Triad of Evolution, Industrialization and Digital Architecture

Introduction

The iconic work by Charles Darwin on the origin of species is pivotal in a way that it changed how the human society looked at itself in scientific terms. Evolution as a process forms its basis on the survivability of Life in general and adaptation of species’ to be specific. The physical traits those are carried over to future generations by the parents are generally based on the availability of the resources based on the requirements surrounding their living atmosphere. These physical traits may not yet offer any quantifiable benefit to the subsequent generations, but the descendants eventually make use of them by forming new habits. This ensures that Life continues, albeit in different form that has not been thought of by earlier generations.

This article looks at Digital Architecture in manufacturing in similar context and presents a case of where it stands today and argues how it has reached thus far from the time of first Industrial Revolution. It also highlights the opportunity that is staring in front of the Digital community at large in Manufacturing sector with the breach of limitations of Data storage and Processing through Cloud based technologies.

The traits that this article looks at are:

·????? Avoid big risks

·????? Small but definitive changes with cascading effect

·????? Survival of the fittest

Industrial Revolution

As the human society expanded by the day with the expansion of knowledge, it was required to start making goods and extend services in a structured way to meet the demands of the society at large. Thus came the first Industrial Revolution and its descendants. Let us look briefly the important aspects of these:

?The human perceived world has changed forever post the start of industrial revolution in the last 250 years or so, though Homo Sapiens as a species “evolved” approximately around 300,000 years ago. So, how the traits listed above impacted the Industry at large?

Avoid Big Risks

Robustness doesn’t occur from nowhere to a system. It is a systemic strength building either voluntarily or involuntarily. Failure is part of such a process. A system can learn immensely by taking small incremental steps by learning from small failures. While it is essential to take risks, it is also essential to minimize it to avoid doom. In other way, it is about taking errors of omission instead of errors of commission.

What nature teaches us?

A bumblebee is a hairy insect that barely measures an inch in length. The species have been around for 30 million years. Whenever a bumblebee landed on a flower with a crab spider and if it happens that the spider just leaves its pray, the bumble starts to avoid foraging flowers even if it is hungry for a while. This instinct to avoid danger must have played a huge role in its survival over many million years.

What industrialization teaches us?

The classic case of the fame of Airships in early 20th century and with the disaster of Hindenburg in USA teaches why big risks should be avoided. Airships were made of an that can easily catch fire while it depended on flammable Hydrogen gas for lift off. Based on various hypotheses, Hindenburg could be caught on Fire because of Static Electricity, Gas leak, Paint used on its surface, Fuel leak, etc. After their invention by Wright brothers, aircraft have become true flying machines for travelling long distances as the manufacturing and servicing process is industrialized. In depth studies are done once even after every small mishap to strengthen the way airplanes are manufactured and operated to reach where we are today.

How to apply this in Industrial Architecture in Industry 4.0?

Digital system challenge is a three-pronged thing in which it must address the continuously changing technological landscape, meet the demands of various actors of the system and provide value on its output. The Architecture design must thus be resilient to meet these 3 aspects while allowing to take small risks to build a robust eco-system. Hence,

·????? Build adaptable systems that evolve with technological and market shifts.

·????? Conduct stress tests to identify vulnerabilities in architecture before implementation.

·????? Focus on resilience, ensuring that even if one component fails, the broader system remains functional.

Small but definitive changes with cascading effect

If a characteristic is altered definitively in an organism, it leads to cascading effect based on the surrounding.

What nature teaches us?

Dmitri and Lyudmila’s experiments on Silver Fox in Siberia solved age old puzzle of the numerous physical similarities of domesticated animals – White dots on black pie bald pattern on skin, Floppy ears, Rolled tails and importantly their bone structure. Over the course of few generations of domesticating wild foxes, they could prove that these traits could visibly be seen.

What industrialization teaches us?

An excellent example from the Industrial Revolution that demonstrates the idea of small but definitive changes with cascading effects is the invention of James Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny in 1764. This invention lead to increased productivity, mechanized production, drop in the cost of textiles, improved agricultural practices and factory based system. The small but definitive change that unleashed a cascade of technological, social, and economic transformations. It underscores how modest innovations during the Industrial Revolution had far-reaching and interconnected impacts that shaped the modern world.

How to apply this in Industrial Architecture in Industry 4.0?

By catalyzing an action on one / few of the core aspects of the digital environment, the entire system can be triggered for change with minimal impact since the design approach shall be slow and incremental over many Waves. By experimenting on a important by a small landscape creatively, a true transformative system can be built that can be aesthetically good with friendly features and is also empthtic in terms of solving a business problem. Below are some of the examples that can be experimented upon:

·????? Focus on core nodes: Upgrading a manufacturing plant’s data collection system to real-time IoT-enabled sensors can improve decision-making across supply chain management, production efficiency, and predictive maintenance.

·????? Modular Design: Break down the architecture into independent but interconnected modules, as Guenther suggests for enterprise systems. Implementing energy-efficient Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems in a factory may reduce operational costs and environmental impact, which could lead to adopting similar practices in other facilities.

·????? Leverage Feedback Loops: Build feedback mechanisms into your architecture to monitor how small changes influence other parts of the system. Deploying analytics tools to track machine downtime and using insights to tweak scheduling systems could improve overall factory throughput.

·????? Embrace Scalability: ?Design changes with scalability in mind. Small improvements should set the stage for larger transformations as needs evolve. Implementing a lean manufacturing process in one department might improve efficiency there, eventually serving as a template for the entire organization.

Survival of the fittest

This famously described trait coined by Charles Darwin is well received and understood and Homo Sapiens as a Species is the living example for this. The genus Homo includes a diverse array of species that lived over millions of years, each contributing to the evolutionary story of modern humans. Such similar Species to Homo Sapiens are Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals), Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo floresiensis ("The Hobbit"), Homo denisova (Denisovans), Homo naledi, Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis.

Homo sapiens survived due to their superior cognitive abilities, enabling complex language, problem-solving, and cooperation, which fostered innovation and adaptability in diverse environments. They formed large social networks that allowed the exchange of knowledge, division of labor, and collective action, giving them an edge over other human species. Additionally, their ability to migrate and adapt to changing climates, coupled with interbreeding that assimilated beneficial genes from other hominins like Neanderthals and Denisovans, ensured their survival while others went extinct.

What industrialization teaches us?

Companies those adapted the large-scale changes have survived while others are not. Some of the aspects of Industrial Revolution gives credence to this as below.

·????? Efficiency and Scalability: Businesses that optimized resources, reduced costs, and scaled production dominated their sectors, reflecting "fitness" in economic terms. Henry Ford's introduction of the assembly line drastically increased automobile production efficiency, setting the standard for manufacturing.

·????? Innovation Drives Survival: Continuous innovation in products, processes, and business models ensures relevance in a rapidly evolving landscape. Those were founded during industrialization thrived by continuously innovating across industries, from lighting to aviation and anything in between.

·????? Collaboration Over Isolation: Survival often depended on forming networks and ecosystems, much like in nature, where cooperation can enhance resilience and growth. Industrial supply chains and partnerships allowed businesses to specialize and thrive collectively, as seen in modern global trade systems.

·????? Creative Destruction: New technologies and industries often replace outdated ones, echoing the idea that "fitness" evolves with context. The steam engine replaced manual labor and horse-drawn machinery, reshaping economies and livelihoods.

How to apply this in Industrial Architecture in Industry 4.0?

Adaptability, Scalability, Continuous Innovation, Collaboration, Resilience and Security, and Data and Analytics for Informed Decisions are the 6 pillars that enable an anti-fragile digital ecosystem. These attributes can be achieved by interoperating the 3 aspects (or players) in the ecosystem – Business, Data and Technology.

·????? Adaptability: Use modular design principles in software architecture. This allows teams to upgrade, replace, or add new components without disrupting the entire system, similar to how species evolve by adapting to their environment.

·????? Scalability: Build systems using cloud-native architectures or microservices, which allow scaling up or down based on usage. Ensure that your systems use resources efficiently to handle a growing user base or data load without a significant increase in cost or complexity.

·????? Continuous Innovation: Adopt Agile methodologies in development to iteratively enhance systems. Implement CI/CD pipelines (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) to ensure that new features and improvements can be deployed quickly without affecting system stability.

·????? Resilience and Security: Implement redundant systems, disaster recovery plans, and security best practices like encryption, access controls, and regular security audits to ensure your digital system can continue functioning in the face of challenges.

·????? Data and Analytics for Informed Decisions: Integrate AI/ML models to analyze usage patterns, identify bottlenecks, and predict future requirements. Use this data to continuously refine and optimize the system, ensuring its long-term survival and relevance.

RAMI 4.0 (Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0)

To support the current industrial revolution, the changes to ISA 95 Purdue model is required in a way that the systems support existing functions while also cater to new age requirements. The 3 important traits that is presented above should be leveraged to establish an anti-fragile cyber physical system. One such model that is provided as reference is the RAMI 4.0 model from ISA foundation as an extension to its legacy model. Below is the functional architecture of RAMI 4.0 from ISA:

·????? Hierarchy Levels: To provide support in terms of Product based offering of Industry 4.0, this feature is defined at the core of this level. One can infer that to provide product-based offering, changes across the control system layer is essential in line through “connected world”, which implies an IIO based connected factory.

·????? Life Cycle Value System: This dimension provides the conceptual view of Product offering. Every aspect of the factory is considered an Asset and shall be brought into a life cycle management in line with the Products those are offered digitally. An asset shall be prototyped and shall be ramped up once the concept is proven. This is also in line with A/B testing of Product development and operationalization.

·????? Layers: The six layers on the vertical axis describe the decomposition of a machine into its properties, structured layer by layer, i.e., the virtual mapping of a machine. Such representations originate from information and communication technology, where properties of complex systems are commonly broken down into layers.

Conclusion

The triad of Evolution, Industrial Revolution and Digital Architecture has common traits those must be embraced effectively at this age of Information and Connected world. The RAMI 4.0 model provided by International Society of Automation (ISA) is an effective extension to an existing ISA 95 standard that a factory that has been setup based on Industry 3.0 based technologies. Since the design concept provided by RAMI 4.0 is not restrictive, the level of implementation for a manufacturing company is subjective and should be adapted with care in line with what Evolution and Past Industrialization stages taught us thus far!