I recently presented a webinar cosponsored by ISA and CooperBussman’s Brian Cunningham on the above topic entitled “Staying Connected – Why Network Management Matters” based on the following abstract:
Though often taken for granted until it stops working, the connections between the various nodes and devices in your control system are critical to operation of your facility. However by the time your network has failed it is too late. Therefore, just like we have preventative maintenance programs for the control system, we must also have similar practices for the infrastructure (network) on which they rely. This seminar will help address this issue for both wired and wireless industrial automation networks by describing historical and present diagnostic tools, how the proper use of the resulting data increases plant reliability and the impact of network reliability and how this affects plant operations.
During the 90-minute webinar Brian and I covered the topics of:
• Why network management is critical.
• What was done in the past.
• What did it cost users in the past (to not have this knowledge).
• How did they deal with it in the past.
• New diagnostic tools available.
• What these new preventative tools provide.
• Benefits for plant reliability and operations.
• What is the bottom line at the end of the day?
The complete presentation and in the near future recorded podcast is available for download at
http://www.isa.org/Template.cfm?Section=Event_Calendar1&template=/conference/ShortDescription.cfm&ConferenceID=5427
I would love to hear any comments and feedback on this. Thanks.
Ian Verhappen is a contributor and blogger for Control and Control Design. He has 25+ years experience in instrumentation, controls and automation. You can email him at [email protected] or check out his Google+ profile.
