Mike Bacidore is the editor in chief for Plant Services magazine. He is an award-winning columnist, earning a Gold Regional Award and a Silver National Award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He may be reached at 630-467-1300 ext. 444 or [email protected] or check out his Google+ profile."We see demographic change, fewer available operators and shorter attention spans," began Tobias Becker, senior vice president, global business unit manager, control technologies, for ABB in his review of the latest enhancements to company's 800xA automation platform at this week's ABB Automation & Power World event in Orlando, Fla. "You need to create an environment offering the best operator functionality available, the true power of integration, a truly attractive and ergonomic control room environment and one that enables consolidation and collaboration."
Many of the new features and capabilities added to ABB's flagship automation platform in Feature Pack 4 (for version 5.1) are intended to advance these very goals, Becker said, making the system better, faster, safer and more secure. "It's a major step forward in functionality," he said.
Feature Pack 4 makes it easier to create and configure a collaborative environment, continued Jonas Brannvall, global product group manager for the 800xA platform. "The latest release for 800xA 5.1 is easier to engineer and has improved change management, new communication capabilities, space-saving I/O modules and more flexible architecture," Brannvall said. Embedded video capabilities also are designed to improve collaboration and decision-making, Brannvall said.
Cybersecurity also is improved. "We're putting a lot of effort into securing our customers' control systems," said Brannvall. "With Feature Pack 4, we're introducing a lot of new features." For example, Industrial Defender connectivity and SE46 white-listing functionality have been added to help to mitigate the risk of cyber threats.
Many features included in this update add to System 800xA's focus on increasing operator effectiveness and visualization inside the control room and out. A mobile client configuration guide and a tablet workplace facilitate flexible collaboration between the field and control rooms, while ensuring safe and secure operations. Additional graphic elements have been added to System 800xA's graphics editor, making it easier to create a high-performance environment for improved situational awareness. An embedded video system and CAD drawing viewer help to increase visibility and enhance decision support. And an "Alarm Help" feature has been added to the alarm management portfolio, providing operators easy access to valuable instructions, as well as the ability to enter and review input from other operators.