Are you in charge of IT / OT convergence and have you hit a brick wall?

So what is IT and what is OT?

I have heard about IT/OT convergence for some time now. What was explained to me was that these two magical groups are going to just start working together and it will be difficult to distinguish the two groups from one another. Unfortunately, my cynical self doesn't see it working this way. Some believe the technology has been around that could potentially bridge this gap for some time now. Some may argue that SQL databases were the first to start bridging this gap years ago. The problem though lies in the persona of the IT and OT people and the goals of these people.

Gartner definitions of both IT and OT

"IT is the common term for the entire spectrum of technologies for information processing, including software, hardware, communications technologies and related services. In general, IT does not include embedded technologies that do not generate data for enterprise use."

"Operational technology (OT) is hardware and software that detects or causes a change, through the direct monitoring and/or control of industrial equipment, assets, processes and events."

OT

Let's start with the OT people. (I am going to be hard on them, because I am/was one of them) OT people focus on making sure the "smoke" keeps go up the chimney and making sure the smoke monster stays in the equipment. Simple as that. Make the machine run and if possible better and faster, while making sure not to over stress the equipment in the process. Oh and doing it safely.

OT people generally are a "one person show" focused on a specific set of equipment. They generally under estimate the amount of time and cost associated to getting a project up and running. Tight budget with a hard and fast deadline. Anything that hinders those two goals are the enemy.

You might ask now, "When is that work done?" Generally speaking any major upgrade to a plant or facility is done on either a holiday, weekend, outside of planned production hours, or a planned shutdown that coincides with a holiday. The planned start up for that particular machinery is scheduled for the following work day when all plant personnel will be back to run the equipment. Once that equipment goes down, it is all hands on deck to try and get the upgraded and or fixed. All the planning leading up to this moment is going to define whether a project is successful or not. It is you against a machine in the wild west with no back up. Can you get it running?

IT

Let's narrow down the group of IT people a little bit. Let define them as the group of IT that support the systems in the facilities including things like the following: ERP, MES, Network, databases, VMs, etc. Very much critical aspects of the manufacturing facilities, but with one key difference. Who is the customer? Is it the employees or the equipment? In most cases it is the employees. The IT people in this space service the plant workers and staff, but not to be confused with OT people. The IT people help the OT people solve their problems, but the OT people are not the customers.

Plant Staff (The Business)

The business usually comes in the form of industrial engineers and plant managers. They are here to make money and turn the value of what the IT and OT people engineer into profit. The conversations the business has with both groups are generally different. The business and IT generally speak about network up time, software effectiveness, data analytics, security, scalability. Where the discussion the business has with the OT people is how do we improve up-time, productivity, and/or quality.

Convergence

How do we converge two groups of people that have different goals? Should the goals change? Probably not. What about providing software and or solutions that services them both. Or hit the trifecta and include the business as well. Well that is what I mentioned above in the first paragraph. SQL had serviced both of them. The problem with SQL is the tool can't be used by everyone without the correct skill sets and generally one team will own the admin privileges while the other does not.

Is it a technology problem (What or How) or a "why" problem? If you aren't familiar with Simon Sinek, I would recommend watching this TED talk on "How great leaders inspire action."

These groups have been trying to sell there technologies to each other over the years without much adoption. Why hasn't it been successful? It is because we have been selling to the other side of the group with their own problem sets in mind. Thinking that because it solved our goals it should solve yours. Even if it can solve their goals the message that was delivered doesn't align to their problem sets.

Solution

Find the tool that solves both of the goals and market them differently to both groups.

• Both groups must have equal administrative privileges.
• Single platform where data is normalized for both teams to use.
• Management of the data generated should fall to the department that generated it.
• Ability to view the same data through different lenses to serve different departments.
• No data blind spots. Data should be easily traceable to the source by every user.