Outcomes, Insights and Best Practices from IIC Testbeds: MQM Testbed
understand their specific needs and identify
the elements and the process required to
solve the problem.
seriously. The IIRA and IISF were important
resources from a technical perspective and
were also used to help articulate the role of
IoT for the end user. Their importance is also
apparent in the collaborative nature of the
publishing of these documents – because
the IIRA and the IISF were each produced by
a teams of experts from a wide spectrum of
member organizations of the IIC, the
documents carry a universal acceptance that
the underlying recommendations and best
practices will apply across solutions and
vendors – not just a recommendation from
Huawei, but a widely respected approach for
the industry.
IIC Foundational Documents as Resources
Two technical documents which have
benefited this Testbed greatly are the IIC’s
IIRA and the Industrial Internet Security
Framework (IISF). Because these two
documents were available at the start of the
MQM Testbed, they helped the testbed
team easily lay out all that needed to be
done to renovate Haier’s production
process. Part of the reason Haier was initially
reluctant to adopt IoT technology in their
production process is because they have
long-standing, separate routines across all of
their different channels. The plans to
implement IoT systems would require them
to adapt a new architecture, which they
were not yet prepared to do. The IIRA clearly
describes the three-tier architecture the
testbed team was recommending and
provided a “visual” to support how all the IoT
elements played together. With the
guidance of the IIRA and the testbed team’s
understanding of the challenges and
elements of structuring the projected
solution, Haier understood the steps and
requirements and agreed to move forward
with the project.
Small Change, Huge Improvement
The task of retrofitting the existing factory
required in this project was not as difficult as
originally thought because the initial
assumption was they would need a high
level of integration. However, a simple
reevaluating of the design was all that was
needed. Using the quality checking station as
an example the testbed team originally
thought they would need to retrofit the
welding station with high tech sensors
integrated with the welding head to monitor
the welding process. After reviewing the
whole process, the work was refocused on
the quality check station, which proved to be
a more manageable spot for the testbed.
Furthermore, the trial run of the AI-based
analytical engine did not provide satisfactory
results: The microphone on the quality check
station also picked up additional ambient
noise. With some experimentation, the
analytics were not able to filter out the
ambient factory noise effectively. The
performance was eventually optimized by
placing the tested unit and the microphone
in a “sound proof” chamber at the test
station.
There are implicit concerns about moving
systems to the internet: exposure to the
outside world, vulnerability to attacks,
damage to the factory, etc. The first phase of
the testbed project was managed locally so
cyber security was not a primary concern.
Fully automating so that Haier can link all of
its factories in their own multi-site requires
the cyber security risk to be addressed. At
that time, the IISF provided guidance for
Haier to understand the importance of
taking security and safety matters very
IIC Journal of Innovation
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