#ManufacturingIntelligence

Jim Gavigan

Oct 3, 2018
11 min

8 Lessons in Machine Learning

My apologies, as it has been MONTHS since I have written a blog. I appreciate all of you who read them and give me feedback, it is much appreciated. It was my intent to write this article after we had a grand success in machine learning technologies early this summer and I would enlighten everyone to the endless possibilities of what machine learning can do for all of you. However, we really didn't get a rousing success, but we also didn't have a complete and miserable failur

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Jim Gavigan

May 7, 2018
1 min

PI World Presentation 2018

On April 25th, 2018, I had the pleasure of co-presenting with Rick Smith of International Paper. It was a great experience and an honor to present with someone I have looked up to and considered a friend for the last 5 years. In the video, you will see some examples of the work we have been doing with the latest PI tools and with some Business Intelligence software like Power BI and Tableau. I will say this, I truly believe that we are only scratching the surface of what COU

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Manufacturing Wake Up Call and 6 Strategies You Need to Consider

Jim Gavigan

May 2, 2018
11 min

Manufacturing Wake Up Call and 6 Strategies You Need to Consider

I have been thinking a lot about this topic and have even written about it before, but I am not sure I have stressed what I believe enough. The issue is that we simply aren't doing enough to modernize manufacturing, especially around how we use data. We just aren't. Unfortunately, this affects the next generation workforce that we are raising, and I think that this will have a MAJOR impact on manufacturing sooner than many people think. You know how I can tell? I have talked

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Jim Gavigan

Mar 21, 2018
8 min

5 Lessons in Storytelling With Data

It has been a while since I have sat down to write. Honestly, it is a combination of things: busyness, writer's block to a certain extent, and also coming up with a catchy enough topic that I thought would resonate with people. Leave it to a book to inspire me, and the one that has inspired this post shares the title of this blog. Storytelling With Data is an excellent book written by an ex-Google People Analytics director, Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. Before I get into some of t

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Jim Gavigan

Jan 17, 2018
4 min

The Power of BI tools

I have taken a little break from blogging with the holidays happening. I knew many of you were on vacation and trying to wrap up your year. I have appreciated all of you reading this blog in 2017 and look forward to writing more in 2018. One thing I have been spending a MAJOR amount of time with in the last 6 months is learning some of the Business Intelligence (BI) tools. I have focused on both Tableau and Microsoft's Power BI. I learned Tableau first, then I learned Power B

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Jim Gavigan

Nov 16, 2017
6 min

Data Quality - The Elephant In The Room

So, you are looking to add time-series data from one of your facilities to your data lake to start doing "Big Data Analytics" on the data, huh? Well, do you REALLY understand how good your data is in that unknown time-series world? I would be willing to bet that some or all of it isn't that useful to you. Sure, some of it will be fine, or so you think. However, that one key data stream may not be at the fidelity that you need to unlock any insights about something you really

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The Missing Ingredient In Digital Transformation - Company Culture

Jim Gavigan

Oct 19, 2017
3 min

The Missing Ingredient In Digital Transformation - Company Culture

I have written extensively on what it takes to be successful in the digital transformation/IIoT space, but one topic that I really haven't touched on is likely the most important for success, and that is company culture. What I am finding is that if I find a company or plant within a company that is data-driven hungry to optimize and get the very last drop of productivity out of their plant that they can, they are much more likely to succeed in this space. Those that are runn

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Digital Twin: Hype or Substance? Part II

Jim Gavigan

Sep 20, 2017
3 min

Digital Twin: Hype or Substance? Part II

I am sorry I am a week late in writing this, but I had a little distraction in a wind and rain storm called Irma. She decided to knock power out for me for almost 4 days, but I consider myself fortunate as so many lost everything. My heartfelt prayers are for those that sustained much more damage than I did and/or are who going through Maria's wrath right now. So, down to business. I have done some more thinking about the Digital Twin concept and have talked with numerous oth

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Jim Gavigan

Jul 10, 2017
3 min

Why is IIoT Adoption so slow?

I saw a statistic the other day that blew my mind, It came from a study on IIoT use cases (well worth the read) put on by LNS Research and I will paste the graphic that hit me below: So, what stands out to you? Look again.... 26% of respondents said "We do not expect to invest in IoT technologies in the foreseeable future." An additional 21% did not expect to invest in the IoT in the next 12 months. So, 47% of respondents say "Meh" to the IIoT. Here are a few graphics showing

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Jim Gavigan

Jun 20, 2017
4 min

Why Many IIoT Projects Fail

I recently read an LNS research article entitled "Why OEE and Plant Visualization Projects Keep Failing" and it made me to think about what are the ingredients of a successful project in IIoT (I use IIoT as a general term. Pick your other buzzword - Industry 4.0, Digital Transformation, et al). I think there were valid points made in this article. Here were the basics, or "must haves" from their use cases involving three studied companies/projects: Created new hybrid Manufac

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Jim Gavigan

May 23, 2017
5 min

Are You "Toting The Oil" Up The Stairs?

Last week, my wife Kristina and I visited the Saint Augustine lighthouse and it was an enjoyable visit to a landmark we have taken 3 years of living here to finally go see. Little did I know that the visit would give me a great analogy for my work life. It hit me Sunday morning as I was thinking about how to explain something to one of my prospects. This person is struggling to convince their management to use my services to do some work with PI AF and Event Frames, which I v

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How Do I Use IIoT Technology If I Have Legacy Control Systems?

Jim Gavigan

May 18, 2017
6 min

How Do I Use IIoT Technology If I Have Legacy Control Systems?

I just read an article from Craig Resnick from ARC Advisory group titled "Add IIoT to Legacy Automation Assets to Reduce Unscheduled Downtime." In the article, Craig uses the terms "IIoT-enabled solutions," "IIoT connectivity," and "IIoT technology." What does this mean in practical terms? I have actually asked Craig for his input as he is looking across industry and may shed some more specific light on the subject, but I am going to add what I think it means and means for yo

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What is the IIoT architecture of the future?

Jim Gavigan

Mar 31, 2017
3 min

What is the IIoT architecture of the future?

The IIoT architecture of the future will stratify. It won't just be cloud or on-prem.

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Can Data Flow Be a Resource Just Like Water and Electricity?

Jim Gavigan

Jan 12, 2016
4 min

Can Data Flow Be a Resource Just Like Water and Electricity?

This blog originally posted on Jim Gavigan's LinkedIn page here. When was the last time that you plugged in a device to an electrical outlet and didn’t get power? How about the last time you turned a handle on a faucet and didn’t get water? Did it surprise you when it happened? Not having the electricity or water when you want it really isn’t the norm is it? Imagine an industrial world where we get the data and information we need from our production assets as easily and reli

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How tribal knowledge can get in the way of data driven decision making

Jim Gavigan

Dec 2, 2015
6 min

How tribal knowledge can get in the way of data driven decision making

This blog originally posted on Jim Gavigan's LinkedIn page here. Wikipedia defines tribal knowledge as: "Tribal knowledge is any unwritten information that is not commonly known by others within a company." Imagine a world where all we had was tribal knowledge of how things work, yet no data to validate the knowledge. How could we get that knowledge out of the few and into the many, yet still make the ones with the tribal knowledge as useful as they can be since they have kno

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Manufacturing Intelligence and the Skills Gap

Jim Gavigan

Nov 4, 2015
4 min

Manufacturing Intelligence and the Skills Gap

This blog originally posted on Jim Gavigan's LinkedIn page here. I have been working in industrial automation for 20 years now and I have seen a lot of changes. When I first started, I remember carrying a beeper for emergency calls and getting messages from vendors and customers on slips of paper when I came back to the office. I remember the walkie-talkie style cell phones and dedicated car phones. The internet was still in its infancy and AOL was ruling the day. I remember

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Manufacturing Data is an Asset, Please Treat It That Way!

Jim Gavigan

Oct 12, 2015
3 min

Manufacturing Data is an Asset, Please Treat It That Way!

This blog originally posted on Jim Gavigan's LinkedIn page here. asset[as-et] noun a useful and desirable thing or quality: Organizational ability is an asset. a single item of ownership having exchange value. So, would you consider your car or house as an asset? Your money? Other possessions? Let me ask this then, if it is truly an asset, is it something you work to take care of and keep in good order or something that collects dust and falls into disrepair? My suspicion is

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IIoT - How Cloud is Changing the Landscape - Part 2

Jim Gavigan

Oct 1, 2015
4 min

IIoT - How Cloud is Changing the Landscape - Part 2

This blog originally posted on Jim Gavigan's LinkedIn page here. I recently read an ISA article on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and this is the last installment to a 4 part series of commentary on the article. Let me know what you’ve thought of the series. Regarding the cloud, the article states: "By adding cloud-based solutions, this existing information infrastructure could become the basis for securely sharing certain information with the asset vendors. Compan

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Jim Gavigan

Sep 9, 2015
5 min

IIoT - How and Where Do I Standardize?

This blog originally posted on Jim Gavigan's LinkedIn page here. I recently read an ISA article on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and this is the second installment to a 4 part series of commentary on the article. There is a lot of great information in the article, and I am giving a "view from the ground" on several highlights from it. Regarding standardization, the article states: "With most of the technological components already available, concerns over cybersecu

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Four Components to An Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Strategy

Jim Gavigan

Sep 2, 2015
4 min

Four Components to An Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Strategy

This blog originally posted on Jim Gavigan's LinkedIn page here. I recently read an ISA article on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and this is the beginning to a 4 part series of commentary on the article. There is a lot of great information in the article, and I would like to give a "view from the ground" on several highlights from it. Looking at the paragraph that addresses the four main parts of IIoT in this post, it states: "The four main parts of any IIoT system

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