WASHINGTON, DC - The Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, chaired by Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH), held a hearing today on the Internet of Things (IoT) and its application to the manufacturing sector. Members had the opportunity to hear from manufacturers firsthand about the challenges and benefits that come with IoT technology.
In his opening statement, Chairman Latta highlighted some of the many current and future applications of IoT technology to manufacturing, “Already there are examples of smart components sending data about their performance and condition to workers, who can monitor the equipment and if necessary, replace it before it breaks down…Looking forward, the potential to further improve manufacturing processes through the combination of new technologies stretches the imagination. Utilizing IoT and other emerging technologies like augmented reality, workers will be able to virtually make adjustments to industrial systems to understand how to improve efficiency, and then implement necessary changes, without interrupting the manufacturing process."
Chairman Latta reviews his notes as the hearing gets underway
Responding to a question from #SubDCCP Vice Chairman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Rodney Masney, Vice President, Technology Service Delivery, Information Technology, Owens-Illinois, refuted the idea that IoT fully-automated devices will take the place of a human workforce, stating, “It still takes human beings on the manufacturing floor to make things happen and make sure things are moving forward. I’ll share with you, in Streeter, Illinois, it is one of our facilities where we are delivering what we call the ‘factory of the future’ for the organization…But certainly, we’re still going to need the capability to have people on the floor that can run machines, be ever-present, make sure things are running safely, that productivity continues to move forward. Our innovations are around more flexibility and making sure that we can be more responsive to our customer base. IoT is another area where we think we can do that."
Dr. Thomas Kurfess, Professor and Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, discussed IoT implications for educating the workforce, noting, “There is no doubt that IoT in manufacturing will help to grow our manufacturing operations and will generate new and higher paying jobs. However, those jobs will be filled by individuals that are highly trained. Furthermore, those individuals will need to be continuously trained in the latest and state-of-the-art technologies to keep U.S. manufacturing operations at the forefront of this rapidly advancing technology wave. Thus, a culture of lifelong learning must be instilled and supported in our workforce."
Mr. Sanjay Poonen, Chief Operating Officer, VMware, provided testimony about the cybersecurity issues that arise with IoT technology, stating, “Cybersecurity will no doubt be a significant priority with all the connectivity and varying pieces of smart equipment on productions lines in a manufacturing plant. From a security point of view, it is unlikely that an individual manufacturing plant would utilize an end-to-end stack of IoT devices and other smart equipment. This means more often than not, manufacturing plants will utlize IoT devices and smart equipment from many different manufacturers. Such a likely scenario would make it more difficult to properly manage the cybersecurity considerations when there are IoT devices and other digitized equipment originating from different manufacturers themselves, all which need to be secured, but all have different application programming interfaces (API) associated with them. The other security consideration is the threat of malicious cyber attacks and hacking to the IoT devices in a manufacturing plant.
Mr. Thomas Bianculli, Chief Technology Officer, Zebra Technologies Corporation, noted some of the challenges to manufacturers fully deploying IoT, describing, “The goal of achieving end-to-end visibility in manufacturing and across the supply chain isn’t easy to attain. There are many barriers to adoption, most notably the costs and highly complex processes associated with integrating this functionality into existing systems. Often, proprietary legacy systems require a full rip-and-replace to achieve the integration needed for optimal IIoT and this is likely a key reason why companies rank complexity of technology and availability of IT resources among the top reasons why businesses are not yet achieving a fully connected factory."
