The Internet of Things - IoT and EHS - Alex Lima - 3 15 16

The Internet of Things - IoT and EHS - Alex Lima - 3 15 16

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  Canada & LatinAmerica Thought Leadership Series By Alex Lima, Executive Vice President of Sales, Canada, Latin America & the Caribbean at ProcessMAP The Internet of Things (IoT) and EHS A New Set of Opportunities and Challenges Visibility, alignment, information centric and disciplined execution
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  1 Introduction International Data Corporationforecasts a huge expansion in our connected world by the year 2020:  Four billion connected people.  25+ million different software applications.  25+ billion embedded, intelligent and globally connected devices.  More than 50 trillion GB of data. Quite a complex networked environment! What will this evolution bring to environmental, health and safety (EHS)? Will it give us more control to protect the environment? Will it make us healthier? Will it help make the world safer? Within this context, the concept of The Internet of Things has been growing for a while. The internet has evolved from an original email network created by DARPA to a networked world of many types of devices, platforms, applications, databases and networks bringing people and organizations closer. This evolution presents clear benefits but also significant challenges to overcome in all aspects of EHS. This paper summarizes some key points based on the exponential level of growth in connectivity and its implication to EHS, very specifically:  Safety benefits and implications.  Expected improvements to the safety of our lives and work.  Tools available to properly protect the environment.  Privacy challenges and dangers. Understanding the Internet of Things (IoT) In a May 13, 2014 Forbes Magazine article, Jacob Morgan defined IoT succinctly with the following: “Simply put this is the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from cell phones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. This also applies to components of machines, for example a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig. As I mentioned, if it has an on and off switch then chances are it can be a part of the IoT.” The conventional global internet connection between computers and users now expands to include connection through any device, in any business or organization, and within our personal lives. Some consequences that we will discuss later in more detail are immediate and include effective communication between platforms, interoperability, significant increases in the generation and collection of data, the sharing of personal data in many locations. Despite its complexity, the IoT’s effective purpose is simply to enable decision making that will improve our quality of life, optimize the operation of businesses, and protect our planet making it a better place.
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  2 Understanding the Growthof the IoT The exponential growth in connectivity in recent years is obviously credited to the technology’s penetration into our personal and professional lives. The shape of the internet is changing. BI intelligence estimates a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 35% of connected devices over the next five years including cars, wearables, smart TV’s, tablets, smartphones and PC’s. Clear implications to safety include the ability to track safety metrics, alert people of unsafe conditions, quickly calculate trends and probabilities, and control a device’s path and navigation. Google as well as some automotive manufacturers are developing self-driving cars and related technologies to mitigate the dangers presented by human error. Accelerated growth presents the technical challenge of maintain the collaborative nature of the IoT while preserving privacy and data security. As more elements are connected, the chain becomes more complex, and more points of failure become available. Consequently, it will be crucial that our approach to problems is technically sound. Figure 1 – BI Intelligence 2013 – 2019 CAGR IoT growth The Diverse Participants of the IoT In 2015, the McKinsey Institute carved the typical 9 key areas of the IoT, each containing health, safety and environmental implications. To cover all the intricacies of the IoT would be an immense task and is not suited for a single white paper. Therefore, we will focus on how these areas effect EHS. Accordingly, we will discuss behavioral, social, economic and political aspects of the IoT from the EHS perspective.
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  3 Figure 2 –McKinsey Institute, 2015 The IoT can assume a variety of forms, with various possible combinations of connected elements, never providing a linear evolution pattern. The exponential nature of growth in connectivity will disarray a Cartesian understanding of the new environment. The true differentiator is to consider each fundamental area, or setting (as McKinsey calls it) and understand the potential applications to safety, health and the environment. It is important to discern between an application’s potential and its present day possibilities. Many functionalities are available today, but are not yet economically feasible in application. EHS professionals of the future will need a holistic understanding of this new environment to help guide organizational executives into the proper levels of investments and risks. Overall complexity will increase, providing the benefit of more complete data while also presenting increased risk of security breaches. Listed below are summarized discussions of McKinsey’s key areas of IoT aimed at capturing the fundamental EHS points of each. We cannot list all potential areas of improvement in EHS management without making this list unmanageable.  Autonomous vehicles & condition-based maintenance - Self-directed vehicles show great potential for reduced costs and increased revenues by understanding maintenance patterns (e.g. recognizing the need for replacement parts) and by making driving conditions safer. Vehicles could detect road conditions, speed limitations, weather patterns and accidents ahead. Fleets would be more efficient and deliver their cargo or services in less time using less fuel. Vehicles could report in real time (RT) their conditions to a supervisory control group to optimize decision making.  Home chore automation and security – Integrated alarms with the police and security companies have been common for many years. However, with the integration of appliances, overall electricity behavior and gas consumption, owners or renters will be able to track unusual conditions or trends, and make appropriate decisions to prevent the occurrence of a short-
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  4 circuiting device oran exploding pipe. Sensors can be placed in the house to track all relevant data at an appropriate frequency, making the data available online via a smartphone, tablet or PC. Energy savings and combinations of usage of the appliances in the best time, power settings and other recommendations will become commonplace. The impact of energy savings will be massive when applied on a large scale, potentially effecting millions of homes in the many cities in the world.  Office security and energy savings – We spend considerable amount of time at work. Energy efficient buildings, integrated security systems that identify the ins and outs of a building, sensors that track any anomaly in the air conditioning systems, or the electrical substation, or smoke will mean lives saved, less operating costs and less energy consumed, which cumulatively will bring a positive impact to the environment.  Factory operations and equipment optimization – The integration of business processes and the optimization of the equipment information exchange will provide a new level of intelligence and revolutionize manufacturing efficiency, naturally linking people, technology and processes. As a by-product, shared services such as HR, Finance, Legal, IT, Logistics and Distribution will be streamlined generating more value. Energy saving techniques and new types of energy will be used in intelligent buildings and offices. Figure 3 – manufacturing machines generating and sharing data in real time  Human health and fitness – Tracking physiological conditions like blood pressure, heart-rates and sugar levels in real time can be of great value for personnel conducting several tasks including the operation of heavy equipment, activity in confined spaces, or complex maintenance of machinery. Monitoring changes in physiological conditions could identify potential health risks. Preventive measures could then be taken to reduce the overall threat to employee safety, avert damage to facility equipment, and protect the environment. Wearable tracking devices are available today in a variety of formats, data sensitivities and accuracies.
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  5 Figure 4 –North American Consumer technologies survey, 2014  Logistics and transportation – Sensors have the ability to capture operation data such as delivery times, fuel consumption, speeds, GPS location, volumes moved, and cargo weight. This data can then be integrated within the production value chain and used to aid in the optimization of the overall process. Deviations from established parameters introduce immediate safety risk and process inefficiencies. For example, a freight truck could violate parameters by traveling above its assigned speed limit, carrying a load above its weight capacity, taking a suspect route, or stopping in an unplanned area. A breach of established restrictions will prompt corrective protocol, therefore ensuring safety and efficiency. Telematics have been available for many years and are currently used in many fleets, but the integration of these techniques with safety and environmental data is new and exciting. Logistics also encapsulate the ability to monitor health data of personnel such as drivers, sailors and engine room mechanics. IoT will Force EHS to Shift from Reactive to Predictive There is no way to manage this value chain of connectivity and interdependencies without truly understanding the data, trends and patterns needed to make decisions. Companies that do not invest in business intelligence and in good data management will be increasingly overwhelmed by data collection as interconnectivity grows exponentially. These businesses and organizations will not be able to compete in this more demanding business environment. Increased connectivity leads to increased complexity of the value chain. Demands on EHS professionals will grow multi-fold to align with these extended business processes. Today’s known impediments for business intelligence will be more relevant than ever. Data quality
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  6 problems will increase;this new interconnectivity will make using applications more difficult and integration of different systems will become more complicated (but crucial). Figure 5 – barriers for business intelligence Managing EHS in a Collaborative Platform All safety, environmental and health processes will have to be managed in a structured, disciplined format. It will be impossible to coordinate all the new data requirements and make sense of these interdependencies just by using spreadsheets or portals to post EHS data and create some reports. Internally developed EHS systems and applications are traditionally poor in functionality, tend to have poor performance, lack strong collaborative features and are technically challenged as companies have focuses other than the development of EHS systems. The power of ProcessMAP to integrate multiple applications, streamline the decision-making process, allow global access and provide powerful business intelligence and analytics (including adding mobile extensions) will be of even higher value in an extended networked world. The internet of things will take the following situations, as examples, to a whole new level:  More participants in the network will create challenges for a collaborative environment, which will need to have high performance, easy access, strong security capabilities and rich functionality to accommodate so many different stakeholders.  Performance in general will be a key element. As new players are added to the network, the overall chain will become heavier. Information flows and data exchanges will naturally become more complex.  Business intelligence and analytics will become exponentially more important, but also more complex as data generation will grow tremendously. The ability to make sense of the data, generate streamlined and objective reports, dashboards and alarms will require a high level of capability and technical competence.
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  7 IoT will BringClear New and Bigger Challenges Today, most of the risk management strategies and execution that I have encountered are qualitative driven. People correlate the risks with mitigation strategies based on their experience or common sense. Quantifications are very rarely in place. When quantifications have been made, the data insight and probability methods are unclear or are gross estimates. In some cases, we see probabilities driven from the actual frequency of occurrences. However, EHS professionals generally are not yet that statistically enabled. Therefore, the concepts of expected values and probabilities are not typically applied. If they are applied, they are somewhat loose and unscientific in terms of capturing a phenomenon. This will certainly change in the next ten years. The usage of Statistical Process Controls (SPC) and the integration with other groups will provide an extended value chain with metrics to understand the capacity to form trends and patterns. Better quality of data will provide information that is more reliable. Therefore, risks will be better quantified and mitigation activities will have a strong quantitative component. EHS professionals as well as employees at every level will know more about business processes and related risks. Both groups will be more data intuitive. With increased access to data patterns, we will be able to assess a situation quickly through glancing at the data. In general, this evolution will enable tangible contributions to the business top and bottom lines through effective risk prediction and mitigation. A topic that has been extensively discussed in the media is the new level of internet security required due to increased data sharing. Data breaches and hackings present privacy concerns and introduce diverse dangers to our personal and working lives. IoT will Make Mobility and Cloud More Ubiquitous This extended value chain of the IoT will reduce distances and bring many players into the EHS decision process. Despite geographic separation, suppliers, consultants, partners, service providers, employees and clients will need to collaborate to reach EHS goals. Improved communications with a mobile extension to support decision-making will become more important, and real time access to data may be a differentiator. ProcessMAP has observed that the use of mobile audits typically yields improvements in productivity of 60 to 90%. This extended chain will become more complex and increases in productivity and cost effectiveness in EHS operations should follow with more significant dollar values. System architecture will need to be streamlined in response to the continuous growth in cloud applications. IT departments will not be able to continue to support this maze of new applications, embedded devices and external devices. Organizations may become fonder of outsourcing given the complexities introduced by the IoT.
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  8 Figure 6 –ProcessMAP application with extended mobile capabilities With stronger alignment and deeper integration with other functions within the organization, the usage of SPC, greater predictability, and better risk frameworks will introduce more requirements and complexity into the management process. Eventually, simplified infrastructure and IT environments will be required in order to allow people to focus on what is truly important. IoT will place EHS in An Accelerated Path to Perform at All Levels The IoT has already begun to revolutionize the personal, business and organizational areas of our lives. It will only become more pervasive in the coming decade, with millions and billions of devices connected. Connected devices such as monitors, wearable systems, industrial automation and business applications can provide additional insights to EHS professionals including machine status, meantime to failure, breakdown consequences, spills and other elements. The EHS professional will need a holistic view of its business in order to provide a safer, healthier and cleaner working environment. They will become information specialists as they learn to navigate through dashboards, statistics, trends and patterns more proficiently. EHS professionals will have to communicate more extensively within as well as outside the organization, stating their cases and needs.