ODVA announces the availability of a new white paper, Optimization of Process Integration, which outlines a strategic vision for manufacturers looking to maintain cost-effective, sustainable production capacity in the process industries.
The white paper is designed to help business and technical leaders in these industries define their future network architecture and plan for the efficient integration of their plant’s network infrastructure into existing business applications.
ODVA envisions an approach to the optimization of process integration that is convergent, compatible, scalable and open for users and their suppliers. The approach will simplify the exchange of configuration, diagnostic and production data between field devices and higher-level systems, such as supervisory control and data acquisition systems.
The approach also will enable plant asset management (PAM) and secure remote access of field installations. This, together with the proven benefits and cost advantages of commercially available, off-the-shelf Ethernet and Internet technologies, will help businesses improve productivity and competiveness.
“In ARC’s vision for the plant of the future, Ethernet is integrated into process automation systems,” said Dick Hill, vice president and general manager, ARC Advisory Group. “The application of Ethernet technology to process automation promises to collapse these systems into a paradoxically simpler structure, while providing a solid basis for distributed intelligence with the elimination of artificial barriers to data and information.”
Katherine Voss, president and executive director, ODVA, agrees that industry will see a continued expansion of Ethernet and IP technologies in automation systems used in process industries.
“The Optimization of Process Integration leverages the prevailing trend of convergence in information and communication technologies used in industry and in business applications. As EtherNet/IP is proven in hybrid and discrete industries, it is an ideal technology to provide process industries with a unified communication solution from the field to the enterprise.”
In this white paper, ODVA describes the opportunity for the optimization of process integration (OPI) and an overview of its vision for a comprehensive approach including:
- OPI in the industrial ecosystem;
- ODVA’s vision of OPI in the production domain;
- Industrial use cases for OPI;
- ODVA’s technical approach to OPI; and
- OPI in practice