Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Disruptive Technologies Mean A Fast Changing Landscape for Utilities


Article by Peter Batty; originally published in Geospatial World, http://ow.ly/G0xl8

The major growth in Web and mobile applications is starting to have significant impact in the utility sector. But, will this disruption in the technological environment help the utility sector in simplifying their solutions? 
The geospatial industry is currently going through substantial changes, and these are starting to have a significant impact in the utility sector, as well as other industries. Clayton Christensen talks about the idea of “disruptive technologies” in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma. He describes examples from many industries of how technologies which were initially regarded as too “low end” for mainstream users improve in functionality and performance over time, to the point where they can meet the needs of users in the mainstream market, and can start to displace the previous generation of more complex solutions, typically with a simpler and lower cost approach. Google Maps is a prime example of a disruptive technology in the enterprise geospatial market: it was initially focused on the simpler consumer market, but it, and other similar systems, have grown in capability and now have many applications in the enterprise.

Another way of looking at changes happening in the IT market is the idea of consumer-led IT. It used to be the case that technology innovations would happen first in enterprise systems and then later these would flow to the consumer. But the consumer technology market is now so large that innovations tend to happen first there. Google Maps is one example, as just mentioned. Another is the huge growth in smartphones and tablets which was driven by the consumer market, and while adoption in the enterprise is growing, it still lags significantly behind.

The Web mapping revolution

 Google Maps: Launched in 2005, Google Maps dominated the consumer web mapping space due its ease of use and performance, together with an easy mechanism to incorporate it into third party websites. A common complaint I have heard from utility GIS users is “why isn’t our expensive GIS as fast and easy to use as Google Maps?” In recent years we have started to see more use of Google Maps, and other similar modern Web mapping technologies, in utility environments. This is typically in addition to a traditional GIS: the Web application makes that data available to a much larger number of users.

The ease of use and familiarity of a Google Maps style solution is extremely important in being able to roll out this type of solution to many users in an enterprise, who typically are not familiar with GIS. A key aim should be that users can use at least basic features of the system without any training. A danger is that “GIS experts” sometimes have a tendency to add too many features and too much complexity to web applications, which can overwhelm the typical user.

Open source software: There are various alternatives to Google Maps that provide a similar style of simple Web map, including Bing Maps and MapQuest. There are also multiple open source software solutions, including the Leaflet and OpenLayers JavaScript libraries, which are very widely used by Web developers. In general, there are lot of geospatial open source software components available now that have the capabilities and robustness to be used in serious enterprise applications — widely used server side components include GeoServer and the PostGIS spatial relational database. In some cases, utilities are directly implementing solutions based on these components, in others third party software vendors are building utility focused solutions on top of them.

 Enterprise mashups: Web applications commonly make use of lightweight integration techniques to pull data from multiple websites, an approach that is often known as a “mashup”. Similar techniques can be used in the enterprise to visualise many different datasets on the same map. Examples in utilities include jobs, outages, crew locations, customer information and more. Location provides a link between these different datasets that can provide insights that would not otherwise be apparent. For example, an electric utility might look at how its recent tree-related outages relate to vegetation management operations over the past year.


Example of electric network data overlaid on
Google Map backdrop, and integrated with
Google Street View
Example of electric network data overlaid on Google Map backdrop, and integrated with Google Street View

In general, it is much simpler to share data between different geospatial systems than it used to be, which makes it much easier for enterprises to implement solutions from multiple geospatial vendors. In many cases the large established GIS vendors may not have a strong incentive to embrace disruptive lower cost web solutions from Google and others — this is part of the classic “innovator’s dilemma” that Clayton Christensen wrote about.

 The mobile revolution: Mobile geospatial applications in utilities are currently undergoing substantial change. Widely available wireless network communications enable real-time communication to and from field workers, which opens up many possibilities for significantly improving business processes. When combined with the growth in smart network- connected devices on utility networks (smart meters, intelligent switches and sensors, etc), everyone in a utility, either in the office or in the field can have a near real time view of the current state of the enterprise. Many of the established field mapping solutions at utilities pre-date Google Maps and modern wireless networks, and are geared to downloading data periodically and working offline, rather than working with real time data. Of course, the ability to work offline when needed is a key requirement, but newer systems are designed to work either online or offline as needed. Managing large amounts of offline geospatial data remains something of a challenge — there is just inherently quite a lot of administration needed to keep hundreds or thousands of offline copies of a large geospatial database in sync.

A new technology that shows promise for offline working is HTML5, the latest Web technology which is supported across all modern browsers. This provides the ability to store a moderate amount of data offline in the browser — not enough for large portions of a typical utility’s territory, but enough to store data for a small number of electric circuits say, or a typical day’s worth of jobs. HTML5 offline capabilities are still somewhat immature and differ across browsers, but over the next few years as this technology develops and wireless network coverage continues to improve, it is likely that the role of HTML5 offline storage will grow, relative to the traditional download and sync of large data volumes.

One thing worth noting is that Google terms of service specifically prohibit use of either its data or code offline, which limits its applicability for utility field applications. The open source libraries Leaflet or OpenLayers are alternatives that can be used offline, and for basemap data, OpenStreetMap provides a good alternative.

Another key trend in mobile applications is the use of tablets and smartphones, rather than laptops or quite limited PDAs or GPS devices used in older generation field applications. With high-quality touch screens and built in wireless communications, GPS and cameras, modern tablets are excellent devices for field applications. A challenge here is that the mobile market is quite fragmented in terms of operating systems, with Android, Apple’s iOS and Microsoft all having a reasonable presence in the enterprise market. No clear winner has yet emerged in this space, and there is also a trend towards “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD), where employees can use their personal phones or tablets for business applications.

All of these factors combine to make a cross-platform mobile strategy, with applications that can run across all these operating systems, a desirable approach. Web-based applications work in this regard of course. Handling offline work in a cross platform way is a little more effort. There are some cross platform development tools such as PhoneGap, or its open source equivalent Apache Cordova, which enable applications to be compiled from HTML and JavaScript into native applications on all of these platforms. Phonegap also provides a means to have greater access to the mobile device, including local storage, than is available via a web application.
Utility mapping application running on an iPad
Utility mapping application running on an iPad
 Crowdsourcing: Another interesting development that has grown primarily in the consumer space, but increasingly has application in the enterprise, is the use of crowdsourcing for creation and maintenance of geospatial data. The best known example is OpenStreetMap, a map of the world that is free to use and can be edited by anyone. In many parts of the world its quality is as good as or better than commercial equivalents.

One impact of OpenStreetMap is simply in its potential for use as a basemap layer in enterprise applications, especially offline where alternatives like Google Maps cannot be used. But it is also significant in that it has shown that good quality map products can be created by non-specialist users without any special training. The lesson for enterprises here is that it makes sense to enable more users of the data, especially users in the field, participate in contributing corrections to data if they find errors. In the past it has generally been assumed that most field workers did not have the skills to do these sort of updates, but OpenStreetMap has shown that this is not the case, especially where users have a vested interest in seeing the data improved, which utility field workers do.

Another good example of crowdsourcing is for damage assessment, after a storm or other incident. All smartphones now have the ability to take geotagged photos, that have a GPS coordinate stored with them indicating where they were taken. It is easy to load and display such pictures on a map, either by asking people to email them, upload them to a website, or by pulling photos from social media sites like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. This can provide a very rich source of data for quickly evaluating the extent of damage.

Summing up
Currently, the most active area of change in the utility geospatial market is in web and mobile applications, leveraging the major technology changes that have been seen in these areas in recent years. Major benefits can be achieved with a relatively small incremental investment, by expanding use of geospatial data to many more users and many more business processes. Technology originating in the consumer market, both software and hardware, is having a major influence.

There is not major change in backend traditional GIS platforms — in general these are well entrenched, with a lot of customisation and integration with other systems. There is little obvious benefit to changing, and a lot of cost to do so.

As smart grid technologies roll out over the coming years, there may be more change in backend systems, as there is more pressure to handle real time data. Currently network applications are handled by a mix of GIS, OMS (Outage Management Systems), DMS (Distribution Management Systems), EMS (Energy Management Systems), SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquistion), and MDMS (Meter Data Management Systems), with varying degrees of integration between them. It seems as though there should be opportunity to rationalise the number of systems involved, but this is a complex challenge both technically and in terms of organisation and process issues.

- See more at: http://geospatialworld.net/Magazine/MArticleView.aspx?aid=31228#sthash.en8SZNg4.dpuf


Friday, December 12, 2014

Contactless Technologies Conference – Lille, France

Ubisense Real-Time Location and Manufacturing industry experts Christian Raux and Hubert Peyre presented at the Contactless Technologies Conference in Lille this week. The event, held on December 9, was entirely dedicated to indoor location technologies.

Ubisense is a global leader in Enterprise Location Intelligence solutions for Manufacturing, Communications and Utilities companies. We enable some of the world’s largest businesses to improve operational effectiveness, significantly increasing their profitability. Christian and Hubert were among the few speakers at the event who were demonstrating the powerful benefits of location intelligence solutions in industrial applications.

Ubisense engineers have over 30 combined years of in-service operation with our flagship product Smart Factory, which is used by top automotive and aerospace companies around the world. Smart Factory is a production-certified system, designed specifically to help manufacturers sustain continuous flow, optimize efficiency and reduce errors in manual assembly processes.


The conference in Lille was a fantastic opportunity for Hubert and Christian to talk to customers, prospects, and other industry personnel, and to demonstrate the limitless possibilities for operational improvement that location intelligence solutions can deliver.

For more information on Ubisense, visit our website at www.ubisense.net.Or to find out about the event, click here:









Thursday, December 04, 2014

New Technologies Help Reduce Storm Restoration Times

Implementing change can be challenging, especially when it involves technology and mission-critical processes like storm damage assessment. You have a process that works; the power always gets restored. But the process could work better and be more efficient; the power could be restored faster. Damage assessment is a critical part of the restoration process and managing it efficiently and effectively benefits you, your crews, and most importantly: your customers.

Watch this quick video about the state of damage assessment today and how new technologies are driving its evolution. In this video, Jay Cadman discusses

  • Why now is the time for change
  • How to start the conversation internally to initiate change
  • The technologies available today that can help improve damage assessment
  • The benefits you can expect to see from improving your damage assessment process



Thursday, November 20, 2014

Ubisense Smart Factory: Delivering Never Before Possible Visibility for Manufacturers Worldwide

By Adrian Jennings, CTO Americas

This week, Ubisense announced enhancements to its Smart Factory system that will be available early next year.  Admittedly, we’ve been a tad quiet about Smart Factory so I thought I’d formally introduce you to one of the most advanced location intelligence offerings available to manufacturers today.

Ubisense Smart Factory is a production-certified system that helps manufacturers sustain continuous flow, optimize efficiency and reduce errors in manual assembly processes. By accurately identifying and locating process-critical assets, Smart Factory provides real-time operational awareness, adaptive control and data-driven insights.

Using a sophisticated system that combines advanced hardware (tags and sensors) with software, Ubisense Smart Factory can reveal an entirely new level of visibility to help manufacturers gain efficiencies at a level never before possible. Think massive improvements in quality, productivity, and operational control and costs – all which help manufacturers more effectively manage mass product customization, which is where our world is headed.

For instance, in 2012, car buyers in Europe had 190 different car model choices. In 2019, the number will increase to an estimated 230 different models[1]. Producing that level of variation requires a substantial number of different parts and processes.  How can manufacturers possibly maintain quality by delivering on the demand for customization and choice? Ubisense Smart Factory.


Want to learn more about Smart Factory? Click here to access a video showcasing one example of how Ubisense helped BMW: http://ubisense.net/en/resources/videos.html.




[1] PwC Autofacts 2014 Q2 Data Release

Friday, October 24, 2014

Don’t Get Lost in the Hype

By Adrian Jennings, CTO Americas

Yesterday, I hosted a webinar, Visibility in Manufacturing: The Path to Industry 4.0. To a handful of manufacturers, the coming age of cyber-physical systems is the inevitable next step. For most, however, these concepts are decades away from mass adoption. I advise you not to worry.


Don’t get lost in the hype.


Instead, focus on mastering Industry 3.0 concepts, more specifically - automation, to gain greater visibility and control over your manufacturing operations in the nearer term. Tackling visibility from process to product to department and eventually throughout your entire organization, will feed into and support your ultimate path to Industry 4.0.

Listen, I meet with manufacturers often and I am consistently asked how they compare to others in the industry. So during the webinar, we asked attendees a few questions about the state of their manufacturing operations. Below is the Q&A we conducted.


How close are you to adopting Industry 4.0?
Doing it now 36%
Plan to start in 2015 21%
It's in our five year plan 21%
We haven't even thought about it 21%


Do you spend at least an hour a day searching for assets or products?
Yes 79%
No 21%
How many variations of a product do you build on a single line?
One 0%
Tens 38%
Hundreds 31%
Thousands 31%
What is the main cause of manual errors in your plant?
People 60%
Process 40%

What percentage of wireless tools do you have in your plant?
0-10% 46%
11-20% 31%
21-50% 23%
51% and up 0%

Interestingly enough, the results collected during this webinar are in line with the survey we conducted over the summer that reflects answers from more than 250 manufacturers. So what does this tell us? Many things really, but fundamentally – manufacturers need more visibility so they can improve productivity, efficiency, and their bottom line.

How can manufacturers gain more visibility? During the webinar, I outlined a few steps to consider:

Be SelfishStart small and local. Pick a pain point and tackle it. Prove to your organization and yourself that the technology you choose works.

Be Forward ThinkingUnderstand your next step and ultimate goal and invest in the right infrastructure from the outset.

Be Cooperative Share your success and work with other people and departments. There are significant benefits when the entire organization invests in technology that contributes to greater visibility and control.

Be Supportive Guide other plants through the process to help the organization prepare for the final step – Industry 4.0.

If you’d like to learn more, you can access the webinar on-demand at http://bit.ly/ZJFbwh. Of course, if you have any questions please contact me at Adrian.Jennings@ubisense.net.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

How Do Manufacturers Gauge Performance or Use Real-Time Information?

The 2014 Smart Manufacturing Technologies Survey was designed to collect feedback on how manufacturers use real-time intelligence and to gauge performance indicators such as unscheduled downtime, productivity, and quality issues. The findings from this survey provided Ubisense with a snapshot of the state of the manufacturing industry and clarity into current market needs. This insight helps Ubisense optimize its Smart Factory solution which enables manufacturers to turn data into knowledge and dramatically increase the visibility of their products, movements, and locations. 

Download this Free White Paper to Find Out





Thursday, October 02, 2014

The Promised Land

Written by: Adrian Jennings, CTO of real-time location intelligence solutions

When I was a budding rocket scientist playing with missiles in the wilder parts of England, it always seemed to me that my colleagues across the pond in the US had it so much better. I imagined they were better trained, better resourced and altogether lived in some kind of Promised Land. When I eventually moved to the US I’m not sure whether I was gratified or disappointed to find that they had all the same constraints and issues we faced in the UK. In fact, we had pioneered some techniques that the US was keen to learn.

I imagine it must sometimes feel the same working in a manufacturing plant and reading in the press all about cyber-connected systems, Industry 4.0 and the like. It must often feel like everyone else has better technology and better processes than you, and surely that means they are much farther ahead.

Well, just as I discovered when moving to the US: they don’t have anything better than you, and they aren’t any further ahead. Ubisense’s recent survey of smart technologies in manufacturing revealed exactly that. Whereas a few pioneers have adopted advanced manufacturing technologies, most plants still rely on mostly manual processes and have a distinct lack of operational visibility.

The results of the survey are available in a white paper, which also discusses a path to better visibility and better processes – one that doesn’t require huge technological leaps into some imagined Promised Land. Have a look at the white paper: http://bit.ly/1vpRUPm. You might be comforted to know that many others face the same problems you do. And who knows – maybe you’re the one who’s ahead?


Monday, September 29, 2014

Ubisense Germany Celebrates 10th Anniversary

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ubisense Germany, the Ubisense team met in Bendorf to partake in some team-building activities (geocaching) and to enjoy a celebratory barbecue. 











Thursday, September 18, 2014

The Ubisense Team -- Denver, CO

All North American Ubisense employees gathered in Denver, CO for a collaborative and educational 3-day team meeting. 


























Friday, May 30, 2014

Ubisense In Action

Ubisense Canada (+ friends) enjoy the wilderness with a mountain bike adventure.      
Meeting of the Minds: myWorld Development Team

Our IT Team is brilliant at fixing all of our problems. Pictured: Cio Esparza, US Team

FME World Tour Recap: Using Data to Connect, Transform, and Automate Applications

By Edson Enohi

FME World Tour is an event happening around the world in more than 50 cities from April through May bringing the most recent information about data connecting applications, transforming, and automating. This year, for the first time as part of this FME World Tour, FME partner Geoplan (Ubisense), together with FME creator Safe Software, organized the event in Japan. Around 100 attendees participated at the event held in Tokyo and Nagoya.

In the first half-session of the event, top academic researchers from Tokyo university (Kato professor), Nagoya university (Kawaguchi professor), and OpenStreet Foundation Japan (Furuhashi leader) were invited as keynote speakers to talk about their recent works related to OpenData. In the second half-session, FME use cases were presented by the end customer (Pragmatica company, Iijima-san) and FME products were introduced by Geoplan and Safe Software to the audience.

Conference opening by Takushi Oda (master of ceremonies)

The Kato professor, a specialist in natural disaster studies for big cities, pointed out the preparation needs in Japan for disaster prevention and the lessons learned from the past earthquakes. The studies of the cities’ damages were explained depending on the intensity of earthquake and illustrated by several thematics on the maps. Opendata is providing great contributions, visualizing and sharing the data to better understand the local area, identify new issues, and locate houses of elderly people, which might help to save more lives during critical situations.

On the crisis management, the following three points become important: self-help, mutual assistance, and public body assistances. The professor emphasized the importance of keeping sustainability of these points.
The Kawaguchi professor, a specialist in location services, information pointed out cases of using collected big data of people moving around Nagoya station area. The data were analyzed by different times of the day, combining the location data inside the station and the outside data. Depending on the day and time, different services might be offered, and big data analytics provide good information for that.

The Furuhashi leader from OpenStreetMap Foundation Japan pointed out the increase of people interested in OpenStreetMap, made the audience learn the word “CCBY,” which means free to copy, print, and reuse. Displaying “CCBY’ is the only requirement to use OpenStreetmap. The Haiti earthquake was illustrated as a case of the OpenstreetMap community helping to create maps for Haiti in a short time, supporting the UN rescuers’ logistics during the disaster.

FME helps to move data from hundreds of different formats enabling use and sharing. Iijima-san from Pragmatica explained cases of transforming data by reprojecting, aggregating, summarizing, extracting coordinates, translating data, extracting, transforming to raster, etc.


FME Introduction by Edson Enohi
The new FME 2014 is supporting new formats for data reading and writing from Amazon Cloud Services, Google Cloud services, Revit (3D/BIM), etc. Among these formats, Google Maps Engine (GME) formats were highlighted, and cities like San Jose and Edmonton are loading several datasets into Google Map Gallery and sharing it with the public for better services. As an example, search Google for “Edmonton map gallery” to find around 80 datasets street project constructions, soccer fields, tree species, etc. Vancouver and San Francisco are also proactively using FME to open their data from several input sources into their web sites.

The 3D/BIM session also attracted the attention of the audience, with Kevin from Safe Software highlighting cases of using cityGML, IFC, Sketchup, and Revit format . For example, from complex BIM data, visualize it on the FME inspector, routing the data per floor, extracting spaces, or volumes from data.

In summary, Opendata, Big data, data analytics, cloud, and 3D/BIM are hot topics from the Geospatial market. New business opportunities are just starting from these segments, and the audience was eager to get the latest information from the event.

I am already looking forward for the next year FME World Tour!

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Leveraging Location Data to Uncover the Hidden Factory

Written By: Darcie Cousins, Technical Sales Consultant, UK

By consuming location data in real-time and transforming it into visible, actionable information, Ubisense solutions reveal the ‘hidden factory’ and empower managers and executives to improve production processes, improve product quality, and automate key business processes to make their operations leaner and more efficient. 

What does that actually mean? Well, here is one analogy that might help, and it’s all about location.

Twenty years ago, if you wanted to get from Point A to Point B, you probably pulled out a paper map of the region you were traveling in. You may have had to take some time to locate your start and end points if you weren’t already familiar with where things were. Then you would assess your various route options and plan the best possible route according to your priorities – fastest, shortest, most scenic, etc.

It was time consuming and somewhat risky. Your map probably didn't show road construction and if it was out of date your planned route may not have been the most efficient – newer, larger roads might have been built that would have been a better option had you known about them. If it was a long journey, the map may have had some service stations marked but for the most part finding places to stop or eat along the way was all part of the "mystery" and "adventure" of the fabled road trip.

Once you set off, you were never sure what was just around the corner. How many times did you sit for hours in bumper to bumper traffic because of an accident or road construction? How many greasy diners did you eat at, not knowing your favorite healthy restaurant franchise was just one mile away? Did you ever really know what ETA to give your anxious relatives waiting for you? Have you ever spent a nervous hour driving through the desert hoping to find a service station with the fuel gauge dropping lower and lower? I have.

Kids today have no idea what this was like – it is the 21st century equivalent of the "walked ten miles to school with no shoes" stories our grandparents told us. This is because today we have smart phones, and these phones are running location aware applications.

Have you ever thought about how many of the apps we use daily are using location data to make our lives better and easier? My phone lists dozens, including apps for fitness, bird watching, shopping, weather, public transportation, parking, and travel. Now when I want to take a road trip I load a crowd sourced navigation app. It offers me multiple route options to choose from and displays trip distance, time, and current traffic conditions along the way. It lets me send my ETA to a friend, and even provides a link for them to monitor my trip progress in real time. Other users enter information about traffic conditions, accidents, or hazards in the road in real time, and the app will offer me a new route to help avoid them. 

All of this functionality makes travel much more efficient and pleasant than it used to be. It eliminates a lot of wasted time, effort, and energy by giving me all the information I need to make the right decisions according to my goals and preferences – and all in real time.

Ubisense Real Time Location Intelligence (RTLI) solutions are designed to bring the time and money saving features of these applications we all take for granted in our personal lives and apply them to business environments. Using the Smart Factory product set, manufacturers are able to answer important questions about the current state of production using information provided in real time. 

The system consumes location data that can come from various sources – Ubisense sensors and tags, handheld barcode readers, passive RFID tags and readers, PLCs, and so on – and transforms it into business intelligence. Businesses who have invested in this technology are now able to understand the secrets that were previously hidden in the factory:
  • Where is Product123 right now?  
  • How far through the production process is Product123? (Is it running on time?)
  • Are there any known quality issues on Product123? (Is it in rework?)
  • When is Product123 likely to be finished? (Is it at risk of exceeding the target production time?)
  • What tools have been used to assemble Product123? (Does this match the bill of materials for that product?)
  • What is the average time that products are spending in process step 4? (Is this in line with our performance goals?)
  • Does process step 4 take more time for some types of products than others? (Let’s look into why.)

Smart Factory includes a powerful rules and events engine that is able to monitor for specific situations and proactively alert production leaders to events they are interested in:
  • The Ageing WIP KPI is in danger of being exceeded for product123. (It needs to be prioritized.)
  • Workspace 4 can only accommodate three vehicles, but four have been parked there. (This carries an increased risk of paint damage.)
  • A vehicle with an unresolved electrical fault just entered the Pass to Sales area. (It must be repaired it before it leaves the site.)
  • A part that is vulnerable to corrosion has been in a workspace longer than it should be. (It must be protected to prevent scrap.)
  • Part123 just deviated from its defined production workflow. (It needs to get back on track.)

Smart Factory can add value to production processes on its own, or act as an ‘enabling’ technology augmenting existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), or Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) systems. It provides the location intelligence that takes manufacturers out of the age of paper maps and brings them into the age of smart applications. Just as technology as made travel safer and more efficient, Ubisense RTLI solutions make navigating your business more efficient and cost-effective.