The unveiling of InFusion, Invensys plc's new enterprise control system, signifies a major shift in automation systems that industry observers say is the first real sign that the sensor-to-boardroom dream is becoming a reality.
The U.K.-based company's combination of architecture, applications, and object modeling technology may take enterprise integration in the process industry a step further than it has gone so far, analysts say. Automation vendors such as ABB, Emerson, GE Fanuc, and Honeywell have all adopted industry-wide standards like ISA-95 and OPC, and have worked to build out their product footprints beyond control by adding SCADA, MES, asset management, and manufacturing intelligence to their product suites. But Invensys appears to have developed a broader integration framework.
While also supporting ISA-95, OPC, and other standards, Invensys has spent the last several years building an application Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on Microsoft .NET object technology and a service-oriented architecture that allows manufacturers to build up application functionality independent of automation hardware platforms already in place.
"Messaging and re-branding exercises aside, most [vendors] have little to show for their investments," said Colin Masson, AMR Research Inc.'s research director of manufacturing operations, in a research note. "Invensys, on the other hand, has doggedly continued to invest resources -- nearly $100 million to date -- in replacing its legacy InTouch, InSQL, InTrack, and InBatch products with an operations excellence platform, Invensys ArchestrA," Masson continued. "This time, it is a wiser and more market-savvy Invensys heading to market. Rather than asking clients for a wall-to-wall Invensys commitment, the company is instead pursuing an approach that allows clients to fully capitalize upon existing investments in automation, SCADA, MES, and ERP."
InFusion, built on ArchestrA, the company's integration architecture, spans all of Invensys Process Systems' businesses and many of its products, including Wonderware HMI and plant intelligence, Triconix safety and critical control, Foxboro SCADA and diagnostic tools, SimSci-Esscor simulation software, and Avantis real-time condition monitoring and enterprise asset management. The InFusion package has six new applications, including a library of 325 "data acquisition servers," as well as ways to view information across departments and visual objects for engineers building applications.
"We are laying the infrastructure that is changing our organization," said Rod Howard, a senior engineer at Wisconsin Public Service Corp., the first InFusion customer. In a sense, he said, InFusion is forcing IT and engineering departments to work collaboratively.
Many manufacturers are looking to integrate teams and departments in order to filter out the redundancy that causes inefficiency. While many automation vendors, including Invensys, are lining up to partner with SAP in order to encourage the seamless exchange of information between the plant and the enterprise, InFusion is the first architecture to include Open O&M for manufacturing-to-enterprise integration, according to Peter Martin, Invensys's vice president of performance management.
That is one area that truly separates Invensys from the pack, but some say the company needs to convey that capability better.
"They didn't show the integration that well, and that is a powerful part of what they are talking about," noted Greg Gorbach, vice president of collaborative manufacturing at ARC Advisory Group, referring to the recent live demonstration of InFusion at a press conference in Boston. Invensys officials didn't talk about specific models the company has created around the concept of real-time accounting, the ability to share specific cost information from the floor up into the enterprise -- a key differentiator. "The ability to pull real-time information out of manufacturing and effectively share it with business systems is where they'll deliver a lot of value," Gorbach said.
Meanwhile, in the area of enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) solutions, Invensys "definitely hit the mark," said AMR's Masson in an interview. "It is one of the hottest manufacturing application investments in the chemical and oil & gas segments," Masson said. "They fill some pretty significant gaps in SAP's xMII [xApp for Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence] offering. And when combined with some top-notch performance management services from Dr. Peter Martin's group within Invensys," Masson continued, "they can create what they are calling an 'enterprise control system.' This elevates them to the status of one of the largest investors and solution providers, next to SAP themselves, in the EMI market," Masson said.
Masson further expounded on his review in his research note. "Cynics, take notice: Invensys is decidedly breaking ranks with its peer group by redefining, or blurring, the application boundaries that have traditionally hindered shop-floor-to-top-floor information flow (and everything in between) in the manufacturing enterprise."
This article originally appeared in the June 2006 issue of Managing Automation magazine.