The hierarchy within process automation starts to crumble
September 2003PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Access Control & Identity Management
Using a feudalistic pyramid scheme as a way of illustration, to describe the process automation hierarchy gives insight into both the past and the near future. What is immediately apparent is the gradual change from a vertical to a horizontal environment, where the diagrammatic representation is less a pyramid and more a network or web of interconnecting instruments.
As digital, networked IT advances into process engineering, so the emergence of intelligent field devices is increasing and changing the set-up of industrial processes
Expanding on the feudalistic metaphor: right at the pinnacle - for many decades - reigned the ERP (enterprise resource planning) system - the king R/3 of the SAP dynasty. Beneath were the dukes of the plant control levels, the earls of the process control level, the knights of the input/output (I/O) level and right at the bottom come the ordinary folk (the serfs), which represent the actuators and sensors of the field level.
This feudalistic order is helpful because it clearly describes who does what, while still corresponding (to a large degree) to the reality in many industrial processes. Yet, the pyramid - as metaphor for the process control hierarchy - is starting to crumble. Digital, networked information technologies (IT) are advancing into process engineering. The change is not as drastic as in the telecommunications industry, for example - and for this reason the pyramid will remain valid for some time to come.
However, new technologies have already caused the boundaries between the feudal levels to become blurred. Serfs or ordinary people - like field devices in the plant - have received more freedom of expression and now they occasionally talk quite freely with the king. Field devices are also taking over functions that, up till now, have been reserved for knights (I/O) and earls (process controller). For example, a traditional control loop that could have included a control valve on a tank, a level transmitter, a controller and an ERP system is now being replaced by intelligent field devices that 'literally' decide on the best control philosophy based on information/messages broadcast from the ERP system.
The feudal order is developing into a democracy - but not communism. Differences between the levels will still remain in the future, but they will be less a matter of rank in the hierarchy and more to do with functionality. Instead of dealing with a pyramid, industrial processes are increasingly faced with a network.
At Endress + Hauser, these developments have been closely watched and the company is proactively helping to shape the future of process automation. "Our early adoption of digital communications has set us apart from competitors," comments Grant Joyce, marketing manager, Endress + Hauser SA. "Advances in Profibus and Fieldbus and the emergence of supporting software tools (like FieldCare) that clearly benefits the end user are all helping to change the process automation environment."
FieldCare is Endress + Hauser's FDT-based (field device tool) asset management tool and forms a key component of W@M, the company's Web-enabled Asset Management philosophy, which allows service and support throughout an instrument's lifecycle. FieldCare offers plant view according to ISA S88 and document and report management, including inventory, activity and logging, as well as plug-ins for future extensions. The FDT Joint Interest Group is an open, international consortium of automation companies, whose aim is to promote the acceptance and usage of FDT/DTM (device type manager) technology.
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