Alicia Bauer went on to discuss the next wrinkle for IndustrialIT-- remember it? It was the first of the 'framework' systems that would be able to take automation systems beyond the plant floor. Bauer stresses that the System 800xA is still IndustrialIT enabled, and that means something. "The original vision," she said, "was DCS plus collaborative process automation, including third party integrations." Now, with those third party integrations, like, for example, Maximo, Matrikon, and others, ABB is able to tackle the entire lifecycle of a process automation system. This, she averred, would culminate in:
--reduced TCO (total cost of ownership for the TLA-impaired)
--increased production output
--reduced risk and improved safety
ABB has, in IndustrialIT, Bauer reported, combined front end engineering tools, alarm management, integrated CMMS, OEE analysis tools, and smart instrumentation into the same single window environment. They are also working on a certification program for intelligent devices (HART, Foundation fieldbus, and Profibus).
They've also brought some "connectivity packages" (what other people call migration tools) out of engineering:
--Plantguard (A TMR SIS package)
--TDC 3000
--other DCSes are coming
ABB has also completed integration of third party software from SAP, IFS, Maximo, Intergraph and Matrikon.
ABB is part-private-labeling and part building an integrated add-on called AlarmInsight...a tool built from Matrikon Process Guard. Using AlarmInsight, you can "just right-click on an object and drill directly down through the data to any level you want to." These are combined desktop tools to improve Root Cause Analysis (RCA). One of the features is a so called "chatter report" that allows the operator or engineer to see what is being reported the most, a fault report submitter, and a work order status viewer so you can see what is in Maximo, or some other integrated CMMS system.
The process system is fully integrated now with SAP and Intergraph SPI, with, in the latter case at least, fully bidirectional data exchange-- as close as we're going to get to the Holy Grail of intelligent as built drawings that update themselves in real time.
Bauer went on to talk about what she called the "Industrial IT Enterprise Connectivity Solution." This is a signle point of interface to the enterprise that enables SAP R3 connectivity, and allows access to any business object in SAP PP-PI, and especially facilitates bidirectional connection to SAP PP-PI for batch.
The important take-away about all of these integrations into IndustrialIT and the System 800xA, Bauer pointed out, is that this is all accomplished "via configuration,
not via programming."
