Welcome to Eco Ask why, a podcast that dives into industrial manufacturing topics and spotlights the heroes that keep America running. I'm your host, chris Granger, and on this podcast, we do not cover the latest features and benefits on products that come to market. Instead, we focus on advice and insight from the top minds of industry, because people and ideas will be how America remains number one in manufacturing in the world. Welcome to ECO Asks why. I'm your host, chris Granger. I'm looking forward to spending some time with you today. We're going to continue our conversation we've been having over the last few months around smart manufacturing. At the end of the day, it's a journey and we're here to help you. Now we started talking about why this journey is important to start with. Why does it matter? Why should you even care about this? So you can go back in a few podcasts ago I spent some time unpacking that at length. Then we really started diving into modernization and looking at our infrastructure to an nth degree right and starting shifting the mindset to smart manufacturing of like what the current state was and what is modernization, why should we even consider doing this? What are some benefits there? And then we got very practical around barriers for modernization, and that led us to the whole conversation around the definition of smart manufacturing and what does this look like for so many of the companies and the industries that we work with at an electrical equipment company? And then we spent some time talking about getting connected. You know why that Ethernet is a big part of the automation and control network, why that Ethernet is a big part of the automation and control network. So we spent time talking about why Ethernet versus different type of protocols out there, understanding the ins and outs and trying to just get a good fundamental baseline established around Ethernet. Then we shifted to the idea of progression and smart devices. So that was a big area for us of spending some time to consider. Is that progression? How do we actually get started today for what we were trying to accomplish tomorrow? And we really gave some insights, some reflections and ideas on how to do that. And the big part of that were the smart devices themselves, because they're kind of like the building blocks. You know, if you think about progressing forward, smart devices are the building blocks that we need to get in place to start advancing the ball.

Ok, and then our last conversation we had here gave you three practical tips, ways, steps, whatever you want to call it, to begin that journey. And it really started with the install-based evaluation. Right, and just understanding that, from that analysis standpoint, what do I have, whether it be on a particular product line or a subset of the plant, or just maybe the entire facility? Some people go that route as well. But understanding what are my objectives for an install-based analysis? Why does that matter? What should I be looking for? Why should I make that investment? And then recognizing okay, when I get that data, what do I do with it? To make sense of it, to make better decisions, and then, from there, how can we start looking at integrating these new smart tech devices into our current operations? So we start.

We've spent quite a bit of time talking about the smart tech review and why the smart tech review is such a critical step and, quite frankly, this is where we just we excel because we've created labs and environments where you can come in and try hands on Right, get really practical down to the bit level, to understand the technology and how it's going to work for you. And then, from there, it's all about planning, planning that progression. You know, rome wasn't built in a day, but it had to start one day, right. So that's where we're at right now. Sometimes you make this start at day one. That's fine, and eco is here to support. And that's fine and eco is here to support.

Ok, so now we're going to kind of put a bow on this whole idea of smart manufacturing today because, at the end of the day, smart manufacturing it's such a critical role of the industrial Ethernet network and we're going to spend some more time helping you understand how you build that network to be as robust as possible, because your network let's think about this it's more than just infrastructure. Your network is your lifeline. It is absolutely the lifeline of your business and if you properly design it and install it the correct way, an industrial Ethernet network can be such a key to unlocking the smart manufacturing capabilities. Because the capabilities are out there. Think about predictive maintenance, to data flow, to real-time monitoring. That stuff is out there. But if you don't have the right design and it's not installed correctly, you're just going to cripple productivity. You're going to have a lot of downtime that you're going to be frustrated about and, more probably not, probably definitely. Most importantly, you're potentially jeopardizing the safety of the people that are working in your facility, and that has to be at the forefront. So at EECO we put a lot of time and investment in helping manufacturers out there build, assess and maintain these high-performing networks to ensure that they can deliver reliable, secure and scalable results.

Okay, so we're going to be looking at the idea around the critical factors behind industrial Ethernet success and why this is just not your typical office Ethernet, why it has to be treated differently. Because the environment on the plant floor differs dramatically from an office environment. It just does. If you've never been in an industrial setting, it's just. It's somehow depending on where you go. It's night and day. It's also a lot of fun. But office grade ethernet components, if they're exposed to what happens on the plant floor we're talking about vibration, contaminants, high, high temperatures, maybe even electromagnetic noise, high, high temperatures, maybe even electromagnetic noise All these are very common in industrial settings.

But when you put an office grade server, for instance, right out there or switch out in an industrial facility, you're just setting yourself up for failure. And we've seen it all. I mean I've seen it all going from the paper industry to chemical industry, food processing. It's all out there, right? I mean I've seen patch panels, duct taped to beans. I mean, it doesn't make any sense and at the end of the day, it's almost like we'll put a lot of focus and attention in certain areas when it comes to equipment and reliability, but often the network is just throw the cheapest switch we can, let's just get it up and running right. We network is just throw the cheapest switch we can, let's just get it up and running right. We're going to have these little hubs set up anywhere. We'll just just give me a port and look, we can't afford to risk uptime. So investing in an industrial grade assessment I'm telling you down to the design level is a great first step to your network and ensuring that you have an excellent network in place that's going to be reliable. So the last thing you have to think about at night is is my network going to go down? So now, before you start designing or upgrading, we don't want to go to that step first, we want to go to assessment.

You've got to start asking some questions. These questions are important. First question are office grade components being used on the floor? You just need to know that. You can ask your IT department. Maybe you are an IT department. You just need to go do a fact check? Maybe ask the question are there inconsistent results or unexplained allergies? Maybe ask the question are there inconsistent results or unexplained allergies? Are the people in the management or people in production? Are they coming to you regularly? Are you hearing regular feedback? Well, we can't run networks now. The network won't keep up Too slow. Are you hearing those things?

Maybe you just do a physical look. Are the cables that are being utilized properly shielded and routed away from the power sources? Again, this is simple, fundamental things, but people get busy, they just do. And next thing you know, we run an Ethernet cable in with a bunch of power cables. That causes problems. And then, as a more technical level, are determinations and connections properly secured? Are they just barely dangling in? Are they actually legitimately connected?

And then, where is all the documentation of the network? And how do I know that it's accurate? Because the documentation that was done when the plant was originally designed. I'm not going to say it's not worth anything at all, but it has definitely got a lot of gaps because of the enhancements and the changes and the upgrades. Things happen. So we need to have good documentation. So we need to have good documentation. Again, a network assessment prevents so many of these problems before they can escalate into expensive failures. So, as we think through this today, if some of this is resonating with you, I highly encourage you to check out the show notes because there'll be links there where you can connect with ECO's team directly, particularly if you're in our service area. Obviously, if you're listening to this outside of our service area, we can't help you. We definitely encourage you to still get this done, but if you're within our service area, we would love to connect and have a conversation about what this looks like, why this type of planning is such a really crucial investment that you can make into reliability, security and just giving you a peace of mind.

So when you look at a couple of components or a couple of considerations, rather when we look at industrial Ethernet design, the very first one is the component selection. We have to make sure that we're selecting the right components, the right cables, the right connectors, the right switches on the application. So you have your Cat5e cable, which is general use cable, typically limited to lower speeds. Then you have your Cat6, which is more high performance, end of cable, a lot of better. It's more better noise immunity Can get up to those gigabit type speeds. If you need.

Then you have fiber. Everybody knows about fiber Very long distance EMI immunity. But fiber, you know you have to consider it's a higher cost point. Okay, it's exceptionally durable, but you got to budget for it. Then you have shielded type of cables in the well for high noise environments. Then, for these connector type options, you have your M12D connectors and you have your IP6567 sealed the modular connectors, and this is really good for vibration resistance and contamination. So if you're trying to keep the dirt and the grime and the water and all this stuff out, there are different types of connectors to give you that type of reliability and assurance. So we need to understand the component selection. That's a big part of it.

The second part of really going through and understanding the network assessment is the performance requirements, because there are different levels of performance requirements and there are two primary areas that you want to think about when it comes down to your network. You have latency, which is the message transmission time. How long does it take for me to send a message out to where it's received? Then you have jitter. Okay, so that's your variance in message delivery time and, depending on what you're doing, matters a lot. So if you're doing basic information or process, typically you're less than a second, like it's not super high speed.

Hmi applications are very common here. Or you may have time critical things where you have a PLC or an IO network and you're getting down to the 30 to 50 millisecond time point. At that point you need to understand this is a crucial area. Or safety, maybe that's a 10 or a 30 millisecond type of requirement, where you have your e-stop circuits and you want to make sure that when you hit that button, slam it, that things are going to stop immediately. And the most precise are the precision type of applications where you get into the 500 microsecond type of requirements Motion control systems that's it. You get into the 500 microsecond type of requirements motion control systems that's it. So designing the network correctly minimizes the latency and jitter for these different critical applications. So it's not a one size fit all. So that's where we have to make sure we're very clear. We can't just say you know what, this is, what we're going to go with. This is the type of cable across the board it's not going to deliver what you want or, more specifically, what you need to really move the ball down the field.

Then you need to be thinking about, from a network standpoint, assurance and security, such a big deal. In the world we live in today, security is a growing concern. It has to be. Cisco put a thing out called CPWE and that defines an architecture that outlines protection at the machine, the cell, the plant and the enterprise level. This helps you minimize cybersecurity risk while maintaining uptime. If you go back and ECO-SY we had several network experts who came on talking about CPWE go in our archive, look. If that's something that you want to dig into, just start searching for a network assessment, network help, network support and eco ask why Tons and tons and tons of conversations around that? Because we recognize this is a big deal and it hasn't changed and it needs to be on your radar because there's so much that can go wrong if you don't design correctly.

Okay, consider this you have a motor that's running. You have a cable running beside it. Maybe there's a little hub with a switch and that motor it's turning a big agitator or whatever it may be, and there's a lot of vibration in the area. Well, that could cause a cable to fail. It happens all the time. Or you have electromagnetic interference and that causes just a little bit of data loss. And then we see people using hubs instead of switches, right. Then you have data collisions because we're not guiding that data in an organized format, or this happens a lot unauthorized access due to the lack of security zones. So, basically, open ports hey, I need a port, we'll plug in and get it going right. Tell me, these things happen.

You would think 2025, we don't have to worry about this anymore, but it's all too common. It's all too common and manufacturers have a lot on their plates. We're not picking here, we're serving, we're helping. We want to help them improve in these areas and some of this stuff it's just blind spots and if we can help identify blind spots and help them move forward, that's such a big deal. Or even for the guy out there or girl she's out there trying to troubleshoot and there trying to troubleshoot and there's no good documentation, zero documentation in many cases. But the documentation that does exist, how reliable is it? So these are pitfalls that completely are avoidable, but it takes action. It means you have to do something with it and the eco is here to help you with it.

We're going to get down I mean, we'll help you get down to the component level and understand the right cabling. Okay, let's figure it out. Okay, is this Cat 5-6 application or is this a fiber application? Do we need to have ruggedized jackets here to help you prevent any type of environment that is going to be subjected to an industrial environment? Or maybe we need to consider shielded cable for a high-noise environment? We're going to look at those connectors. We're going to get down to brass tacks. Okay, this connector you have here, I don't know about this. Then we're going to also look at the switches and we're going to help you understand and see the potential of what happens with modern switches and how that can simultaneously move data at full speed between multiple ports and minimize those collisions and completely just start optimizing your network performance. All this is possible because what we're trying to do is help you achieve reliability at scale, because your network is good.

Whatever size it is today, it's the smallest it will ever be. Consider that it will never be any smaller than it is today. Is your plan getting smaller? No, are you hiring a few people? No, everything's about expansion. So the amount of data you're moving today will never be that small again either. It's always growing and that's okay.

But as your network grows, your system determinism becomes critical because latency and jitter can make or break a control application and we don't want that for you. And real-time applications like motion control. These items demand ultra-low latency. I'm talking microseconds, buddy. We have to get extremely precise. Some of your other applications can have a longer delay, but you need to know it. You need to determine and this is where we can come in and help you what the optimum cycle times are. You need to determine what does that balanced bandwidth look like? And how do we determine and design the proper segmentation for performance and security, because you don't want to be so secure that nothing ever works either. Right, it has to be a balance. That again, cpw helps. This gives you some best practices to help you bridge the plant floor with your ERP-level network design in a safe and effective manner.

But eco is the difference. We can come in and we can help, we can serve in such a great way. We can help you verify, we can help you go through and perform these different verifications and look at determination and look at the cable links and look at the band radius and look at the shield integrity. We gather all that data for you and start really working through a certification process. Okay, hey, after stuff's been installed, let's walk through with our equipment and with our team of experts and do a baseline network performance assessment for you. Hey, here's where it's at right now and then we can show, okay, your applications here. This particular party network can definitely, or cannot definitely, support high-performance applications. You see how all this stuff works. We have some very extremely talented technicians and testers and equipment. All that stuff gets into the weeds. But the bottom line we're here to serve and we have the ability to come in and help you assess your network and build robust enhancements around it.

There's a lot of value in partnering with someone like ECO, because we can bring the technical knowledge through our network, through our industry partnerships like Cisco, rockwell, odva, all these different types of connections, and to really deliver you a comprehensive network solution. So we're talking about a complete network assessment. We're talking about media component selection. We're talking about helping you get a better handle on performance optimization. We're talking about security consultation, helping you understand what does that look like for your plan specifically and really getting certified, because this is not something that you can lead a chance. It's not something that you can lead a chance.

And if we go back and think about the whole purpose behind this smart manufacturing, what is it? The ability to solve existing and future problems via an open infrastructure that allows solutions to be implemented at the speed of business Sounds great, but the speed of business really you could substitute that for the speed of your network and you have to have that in place and you have to. It's like control the controllables. So there's many things that are outside of our control every day period. So what can we do for the areas that we can control? And the network, the network performance, is one of them. It just often gets overlooked or gets put on the back burner or someone else.

I'm encouraging you, as we've gone through this today at Link go to the ones that know the networks the best, lean on their expertise, gain the data and the insights that you need, and then you make that vision, whatever you desire, you turn that into a reality. But it starts with that initial point of engagement Engagement with the right people, with the right information at the right time to help you enable the right decisions. So that's it. That's what we're talking about. So hopefully, if you're encouraged, or maybe you're curious right now, highly, highly recommend, hope, implore, would ask you check out the show notes, because we're going to have links there where you can get connected with us directly. So if you're very interested in network assessment or just having a conversation about your network, no need to make any commitments, let's just talk about it. Here's what we're experiencing. What do you think? We would welcome that conversation. We'd love those conversations. We have the experts who are prepared and equipped to have that conversation at the deepest level. You want to go, and we're not going to leave you in the dust and talk over your head with all these different technology. We're going to come down and meet you where you are and serve the best that we can. Fair enough. So, again, check out the show notes for that. Thank you for listening.

If you want to share this out with others, particularly if maybe there's people within your facility who are in charge of the network or who have been complaining or have struggles with the network, put this in front of them, because this may be a great way to serve All right. So again, check out our show notes. Connect with us on LinkedIn. Ecoonlinecom is the way to get started. You got to get your online account set up as well, that's the way we serve the best is through our EcoOnline account. So get that set up so you can chat with our experts directly there and then you can start searching these components and these solutions, and all that stuff is at your fingertips to help you get started. So again, eco onlinecom, get started today. If you need help getting set up with that account, reach out. We have experts ready to serve, to jump in and to help you get going right there. So, okay, thank you so much for listening.

Eco-ask-why is so much fun. We enjoy doing this each and every month and hopefully you're encouraged by this. This is something that you look forward to when they come out to see what we're talking about from month to month. If you have topics you'd like for us to cover, reach out to us. There's my contact list within there. You can just come to Eco online directly and send us some information there. We're always looking to serve in a meaningful way and to talk about the topics that are important to you. So hopefully you've enjoyed this journey through smart manufacturing together and hopefully everybody's having a good 2025.

So far, we're already into the month of June, super excited, looking forward to serving continuing in the future. And again, we're here to serve and to help you with your network. So reach out anytime whatsoever. So have a great day. Thank you again and remember what's coming next. Oh yeah, that's right. Keep asking why. Thank you for listening to. Eeco Asks why this show is supported ad-free by Electrical Equipment Company. Eeco is redefining the expectations of an electrical distributor by placing people and ideas before products. Please subscribe and share with your colleagues and friends. Also leave comments, feedback and any new topics that you would like to hear. To learn more or to share your insights, visit EECOASYcom. That's E-E-C-O-A-S-K-S-W-H-Ycom.