Out of IoT, IIoT, or the Industrial Internet of Things, is emerging as a common and necessary term. This guide provides insight into IIoT and into DMC’s process for completing successful IIoT projects.

Table of Contents

• IIoT Overview
• Our Five-Step Process
• Step One: Field Device Platform Selection
• Step Two: Determine Communications
• Step Three: Determine Cloud Platform
• Step Four: Web Application Development
• Step Five: Go Live and Maintenance

IIoT Overview

Much like IoT, IIoT uses sensors and other technology but in an industrial setting to leverage real-time data to monitor and control devices in the field and communicate and display that data in a way that allows for better decision making in industrial processes.

Our Five-Step Process

DMC has completed hundreds of projects incorporating a wide range of solutions. Through experience, our engineers have developed a process for implementing IIoT solutions. We begin by starting at the lowest level and then fill in the gaps, going up the stack.

Step One: Field Device Platform Selection

Getting reliable, accurate data from the physical system is the primary challenge for any system design and the most important decision you can make. Once you secure the data, you can do anything you want with it. Answer the following questions to select hardware used in the field:

• What are you trying to measure or control?
• What does the device in the field need to be able to do on its own? How complex?
• How many devices do you anticipate on deploying?
• Are you the end-user and maintainer of this equipment, or are you selling a solution (operated and maintained by others)?
• What does new device provisioning look like? (the ideal process)
• How will this device be powered?

Keep in mind, the software platform is determined by hardware selection. For example, when you pick a particular PLC, you have to use the manufacturer’s software to program it. For an embedded device this will be C++, etc.

Device Hardware: Selecting the Right Parts

Let’s say the average PLC costs $1,000, so every time you put one out in the field, that is another $1,000 of hard costs. PLCs are great for some things while NI has developed expert tech for other uses. DMC engineers can leverage experience from hundreds of completed projects to advise on making the best choice for each project.

0-10 Devices – Small Deployments

10-100 Devices – Larger Deployment, off the shelf products, but start to have cost-optimized decisions

100-1000+ Devices – Discuss an embedded solution because the hardware starts to get expensive

Step Two: Determine Communications

After determining your device platform, deciding how your networking devices are configured is key. Consistent communication between devices is essential. DMC’s engineers help scope what needs to be done. Consider the following:

• How are you going to communicate with devices?
• Where is the internet coming from?
  • Cellular, Wi-Fi, from the plant?
• What happens when the internet is not available?
  • Local caching, buffer and retry, operational impacts
• What are the protocol security requirements?
  • Encryptions, certificates, secure comm management

Step Three: Determine Cloud Platform

There are a lot of cloud platforms to choose from when you reach this phase of the process. Ask yourself, what out of the box services (provided by these hosting entities) will your application need/or take advantage of? Some cloud platforms include Azure, AWS, and Google.

This phase is when we need to assess how to save on custom development, and where it’s possible to use solid foundational pieces already developed for these types of applications. Ask yourself:

• Do you need a website?
• Do you need database(s)?
• Do you need user management?
• Do you need integrations to other cloud services?
• Do you need SMS, e-Mail, or other mass notification capabilities?
• Do you need an AI engine or advanced analytics support?
• Do you need a flexible reporting framework (points to things like PowerBI)?
• What type of data store is needed?
  • How much data?
  • How often will it be sampled?
  • How will the data be used?
• Where and how will security be enforced for cloud resources?
• How many monthly active users do you anticipate on this cloud application?
• What in house cloud/web development resources do you have?
  • What are they comfortable with and willing to maintain?

Step Four: Web Application Development

DMC’s full-stack development team builds custom web applications with intuitive interfaces designed for usability and stable back ends designed for scalability. 

Consider the following during this step:

• Define the UI/UX experience
• How are you going to onboard new users?
• How are you going to onboard new devices?
• How are you going to manage devices?
• How are users going to view data?
• What access restrictions should apply? (user levels)
• What types of notification and alerts are required?
• When should devices be alerted to changes?
• What visualizations for data or information are required?
• What type of reporting is required? How are users notified of reports?
• Is a native Mobile App also required?
• Is a generic API (accessible by third parties) required?
• Define support plan for end-users of the application

Step Five: Go Live and Maintenance

• Are you using continuous Integration tools in Development, Staging, and Production environments?
• Do you have planned downtime for production-level updates?
• Are database migrations required? Data integrity checks?
• Deploy and active service health monitors?
• Are support and service avenues (emails/phone) active and being monitored?

Industry Credentials

DMC holds several key industry credentials with leading technology providers.

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Our Work

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St. Louis took up the reigns recently with a spoof on the popular show Stranger Things. The video, featuring Patrick Corcoran (script), Chase Hollingsead (editing and script), and Caleb Stoll pokes fun at fishing and scam emails.

Filming was a fun way to bring together the, then small, St. Louis office with its new employee arrivals while also showing off for the other DMC branches. DMC St. Louis hadn't even moved into their new office yet when the video was produced.

Amid onboarding new employees and the woes of moving buildings, DMC St. Louis was determined to show off their team and do Stranger Things justice. They put in a lot of time after hours just imitating the popular opening credit sequence.

With a determination to achieve high production value in little time, the St. Louis crew debuted their masterpiece internally to the rest of DMC. Now, with great pride, and caution, we invite you to peak into the strange and terrifying world of DMC St, Louis. Parental guidance is advised.

The post Stranger Things are Going Down at DMC St. Louis appeared first on DMC, Inc..

John, Kirsten, and I thought the best way to see Chicago was on the Wendella Lake & River Tour, an architectural adventure which wraps around the Chicago River and then takes you through the lock onto Lake Michigan near Navy Pier for views of every part of downtown. 

Delicious Eats

Before heading out onto the water, we stayed at the office for some beer and delicious O’Cha Thai. Pad Thai, Spring Rolls, and free drinks from DMC’s stocked kitchen satiated our appetites. 

Anchors Away

After dinner, we all made our way to the docks with anticipation for the start of the tour.

Some of us were even giving tours before we got on the boat!

We snapped one quick group photo at the dock!

The Tour

Before the tour began, we all went below deck to grab a few drinks. What would a Welcome Party be without toasting with beer and cocktails?

The tour itself was incredible. As mentioned, it started on the Chicago River and ventured onto Lake Michigan. On the way to the lake, we learned over 200 years of Chicago history. We also heard the stories behind some of the famous architectural buildings we saw along the way. The timing of the tour couldn’t have been more perfect, with views of the city lit up at night. When we made it out onto the lake we saw the beautiful Chicago skyline.

A Welcome on the Water

As we returned from the lake and the tour was almost over, we took one last group photo with the skyline in the background.

The whole night was a great way to hang out with everybody before new employees departed for DMC’s other offices. One thing is for sure, I definitely feel welcome at DMC.

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