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Summary
At the recent ARC India Forum in Bangalore, Niraj Vinaik, VP & Head Oil, Gas and Chemicals at ABB (a silver forum sponsor), presented on "The Intersection of Enterprise Asset Management and Industrial Internet of Things."
Mr. Vinaik's presentation addressed collaboration (of devices, assets, and people), co-existence (of old and new systems and operators), and convergence (of IT and OT) in the context of ABB's technology advancements and solutions. He focused on ABB's Internet of Things Services and People (IoTSP) solution approach, but also shared numerous other solutions and case studies to support ABB's views on IIoT.
Key takeaways from Mr. Vinaik's session include:
- An approach that embraces convergence, collaboration, and co-existence can enhance industrial productivity to help industrial organizations achieve business success.
- Enterprise asset management represents a key focus area for IIoT applications and ABB has solutions to leverage these opportunities.
- ABB solutions and platforms target data integration and predictive maintenance.
Traditional vs. Current Automation Technologies
Mr. Vinaik touched upon various aspects of automation technologies and their evolution over the years. He pointed out that, due to the existing intranets and significant amount of connected systems and devices already in place in most process plants, they would appear to be ideal candidates for implementing IIoT. But in reality, not all assets in process plant are connected or have the remote monitoring capability – which is only available in pockets.
Control Systems in Process Industry
Mr. Vinaik's presentation began with the evolution of control systems in the process industry, especially the oil & gas sector. In the '60s, electromechanical relays were in place with little or no automated data management and many processes were manually controlled. In the '80s, the scenario changed with electronic relays, discrete event recorders, meters, alarm systems, and basic automation; which gradually evolved into more sophisticated digital technologies. Today, the future looks bright with intelligent electronic devices (IED), integrated alarm management systems, and GPS time-synchronized and integrated control systems.
Process and Power Automation Integration
Mr. Vinaik then spoke about integration of process and power automation systems.
Process automation is performed by the plant's distributed control system (DCS). It is a combination of process instrumentation used to measure and control process parameters such as pressure, level, temperature, and flow. Electrification's play in process automation is for large actuators such as motor operated valves (MOVs), pumps/motors, and compressors.
Traditionally, power automation, which involves monitoring and controlling the power distribution of a plant, has had its own distinct control system.
Over the years, full plant integration solutions have evolved to help overcome the challenges of electrical integration. A complete integration platform is needed to seamlessly combine the electrical control system, process control system, plant-wide data historians, and equipment health information. This modern approach to connectivity is a major advantage for the process industry and helps ease adoption of the Industrial Internet of Things.
Plants Need to Leverage the Respective Strengths of Experienced and New-Generation Operators Alike
Mr. Vinaik shared his observations on and concerns about operators on the plant floor. On the one hand, plants have highly experienced operators who understand and can get into a complex, closed-loop control system to fix a problem. On the other hand, the new-generation operators are less experienced, but have the advantage of being tech-savvy, conversant with technology, and comfortable troubleshooting remotely. With automation, IoT, and analytics, increasingly driving today's plants, experienced operators may struggle to keep up with the pace of new technologies. Mr. Vinaik emphasized that both tech-savvy, new-generation workers and more seasoned and experienced operators are needed to run today's plants.
Also, while newer and older operators must co-exist in today's plants, so must newer and older systems since ROI on installed assets has to be maximized. There is a growing need for new advancements that have desired outcomes, but in the process of revolutionizing, existing systems should not be discarded.
Internet of Things, Services and People
ABB has introduced the concept of Internet of Things, Services, and People (IoTSP) to personalize technology, put customers in the center, and improve the way they connect. According to Mr. Vinaik, this concept will help improve data analysis, boost productivity, enhance reliability, save energy and costs, and generate new revenue opportunities through innovative business models. With IoTSP, ABB expects automation to become a set of applications on a multi-layered IIoT platform, with analytics and control spread across multiple layers. IoTSP has a major role in integrating with enterprise assets and has a huge impact on the "smart" factories of the future, in which people will make decisions based on real-time data from the factory's equipment.
Mr. Vinaik shared a couple of examples to prove this point. In one example, an almost credit card-size, IIoT-connected sensor developed by ABB is installed on motors throughout a plant to communicate critical parameters like temperature and vibration to a cloud-based ABB server that stores data and performs analytics. The server keeps track of how the motors are performing (including imminent motor failure) and when they need to be serviced and communicates this and other asset information to the customer and/or ABB engineers via a PC or mobile device. A detailed description about IoTSP was covered in the ARC View titled Smart Solutions to Power an Emerging India.
Next Level of Productivity: Integration and Collaboration
Mr. Vinaik explained that by connecting smart devices to an overall plant ecosystem, industrial organizations can achieve the next level of productivity. For example, connecting an asset (such as a motor) to the overall ecosystem, can provide significant benefits for a wide variety of ecosystem participants, both within the plant itself, across the enterprise, and even within the technology supplier's organization. For example:
- Process operators in the plant can use the asset health data to predict failures and arrange for alternatives without affecting the current operations.
- Plant maintenance organizations can use the asset health data to optimize maintenance scheduling in collaboration with corporate planners.
- Control engineers (either in the plant or in a central engineering group) can use asset performance information to fine tune control strategies. Process engineers can also use this information to fine tune the process itself.
- If the overall asset health information is shared with the OEMs, they can use this data to perform remote diagnostics and support. They can also use overall asset performance information to improve the design and manufacturing of the asset.
To provide some real-world examples of this concept of collaboration across an ecosystem in a connected world, Mr. Vinaik mentioned offshore platforms running in North Sea that are completely unmanned.
ABB's Collaborative Operations for Enterprise
In the last part of his presentation, Mr. Vinaik talked about the capabilities of one of ABB's flagship products, AssetVista, which the company demonstrated during the event. According to Mr. Vinaik, the product helps break down existing information silos between operations, automation, and maintenance personnel. AssetVista, which supports advanced predictive maintenance by analyzing pieces of data from thousands of components and production assets installed in a plant, can work in conjunction with an existing automation system or with the company's new System 800xA DCS.
The company also demonstrated its ProcessInsight product, designed to provide advanced condition and performance monitoring of process equipment to help optimize production. Process analysis models with built-in ProcessInsight use state-of-the-art fault detection techniques for a powerful, generic approach to online and offline fault detection and disturbance analysis. Key benefits include increased throughput, uptime and reduced operation and maintenance costs.
Conclusion
The fourth industrial revolution is bringing in a big shift in automation, leading to a new age of innovation. ARC believes that ABB, with its broad and deep understanding of the cutting edge automation technologies and industrial applications, is well positioned to help transform manufacturing. Emerging concepts like Internet of Things, Services, and People (IoTSP) will drive positive changes in the automation world.
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Keywords: Process Automation, Power Automation, Internet of Things Services and People (IoTSP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), ABB, ARC Advisory Group.