A guest blog post by Dr. Ravi Gopinath.
In my previous blog I
spoke about the evolution of industrial operations and how advances in software
for the purpose of industrial automation, information management and operations
management is the key to meeting the needs of the modern enterprise. In this
blog I will explore the future of industrial software and how businesses today
can use software to leverage their plant operations to remain competitive in
the marketplace.
In that blog I noted that industrial software is
applicable right from when a plant is built, through to commissioning and
operation. Models that are used in the design of a plant can also be used when
running it to optimize the process and allow owners and operators to take
advantage of new business opportunities as they present themselves.
But how does this actually happen on a day-to-day basis?
The multitude of devices in a modern industrial plant
creates enormous amounts of data that can be leveraged and used to make
improvements in the day-to-day operations. There’s been a great deal of
discussion on the Internet of things these days. For industrial operations,
this has existed for many years. Real-time historian software can gather many
process values and consolidate them into a long term storage which can be used
for reporting, troubleshooting and analysis. Furthermore this information can
be made available to office workers mobile employees, business, engineering and
maintenance departments. Data can also be fed to business systems provide
information needed for accounting and supply chain management. Two of the
newest enhancements in industrial software include, firstly the ability to
capture and encapsulate workflows to make the running of the operation much
more systematic and productive. Secondly with the advent of cloud computing
some industrial software functions that span geographical areas and involve the
interaction of multiple parties can be placed in a secure and remote data
center environment. This also leads to new business models such as software as
a service to remove the need for large initial capital expenditures, allowing
the purchase of software as an operating expense. The ability to integrate
together the entire operation, quickly modify it to take advantage of new
opportunities, and connecting people, processes and procedures sets Software
Technology as a valuable asset for any industrial operation today.
Some examples I can share with you include a major
integrated oil company that applies optimization software and saves upwards of
$500 million per year in operating costs. This is achieved through the ability
to optimize and control energy costs and the ability to quickly identify new
opportunities and dynamically change mixes of finished products that are
produced at any one time.
In addition, by applying manufacturing execution systems
software a major food company can save 30% in their overall operating costs
through better quality control, reduction in downtime and better correlation of
raw material costs, energy and finished goods accounting.
Today’s industrial software has evolved to help
businesses unleash the power of data inside the plant to be able to unify
islands of automation for the next generation of operations management systems.
Together, Schneider Electric and Invensys are changing the game for industrial
software. Our software brands, unified as a single HMI family, will provide
operational improvements via enterprise wide visibility and standardization,
which is a common way of viewing operational data for consistency of quality,
processes, and KPIs. It is one “version of the truth” which overall provides
better business agility and increased competitiveness.
How will you leverage our enhanced software portfolio?
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Ravi Gopinath, Ph.D., is president, Software Business Unit of Schneider Electric Global Solutions, responsible for R&D; project management; regional sales; services, support and partnerships, including the company’s Ecosystem of Partners; and all functional support. He has more than 15 years of global engineering solutions and services experience, beginning his professional career with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India in 1994. Gopinath received his Ph.D. in advanced process control from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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