Changing controls technology has certainly changed
how system integration occurs today. I was out of the
controls field for about 5 years and in that time several
big things have changed. Of course the speed of
everything has increased, but it goes well beyond that.
One thing is the use of distributed I/O. Imagine
having to controls 10 lights far away from their
switches. Before distributed
I/O you would have to connect the lights using 20 long
wires. With distributed I/O you can use one long wire
to a small box, and then connect the lights to the box
using 20
short wires. This saves both material costs and
installation time.
There are many other technologies that changed how
hardware gets put together including Ethernet,
wireless communication, safely PLC's, and RFID. In
my mind the thing that has changed integration the
most is the ability to transfer
data between systems.
Just a few years ago data was typically passed from
the plant floor to the front office using discrete (on or
off) signals. Machine states (running, downtime,
production counts, etc.) were sent out on a wire, and
quite often you did not know much about what
happened after that. The interface between IT and
Operations was very thin.
Discrete communication is still used, but the rich data
interfaces that are available today offer so much
more. Real-time process data can now be available
from a web browser. Enterprise data systems can be
directly tied to production data giving live inventory
information. The features of today's downtime and part
tracking systems allow managers to focus on the
areas of greatest impact.
This new level of communication has caused IT and
Operations to interact more than ever before.
Systems now have to integrate well into an enterprise
wide data
structure. These two groups have to be involved not
only with defining the system, but with the
implementation as it reaches beyond the plant floor.
The kind of tactical and strategic information these
systems provide used to be a competitive advantage.
It is starting to become a requirement just to stay in
the game. The old culture of IT and Operations being
at arm's length is becoming unsustainable in our
aggressive economy.
