Espresso 4.0 by
Wizata
We hear a lot about IT and OT. What does that mean? What do those terms entail? What is it and what is OT, and what are their jobs within the manufacturing factory?
OT stands for Operational Technology, while IT stands for Information Technology. IT entails a regular pc or a laptop you would use every day, while the OT is used in a more industrial context and uses different protocols. Simply said, by default, they don’t speak the same language.
OT and IT collaboration
Today, in Industry 4.0, when we are working on connecting all of our assets, exporting data, and making sense of that data, there are a lot of places where the It and OT must collaborate. So why do they need to collaborate? And what is the case currently on the market between those two departments?
Interestingly, the OT collects data that can be used on the IT side so you can display what the data represents. You can also send commands to interact with the devices. The idea is to put a device between the two networks that will translate from one to the other.
Since we mentioned Edge, what place does the cloud hold in that architecture if any? Some people and some of the factories we talked to are reluctant to use Cloud.
The advantage of the cloud is that we can have infinite data storage or computation resources. On the other side, people like to have their data close to them and stored locally because they don’t want anybody else to access it. Usually, security is an issue they don’t want to face.
Still, having unlimited computation resources allows you to do much more and process information that you would not be able to do locally. Also, sharing data with people within the same company is much easier using the cloud.
Should you upskill the workforce?
With different types of tech and software coming out, particularly the tech relating to data consumption coming from the assets and machines one has in production processes, it seems increasingly important to have cross-disciplinary knowledge in both IT and OT.
While equipping many OT process engineers and production managers with software solutions that help them track and monitor conditions, detect anomalies, and we're working towards predictive maintenance models, how important is it to find this interdisciplinary moment, or should the tools be separated at all times? Should you have a process engineer with at least some coding knowledge?
Although exceptions exist, people included in the process are usually focused on one or the other. While in the future, there will be a need for upskilling the workforce, especially the OT ones, towards the IT, and these models can be merged, you will have something much more efficient if you keep these processes separated.
In conclusion, we're not looking at an emergence of these superhumans that know both IT and OT, but we're working towards a culture of transparency, communication, and collaboration.
