will continue.
On the plant floor, however, there doesn't seem to be the same level of excitement. It's as if nothing's really changed since the mid '90s. Remember the excitement when Microsoft Windows became the de facto standard for plant floor systems? Yes, Ethernet did make it to the plant floor, but proprietary protocols and networks still dominate. Automation platforms are still proprietary despite the vendors cleverly playing the "controlled open" game via thinly veiled trade and vendor "standards" organizations. Even Microsoft Windows as a de facto standard and the OLE (object linking and embedding) for Process Control (OPC) industry standard haven't been able to easily manage data between the plant floor and enterprise systems. The bottom line: manufacturing needs to evolve to an open standard that will enable more innovation.
Consider Web services. Web services and Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) are IT trends that represent the next evolution of Internet technologies. Web services are software modules that interoperate using XML-based interfaces. Web services are developed using four standards that were driven by two main vendors-IBM and Microsoft. Yes, IBM and Microsoft got together (with support from other vendors) and agreed!!
The notion of Web services is that applications can communicate directly, without human intervention, regardless of the particular development tools or computing platforms. The recent realization that Web services are a nearly ideal way to implement an SOA has reinvigorated many organizations' SOA desires. An SOA is an architecture where application functionality is available as shared services discoverable on the network. In an SOA, services are exposed using XML-based interfaces so that they will operate across all technology platforms.
SOAs and Web services enable significant business benefits. They reduce systems integration costs and are re-usable. SOAs also speed time to market and, best of all, they are interoperable across vendor platforms, operating systems and enterprise applications. Can any executive who values his or her job say these benefits aren't compelling? It's time to introduce the plant floor to Web services and the SOA.
Dan Miklovic, VP and manufacturing research director at Gartner Group, supports this theme. "Despite Microsoft's dominance as a plant floor solution, there has not been much progress in providing connectivity to manufacturing systems." Also of concern "is the difficulty in maintaining a secure ... plant floor environment. Many Gartner clients are frustrated with a Microsoft-based solution. It is not all Microsoft's fault. In many cases it is the inability of the ISVs to maintain pace with Microsoft patches and upgrades. Extending SOA concepts to a real-time environment could finally deliver on the promise of truly open yet reliable systems in manufacturing."
With IBM, Microsoft, SAP and Oracle all supporting Web services and SOAs, it's time to consider SOAs for the plant floor. What's your view? Write to me at emarks@agile-path.com.