This course will help you recognize how the "digital thread" is the backbone of the digital manufacturing and design (DM&D) transformation, turning manufacturing processes from paper-based to digital-based. You will have a working understanding of the digital thread – the stream that starts at product concept and continues to accumulate information and data throughout the product’s life cycle – and identify opportunities to leverage it. Gain an understanding of how "the right information, in the right place, at the right time" should flow. This is one of the keys to unlocking the potential of a digital design process. Acknowledging this will enable you to be more involved in a product’s development cycle, and to help a company become more flexible. Main concepts of this course will be delivered through lectures, readings, discussions and various videos. This is the second course in the Digital Manufacturing & Design Technology specialization that explores the many facets of manufacturing’s “Fourth Revolution,” aka Industry 4.0, and features a culminating project involving creation of a roadmap to achieve a self-established DMD-related professional goal. To learn more about the Digital Manufacturing and Design Technology specialization, please watch the overview video by copying and pasting the following link into your web browser: https://youtu.be/wETK1O9c-CA
Data Storage
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From the course by University at Buffalo
Digital Thread: Components
212 ratings
University at Buffalo
212 ratings
Course 2 of 9 in the Specialization Digital Manufacturing & Design Technology
From the lesson
Data Storage in the Digital Thread
The purpose of this module is to explore the different strategies and components affecting data storage in the enterprise. Building on effective information technology practices, the module will develop learners' knowledge of well developed data storage strategies. Upon completion, students will be able to analyze an organization’s data storage strategy and make recommendations for improvement in performance and robustness. Details of individual lessons in this module are provided below.
Meet the Instructors
Ken EnglishDeputy Director
Sustainable Manufacturing and Advanced Robotic Technologies Community of Excellence
[MUSIC]
The last module focused on the end state and the overall vision of the digital
thread as well as providing some understanding about how people, and
organizations handle change.
This module begins to focus on some initial steps
that can be taken towards the vision of a digital thread.
Building on effective information technology practices, the module
introduces data storage strategies and how they relate to the digital threat.
Take a moment and think about how you store information whether in files,
handwritten notes and post-its or in some other format.
Every action we take generates data, leaving a little trail for
others to follow and extract information.
On the web, that information could be that a particular product was looked at on
Amazon and then somehow ads for that product pop-up all over your web searches.
These data trails exist everywhere, even in industry.
When we look at the wind power industry,
we can see that there are many potential sources of data that can be captured.
Consider an individual turbine.
Sometimes turbines can capture data up to 400 times a second and
that's just 1 turbine.
The industry is looking to improve turbine life and adjust turbines for
demands on the electric grid, including
what other turbines in the wind farmer are doing as well as variations in the wind.
So, why is data storage so important?
It's been mentioned that data is generated at each stage of the product life cycle.
If captured, this data can be processed and use again in the future to investigate
possible design defects in already launched products in the field.
Refining requirements and specific specifications for future products.
Understanding design assumptions that go into the creation of a product.
Comparing performance changes between different raw material lots.
General electrics vice president of software research Colin Parris says,
quote, we are doing the same thing with digital twin.
We are getting all the data we can possibly get about our engines data for
every flight, of the physics of the engine blades and
how the engine is operating, data about ambient temperature and dust levels and
then I can predict exactly when to bring the aircraft in for inspection, unquote.
GE has even developed software that can integrate information from disparate
sources to help predict what is going to happen to a complex product.
Please take a moment to watch this video.
The video presents a vision of the end state of the transformation to a digital
thread.
It is useful to keep this end goal in mind,
as we discuss some steps toward capturing and storing useful information.
Take a moment and consider that on your computer, you likely have many
video files, audio files, documents, simulation model and spreadsheet.
Many of them may be used on a daily basis.
Why are you storing all these things on your computer?
What could happen if your computer fail?
If you were hit by the proverbial bus, how long would it take for
your project data to be made useful to others?
It's easy to think of many different options for actually storing data.
Some are convenient and others less so, but all have long-term advantages and
disadvantages.
Let's consider the easiest and most straightforward option for storing data.
That's keeping it locally on your own computer.
The advantages that you have complete control over the data that you generate,
so you can use it in the future.
Storages relatively inexpensive and
you don't have to worry about accessing the data across the network.
However, a disadvantage of storing data on your own machine is
it can only be accessed if you are present.
If you do choose to overcome this disadvantage by sharing this
access over the network, it can be
very tricky to properly configuring a machine to share folders securely.
In addition, there's a risk of losing the data.
Personal machines are not always included in back up rotations.
And at times, data can be accidentally deleted.
Another approach is to use removable devices.
Some examples are CDs,
DVDs, USB drives, even hard drives can be made portable and removable.
This sort of storage has a great advantage, because you can take it
wherever its needed and access it directly from there, wherever you are.
Even without network access, you can still access large volume of simulation data,
even on a trans continental flight.
The disadvantages are, it's difficult for other users to access the data remotely.
If you think about it, the storage device might even need to be carried to
the next user and there is also always the risk of loss of the physical device.
That loss could result in lost data which would be time consuming and
expensive to recreate, but it could also result in the theft of
intellectual property, especially if the device is not encrypted.
A third option explored for data storage is in the cloud.
Cloud storage can take multiple forms.
The one we most frequently think about is what's called the public cloud,
as it's directly accessible from the internet.
Dropbox, Google Drive and Box come to mind as examples of cloud based storage.
One advantage to this approach is that storage is relatively inexpensive,
sometimes it's even free.
You can setup automatic synchronization from your desktop and
you can have multiple people access from multiple locations at the same time.
Cloud storage services are typically robust and
reduces your risk of losing the data.
However, there are disadvantages.
The primary risk with Public Cloud Storage are that users can only access the data if
they have a current internet connection,
unless they synchronized data with there desktop.
And also, that recovery of accidentally deleted data can be difficult to
impossible as public users do not have typically have access to backups.
Synchronizing data does overcome the internet connection requirement, but
there can be issues with synchronizing large volumes of data.
At times, the synchronization can become corrupt and
you have to start from scratch.
The final disadvantage of cloud storage and
it's usually the one that stops the use of the services is security concerns.
Typically, these concerns are a variation of the data is sent over the network.
And therefore, it's outside of the company's direct control.
So, you're relying on another organization's security protocols.
Also, with some cloud hosting services,
you cannot be sure if the data will all remain within one country.
In the US, there are limitations on sensitive data leaving the country and
export controls have the force of law and that can even apply to cloud storage.
Large organizations can often deploy a variation of the public cloud
that addresses the control, backup and
security concerns of a public cloud solution using a private cloud.
Private Cloud Storage often looks to the user as if it's on Google Drive iCloud,
but its soul purpose is to store enterprise data internally.
So, security concerns of the public cloud is addressed.
The major disadvantage of the private cloud approach is that it can be
significantly more expensive, because the organization consumes all of the cost for
having highly available, highly secured backup infrastructure.
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