Embracing digital transformation in Industrial IoT requires companies to rethink and shift business models and operations. Doing so, however, has become more difficult in the past six months due to production slowdowns, restrictions on employee movement with social distancing, and rapidly shifting market demands. Yet for many companies, the industry disruptions caused by COVID-19 have actually accelerated integral transformation in emerging technology directly linked to IoT, such as AI and edge computing. Manufacturers preparing for the future are rapidly building their operations around a digital core and actively integrating their value chain to the whole supply chain, doing so to increase efficiency and production capacity.
Our vision is to support customers to connect, monitor, and manage their operations whether they want to build and manage their own IoT solutions with Microsoft Azure platform services such as Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, or Microsoft Azure Time Series Insights, or purchase solutions directly from Microsoft Azure Marketplace. As a founding member of the Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP), an alliance founded in 2019 to help manufacturing companies accelerate innovation at scale through cross-industry collaboration, knowledge, and data sharing, we are also excited to share the Leaders quadrant in this report with two key Azure partners, Hitachi and PTC. Together, we are in a unique position to support thousands of customers all around the world to achieve better outcomes. The OMP was founded under the umbrella of the Joint Development Foundation, which is part of the Linux Foundation.
Global insights and IoT momentum
Despite these challenging times, we learned recently that looking ahead to the next two years, two out of three organizations are planning to use IoT even more than they do today. This is according to our latest global research, IoT Signals Edition 2 released October 2020, where we captured feedback from over 3,000 business decision makers, IT decision makers, and developers of which nearly 600 were IoT decision makers dedicated to industrial IoT solutions. We want to share three key drivers for Manufacturers according to our survey.
Improving efficiency is the primary driver for IoT adoption in manufacturing.
Manufacturing organizations are increasingly using AI as part of their IoT solutions.
Complexity and talent challenges exist and are slowing adoption.
For us, the seamless integration of AI, a smarter edge strategy, the security affording freedom to create, the flexibility, scalability, our partner network—these are the means we offer you to make more possible.
Believe more is possible, and make it a reality.
Next steps
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Editor’s note – Oct. 28, 2020 – The press release below was updated to clarify Cooler Screens’ current partnership with Walgreens.
CHICAGO, Il. and REDMOND, Wash. (October 28 (8am PT), 2020) —Cooler Screens and Microsoft Corp. announced a multi-year collaboration focused on bringing an immersive digital experience to brick-and-mortar retail environments. Through the collaboration, Cooler Screens will work with Microsoft to scale the delivery of its immersive digital media and merchandising platform hosted on Microsoft Azure to retailers and product brands. The companies will also explore additional integration opportunities to deliver enhanced experiences to customers.
Cooler Screens’ retail technology replaces traditional cooler doors with IoT enabled, high-resolution smart screens which use sensors both outside and inside of the coolers to track inventory and product placing. The solution uses “identity-blind” data from consumer interactions, combined with external data like weather to deliver more personalized experiences.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with an industry leader like Microsoft to drive innovation in retail and build the largest in-store digital media platform in the world,” said Greg Wasson, co-founder and chairman of Cooler Screens. “We are changing the way consumers shop for the better, and this collaboration not only gives us the capabilities to implement our strategy but also gives us immediate massive scale.”
“Retailers today are looking to use digital technology to transform their businesses and redefine the shopping experience for customers,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Through the power of Microsoft Azure, companies like Cooler Screens are meeting this important need by bringing immersive digital experience to brick and mortar stores.”
Cooler Screens are currently located in more than 50 Walgreens locations. Cooler Screens will expand its platform into 2,500 Walgreens stores across the U.S. in 2021, reaching over 75 million in-store consumers monthly, including 2.5 million on a daily basis.
“Walgreens is committed to enhancing our customer shopping experience through digital transformation, one of our key strategic priorities,” said Stefano Pessina, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Walgreens Boots Alliance. “Pairing the Cooler Screens digital media and merchandising technology with Microsoft’s Azure platform will bring a unique and innovative offering to Walgreens customers shopping the cooler aisle.”
Brands including MillerCoors, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Chobani, Tyson Foods and Monster Energy currently advertise with Cooler Screens. The company is working with a number of leaders in the grocery and convenience store industry, including Kroger and GetGo, to bring more contextually relevant shopping to the stores.
To learn more about how Cooler Screens is working to transform the in-store retail experience, visit www.coolerscreens.com.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
About Cooler Screens
Cooler Screens is reimagining the consumer experience in brick-and-mortar retail. The company has developed a patented in-store digital merchandising and media platform that enables consumers to experience in-store what they love about shopping online. Enjoying simplified access to the latest and most relevant information, consumers can now make more informed in-store decisions to best fit their budgets, taste and health preferences. The impact for retailers is a dynamic way to increase sales by offering shoppers a better, more personalized experience at the last mile of advertising. For consumer product companies, Cooler Screens is providing a new platform to build brand awareness, market their products at the point-of-sale, and improve visibility with real-time analytics. Cooler Screens fully adopted Privacy by Design, a rigorous framework developed by global privacy experts and is now one of only 10 organizations with the PECB MS Privacy by Design certification. For more information, please visit http://www.coolerscreens.com.
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]
If your business is already harnessing IoT, you likely believe IoT is critical to your long-term success. You are not alone. According to our latest annual report, IoT Signals edition 2 released today, 90 percent of decision makers now believe IoT is critical to their company’s success. The last six months have been tumultuous to say the least, however for many business decision makers it has actually accelerated their work towards a connected and secured future.
On our daily Microsoft Teams calls with customers and partners, we often say that it feels like a year’s worth of digital transformation is happening each and every month in 2020. For IoT, that transformation is providing near real-time visibility into physical assets and environments, enabling increased efficiency, reduced downtime, and keeping employees safe as they return to work during COVID-19.
Customers have shared that they are seeking guidance on what we see happening in IoT around the world in industries like Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, and Power and Utilities, and how other leaders are navigating rapid transformation.
We learned that looking ahead to the next two years, two out of three organizations are planning to use IoT even more than they do today; from connecting and securing factories, to enabling remote patient monitoring, to optimizing supply chains, and thousands of other scenarios. We’re also seeing a monumental shift in companies moving from simply connecting assets (for example manufacturing equipment), to connecting entire environments; the factories, supply chain, distribution network and more. This shift from connected assets to connected environments provides an order of magnitude increase in the value of IoT to a business.
Learnings from IoT Signals edition 2: IoT has become a critical part of organizations’ business strategies
During April, May, and June of this year, we sought to uncover the current and future trends of IoT to better serve our partners and customers around the world to develop their own IoT strategies. In IoT Signals edition 2, we learned from over 3,000 business and technical decision makers, and developers who are currently making decisions for IoT solutions at their organization. Here are five things to know about IoT in 2020:
1. COVID-19 is accelerating IoT adoption.
The study revealed that 91 percent of organizations have now adopted IoT (up from 85 percent last year). COVID-19 is having an undeniable impact on the world around us, and IoT is no exception. While the pandemic has slowed business across the globe, IoT is an area with upward trajectory in the wake of the virus. One in three decision makers say their organizations will increase their investment in IoT due to COVID-19, while another 41 percent say they’ll maintain the same level of commitment. For the few not intending to strengthen their investment, these organizations tend to be in the earlier stages of IoT—and those already behind may struggle to catch up quickly.
“During the coronavirus we had a problem with the return of empty bottles. We didn’t get any back, everybody kept them at home. So we had to get in touch with the glass manufacturers. It wasn’t easy to fill in the gap but we noticed the gap in the first place because of the data that we had through our IoT solution. The manufacturing plant can automatically adapt to increased demand. We also call it the smart factory, we don’t have to control and adjust things so much.”—ITDM, German Beverage Manufacturing
Those who expect to invest the same or more in IoT have fewer projects in the learn phase:
2. Security is integral. A full 97 percent of IoT decision makers have security concerns when connecting new assets, and data privacy is a top security concern for about half of all organizations. Apart from data privacy, ensuring network-level security and securing endpoints are critical, while security management and managing default passwords is a lower priority.
“Security is extremely important—it’s paramount when we look to implement IoT solutions. We are a big brand, and therefore a big target. Obviously customer data system integrity is very important for us. So we have a very, very talented group of security personnel that are monitoring and developing within IoT all the time. We have different security teams—technical security, physical security, architecture security. It’s an area that we invest in a lot.”—UK Retail ITDM in Fashion Retail
3. AI, Edge Computing, and Digital Twins technologies are becoming mainstream. However, there is significant room to educate more about these technologies and to test and trial to harness the full potential of IoT. We found that those who incorporate emerging technologies into their IoT solution realize more success with IoT overall, since once the value is proven it’s easier to build buy-in across the organization.
79 percent of organizations adopt AI as part of their IoT solution, and those who do perceive IoT to be more critical to their company’s success (95 versus 82 percent) and are more satisfied with IoT (96 versus 87 percent).
4. IoT projects are evaluated by return on investment, often measured first by how much they move the needle against automation and efficiency goals. Reduction of operating costs and production efficiency stand out as key benchmarks for determining whether IoT has achieved success—even more so than the number of IoT projects or direct impact on revenue. Not surprisingly, organizations are also adopting IoT as part of a broader culture change to lead new investments for safety and security, rising three spots from IoT Signals edition 1 to the number one reason for IoT adoption in 2020.
Productivity is a top benefit of IoT (79 percent), specifically operations productivity (54 percent) and employee productivity (47 percent). In addition, the top uses of IoT include operations optimization (47 percent) and employee productivity (43 percent).
“We have to prove the impact of IoT to demonstrate the value. If we can explain how IoT helped prevent a hundred thousand truck rolls this year, then ascribe a cost to every single one of those, that’s when we show impact to the bottom line. And on top of that, I’ve got a hundred thousand customers that didn’t wait for an hour or more. In each of those cases we immediately started to triage with customers versus making them wait.”—US Energy ITDM in Power and Utilities
5. Internal resourcing and complexity continue to be top challenges. While budget constraints can hold back the pace to progress from testing, through proof of concept, and into full use stage, IoT solutions will truly succeed when solution implementers gain deep internal alignment. Scaling an IoT solution presents a formidable shift for organizations which can create internal systems and technical obstacles. Those who adopt IoT as part of a broader culture change and prioritize investing in the right staff are well positioned to overcome barriers sooner.
“We had a lesson learned and realized we weren’t really going to be ready to go to market when we thought. There was more build to be done as we started to use the tool and started to realize—how do we manage this data?”—US Healthcare provider ITDM in Blood Labs
Interested in developing with Azure IoT?
If you’re interested in developing with Azure IoT there has never been a better time to reach out, find a partner, or build a solution to accelerate your business with IoT. When IoT is a foundational part of your transformation, we’ve seen the positive effects it can have on productivity, growth, safety, customer experiences, and much more.
We are committed to helping you turn your vision into reality with secure, scalable, and open edge-to-cloud solutions.
Develop with choice: Simplify building open and flexible IoT solutions quickly, on your terms.
Secure data everywhere: Trust your data estate is secure from endpoints to the cloud.
Power the edge: Seamlessly move your AI workloads and business intelligence to the edge.
Prepare for future innovation: Integrate continuously enhanced data, AI, mixed reality, and analytics solutions.
Scale globally: Grow effortlessly with the largest IoT ecosystem to unlock global scale.
Companies collaborate on one of Australia’s largest digital twin, emissions reduction initiatives, and drive transformative operational models
Telstra-Microsoft partnership signals new generation digital foundations for Australian businesses.
SYDNEY and REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 25, 2020 — Microsoft Corp. and Telstra have extended their long-standing strategic partnership to focus on accelerating the development and release of innovative and sustainable cloud-based solutions across multiple industries driving efficiency, amplifying decision making capability and enhancing customer experiences.
The partnership is founded on Telstra and Microsoft’s shared understanding that cloud, combined with 5G, will enable intelligent devices to be securely deployed on a much greater scale. Combining Microsoft Azure and Telstra’s network also supports Australian developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) as they develop solutions that leverage AI, low latency and increased resilience.
This will help enterprises build end-to-end digital processes and enable completely new transformative business models that leverage data to accelerate smart decision making, maximise business opportunities and grow revenues. Telstra and Microsoft will partner to:
harness IoT, Edge, AI and digital twin capability to develop important new industry solutions in areas such as asset tracking, supply chain management, telematics and smart spaces;
leverage Azure as preferred cloud for Telstra’s ongoing internal digital transformation.
explore and pursue technology and data-driven solutions to advance our sustainability and climate commitments and
build ground-breaking, nationally important solutions that leverage the Telstra Data Hub.
The companies will partner on digital twins for Telstra customers as well as for Telstra’s own commercial buildings and selected other infrastructure – which when fully deployed will be one of the largest Azure-based digital twins in Australia. Telstra’s digital twin will map physical environments in an online virtual setting, to create models that provide at-a-glance understanding of what is happening in the real world, and support improved what-if scenario planning.
Telstra is working with Microsoft as its preferred cloud provider for ongoing internal digital transformation. Azure will provide the digital foundations for Telstra’s strategic plan to streamline and simplify operations, transitioning from legacy and on-premises applications to modern cloud-based solutions.
Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said the strategic partnership brought together the best strengths of the two organisations.
“We already have a longstanding relationship with Microsoft and have worked together in areas that are market-leading to create unique experiences for our customers. Over the past 18 months, we have exclusively launched Xbox All Access for Australian gamers, were the first to launch Telstra Calling for Office 365, the only native Teams voice calling plan in Australia, which we recently expanded to include Microsoft Business Voice for SMB customers; and co-collaborated on Telstra Data Hub to help industries better manage their data securely.”
“Today’s announcement with Microsoft formalises the several streams of work we are already collaborating on. The global scale of Microsoft’s platform, tools, and applications, together with Telstra’s network solutions, reliability and leadership, will drive new and unique solutions for Australia,” Mr Penn said.
“In July, Telstra was certified carbon neutral in our operations. Significantly reducing emissions while the demand for connectivity and new digital technologies is rising rapidly is one of our biggest commitments, as well as one of our biggest challenges. Microsoft and Telstra both have ambitious climate targets and share a commitment to a net zero carbon future.”
“The outputs from all workstreams will also help deliver more innovative products for customers across all segments of the market, and will aim to enhance customer experience and engagement, solve business challenges, and drive a new level of technology leadership. This is a great opportunity to drive further digital innovation to strengthen the Australian economy, and to build a sustainable, connected future so everyone can thrive,” Mr Penn said.
“The broad adoption of cloud and 5G technology will create new opportunities for businesses worldwide, including in Australia,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.
“We’re expanding our partnership with Telstra and bringing together the power of Azure and Telstra’s network to build new solutions in critical areas like asset tracking, supply-chain management, and smart spaces, harnessing the latest advances in AI, digital twins, and mixed reality.”
# Notes to the Editor #
Focus areas of the extended partnership include, but are not limited to:
Digital twin, IoT and cloud: Telstra has selected Microsoft as a strategic partner in the design and build of a scalable and unified IoT platform leveraging Azure IoT that enables Telstra to simplify operations and significantly reduce time to market. Telstra is partnering with Microsoft to build a digital twin across its own commercial buildings with an initial deployment of five buildings including the flagship site at 242 Exhibition St in Melbourne. When fully deployed this represents one of the largest Azure-based digital twins in Australia. Once complete, the digital twin will allow Telstra to establish a digital nerve centre that promises enhanced transparency by modernising business processes and the work environment, enhancing digital interaction between personnel and enabling Telstra to improve operational efficiency.
Using its technology services provider, Telstra Purple, Telstra is working with Microsoft to provide an advanced digital twin solution for Downer Group’s asphalt plants. This ‘digital asphalt plant’; promises greater efficiency, reliability, and safety while at the same time increasing operational transparency and control. Through a collaborative design process, Telstra Purple and Downer identified the opportunity to leverage Microsoft Azure AI and edge services and Telstra’s Smart Spaces video analytics, to provide real time worker safety information directly to Azure Digital Twins. These ‘digital safety barriers’ identify and track dangerous activity across the plant. The companies envision the solution will be deployed in 33 asphalt plants across Australia.
Digital Foundation: Telstra is working with Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud provider for ongoing internal digital transformation. Azure will provide the digital foundations for Telstra’s strategic plan to streamline and simplify operations, transitioning from legacy and on-premise applications to modern cloud-based solutions.
Telstra is expanding its use of Azure for several critical IT applications, including the creation of a Digital Foundation for the ongoing modernisation of IT infrastructure, and also underpinning Data Hub, IoT and Digital Twin Capability. Azure will also help Telstra achieve its sustainability targets.
Sustainability: Addressing climate change is one of the defining challenges of the decade. Our sector has the potential to enable emissions savings more than seven times greater than the emissions we generate through providing our customers with low carbon products and services such as cloud computing.
Telstra and Microsoft are committed to exploring and pursuing technology and data-driven work to advance our sustainability and climate commitments. The initial focus will be on reducing emissions, circular economy, and remote work. We will work together to pilot real-time data reporting solutions such as Microsoft’s Sustainability Calculator that will deliver greater understanding of our joint carbon footprint to achieve further emissions reductions.
Armed with that insight the companies will be able to identify and support the development of more efficient products and processes.
Telstra Data Hub (TDH): Collaborating over the past year, Microsoft and Telstra have made significant progress with the Telstra Data Hub which enables many-to-many data interconnects to occur through a common platform. Designed to facilitate complex data sharing and permission scenarios, while alleviating the need to create multiple, bespoke point-to-point integrations required between systems, Telstra Data Hub has been built using the companies’ technologies to help customers realise the value of their data, to share their data across industry and act as the foundation for new AI models.
Early customers include the Queensland State government, who are evaluating how to securely gather the critical data to manage the state’s natural water system, and in doing so not only develop an end-to-end view of the state’s water asset but to also provide immediate value to the industries that use the water to fuel the economy. Other users of Telstra Data Hub include the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, where we are collaborating on a data sharing and analytics ecosystem focused on understanding sudden cardiac death in young people, as well as with Charles Sturt University on a data ecosystem for agricultural commodities.
Telstra
Telstra is Australia’s leading telecommunications and technology company, offering a full range of communications services and competing in all telecommunications markets. Our purpose is to build a connected future so everyone can thrive.
Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.
Media enquiries, contact:
Rudolf Wagenaar, Commercial Communications Lead, Microsoft Australia
A new solution built on AT&T’s global cellular network and Microsoft Azure Sphere will enable secured and effortless deployment of the IoT worldwide
AT&T and Microsoft are enabling businesses to connect devices and machines to their own secure cloud environments through an AT&T-powered guardian device with Azure Sphere.
DALLAS and REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 22, 2020 — AT&T and Microsoft are teaming up to enable enterprises to seamlessly connect machines and equipment to the cloud with highly secure network connectivity across the globe. As part of the effort, AT&T is working with Microsoft to deliver an integrated IoT solution with Azure Sphere. This AT&T powered guardian device with Azure Sphere will help businesses transform their operations quickly through massive IoT deployments at scale.
The AT&T powered guardian device is the latest example of how the two companies are working together through a strategic alliance to improve how people live and work today and in the future.
The new solution combines the secured architecture of Azure Sphere, a comprehensive IoT security solution including hardware, OS and cloud services with Azure IoT services and the global and multi-layered security of AT&T’s core network. The AT&T global SIM enables connectivity in more than 200 countries across 500 carriers. AT&T offers managed services to support day-to-day operations. The guardian device is easy to install and provides an end-to-end solution for connecting machines and equipment to the cloud, bypassing the need for public Internet.
The solution provides fast and highly secure activation right out of the box. It enables enterprises to easily connect existing equipment to the cloud and to Azure IoT Central. With this, a wide variety of industries can rapidly deploy IoT applications relying on the combined security benefits of the AT&T cellular network with Azure Sphere device security.
Think of fast food restaurants, coffee shops, elevators, hospitals, manufacturing plants and the ability to retrofit existing equipment into “smart” devices that are digitally enabled through highly secure cellular connections. Customers can connect their devices and machines to their own cloud environment without the need to connect to a Wi-Fi through a third party network connection that may not meet their high security standards.
“Our work with AT&T is a prime example of how the convergence of secure cloud computing and network technology helps businesses unlock new customer value and continuously simplify every aspect of our personal and professional lives,” said Corey Sanders, corporate vice president, Microsoft Solutions.
“AT&T and Microsoft share the belief that technology should serve people,” added Mo Katibeh, executive vice president and chief product and platform officer, AT&T Business. “Working with Microsoft we can offer a truly global solution with strong security and data insights that can help a broad array of industries simplify operations, manage costs, and become more agile in any market.”
One area of focus is aimed at enabling new 5G, cloud and edge computing solutions to drive enterprise capabilities for companies around the world.
Find more information about the AT&T powered guardian device here and on the Microsoft Azure blog post from Galen Hunt, Distinguished Engineer and Managing Director, Microsoft Azure Sphere.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
*About AT&T Communications
We help family, friends and neighbors connect in meaningful ways every day. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to mobile video streaming, we innovate to improve lives. We have the nation’s fastest wireless network.** And according to America’s biggest test, we have the nation’s best wireless network.*** We’re building FirstNet® just for first responders and creating next-generation mobile 5G. With a range of TV and video products, we deliver entertainment people love to talk about. Our smart, highly secure solutions serve nearly 3 million global businesses – nearly all of the Fortune 1000. And worldwide, our spirit of service drives employees to give back to their communities.
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Anheuser-Busch InBev, BMW Group, Bosch Group, Microsoft, ZF Friedrichshafen AG named OMP steering committee members
OMP was established in 2019 as an independent initiative under the umbrella of the Joint Development Foundation
First working groups created: IoT Connectivity, Semantic Data Model, Industrial IoT Reference Architecture and Core Services for Autonomous Transport Systems
The first appearance of the Open Manufacturing Platform (from left to right): Sven Hamann, SVP Bosch Connected Industry; Ralf Waltram, VP IT Systems Production and Logistics, BMW Group; Dr.-Ing. Michael Bolle, Member of the Board of Management, Bosch Group; Scott Guthrie, EVP Cloud & AI, Microsoft; Werner Balandat, Head of Production Management, ZF Friedrichshafen AG
Berlin/Redmond, February 19, 2020. The Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP) has expanded, with new steering committee members and new working groups established. OMP is an alliance founded in 2019 to help manufacturing companies accelerate innovation at scale through cross-industry collaboration, knowledge and data sharing as well as access to new technologies. The OMP was founded under the umbrella of the Joint Development Foundation, which is part of the Linux Foundation. Original members The BMW Group and Microsoft welcome Anheuser-Busch InBev (AbInBev),Bosch Group and ZF Friedrichshafen AG as steering committee members. The OMP steering committee has approved a number of working groups to focus on core areas important to the industry, including IoT Connectivity, semantic data models, Industrial IoT reference architecture, and core services for ATS (autonomous transport systems).
Common approach to industry challenges
The expansion of intelligent manufacturing is driving new efficiencies and increased productivity, as well as revealing new challenges. Within the industry, legacy and proprietary systems have resulted in data silos, making operationwide insight and transformation daunting. As common challenges across the industry, they often require a high degree of investment for modest returns within any one organization. The OMP has been developed to address this, where manufacturers and their value chains come together to identify and develop solutions that address these nondifferentiating problems. It brings together experts across the manufacturing sector — including discrete and process manufacturing, transportation and consumer goods, industrial equipment, and more.
“Our goal is to drive manufacturing innovation at scale, accelerate time-to-value and drive production efficiencies by jointly solving mutual challenges, based on an open community approach. The OMP helps manufacturing companies unlock the potential of their data, implement industrial solutions faster and more securely, and benefit from industrial contributions while preserving their intellectual property (IP) and competitive advantages, mitigating operational risks and reducing financial investments,” said Jürgen Maidl, Senior Vice President Production Network and Supply Chain Management at the BMW Group.
Scale innovation through common data models and open technology standards
The OMP operates under the umbrella of the Joint Development Foundation (JDF). The JDF is part of the Linux Foundation and provides the OMP with infrastructure and an organizational framework to create technical specifications and support open industry standards. The OMP supports other alliances, including the OPC Foundation and Plattform Industrie 4.0, and leverages existing industry standards, open source reference architectures and common data models.
“Through the open collaboration approach that is the cornerstone of OMP, manufacturing companies will be able to bring offerings to market faster, with increased scale and greater efficiency,” said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President Cloud & AI at Microsoft. “Solutions will be published and shared across the community, regardless of technology, solution provider or cloud platform.”
The heart of OMP: working groups to address common manufacturing challenges
“Comprised of members from across the manufacturing industry, the collaboration framework and heart of the OMP are its working groups. We are very excited to join in a moment where our manufacturing facilities are becoming increasingly connected, and we are looking for innovative ways to make use of the treasure trove of data that is being generated,” said Tassilo Festetics, Global Vice President of Solutions at AB InBev. The OMP initial first working groups will focus on topics such as IoT Connectivity, Semantic Data Model, IIoT Reference Architecture and Core Services for ATS (autonomous transport systems). Initial focus areas include:
IoT Connectivity: The OMP steering committee will support industry efforts to connect IoT devices and machines to the cloud. It is one of the first steps to digitize production lines and leverage cloud-connected Industrial IoT applications. “Today, it is all about analytics and predictions but without data no analytics and without connectivity no data. Modern devices can easily be connected via the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA). Connecting machines and applications to the cloud that have been in production for decades comes with bigger interoperability challenges as various standards and interfaces must be addressed to interconnect these historically developed legacy systems (‘brownfield approach’). The working group IoT Connectivity will focus on providing industrial-grade edge and cloud functionalities for the integration and management of OPC UA devices in brownfield environments,” said Werner Balandat, Head of Production Management, ZF Friedrichshafen AG.
Semantic Data Model: Another OMP working group focuses on semantic data modelling: Machine and manufacturing data are crucial for industrial companies to optimize production with artificial intelligence (AI). However, managing data in a common format across multiple sources with constantly evolving semantics is a real challenge. “Data is the raw material for Industry 4.0 and a prerequisite for optimizing production with the help of artificial intelligence. At OMP, we are developing a semantic model that makes data understandable and illustrates its relations and dependencies. Users no longer receive cryptic, incomprehensible numbers and characters, but production-relevant information including their context. This semantic data structure ensures improvements along the entire value chain and makes AI-based business models possible on a large scale,” said Dr.-Ing. Michael Bolle, Member of the Board of Management, Robert Bosch GmbH.
OMP will continue to expand as new organizations come on board. The steering committee encourages manufacturers and suppliers of all types to join the community.
About Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP):
OMP is a non-profit alliance to help manufacturing companies accelerate innovation at scale through cross-industry collaboration, knowledge and data sharing as well as access to new technologies. The OMP has been founded under the umbrella of the Joint Development Foundation. The OMP helps businesses unlock the potential of their data and integrate industrial solutions faster and more securely while owning their intellectual property, mitigating operational risks and reducing financial investments by leveraging industry standards, open source reference architectures, common data models, and more.
About the BMW Group
With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services. The BMW Group production network comprises 31 production and assembly facilities in 15 countries; the company has a global sales network in more than 140 countries. In 2019, the BMW Group sold over 2,520,000 passenger vehicles and more than 175,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the financial year 2018 was € 9.815 billion on revenues amounting to € 97.480 billion. As of 31 December 2018, the BMW Group had a workforce of 134,682 employees. The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. www.bmwgroup.com
About Bosch
The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 403,000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2019). According to preliminary figures, the company generated sales of 77.9 billion euros in 2019. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT company, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, smart cities, connected mobility, and connected manufacturing. It uses its expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, to offer its customers connected, cross-domain solutions from a single source. The Bosch Group’s strategic objective is to deliver innovations for a connected life. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is “Invented for life.” The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 440 subsidiary and regional companies in 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. The basis for the company’s future growth is its innovative strength. At 125 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 72,000 associates in research and development. The company was set up in Stuttgart in 1886 by Robert Bosch (1861–1942) as “Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering.” The special ownership structure of Robert Bosch GmbH guarantees the entrepreneurial freedom of the Bosch Group, making it possible for the company to plan over the long term and to undertake significant upfront investments in the safeguarding of its future. Ninety-two percent of the share capital of Robert Bosch GmbH is held by Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH, a charitable foundation. The majority of voting rights are held by Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG, an industrial trust. The entrepreneurial ownership functions are carried out by the trust. The remaining shares are held by the Bosch family and by Robert Bosch GmbH. Additional information is available online at www.bosch.com, www.iot.bosch.com, www.bosch-press.com, www.twitter.com/BoschPresse.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
ZF Friedrichshafen AG
ZF is a global technology company and supplies systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology, enabling the next generation of mobility. With its comprehensive technology portfolio, the company offers integrated solutions for established vehicle manufacturers, mobility providers and start-up companies in the fields of transportation and mobility. ZF continually enhances its systems in the areas of digital connectivity and automation in order to allow vehicles to see, think and act. In 2018, ZF achieved sales of €36.9 billion. The company has a global workforce of 149,000 with approximately 230 locations in 40 countries. ZF invests over six percent of its sales in research and development annually. For further press information and photos please visit: www.zf.com
Fedora test days are events where anyone can help make sure changes in Fedora work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed to Fedora before, this is a perfect way to get started.
There are two upcoming test days in the upcoming week. The first, starts on Monday 30 September through Monday 07 October, is to test the Kernel 5.3. Wednesday October 02, the test day is focusing on Fedora 31 IoT Edition. Come and test with us to make the upcoming Fedora 31 even better.
Kernel test week
The kernel team is working on final integration for kernel 5.3. This version was just recently released and will arrive soon in Fedora. This version will also be the shipping kernel for Fedora 31. As a result, the Fedora kernel and QA teams have organized a test week for Monday, Sept 30 through Monday, October 07. Refer to the wiki page for links to the test images you’ll need to participate. The steps are clearly outlined in this document.
Fedora IoT Edition test day
Fedora Internet of Things is a variant of Fedora focused on IoT ecosystems. Whether you’re working on a home assistant, industrial gateways, or data storage and analytics, Fedora IoT provides a trusted open source platform to build on. Fedora IoT produces a monthly rolling release to help you keep your ecosystem up-to-date. The IoT and QA teams will have this test day for on Wednesday, October 02. Refer to the wiki page for links and resources to test the IoT Edition.
How do test days work?
A test day is an event where anyone can help make sure changes in Fedora work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed before, this is a perfect way to get started.
To contribute, you only need to be able to download test materials (which include some large files) and then read and follow directions step by step.
Detailed information about both test days are on the wiki pages above. If you’re available on or around the days of the events, please do some testing and report your results.
The pace of change has never been as fast as it is now. Globally, the population is becoming more urban and income levels are rising. By 2050, nearly 70 percent of the global population will live in cities or urban areas—that’s six billion people. Consumer behavior has also materially changed over the last decade, and omnichannel retail, personalization, and demand for same day deliveries are growing. To cater to the changing landscape, urban distribution centers that stage products closer to users within large cities are on the rise to enable faster delivery and greater customization.
Within the four walls of the distribution center, picking and packing tasks account for more than 50 percent of the total labor cost of warehousing operations. Access to labor has become increasingly challenging, particularly in urban centers, and staffing levels shoot up five to ten-times normal levels during the holiday season. Space constraints and difficulty in staffing are pushing companies to look at adopting distribution center technologies that cut labor costs, optimizes the flow of products, and improves productivity and utilization of these centers.
Since announcing Microsoft’s $5B commitment to developing an industry leading internet of things (IoT) platform last year, we’ve continued to work with our ecosystem partners to build solutions to address such problems. In “Our IoT Vision and Roadmap” session at Microsoft Build, we announced a partnership with Lenovo and NVIDIA, to bring advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to Azure IoT Edge. The demonstrated solution showed Lenovo hardware, a single SE350 Edge Server, running the Azure IoT Edge runtime with NVIDIA DeepStream to process multiple channels of 1080P/30FPS H265 video streams in real-time, transforming cameras into smart sensors that understand their physical environments and use vision algorithms to find missing products on a shelf or detect damaged goods. Such applications of Azure IoT Edge technology enable customers to quickly and cost effectively deploy retail solutions that optimize their logistics operations.
Today, we are excited to announce the next milestone on this journey, the preview of Lenovo’s Digital Distribution Center (DDC) solution. Lenovo’s DDC is an IoT solution developed in collaboration with NVIDIA and Microsoft. Through real-time scalable package detection, tracking, and validation, DDC delivers for better optimization and increased utilization of distribution centers for retail, manufacturing, and logistics operations. The solution uses multi-video stream analytics with artificial intelligence and machine learning inferencing to self-learn, optimize, and scale. Additional releases will include geofencing alerts, palletization, depalletization, and last-mile sorting.
DDC is built with Azure IoT Central, Microsoft’s fully managed IoT app platform that makes it easy to connect, monitor, and manage your IoT devices and products. Azure IoT Central simplifies the initial setup of your IoT solution and reduces the management burden, operational costs, and overhead of a typical IoT project. This allows solution builders to apply their energy and unique domain expertise to solving customer needs and creating business value, rather than needing to tackle the operating, managing, securing, and scaling of a global IoT solution. Partners like Lenovo and NVIDIA add unique value through schemas that are relevant to industry solutions like DDC, including common industry hierarchies that organize people, places, and environments.
Join us for a demo of our solution at the Microsoft partner booth during Microsoft Inspire—July 14-18, 2019, in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you are interested in joining our preview program about the solution, please contact [email protected]
We’re proud to see more and more customers using Azure IoT Hub to control and manage billions of devices, send data to the cloud and gain business insights. We are excited to announce that IoT Hub integration with Azure Event Grid is now generally available, making it even easier to transform these insights into actions by simplifying the architecture of IoT solutions. Some key benefits include:
Easily integrate with modern serverless architectures, such as Azure Functions and Azure Logic Apps, to automate workflows and downstream processes.
Enable alerting with quick reaction to creation, deletion, connection, and disconnection of devices.
Eliminate the complexity and expense of polling services and integrate events with 3rd party applications using webhooks such as ticketing, billing system, and database updates.
Together, these two services help customers easily integrate event notifications from IoT solutions with other powerful Azure services or 3rd party applications. These services add important device lifecycle support with events such as device created, device deleted, device connected, and device disconnected, in a highly reliable, scalable, and secure manner.
Here is how it works:
As of today, this capability is available in the following regions:
As we work to deliver more events from Azure IoT Hub, we are excited for you to try this capability and build more streamlined IoT solutions for your business. Try this tutorial to get started.
We would love to hear more about your experiences with the preview and get your feedback! Are there other IoT Hub events you would like to see made available? Please continue to submit your suggestions through the Azure IoT User Voice forum.
