Using Digital for More than Configuration?
Responses to "If you have digital instruments, are you using the digital information for more than configuration, i.e. integrating it for condition monitoring, transmitter internal temperature, etc.?" Survey details on page 14.
Indeed, industrial facilities that have built a communications foundation based on FieldComm Group technologies already are in a position to leverage the power of this secure "intranet" of process automation things in order to gain many of the promised benefits of the IIoT—without incurring the IIoT's perceived security risks. "It's an industrial intranet of things in the sense that it's firewalled and sometimes physically segregated from the outside world," says Moore Industries' Saunders.
Data and protocols already here
Modern process automation systems, for example, now include built-in multiplexers for seamlessly extracting digital HART information from analog transmitter signals. Leveraging these capabilities, together with full digital Foundation fieldbus and WirelessHART networks, industrial facilities have never been better equipped to extract from their field assets a wealth of digital information related to instrument and equipment health as well as safety and energy efficiency performance.
Ted Masters, president and CEO, FieldComm Group, believes that the process industries can draw inspiration from the IIoT's momentum to capture the value of the digital information that's already available in the millions of smart instruments installed worldwide. The vast majority of those smarts are used only during calibration and commissioning, Masters notes. "Now is the time to go get that digital data and use it to improve process performance.
"The value of digital data accessed through various hosts and systems is exciting, and is transforming our everyday lives. Nearly all devices are becoming connected and accessed for various types of new use cases. But as the IIoT becomes more complicated, users will have many more requirements to keep their plants safe and mission-critical processes reliable. The protocols of FieldComm Group understand the critical needs of process automation users and build robust standards around these special requirements."
Easier integration is next frontier
As the FieldComm Group's protocols have demonstrated their utility and robustness through billions of instrument hours, the primary goals of the organization have shifted from advancing the protocols themselves to making it easier for users to integrate and extract value from their installed base.
"One thing we've recognized, with the FDI effort in particular, is that it's not so much the protocols but the integration of data that is meaningful—and most difficult," says Emerson's Zornio. Early on, integration issues were exacerbated by multiple host implementations that often didn't interoperate in a multi-vendor environment. Users also have had to use multiple data formatting and presentation standards such as EDDL and DTM. "We learned that if it's not easily integratable, it's no good," Zornio says.
FDI set a new bar for cooperation and communication among industry standards organizations. "Now, the FieldComm Group is acknowledging that these other standards exist and is working with them to provide value for end users," Zornio says.
Meanwhile, the FieldComm Group's organizational structure, notably its strategic technology committee and working groups, provide for the continued development of new technologies, notes FieldComm Group's Masters. "We now have a home for those collaborative efforts, a model for continuing to bring technologies forward. We want people to feel safe about coming together here, to work together to advance the practice of process automation."