A Digital World

Current industrial automation system architecture has done a good job of advancing industry to where we are today, but to fully realize the promise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we need to fundamentally change our technology model.

It is time to release the constraints we have learned to accept: Big engineering efforts, lack of modularization, and barriers that inhibit adaptability and bog down innovation.

We can create step-change operational improvements with an open, standard-based architecture and a plug-and-produce application ecosystem capable of keeping up with the speed of doing business in the digital world.

À la Carte Automation

We are now living in a true digital economy. Technological innovations and the internet have forever changed how the business of the world gets done. 

At the same time, the recent pandemic and resulting global economic disruption has served as a “wake up call” for industrial enterprises to no longer postpone much-needed operational advancements in automation and digitalization. Even established companies that were once perceived to be immune from market fluctuations are finding themselves challenged by unprecedented global dynamics and by newcomers who are embracing digital technologies to create agile businesses that better serve the modern world.

No one company can navigate these conditions alone. Persisting in this new world requires an extended ecosystem of partners collaborating to succeed. It’s time for universal automation.

 

For manufacturing enterprises, the epidemic has simply exposed problems and risks that already existed. As such, it might force industry to undertake much needed reforms to automation, digitalization and logistics processes and systems.

Control Engineering 2020

Open Benefits Everyone

The pressure to adopt open automation is mounting for stakeholders across all corners of industry. End users are beginning to see proprietary automation systems as a barrier to growth and a cost, rather than an enabler and source of profit. 

Many organizations recognize that next-generation industrial automation must be interoperable and break free from the proprietary locked-in model we have now. 

Moving from a proprietary world to universal automation not only benefits end users, but it also gives those willing to innovate an edge in the race for new value built on software innovation. Universal automation will create a market for proven-in-use software components that bring unique values to users and new revenues for vendors.

We Have The Proven Technology

The IEC 61499 standard extends and enhances the IEC 61131-3 standard. It solves the problems of ensuring portability, configurability, and interoperability of application software across vendors and, at the same time, software and hardware independence. IEC 61499 defines a high-level system design language for distributed information and control systems. It is the technical foundation of universal automation because it:

  1. Enables automation applications to be built using portable, proven-in-use software components, independent of the underlying automation hardware.
  2. Allows the user to distribute the application to any system hardware architecture of choice— highly distributed, centralized, or both—all with little programming effort. Hardware targets can be as small as instruments and actuators or as large as powerful edge computers.
  3. Supports mainstream software best practices making it easy to create automation applications that interoperate with IT systems. Native IT convergence and easy portability will drive a long-term shift from low-value programming of proprietary controllers to high-value plug-and produce automation systems using proven-in-use automation software components.

IEC 61499 already runs on today’s PC-based platforms and IPCs, as well as modern edge computing devices such as Raspberry Pis. Driven by demand from end user organizations, the trend towards such open hardware platforms continues to accelerate.

Universal Automation

What will it take for next-generation industrial businesses to thrive?

The proprietary industrial automation architectures that most enterprises currently rely on constrain innovation, needlessly increase total cost of ownership, and inhibit the adoption of IT-based advancements. Businesses cannot evolve quickly enough to match the market dynamics of the digital world.

But why? Next-generation manufacturing and process operations do not have to be centred around an automation system architecture at all. Instead, the automation system should only be an open platform tool that is used to implement new manufacturing and production models. The confluence of digitization and the IEC61499 standard now make it possible.

The IEC 61499 standard is the technical enabler for a plug-and-produce approach to industrial automation. Adoption of a standardized automation layer, common across vendors, will provide limitless opportunities for growth and modernization across industry. 

The age of plug-and-produce universal automation apps is upon us. We no longer must live with the constraints we have learned to accept in industrial automation, but no one company can accomplish all that Industry 4.0 promises on their own. Persisting in this new world requires an extended ecosystem of partners collaborating to succeed.

Will you be part of the universal automation future...

Ready to break free from proprietary automation systems? Discover how Schneider Electric's Software-Defined Automation can unlock greater flexibility, interoperability, and future-ready operations.