The following blog article consists of three parts and deals with the topic “Converging and Securing OT-IT – Enabling Industrial Network Security Solutions for Use With Key Technologies”.
About Hyogo Pulp Industries
Hyogo Pulp Industries, Ltd. was founded in 1955 in Hyōgo Prefecture (Japan). Among other things, this is a region rich in wood resources. Today Hyogo Pulp is a leading manufacturer of UKP (Unbleached Kraft Pulp) in Japan and one of the top producers in Asia. UKP is used as an outer liner for corrugated paper products which must be durable and of high quality. It is also widely employed for building materials such as exterior siding boards and roofing materials, as well as insulating paper for electronic equipment, taking advantage of its light weight and excellent workability.
The company is simultaneously a pioneer for biomass power generation. The number three biomass power generator, built in 1993, uses black liquor (a byproduct of the kraft process) from the pulp manufacturing process as fuel while the number four and five biomass power generators, which started generating electricity in 2004 and 2017, use recycled and unused materials. These utility plants cover one hundred percent of the power required to operate the process plant and are also supplied to local households through electric power companies.
The wood chips used as raw materials for UKP and biomass fuel for power generation are wood materials that have been disposed of in the past, such as leftover wood from the dismantling of sawmills and wooden houses, waste wood, and low-quality wood which is unsuitable for construction. Through the effective use of wood resources, Hyogo Pulp actively contributes to the regeneration of forests and the forestry industry, and to the formation of a circular society.
Basic components of the IIoT – safety & security
In 2018, Hyogo Pulp introduced a virtual network infrastructure using SDN (Software-Defined Networking) technology. The aim of this initiative is to strengthen security measures in plant networks, and in doing so create a secure and more efficient basic network infrastructure anticipating the implementation of IIoT (Industrial IoT) solutions such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).
Challenges and Solutions
Why transform existing network infrastructures?
A continuous, stable and secure power supply is fundamental for operators. Process failure risks must therefore be methodologically identified and assessed. Information can then be evaluated on the possible influences and costs of a disaster. Recovery priorities can of course also be designed along with meaningful recovery scenarios and strategies.
Hyogo Pulp was searching for an innovative solution that would enable a complete plant network architecture’s current state to be understood simply and optimized continuously.
Added motivation to design forward looking, exact-fit network infrastructures:
- Improve security – push to the next possible security level
- Introduce IIoT solutions such as ERP systems that run on cloud
- Deploy secure wireless access points
However, with the growing availability of the Internet, existing networks that had been deployed and expanded in the past were very complex. It was extremely costly to lay new network cables. Also, it was difficult to secure network administrator resources for network revamp projects as they were already working on other tasks. Hyogo Pulp therefore decided to enhance plant network security by utilizing “Next Generation Industrial Network Security Solutions” from Yokogawa. Yokogawa is their instrumentation and control system supplier, with worldwide experience and knowledge of both plant operation and OT-IT security.
In the following second and third part of this blog article about Converging and Securing OT-IT – Enabling Industrial Network Security Solutions for Use With Key Technologies it will be about the Simple visualization of existing plant network architecture, Customer Satisfaction and an interview with Hideyuki Nakaya of the Facilities Department’s Electricity Section, who led the project, and Satoshi Ikawa of the General Affairs Section.
Crucial basic measures to ensure business resilience (Part 1/2)
Crucial basic measures to ensure business resilience (Part 2/2)
