Productivity Improvements Through Use Of Automation And Intelligent Devices

• Productivity has become a global race
• Fierce, head-to-head competition between regions and nations
• Reason: It is the source of the wealth
  • Key to improvements in living standards
• Those who can produce materials and products cheaper, faster, better – win!

Automation Purpose

• The fundamental purpose of automation is to improve productivity
• Generate increased output with reduced costs
• The intrinsic value of each and every piece of process automation equipment is its ability to provide increased productivity for the user

Technology & productivity

• Technology improves productivity 5 ways
  • Reduce labor
  • Save time
  • Quality improvements
  • Optimize use of raw materials
  • Save energy and reduce waste
• Labor reduction is not the sole objective – it’s the best overall productivity
• The best producer wins market-share

Connectivity & Productivity

• Extending Internet connectivity into Automation & Control
• Within the next few years, literally billions of communications-enabled products and processes will provide intelligence and connectivity for almost everything

Self-monitoring Machines

• Imagine every system and piece of equipment monitoring its own operation
  • uptime
  • downtime
  • dwell-time
  • energy usage
  • malfunction
  • repair-time
• Usage reported with an Internet connection

The Pervasive Internet

• Today, 3 billion Internet connections
• Tomorrow 100 billion connections
  • Machines
  • Equipment
  • Sensors
  • Controls

Machine-to-Machine - M2M

• Operating return on investment (ROI) on all plant equipment assets available all the time, any time
• End-users will manage their own assets

M2M – for Suppliers

• It’s not just end-users — it’s for Suppliers
• Help end-users add M2M capabilities as retrofits
• Build self-monitoring and networking capabilities into new equipment
• Provide diagnostics, pre-failure warnings, download upgrades

The Robots are Coming

• The confluence of advanced technologies is bringing the age of robotics ever nearer
• Today’s robots are smaller, cheaper, more practical and cost-effective
• Already chalking up major gains in the automation world
• Robots are "autonomous machines"
• Robots won't "look" like humans

Wireless networks

• Wireless sensor networks will provide vast arrays of real-time, remote interaction with the physical world
• Wireless connectivity is already wide spread in office and consumer environments
• Industrial automation is moving quickly to take advantage of the overwhelming benefits

Wireless Technology Choices

• A bewildering variety of technology choices are available for factory and process installations
• Significant growth expected
• New wireless connectivity paradigm
• The implications are revolutionary

Industrial Automation Wireless

• Not just "cobbled together" commercial products
• Not just incremental "wire replacement"
• Totally new applications
• Security is a key issue
• Standards are important

Standards in a fast-changing environment

• Standards are intrinsically difficult to implement and adopt – especially when technology is accelerating
• If a standard is available, it's usually for old technology
• This is the subject of the remaining part of this presentation – "The Importance of Standards"

What is a "standard"?

• The definition of a "standard" is simple: operating specifications that everybody follows
• Standards provide openness and interoperability between products from different vendors

Who benefits from standards?

• End-users are the primary beneficiaries of standards
• However, few users are large enough, or strong enough, to demand and set horizontal standards
• Suppliers gain the advantage from their own proprietary standards

Who drives standards?

• Standards are intrinsically difficult to implement and adopt
  • End-users cannot drive standards
  • Supplier involvement compounds the confusion
  • Conflicting objectives continue to cause endless debate
• Someone has to be the leader, to develop the standard that others follow

Conflicting standards

• Conflicting standards have bad effects for everyone
• Customers get confused and postpone purchases to see how the market settles
• Suppliers limit development investments in products that may end up on the losing side of the conflict
• Growth is inhibited and the market becomes fragmented

The standards dichotomy

The basic cause of all the fuss
The Users want an Open bus
They push and threaten, beg and plead
"Interoperable" is what they need
The widgets made by Vendor A
With Vendor B must plug and play


The Vendors swear they all agree
But just can’t bear to make it free
An open door will throw away
Their value-core and make it gray
Proprietary will be gone
To hordes of hungry hangers-on

Pinto's Law of Open-systems Confusion

C = P x V/U
where:
C is the Confusion
V is the number of Vendor's supporting a "standard"
U is the number of happy Users
and
P is Pinto's Confusion-factor, which decreases non-linearly with time

OPC open connectivity via open standards

• OPC is open connectivity in industrial automation and enterprise systems
• Interoperability is assured through the creation and maintenance of open standards specifications
• Over 400 companies are OPC Members
• Multi-vendor connectivity

OPC Markets & Applications

• Industrial Automation
  • Process industry
  • Manufacturing
  • Acquisition and Transportation of Oil, Gas and Minerals
• Production devices
  • Sensors, instruments, PLCs, RTUs, DCSs, HMIs, historians, trending subsystems, alarm subsystems, and more

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  Related Links

  • Cheaper, Faster, Better - The Productivity Race

  • The Robots are Coming

  • The Pervasive Internet & its effect on industrial automation

  • Network Choices - the Wireless Revolution

  • Pervasive Neworks

  • OPC Foundation

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