Connecting the factory floor to the intranet/internet

Running head: Marketing
Connecting the factory floor to the intranet/internet
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Connecting the factory floor to the intranet/internet
Over the last years, a lot of information has been made available to convince managers and business executives on the benefits of integrating the plant floor equipments to the intranet or internet. Web-enabled automation has several benefits and different parts and equipments are required to ensure that the technology is effective. To start with, web enabled automation gives a company a competitive advantage over other businesses since solutions such as WebView, WebLink, and WebOIT are simple and cost effective. These technologies can be implemented by organizations to promote performance and productivity, efficient dissemination of information, enhance the way problems are solved and increase customer satisfaction (Pinto, 2006). Internet connectivity is essential especially when a company deals with automation products and compatibility of application layers is required to guarantee that all the industrial networks are working.
When Ethernet was first developed, its application in an industrial setting was dismissed but its usage in an industrial environment has increased rapidly. Apart from the fact that it is cheaper and readily available, it is easy to install and maintain. Moreover, industrial networking operations standardize the whole organization from the corporate boardroom to the plant floor thus ensuring easy flow of data (Pinto, 2006). Ethernet can be used to develop an open, deterministic and less costly automation network solution. Traditionally, companies have implanted the Ethernet bandwagon in their automation solutions. For instance, Siemens, Rockwell and other companies have said the 70 to 80 percent of their automation products have been enabled with Ethernet. One basic problem associated with using a standard Ethernet is providing for redundancy. In the commercial world, several proprietary solutions have been developed but their effectiveness in dealing with industrial problems depends on their applications.
Quick expansion of the internet as well as the adoption of the internet Protocol (IP) has made IP a significant tool in the global enterprise network at different levels – both the intranets and internet. IP technology has illustrated to several organizations that it can take advantage of new networking and communication technologies as they are invented. The internet has shown that IP networking has the capacity of scalability as well as security solutions which deal with several needs such as authentication, encryption and digital signatures (Singh & Valez, 2010). When it comes to Ethernet/IP, its advancement based on Control Information Technology (CIT) and DeviceNet/ControlNet has allowed dependable access to programmed logic controllers on the factory floor. This implies that the dependable access will b...