The Role of Networks in Modern Manufacturing

Enabling Smart Factories

Digital transformation is not just a trend but a necessity for manufacturers aiming to thrive in the modern era. By embracing Industry 4.0, companies can unlock new levels of efficiency, innovation, and competitiveness.

In this section of my website I would like to demonstrate lab experiments showcasing the modern network architecture and its impact on security at the industrial level.

Digital transformation in manufacturing and security is crucial for staying ahead in today's rapidly evolving landscape.

Digital transformation in manufacturing refers to integrating advanced digital technologies into all aspects of the production process, enabling companies to operate more efficiently, innovate faster, and deliver better products to the market. It involves leveraging data, connectivity, and intelligent systems to enhance productivity, reduce costs, and improve decision-making.

Today we face the challenge of how to integrate both systems together, PLC logic and an enterprise network, with their full potential for supporting a business.

In this short article, I would like to outline the proposed network architecture from Cisco and Rockwell Automation released publications. They presented a comprehensive study showing the optimal design of network solutions for IoT (Internet of Things).

As a manufacturing engineer with 20 years of experience, I have built an understanding of complex systems and process optimisation. Recently, I have become passionate about networking and security, actively learning and improving my skills in these areas. Thus, I am delighted to interact about this topic and hear your thoughts.

Cisco and Rockwell designed network architecture to integrate industrial networks with a wide range of PLC hardware from the different vendors. The solution is called CPwE (Converged PlantWide Ethernet), which expertly integrates the IACS network (Industrial Automation and Control System) with the IP enterprise networks. The IACS network is a system that manages, controls, and monitors the PLC hardware, like sensors, actuators, and controllers, to optimise and automate the production processes.

Leading change, driving innovation, and ensuring the successful implementation

The digital transformation of manufacturing plants is undoubtedly on the verge of happening. Therefore, it's critical to comprehend how this process can be adopted smoothly. Mostly, a technology transformation of production lines is driven by factory managers and production principal engineers. Unfortunately, they do not always have a deep knowledge of standard networking technologies for the benefits of plant operations in the future. They often miss an opportunity for scalability, network performance, and compatibility with communication protocols for other vendors hardware. In today's days, the IT department is an integral part of manufacturing transformation and plays a crucial role in implementing and optimising these technologies for plant operations.

Cisco Solution to Industry 4.0

In some cases there is a logical solution to bring outsourcing expertise with deep knowledge of production automation processes and enterprise network infrastructure, but the final decision and responsibility are left to senior management of the organisation and its IT department.

Cisco's solution to the network connection between business and industrial communication protocols is truly interesting. I should use the word "industrial communication protocols" because the integration system is not only communication with the IACS devices like robots, sensors, actuators, and motor drivers. It is communication with PAC (Programmation Automation Controles), DSC (Distributed Control System), and the high-level factory system MES (Manufacturing Execution System).

The architecture of CPwE focuses on integrating all of these elements (IACS, PAC, DSC, and MES) in one Ethernet IP system, which makes it a beautiful, well-combined system.

The main benefit of CPwE is the blending of the IACS system with the enterprise network to support the integrity of manufacturing information, filling the gap between IACS devices and the enterprise network. It means that the enterprise system is integrated seamlessly into the harsh environment. The two main key characteristics of a CPwE system are interoperability and interconnectivity. The CPwE system ensures that devices from different vendors can communicate and work together effectively. The network architecture is based on standard Internet standards and CIP protocols. Real-time communication (low latency/jitter, deterministic performance), availability (QoS), Security (DMZ, ACLs, firewalls, intrusion detection), manageability (SNMP, smartports), and scalability of the network make the CPwE architecture extremely attractive in today's network implementation for modern manufacturing factories.