When it comes to remote sensing, manufacturers are looking for an easy-to-implement solution. Recent advancements in technology have allowed companies to adopt and implement a solution that can improve their bottom line by gathering their data quickly and effectively. Three individuals from Opto 22, a manufacturer of remote sensing products, recently spoke with Manufacturing Business Technology about several key trends in the area of remote sensing.
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Benson Hougland |
MBT: What are some of the trends you guys are seeing out there when it comes to remote sensing?
David Crump, Marketing Communications Manager: We’re seeing a heavy focus on remote energy monitoring. Whether its pharmaceuticals, food, automotive, no matter which industry we’re talking about, everyone is consuming energy and everyone has that as an expense. And manufacturers can potentially reduce that expense to affect their bottom line and their profitability. One of our most recent remote sensing offerings was developed because energy monitoring is such an across-the-board type of need.
Ben Orchard, Application and Pre-Sales Engineer: We’re seeing some interest starting to come up from machine manufacturers, where they want to embed energy consumption reporting capabilities in their machines, particularly those companies that produce heavy energy usage machines. They’re looking to give their customers to energy monitoring capabilities, so they can sense their energy usage, and then upload that information to a database. That shows the company is energy-aware and might help them develop new practices and policies that save money.
Crump: I think one of the important things customers are looking for is a quick and easily-implemented solution. They’re not interested in digging down into the guts of a mahine in order to sense and get data. They’re looking for more of an out-of-the-box-type solution that won’t disrupt things and will be more non-invasive, allowing them to quickly and easily gather their data.
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David Crump |
Benson Hougland, VP of Marketing: If you travel into a factory, industrial complex, or a commercial building, often they have a building management system or another type of automation system already in place. So this notion of more appliance-oriented remote-sensing devices really plays well into that. It allows for the information to be gathered at a very high level without disturbing the BMS or automation system and without necessarily forcing the automation or the facility team to disrupt what they’ve already got.
MBT: How long has this trend of appliance-oriented remote sensing devices been on the rise?
Hougland: We’ve seen it for at least 12 years. Once industry started to adopt technologies like Ethernet and TCP/IP for remote sensing and database connectivity, it created a method to put that remote sensing data where it’s useful to many more people. So as a result of new product introductions and these communication technologies, suddenly people are be able to get their data lot easier than they would before.
In 2000, we had a very significant focus on this notion of connecting the real world, or the remote-sensing world, directly to IT databases. Subsequent to that, we became very engaged with companies like Nokia, at the time the largest handset and cellular manufacturer in the world, and AT&T Wireless, and created this whole space called M2M, the notion of machine-to-machine communications. Both of these initiatives were really just ways to accomplish remote sensing over standard networks and then bring the data into standard data repositories.
Now we’re just trying to make it easier than ever before using standard wired, wireless, and web-based technologies.
MBT: Do you feel the majority of companies are catching onto the idea of using a cellular network to do remote sensing?
Hougland: What I’ve seen is that if you’re a service-oriented business, you’re really starting to get it.
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Ben Orchard |
They need this technology, and they need it now. And we’re seeing it be triggered by technology that’s outside our industry. I’m referring to the most recent mobile technologies. This notion of a handset or my personal phone giving me a view into things that are being remotely sensed out on the edge is real, and it’s visible today. People are starting to recognize the value of that, and that it is much simpler to do today than ever before.
MBT: Coming out of the recession of a couple of years ago, as companies are getting their footing back and are starting to invest again, do you feel that will continue to advance this trend?
Hougland: Absolutely, because one of the things we all learned from the recession is how to cut the fat. A lot of organizations are realizing that they weren’t keeping their houses as clean as they could have. So when the economy took a turn in 2008, they suddenly realized they had a lot of dead weight. I’m not just talking about people, I’m talking about assets and inventory. There was so much euphoria and everyone was flush with cash, and nobody was really paying attention to the bottom line. I think a lot of companies have learned lessons as a result of the recession and are taking a different approach about how they’re growing.
Now, I think companies are taking a more pragmatic approach to how they’re going to apply technology and understanding how it helps the bottom line, and that will ultimately help in that remote sensing arena.