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ABB Updates Flagship DCS Sign Up to receive Daily News Alerts in your E-mail Inbox
Posted on Wednesday, November 08, 2006 4:47:00 PM |
ABB Inc. today revealed the most significant upgrade to its flagship distributed control system architecture in the last two years, unveiling common engineering models, tools that extend control across the plant floor, and a standard way to integrate the DCS with enterprise applications.
System 800xA version 5 moves the process control vendor closer to meeting its long-term vision of creating a single operations and information management environment that incorporates common engineering code across every functional area of the system, including production management, device management, and asset optimization. The latest release also adds a distinguishing feature that may set ABB apart from the process control pack: the ability to modify a program online without interfering with the live application.
The release of version 5 comes on the heels of ABB's disclosure that it has sold over 2,400 units of System 800xA since the DCS's January 2004 introduction. The list of global customers includes: British Petroleum; Klabin SA, a Brazilian paper manufacturer; and LKAB, a mining and minerals group working on an iron-ore mine in Kiruna, Sweden. The diverse industries represent ABB's push to serve a variety of vertical markets.
Over the last two years, ABB's DCS has seen incremental upgrades that have extended its core control functionality into safety and motor control, for example. But now, "the focus is on engineering and features that make the DCS easy to use throughout its lifecycle," said Alicia Bauer, ABB's director of global marketing for control systems and products.
In a briefing with Managing Automation, ABB executives said the new version features "hundreds of enhancements that touch every area of the system," from the operator workplace to device management. But capabilities around distributed engineering and multi-system integration are what distinguish version 5 from an ordinary DCS, they said.
Specifically, the biggest enhancement is a new feature called Load-Evaluate-GO for updating production applications. Born out of a joint development project with customer, Dow Chemical, Load-Evaluate-GO enables users to modify and then download a revised application into the controller without interfering with production code. While in the test-mode, the revised application runs against the actual process, but does not activate any control. Once validated, the updated program is downloaded into the DCS to replace the existing application without interrupting the manufacturing process, company officials explained.
Load-Evaluate-GO was something Dow Chemical had worked on in its own homegrown control system prior to partnering with ABB. Together, the two companies designed a solution based on 800xA that mirrored the online simulation capability Dow had created in house. ABB, which performed final engineering and owns the patents for Load-Evaluate-GO, rolled the capability into version 5 for general availability because the process control vendor believes it's something every manufacturer needs.
"It's for anyone who can't afford to take a plant down to make changes [to a program] or who needs to optimize on the fly," said Marc Leroux, who is responsible for ABB's collaborative production management marketing.
Many vendors offer a way to easily migrate from an older DCS model to their next-generation systems, but "as far as I know, ABB is the only company to offer [something like] Load-Evaluate-GO," said Larry O'Brien, research director for process industries at ARC Advisory Group. And the major benefit is risk-reduction, he noted in an e-mail interview.
When it comes to reducing risk, ABB is also building a standard way to share information between the plant and enterprise using a combination of ABB's own Aspect Objects connectivity framework and standards such as ISA 95. The real issue, however, is how information is moved through the organization, noted ABB's Leroux. ABB, working with ERP vendors -- notably SAP -- aims to remedy that problem, he said.
SAP, for example, has built a standard way for third-party software to connect to its enterprise applications through NetWeaver and xMII. Now, ABB is offering a similar solution on the plant side of the house.
ABB is repositioning Industrial IT -- an umbrella term formerly tied to the 800xA platform -- as a connectivity platform. The company has invited third parties to become "Industrial IT-enabled," meaning they would have their products certified on the Industrial IT 800xA connectivity framework.
Using ABB Aspect Objects, which defines context-sensitive views that are mapped to different data points or devices, Industrial IT has the ability to integrate 800xA with third-party applications such as alarm management, for example. It can also integrate with an ERP system using toolkits that provide a standard method for linking the 800xA with enterprise applications that embrace ISA 95, including SAP and Oracle.
800xA version 5 is available immediately. Users currently on version 3 will have to upgrade to version 4 to receive all the benefits of version 5, ABB officials said, but all that this requires is an extra install -- no extra licensing fees. Pricing for 800xA is based on the number of users, the I/O count, and engineering requirements, officials said.
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