Last week this came up 3 times in a week, customers asked me
are we working on a unifying configuration environment that will manage
standards for control, supervisory and more over multiple different vendor
controllers. We talked about the need for multiple teams, one for templates
development, others for deployment and the critical need for version management.
You cannot expect to have standards if you do not have strong governance and in
my experience this means a tool, and environment that promotes the successful management
of standards.
We talk about federation of information across data sources
in an information driven manufacturing environment, but an effective
operational transformation is about decisions and actions in a timely manner
and consistent manner. Too often we talk at the high level and overlook the
extensive work required on the plan automation control integration. Most plants
are on to at least their second generation of control, in DCS, PLC and SCADA.
These systems are mature and functionally immensely rich that they can expand
and evolve to satisfy most processes today.
The Modern Automation/ Operational system is not an enclosed
system, it will have many controllers of different sizes running different
processes, hopefully the correct controller for the correct process. With the
evolution of the “Internet of things” in the automation world there is a trend
to smaller powerful controllers so each asset/ process has it is own control
that links into the higher world. This makes sense as long as there is the
ability to federate these controls from a:
·
Naming convention consistency across the
controllers
·
Control Standards for a process over different
controllers
·
The ability to configure different levels of a
control/ process strategy across controllers but deployed to a different
controller instances which in many cases will be controllers from different
vendors.
·
The ability to automatically configure the
integration with the supervisory platform and the controller at the same time,
any changes are automatically managed and sustained.
·
Clear governance over the management of
standards and versions across the supervisory and controllers
·
Version management is key the ability to manage
different versions of standards in the same strategy deployed to different
controllers, combined with incremental updates.
·
The End to End System Integrity at the time of
deployment, this is the step most people are concerned with as the system must
make sure the integrity of the different parts of control sub system are in
place, so we have no dead ends on references that can cause controllers to not
function. Assumed in this is the peer to peer communication and referencing
between controllers of different roles, types and vendors.
Yes, the leaders in the operational transformation while implementing
a Supervisory Platform with operational standards and decision support, they
are complimenting their investment with an equally often more significant
investment in alignment of the existing and new control systems. Their
standards, their interfacing and most of all their management of integration
and standards.
The new generation “Industrial Enterprise Configuration
Environments” will live above the individual vendor configuration systems but
enable a holistic management of strategy and standards leveraging a multi discipline
team, with version governance naturally built in. When we look at the “Internet
of things” this will become key, as we go to “atomic control” at the devices
and machines, the thought of learning multiple tools is not practical. The only
way in the industrial world will be a common configuration environment that
enables standards, and deployment to different device platforms, with
governance, and confidence.
Watch this space as we accelerate the innovation in this area, to bring reality.
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