Category Archives: Automation

Cummins has been awarded $5 million from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office for the automation of solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC) and stack assembly. This project furthers the companys efforts as a leader in alternative power and a pioneer in green hydrogen technologies.

Cummins three-year project aims to automate the manufacturing of SOECs to make production of the electrolyzer systems more efficient, reducing capital costs and facilitating the scale-up of the hydrogen economy.

We believe green hydrogen will be critical to a decarbonized future, particularly for hard-to-abate sectors. To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet ambitious climate goals, we must invest now in scaling electrolyzer manufacturing and green hydrogen production to create a viable zero-emissions ecosystem. Rapid innovation like this will drive the acceleration of the energy transition in the United States and globally.

Amy Davis, Vice President and President of New Power at Cummins

SOECs are one of three primary types of electrolyzers, which function differently based on the electrolyte used to facilitate the electrolysis process. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers use a solid polymer electrolyte, and alkaline electrolyzers use an electrolyte solution, such as potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide mixed with water. Cummins currently manufactures both PEM and alkaline electrolyzers.

SOECs are the third type of electrolyzer, which use a solid ceramic electrolyte. SOECs operate at much higher temperatures than PEM and alkaline electrolyzers, giving this technology the potential to become more efficient, especially when coupled with industrial processes that utilize steam or high-grade heat. This makes SOECs a potentially important tool in efforts to decarbonize industrial sectors, such as steel production and e-fuels such as ammonia.

When any type of electrolyzer is powered by renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar or hydro, it produces green hydrogen. This green hydrogen is a carbon-free fuel source that can be used in a variety of applications and industries.

The aim of the Cummins project is the automated assembly of an SOEC stack with low direct labor input, increased cell throughput and a 100% quality control check. Following successful development, the automation concept should enable more than 100 MW of electrolyzer production capacity.

The DOE is funding 31 projects that advance next-generation clean hydrogen technologies, totaling $52.5 million. The Cummins project is one of 19 of these projects supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) that are related to hydrogen and fuel cell research and development. The DOE is funding the Cummins project in the amount of $5 million, the largest award of these 19 projects.

These projects also support the DOEs recently announced Hydrogen Energy Earthshot to reduce the cost and accelerate breakthroughs in the clean hydrogen sector. All 31 projects focus on bridging technical gaps in hydrogen production, storage, distribution and utilization technologies, thereby paving the way toward decarbonization of the electricity sector by 2035.

The Cummins project award complements additional funding the company received from the DOE to support the development of a high-power density inverter, continuing the companys innovative work to find additional ways to reduce emissions across global power and energy solutions.

Link:

DOE awards Cummins $5M for automation of electrolyzer cell and stack assembly - Green Car Congress

LAS VEGAS Demand for packaging solutions is up as the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry tries to keep pace with consumer demand and lagging labor. At Pack Expo Las Vegas, held Sept. 27-29, Jorge Izquierdo, vice president of market development at PMMI, reported that the packaging and processing industry in the United States had grown 14.4% in 2020, much of it driven by food and beverage.

There are mainly two things driving the growth. No. 1 is consumer demand, their behaviors shifted, they were buying more and more at supermarkets and less at restaurants, so that would be No. 1, he said. No. 2 is workforce. As you know workforce has been a challenge in manufacturing for a number of years. Maybe you noticed in the last ten years workforce has been a challenge. In the last five years, the challenge has been significant, in the last year it has been unbelievable. So there has been a level of investment to just keep productivity levels.

As CPG companies grapple with these two challenges, = much of their priorities for packaging solutions in 2020 revolved around flexibility, protecting employees from the coronavirus and maintaining productivity by investing in automation. Today, those priorities have shifted to an emphasis on resolving the workforce challenge with more automation.

Intuitive equipment that trains operators faster is gaining relevance, Mr. Izquierdo said. With all these challenges, CPGs are asking equipment manufacturers to provide equipment that someone they grab off the street can come in and run. Thats not an easy challenge, and so what were finding is more intuitive equipment and more remote service and training.

Today in 2021, Mr. Izquierdo reported that the industrys appetite for investment is still strong even as it has slowed some in the third quarter.

Were still experiencing significant growth this year, and well probably still see double-digit growth this year, and were expecting a very healthy 2022-23, he said.

More:

Packaging industry healthy with CPG appetite for automation - Baking Business

B

lue Prism, the software firm that helped the NHS order PPE during the pandemic, is set to be sold for 1.1 billion in the latest takeover of a UK tech company by a foreign buyer.

The developer, which builds software to automate back-office tasks like invoicing and compliance checks, has reached a deal with US tech backer Vista to go private at 1125p per share.

As part of the all-cash deal, Blue Prism will merge with another Vista-owned software business, TIBCO.

Vista has triumphed over TPG Capital, which also held takeover talks with the AIM-listed firm. The winning offer represents a 35% premium to Blue Prisms undisturbed share price.

Blue Prisms board is recommending shareholders approve the deal. It so far has support from investors holding just under a quarter of the stock. Shares, which have soared since the company disclosed deal talks a month ago, dipped 2.8% to 1155p today.

Investors will no doubt have hoped for more, Jefferies analysts said.

Blue Prism was founded in Warrington in 2001 and listed on AIM in 2015. It has grown rapidly and now works with companies including EY, Jaguar Land Rover, Siemens, and Google. Last year, its software helped automate pandemic PPE ordering for the NHS.

The deal to go private comes as Blue Prism faces increased competition from the likes of Microsoft and UiPath.

UiPath, which was founded in Romania in 2005, raised $1.3 billion in an IPO on New Yorks Nasdaq in April. It is currently valued at $27 billion.

Blue Prism chairman and CEO Jason Kingdon said going private would help the company remain at the forefront of the next generation of intelligent automation by giving the business greater access to capital to pursue new growth opportunities.

Kingdons stake in the business means a sale would net him roughly 65 million, while co-founder Alastair Bathgate is in line for just over 50 million.

It is the latest in a growing number of British companies being sold to overseas buyers as foreign investors take advantage of depressed valuations.

Vista manages $81 billion and only invests in enterprise software businesses. US-based TIBCO, one of its companies, sells data management and analytics software and works with over 10,000 companies around the world, including 50% of the worlds 500 biggest businesses.

Together, Blue Prism and TIBCO will provide access to a suite of Intelligent Automation capabilities to help accelerate digital transformation, TIBCOs chief executive Dan Streetman said.

See the original post:

NHS automation firm Blue Prism in 1.1 billion US buyout - Evening Standard

Empowers fusion teams - IT and citizen developers- to collaborate on automation projects and access Bonita resources via a "one-stop-shop"

SAN FRANCISCO, September 28, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bonitasoft, the leading open-source digital process automation company, today announced the launch of its new open-source digital process automation platform, Bonita, where the new Bonitasoft Customer Service Center will be managed and continuously improved.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928005493/en/

The new Bonitasoft Customer Service Center, built on the Bonita digital automation platform, consolidates resources in a "one-stop shop" for an improved user experience (Photo: Bonitasoft)

The new version of the platform offers an expanded set of innovative features to fully support Bonitasofts unique low-code approach: to provide an open, extensible process automation platform that separates coding tools from modeling tools so both developers and citizen developers / business users can use the open-source Bonita platform in ways appropriate to their specific needs.

For example, Bonita applications are now composed of a set of extensions (connectors, REST API extensions, themes, actor filters) that can all be built externally to the platform, using the Bonita Software Development Kit (SDK) and managed in each application using Maven.

For developers, this means that they can use the Bonita SDK with their preferred tooling to build and import any extension. Testing for each extension individually is now possible, making Bonita projects more robust. And as the extensions are no longer bound to a specific Bonita project, they can be easily reused, adding to developer efficiency.

On the side for citizen developers, they are now free to use the drag-and-drop, BPMN-based modeling and design tools to model and add business elements to processes with no worry about interfering with the developers work as the coding and technical development is done outside Bonita Studio.

Story continues

"The Bonita process automation platform is ideal for cross-functional, multidisciplinary, agile fusion teams with different levels of technical skills," said Miguel Valdes Faura, Bonitasoft CEO and co-founder. "Business folks, like the project managers on the Customer Service Center (CSC) team, are able to model, work on business data, build business rules, design user interfaces, and more in Bonita Studio while the developers use Bonita software development kits to independently create integrations and extensions, on their preferred tooling."

Bonitasofts new Customer Service Center was developed in-house on the Bonita Cloud digital automation platform. The Customer Service Center is the main communication hub between Bonitasoft and several very different types of end users of the Bonita digital automation platform. Developers, system architects, business users and others needed a central place to quickly find resources such as Bonita updates, downloads, access to licenses, technical support, questions about "how to do" something, request for training or additional services, access to documentation, release notes, videos, and "whats new."

Development of the cloud-based Customer Service Center using PaaS infrastructure presented some typical technical challenges. But as the Bonita platform offers wide extensibility, the Customer Service Center automation project team succeeded by leveraging technologies such as containers, custom and native Bonita connectors, REST API extensions, SDKs, and Java Functions. Its implementation leverages full containerization (using Docker) and orchestration (via Kubernetes) supported by Bonita Cloud.

"Our one-stop Customer Service Center is a simple, practical tool for Bonita developers and business users," says Shamil Hassanaly, Chief Customer Officer at Bonitasoft. "They deserve an easy-to-use, fully loaded place to find what they need when they need it."

Further, the new Bonita release offers a solid set of customizable Bonita user applications for its different types of end users: internal application users like employees; external application users like customers; process and applications administrators; and platform administrators:

The Bonita Applications Directory, which shows the list of all the Bonita applications a logged-in user can access and use

The Bonita User Application, accelerates development with a starting point for customized interfaces for any type of end user

The Bonita Administrator Application with all the resources process and applications administrators need to manage deployed applications

A Super Administrator application, with all the resources platform administrators need to manage the Bonita platform

The Bonita Community open-source edition includes all capabilities required to develop and deploy process automation projects and can be downloaded here.

About Bonitasoft

Bonitasoft fully supports digital operations and modernization of information systems with Bonita, an open-source and extensible platform for automation and optimization of business processes. The Bonita platform accelerates development and production with a clear separation between visual programming and coding capabilities. Bonita integrates with existing information systems, orchestrates heterogeneous systems and provides deep visibility across all enterprise processes.

# # #

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210928005493/en/

Contacts

Press Contact Holly Hagerman801.373.7888 office801.368.6928 mobilehollyh@connectmarketing.com

Visit link:

Bonitasoft Introduces New Innovative Features and Customer Service Center to Help Application Teams Automate and Optimize Business Processes - Yahoo...

SCOTTSDALE, AZ, Sept. 28, 2021 OIP Robotics, an Outsource Insurance Professionals entity, announced its partnership with HyperScience, bringing unmatched data extraction capabilities to their automation portfolio.

HyperScience is an industry leader in data extraction software and a technology company blazing a new path in enterprise automation with a fresh approach to building and powering processes. The Hyperscience Platform is the worlds first Software-Defined, Input-to-Outcome Automation platform used by top public companies and government organizations around the world to build and run mission-critical processes with ease and speed.

Hypersciences Intelligent Document Processing solution has been implemented at some of the worlds leading financial services, healthcare, and government organizations, including TD Ameritrade, QBE Insurance Group Ltd and Voya Financial. Lowered costs, reduced error rates by 67% and increased employee capacity by 10x are just a few benefits realized. The partnership with OIP Robotics opens the door to the E&S industry, where this segment of the insurance space has been lacking advanced technology such as this. Hypersciences AVP of Global Alliances, Matt Grantham shared, We are excited to be partnering with OIP. Together, we will very quickly help boost efficiency at insurance firms by radically improving organizational agility and accelerating digital transformation. OIP joins our growing list of partners in the BPO space and we look forward to helping create better outcomes for their customer base and their customers end customer.

Integration into our existing systems will enable our clients to automate the entire Data Extraction Process from the Intake Point to Preparing the Data for processing with over 99% accuracy and up to 95% automation, stated Nemanja Jokic, Director of Business Technology. He continues, Hyperscience together with our technology can do something RPA hasnt easily achieved create systems that can learn from humans and improve on their own; systems that know when to loop in humans and when to leave them out of a process, in a way that doesnt require a heavy touch from outside personnel.

About OIP Robotics:OIP Robotics is a technology company specializing in E&S Insurance. We help our clients drive better business outcomes with technology that produces measurable results and passes the adoption barriers. By specializing in excess and surplus lines insurance, weve developed an expertise and stellar reputation as the go-to team for cutting edge technology specifically designed with our industry in mind.

About HyperScience:The Hyperscience Platform enables organizations and government agencies to automate data-centric, mission-critical processes. Our mission is to connect human and artificial intelligence to solve tomorrows automation challenges today, creating better outcomes for customers, companies, and the world.

Media Contact:Shawnae Bentley, Director of Sales & Client RelationsEmail: shawnaeb@oip.bz | Direct: 602-753-0679

Topics Mergers InsurTech New Markets

Get automatic alerts for this topic.

Read more here:

OIP Robotics and HyperScience announce partnership to bring data extraction to their automation portfolio - Insurance Journal

With efficiency, certainty and waste reduction being absolutely key elements of a manufacturers supply chain, Bizagi tells us how automation can assist.

If your factory is the heart of your organisation, then your supply chain is the veins and arteries. Your operational efficiency depends on everything being connected to deliver a reliable service.

However, many organisations have built up a patchwork of legacy systems, with gaps between applications leaving a disconnect in the supply chain, which can lead to inefficiencies, lack of visibility and general uncertainty.

Supply chain automation provided by a low-code automation platform can automate tasks within the end-to-end supply chain and connect systems for a 360-degree view of operations.

Supply chain automation is the use of digital technologies to improve efficiencies, connect applications and streamline processes within supply chain operations. It usually incorporates intelligent technologies such as Digital Process Automation, Robotic Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

There are multiple benefits that can be seen when supply chain automation software is introduced to operations. Here are the four primary benefits:

A connected supply chain supported by automation technologies provides the opportunity to free employees from these menial, manual tasks.

Various documents are part of the supply chain management: delivery orders, receipts and bills generate numerous time-consuming tasks performed manually by employees who store and process the documentation.

These tasks are often carried out on pen and paper by employees in the warehouse, taking up valuable time and often leading to human error when recording and submitting information. The benefits of automation, both in and out of the warehouse include increased efficiency manifested by increased fill rates and decreased cycle times, as well as increased warehouse throughput time, reduced labour and operational costs, elimination of human error and improved inventory management.

The benefits of automation were realised by Bizagi customer Adidas. The largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe needed to transform its supply chain across 400 factories. Using Bizagi and an agile methodology allowed for less development, more efficiency and cost reduction.

They created standardised, reusable processes to deliver automation across departments. These automated processes eliminated manual tasks and reduced operational costs, such as eliminating a million emails per year through system integration. They also halved factory onboarding time and sped up the two-month sports asset contract approval cycle to just one week.

Traditional supply chains often face unpredictable lead times and lack the transparency to know how inventory is progressing. Digital technology means that now even the everyday consumer is used to being able to see where their online delivery is in its journey from the warehouse to their front door. So why shouldnt businesses expect the same visibility earlier on in the supply chain.

The reason for lack of transparency in the past couple of decades has been due to poor connectivity. As more systems and applications were introduced to increase efficiency, they created silos and left gaps between systems, which meant that information could not be passed between them and it was hard to follow the status of a process end-to-end.

A low-code automation platform can connect all systems and create a centralized location for your employees to access information, providing complete process visibility and orchestration. This provides real-time data to employees, not only giving them up-to-date status updates, but also allows them to act with certainty when executing tasks that rely on important information.

Transparency not only benefits employees, but also customers as they can easily get an overview of how their order is progressing through the supply chain. Traceability is now essential for customer satisfaction and a low-code automation platform can provide appropriate visibility.

If 2020 taught us anything, its to expect the unexpected. For some organisations, the COVID pandemic meant scaling operations back and operating on a bare bones basis. For others, it meant ramping up production and shipping capabilities to meet increased demand.

Using a low-code automation platform provided the benefit of adaptability to respond to unforeseen circumstances, which is built-in when you connect information and data across your organization.

Diminishing risk and meeting compliance standards is particularly hard in a post-COVID world. Even more so for manufacturers and suppliers with global sites observing different regulations, ranging from health and safety to best business practice. Auditing is then required to prove these standards have been met.

Establishing business processes that are then executed, either in part or fully, by automation technology can help improve both risk management and the overall supply chain management. All stakeholders can ensure best practices are followed while integrating compliance for effective and risk-averse operations.

Documenting and automating workflows is the ideal way to ensure specific requirements are met, and that operations can be agile enough to evolve. Additionally, the real-time visibility brought to the supply chain by a low-code automation platform can help organisations to mitigate risk and ensure compliance by identifying issues as they arise and preventing them from escalating further.

Connectivity and automation bring the efficiency and agility that so many supply chain operators crave. If you would like to find out more about how a low-code platform can help transform your supply chain, download the free Bizagi ebook, The Essential Guide to Automation in Manufacturing.

In addition to insight on how to optimize your supply chain, you will also learn:

For more articles similar to this, visit The Manufacturer

Excerpt from:

Supply Chain Automation: What is it and how can it benefit me? - Manufacturer.com

Posted by Paul Moore on 27th September 2021

ABB is to provide six electrical rooms plus an integrated digital system solution based on the ABB Ability 800xA distributed control system (DCS) to Gold Fields Salares Norte mining project in a remote region of northern Chile. The open-pit gold-silver mine project by the South African mining company is located in the Atacama Desert amongst the highest peaks of the Andes mountain range.It is 1,300 km from the Chilean capital Santiago and has elevations between 4,200 m and 4,900 m.

ABB will deliver a common platform for process and power control using ABB Ability System 800xA, Power and Process Control Library, and Camera Connect (the ABB video system embedded in the control platform for optimised process monitoring). ABB Ability Knowledge Manager will be used to manage information production through Plant Information Management System (PIMS), alongside ABB Ability Asset Vista Condition Monitoring (integrated with SAP), an Extended Operator Workplace (EOW) as an integrated control room at the site, a collaboration table and 800xA Smart Client stations to enable read-only access to displays via a web browser.

As a common platform for the monitoring of productive, operation and support areas, ABBs system will reduce technical risks and the number of interfaces to enable Gold Fields to unify processes at the highest level. The electrical system is fully integrated via the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard 61850, which ensures total control and visibility for the plant operations. ABB is also providing engineering and project management.

The digital aspect is critical to this project due to its remote location the nearest town being Diego de Almagro, 180 km away, the altitude of the project and adverse weather conditions which make site access and fieldwork difficult especially during the winter, said Max Combes, Project Director of Gold Fields. Gold Fields has developed digital infrastructure through initiatives at operations around the world. ABBs complete solution, integrated engineering and remote operations technology will enable us to build on this digital capability and overcome the particular challenges at Salares Norte.

The scope also includes a dynamic process simulator to allow checks on all control logics and for operator training purposes. The simulator will allow for shorter and more efficient start-ups on site, said Ivn Villegas, Solutions Manager at ABB in Chile. It will also support the training requirements, meaning Gold Fields will have several accredited operators with the right skills for high-quality operations.

Together with Gold Fields we can demonstrate over the long-term that ABBs control systems connect and perform their functions in totally isolated areas, within satellite range, and with minimal latency, said Cristian Gallegos, Mining Account Manager for ABB in Chile. It is an opportunity to modernise mining and showcase the benefits that digital transformation brings by controlling and supporting the mining plant and equipment at Salares Norte from 1,300 km away.

Satellite Telematics Test

In parallel to this project ABB proposed and was part of an initiative together with Gold Fields to successfully connect different ABB technologies between Santiago and the Salares Norte project. Using satellite telematics they carried out remote control and monitoring of smart electric motors and a simulation of telemedicine care between the two locations. The tests were carried out in isolated areas, but within reach of the satellite and through a connection controlled by ABB Ability System 800xA and conventional mobile equipment with minimal latency. Through mixed reality lenses, both virtual reality and augmented reality, two authorities of the Ministry of Mining in Chile (the Minister and the Regional Secretary) each at one end, were witnesses and protagonists of the successful test, where the two held a conversation that flowed in real time, each seeing the avatar of the other, as if they were together in a physical environment.

Salares Norte is expected to produce 3.7 Moz of gold over an initial mine life of 11 years and is estimated to be a $834 million expenditure project. The operation involves drilling, blasting, loading, and hauling methods for ore extraction. It has a production capacity of two million tons per annum and the life-of-mine average recovery of gold and silver will be 92.7% and 67.5%, respectively.

Go here to see the original:

Gold Fields orders ABB integrated power and automation system for Salares Norte - International Mining

What the economic historian Aaron Benanav calls the automation discourse has been going ever since the luddites smashed textile machinery in Nottingham in 1811.

At issue is whether machines destroy or create jobs. The first case is easiest to understand. Machines are labour-saving; and labour saved means labour unemployed. Fear of unemployment has always been the dominant response of the workforce to the introduction of machinery.

The second case involves taking into account repercussions. The cheaper it is to produce something, the more demand there will be for it. This means more workers can be employed.

One can see then, how the spread of mechanisation to all branches of industry can multiply favourable effects: more people employed producing more and varied goods at higher wages for reduced effort. The fear of unemployment, say economists, is really a displaced fear of leisure.

With computer technology, not just physical work, but so-called cognitive work can be automated. Modern luddites foresee the growth of white-collar and service-sector unemployment. Again, say the optimists, they fail to notice the upside. The economic argument is straightforward: Higher productivity implies faster economic growth, more consumer spending, increased labour demand, and thus greater job creation, Sir Christopher Pissarides and Jacques Bughin argued in their 2018 paper.

The problem is social: to ensure that the fruits of increased productivity are passed on to the mass of the people in the form of higher wages and non-work income. The political debate is about how much public intervention is needed to ensure that the wealth created by machines trickles down to all sections of the population.

The interesting question right now is: what effect will the Covid-19 lockdown have on this automation discourse? Three effects in particular are worth noticing. The first is the likely speed-up in automation; the second, the increase in automatic shopping; and the third, the growth of home working.

Despite all the hype, automation made little progress in the UK before the pandemic. According to the International Federation of Robotics in 2018, the UK had only 71 robots to 10,000 workers. The main reason, I think, was that cheap labour from abroad was an alternative to automation, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises that could not afford the capital cost of installing machinery.

However, this supply has dried up, and will not be rapidly restored. We now have the paradoxical combination of a near-record adult employment rate together with the highest ever job vacancy count.

Covid-19 is almost certain to accelerate automation in line with the experience of past pandemics such as Sars in 2003, with the driving forces being economic recession and the need to cut labour costs, and the perceived increased risk of human contact. Jobs with higher levels of physical proximity, such as retail, hospitality, leisure and medical care, are the most likely to be automated post-pandemic.

Unless the government intervenes to subsidise investment (say, through a national investment bank) the financing of automation will be brought about through a further concentration of industry in large firms and the bankruptcy of many small and medium-sized enterprises.

The second source of automation will come from the consumer switch to remote shopping. This is the joint result of a change in habits forced by lockdown and fear of contamination. One symptom is the rise in cashierless stores. The first Amazon Fresh convenience store (with automated sensors to detect when items are taken from shelves and which automatically charge customers) opened in London in March, promising a more frictionless consumer experience. Many more are promised.

Finally, increased home working will demand increased use of surveillance technology. The proportion of working adults who did any work from home grew from 27% in 2019 to 37% last year on average, with Londoners the most likely to work remotely. Business sees a clear productivity gain in the reduction of time spent travelling and chatting in offices.

However, the realisation of such gains requires investment in surveillance technology. A recent report in the Financial Times highlighted the growth of electronic techniques for monitoring home working, including the installation of cameras and microphones in every house. This widens the discussion to the impact of technology not just on jobs but on freedom. When Jeremy Bentham invented his panopticon for monitoring the movement of prisoners, he suggested that it might be fruitfully applied in schools and hospitals. George Orwell carried this thought to its logical conclusion in his futurist novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. A two-way television screen in every flat ensured that Big Brother is watching you the whole time.

So on which side of the optimism-pessimism divide does the automation discourse now fall? Automation is not good in itself; it is only a means to an end. We need always to have in mind the question of what purposes it is designed to serve.

Unless this question is continually asked, and answered with action, we are destined to become slaves to the machines and those who control them. The luddites understood this.

Read the original post:

Automation can be our friend, but we must not let it turn into a foe - The Guardian

CAIRO, EGYPT IBM, in collaboration with ACME SAICO, on Sept. 27 announced the automation of 22 wheat silos in Egypt by the end of 2021 using IBM AI-powered software.

The announcement comes as the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade plans to digitize the wheat supply chain and implement governance systems on the countrys strategic stock.

Using IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation and IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, the new solution will allow full automation and governance of all the steps ofshipping, transport, storage, and supply of the wheat silos.

Through this advanced technology, the automated platform is engineered to collect data from different sensors that are embedded in the silos. These sensors will send near real-time quantitative analytics of the wheat supply and stock status to the main platform at the Ministry of Supply. The Egyptian Holding Company for Silos and Storage (EHCSS) will be able to monitor and store all information related to the incoming shipments to maintain quality standards, report accurate views of the stock in silos, as well as address leakage in wheat silos extensively.

The system also is designed to help to better manage the communication and coordination between different storage points, and mills.

We are committed to expanding the wheat silos automation across the country, said H.E. Dr. Ali El-Moselhi, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade. The automation enables us to instantly monitor the wheat stock through a digital platform, providing the needed visibility to secure the supply chain. The platform, powered by IBM technology, ensures efficiency, stock protection, in addition to addressing logistical redundancies.

Major General Sherif Bassili, chairman of the board of directors EHCSS, added: After renovating and increasing the number of silos across the nation, our goal was to build a digital platform to connect all silos with the main center at the EHCSS. Another goal was to automate the documentation processing of the wheat supply chain and monitoring process of the 22 silos and storage points.

Earlier this year, the launch of the pilot model for the first automated wheat silo took place in Banha, Qualyubia Governorate. Following the success of the pilot, the ministry decided to expand automation to 22 silos before the end of this year. All silos will be monitored from the ministry headquarters and the General Authority for Supply Commodities through IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson connected to the automation platform in use.

As part of the sustainable development strategy of Egypts vision for 2030, the government is planning to automate 400 silos, adding them to the wheat supply chain monitoring system.

Here is the original post:

Egypt to automate 22 wheat silos - World Grain

At its 2021 virtual Ignition Community Conference, Inductive Automation highlighted the steps it has been taking over the past year to position the Ignition industrial automation software platform for its next steps, indicating that several new updates will be forthcoming in the next few months.

Carl Gould, director of software engineering at Inductive Automation.Carl Gould, director of software engineering at Inductive Automation, said, Our primary area of focus for the software development team is on quality and process improvements. He said the company has been staffing up the quality team to achieve a nearly one-to-one staffing ratio of software engineers to test engineers. We're also building up our QA (quality assurance) infrastructure with automated test infrastructure and automated benchmarking so that every release we put out has undergone a rigorous set of testing to ensure that Ignition can be as stable and defect free as possible.

Two industrial automation technology trends having a big impact on Ignition are mobility and data access, said Travis Cox, co-director of sales engineering at Inductive Automation. With a greater focus on mobility, developers are extending automation systems to smartphones and tablets to take advantage of mobile device capabilities such as GPS, the built-in camera, NFC (near-field communication) and Bluetooth, and leverage those features to build the bigger solution, he said. Inductive Automations Ignition Perspective module allows users to build industrial applications to monitor and control production processes from a mobile device, desktop, or touch panel.

Travis Cox, co-director of sales engineering at Inductive Automation.As for the data access trend Cox noted, he said industrys increasing interest in leveraging edge computing and MQTT communications is targeted at bringing [production floor] data into a modern infrastructure and the cloud for additional applications, such as analytics and machine learning. We're seeing a lot of customers leveraging AWS and Azure and their asset modeling tools to go a lot further with the data they collect, he said.

A fixture of the Ignition Community Conference is its Discover Gallery, where key Ignition implementations are spotlighted to show off the softwares capabilities as an automation platform. In part of his keynote presentation at the conference, Cox noted several applications in this years Discover Gallery, including:

Visit link:

Inductive Automation Explains What's Next for Ignition - Automation World