Cisco Connected Factory IIoT: Intelligence in Action

The modern smart factory has a new product: data. This data measures everything from system efficiency to how likely equipment is to break down. For plant managers, this data holds the secrets to new products, real-time optimization, productivity stats at the worker level, and the end of downtime. 

To help IIoT companies tap into that data, Cisco has announced three new solutions to its Connected Factory portfolio. We talked to Bryan Tantzen, Sr. Director, Manufacturing and Connected Industries, Cisco, on the IoT Time podcast to find out the methods behind the new solutions. The company has said it is laying the foundation for the so-called Industry 4.0 and the next generation of smart manufacturing.

Time Sensitive Networking is now supported on the IE4000 Switch family: a new standard that protects the data and ensures that mission critical applications are running smoothly on the network. 

Connected Asset Manager (CAM) for IoT Intelligence: This visualization tool is designed to extract data from a variety of sources and tie together existing data threads across legacy systems. 

Industrial Network Director: Made with operators in mind, it gives factories full control of the plant network with faster setup and less risk of downtime. It offers plug-and-play functionality, the company said, so clients can install managed switches with security, settings, and functionality.

“A recent survey by industry analyst firm ARC Advisory Group announced that Cisco is number one in worldwide marketshare for managed industrial switches,” Tantzen said. “With customers moving to smart factories, we’re rapidly outgrowing our competitors. Manufacturers can rest assured that Cisco’s strength in manufacturing, along with decades of networking and security expertise in the enterprise, has uniquely qualified us to follow suit in the factory. With our leading industrial partners, we bring the best of IT and operational technology to the table. We make Industrie 4.0 a reality.”



Edited by Ken Briodagh