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A while back I blogged about the role of the PLM suppliers are playing in the world of IoT and IIoT. I talked about how companies will need to design for ecosystems from the start. I also talked about how service lifecycle management is enabled by IoT: objects/things/devices/products are connected and can intelligently communicate their state, condition, or health so a service can be performed to respond to the communication.
Earlier I focused on three PLM suppliers Dassault Systemes, Siemens PLM, and PTC and how they are approaching IoT (for products) and IIoT (for factories and plants) with both common and distinct strategies and technologies. A lot has been going on with the PLM supplier community regarding IIoT and I figured it was time for an update.
Another PLM market leader, Autodesk, has entered the IoT/IIoT fray with its very recent (August 27, 2015) acquisition of SeeControl, a provider of an enterprise level IoT platform that enables its IT, manufacturing, and business customers to virtualize, connect, and analyze remote assets, equipment, devices. Current SeeControl solutions include health care monitoring and prediction, industrial equipment and machine preventative and condition-based maintenance, manufacturing energy management, spare parts management, and warranty and service lifecycle management.
SeeControl users are able to use a code-free platform to create tailored IoT solutions to connect meters and other monitoring devices. The SeeControl platform is based on a cloud infrastructure connecting sensors and devices. It will be interesting to see how Autodesk fits SeeControl into both an IoT business strategy and with its very diverse and extensive array of solutions across both discrete manufacturing and AEC and plant design. Autodesk is currently making a big move to a subscription-based licensing model, and SeeControl is also currently offering its platform solutions on a monthly subscription rate. This is in line with Autodesk’s overall Cloud strategy for all its solutions and applications.
At the recent Autodesk Accelerate conference, Scott Reese, VP of Cloud Platforms articulated Autodesk’s focus: The future of making things and connected products. This message appears to substantiate the acquisition of SeeControl along with incorporating technologies like Big Data and analytics with product design solutions. Reese pointed to some disrupters that were affecting product design today: production disruptors like 3D printing and flexible manufacturing, market demand disruptors like a younger consumer that wants personalized products, and the smart connected products that are changing and enhancing the consumer experience. Autodesk wants to offer users a product innovation platform that addresses the next generation of product design in terms of personalization, collaboration, connected services, and the customer experience.
Dassault Systemes has IoT strategies at both a high level and at lower-levels focused on product development and manufacturing. At a high level, DS refers to this as “The Internet of Experiences” for people and businesses, and IoT-enhanced industry solution experiences. DS regards IoT as an architecture of layers that starts at the lowest level of objects, devices, and products, which represent the design layer, i.e., designing smart connected products. This layer is also the sensing/actuator layer where M2M is enabled.
The top level of this IoT architecture is both the experience layer and the application layer. This is where the smart product, factory, city, infrastructure, energy, building, home is encountered and experienced. The architectural layers in between the design layer and the experience layer are communication, network, and platform layers, which are mostly provided by the hardware and software technology suppliers. The Internet of Experience is enabled by the Analytics of Things, Dashboard of Things, Optimization of Things, and Programming of Things.
DS divides the IoT into three major areas: 1) the building blocks of technological components (applications, networks, platforms, devices; 2) the sectors served (smart factories, cities, homes, utilities, health, etc.; and 3) the experience itself at the individual, community, and societal levels.
For Siemens PLM the primary theme is the digitalization of the manufacturing enterprise, and how there is a digitalization transformation taking place in manufacturing for products, production systems, and product service that will impact industry, consumers, business, and society. Siemens PLM and its parent business unit, Siemens Digital Factory (formerly Industrial Automation) digitalization is broken down into three areas:
The focus for product, process, and production is on a continuous "digital thread" that enables connection and collaboration across the entire product and factory ecosystem. Siemens PLM sees a fundamental shift in product design, but more so from the perspective that smart connected products will be necessary to drive the smart and connected digital factory, and provide the digital thread across manufacturing and beyond to product field service, consumers, and the entire IIoT ecosystem. Given that the one of the initial applications of IIoT for discrete manufacturing OEMs is to use data from production operations, field service, and supply chain and use advanced analytics to determine patterns and trends, Siemens PLM ‘s release of Omneo Performance Analytics is especially significant. Omneo was part of Siemens' acquisition of Camstar last year, and now is offered as a SaaS application on the Cloud to their users.
PTC is all in on IoT/IIoT, especially with their acquisition of ThingWorx, Axeda, and Coldlight. If there is a primary theme for ThingWorx, it is focused on the entire IoT ecosystem and all of the technology, software, hardware, IoT partners, suppliers, and businesses aligned with PTC, and how they, collectively, are going to exploit this market. For PTC the real emphasis is on the "Thing" in the IoT. That is, it is all about the smart connected product, device, sensor, etc. and how this was going to provide the real time, real world information needed to run the IoT ecosystem. PTC maintains that the digital and physical world are totally merged, and that IoT will enable product service and service lifecycle management (SLM). PTC believes that "the customer is the sensor on the thing", meaning that there is a focus on the smart connected consumer device.Clearly PTC is focusing on the smart connected product, and that PTC's design tools (CREO, etc.) is the design technology that will enable the creation of the smart connected product. The aim is to create the digital twin: a virtual representation of physical product in real time, complete with simulation and augmented reality. Analytics will play a major role in this IoT platform. This will be enabled by PTC’s acquisition of Coldlight, an advanced analytics company. Coldlight offers an automated intelligence development platform based on analytics, pattern detection, simulation, and machine learning. PTC wants their customers to develop new, very smart products that can collect real time information, learn, predict, and adapt.
Earlier I focused on three PLM suppliers Dassault Systemes, Siemens PLM, and PTC and how they are approaching IoT (for products) and IIoT (for factories and plants) with both common and distinct strategies and technologies. A lot has been going on with the PLM supplier community regarding IIoT and I figured it was time for an update.
Another PLM market leader, Autodesk, has entered the IoT/IIoT fray with its very recent (August 27, 2015) acquisition of SeeControl, a provider of an enterprise level IoT platform that enables its IT, manufacturing, and business customers to virtualize, connect, and analyze remote assets, equipment, devices. Current SeeControl solutions include health care monitoring and prediction, industrial equipment and machine preventative and condition-based maintenance, manufacturing energy management, spare parts management, and warranty and service lifecycle management.
SeeControl users are able to use a code-free platform to create tailored IoT solutions to connect meters and other monitoring devices. The SeeControl platform is based on a cloud infrastructure connecting sensors and devices. It will be interesting to see how Autodesk fits SeeControl into both an IoT business strategy and with its very diverse and extensive array of solutions across both discrete manufacturing and AEC and plant design. Autodesk is currently making a big move to a subscription-based licensing model, and SeeControl is also currently offering its platform solutions on a monthly subscription rate. This is in line with Autodesk’s overall Cloud strategy for all its solutions and applications.
At the recent Autodesk Accelerate conference, Scott Reese, VP of Cloud Platforms articulated Autodesk’s focus: The future of making things and connected products. This message appears to substantiate the acquisition of SeeControl along with incorporating technologies like Big Data and analytics with product design solutions. Reese pointed to some disrupters that were affecting product design today: production disruptors like 3D printing and flexible manufacturing, market demand disruptors like a younger consumer that wants personalized products, and the smart connected products that are changing and enhancing the consumer experience. Autodesk wants to offer users a product innovation platform that addresses the next generation of product design in terms of personalization, collaboration, connected services, and the customer experience.
Dassault Systemes has IoT strategies at both a high level and at lower-levels focused on product development and manufacturing. At a high level, DS refers to this as “The Internet of Experiences” for people and businesses, and IoT-enhanced industry solution experiences. DS regards IoT as an architecture of layers that starts at the lowest level of objects, devices, and products, which represent the design layer, i.e., designing smart connected products. This layer is also the sensing/actuator layer where M2M is enabled.
The top level of this IoT architecture is both the experience layer and the application layer. This is where the smart product, factory, city, infrastructure, energy, building, home is encountered and experienced. The architectural layers in between the design layer and the experience layer are communication, network, and platform layers, which are mostly provided by the hardware and software technology suppliers. The Internet of Experience is enabled by the Analytics of Things, Dashboard of Things, Optimization of Things, and Programming of Things.
DS divides the IoT into three major areas: 1) the building blocks of technological components (applications, networks, platforms, devices; 2) the sectors served (smart factories, cities, homes, utilities, health, etc.; and 3) the experience itself at the individual, community, and societal levels.
For Siemens PLM the primary theme is the digitalization of the manufacturing enterprise, and how there is a digitalization transformation taking place in manufacturing for products, production systems, and product service that will impact industry, consumers, business, and society. Siemens PLM and its parent business unit, Siemens Digital Factory (formerly Industrial Automation) digitalization is broken down into three areas:
- Intelligent Models (product and factory design)
- The Digital Twin (of the physical)
- Optimized and distributed production (smart factories and supply chains, Big Data & analytics for production operations)
The focus for product, process, and production is on a continuous "digital thread" that enables connection and collaboration across the entire product and factory ecosystem. Siemens PLM sees a fundamental shift in product design, but more so from the perspective that smart connected products will be necessary to drive the smart and connected digital factory, and provide the digital thread across manufacturing and beyond to product field service, consumers, and the entire IIoT ecosystem. Given that the one of the initial applications of IIoT for discrete manufacturing OEMs is to use data from production operations, field service, and supply chain and use advanced analytics to determine patterns and trends, Siemens PLM ‘s release of Omneo Performance Analytics is especially significant. Omneo was part of Siemens' acquisition of Camstar last year, and now is offered as a SaaS application on the Cloud to their users.
PTC is all in on IoT/IIoT, especially with their acquisition of ThingWorx, Axeda, and Coldlight. If there is a primary theme for ThingWorx, it is focused on the entire IoT ecosystem and all of the technology, software, hardware, IoT partners, suppliers, and businesses aligned with PTC, and how they, collectively, are going to exploit this market. For PTC the real emphasis is on the "Thing" in the IoT. That is, it is all about the smart connected product, device, sensor, etc. and how this was going to provide the real time, real world information needed to run the IoT ecosystem. PTC maintains that the digital and physical world are totally merged, and that IoT will enable product service and service lifecycle management (SLM). PTC believes that "the customer is the sensor on the thing", meaning that there is a focus on the smart connected consumer device.Clearly PTC is focusing on the smart connected product, and that PTC's design tools (CREO, etc.) is the design technology that will enable the creation of the smart connected product. The aim is to create the digital twin: a virtual representation of physical product in real time, complete with simulation and augmented reality. Analytics will play a major role in this IoT platform. This will be enabled by PTC’s acquisition of Coldlight, an advanced analytics company. Coldlight offers an automated intelligence development platform based on analytics, pattern detection, simulation, and machine learning. PTC wants their customers to develop new, very smart products that can collect real time information, learn, predict, and adapt.