The convergence of IT, OT, and IoT: talking to Richard Owen, Unisys

IT, OT, and IoT technologies are increasingly converging in manufacturing environments, Richard Owen, Director of Collaboration Architecture, Seamless Collaboration, Digital Workplace Solutions at Unisys told IoT Insider in a recent conversation. 

“We see people adopting more off the shelf consumer-based technology,” he explained. “Long gone are the control panels that are dedicated to one machine … we’re seeing the operation and the technology we use every day permeate into manufacturing.” 

In one example provided, “frontliner workers will have a ruggedized handset running Android or iOS and they’ll marry that up with a noise-cancelling headset.” 

The implementation of these technologies in manufacturing can be attributed to return on investment, cost savings and market competitiveness in the market, Owen highlighted. 

“What’s key is resistance to adoption,” he added. “If you can tell people what you’re monitoring and why you’re monitoring this particular [production] line and make it obvious … then you remove some of that resistance that you might experience in a multi-generational workforce.” 

Owen said that he saw some of the resistance coming from the older generation, who’d been part of the workforce for longer, while the younger generation were more open to learning newer technologies. 

“We had an example where sensors were put in and people were covering them over because they thought they were being surveilled, and in reality, they weren’t,” he shared. “I’ve seen the attitude towards change over the years … People have to be educated on why it’s here, why it’s good for the company, why it’s good for the environment, [and] why it’s good for them.” 

Owen advised against replacing people completely with technology like AI, which could prove tempting for sectors like manufacturing which are experiencing both an ageing workforce and labour shortages, and need to be able to fill the gap. “Technology can certainly help, like pulling information from an ageing employee who’s going to leave the workforce and [putting it into] an AI bot, so that information is not changed, and then making it available to less experienced people coming into the workforce.” 

AI is going to be the “next industrial revolution,” as Owen termed it, which can be used as a positive force in manufacturing – for example, having an AI agent on each device that could theoretically communicate with one another and monitor equipment. 

“The only example I think where it could be negative is when it starts impacting people’s jobs in the workplace,” he added. “It’s hard to think of the negatives as a technologist because everyone’s excited about this [AI] coming in … We always say with AI, it’s only going to impact the people who don’t know how to work with AI systems.”

Key recommendations

“Don’t deploy technologies just because you have to, or don’t deploy it just because it’s there,” Owen advised. “Look for the problem that you want to fix  to deploy it. That’s key, because that’s going to generate data and what can you do with all this data?”

The questions that manufacturers need to ask themselves are not whether they can deploy a technology, but why they should do it in the first place. “That’s all part of a consulting process that everyone should be going through,” he said. “Not only at the beginning but through the entire life cycle of that plant or manufacturing process.” 

Consequently, manufacturers need to think about not only deploying sensors, to collect data, but to think about the programs or solutions they’re using to extract this data and to perform analytics, to gain meaningful insights.

“I’ve seen people have said, we’ve got all this data, I don’t know what to do with it,” said Owen. “That’s down to the fact that they’ve worked with an integrator or a technology department that’s turned and left.” The far better option is to work with a technology integrator that has an innate understanding of the day-to-day processes on the manufacturing floor by regularly communicating with employees working there.

In his closing comments Owen said: “Think of the problem you want to solve. Think of the area that’s causing people the most pain. If you were given additional help, how can these technologies aid the process and take the stress off the worker? They’re a key element in any manufacturing process. Take away all the technology, and it’s the people who are there as well.” 

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