Aptica ushers in the next era of software-defined automation

The evolution of process automation over the past half century has seen quite a few revolutionary periods of growth. Joe Bastone, growth initiative leader at Honeywell Process Solutions, says we’re currently in a third major shift, which is moving the industry from the days of Windows-based, monolithic control systems to today’s modularized systems that function more like an iPhone than a desktop PC.

“We want to make it simple to add functionality in an incremental fashion so that there’s more insights in a system without having to do a big upgrade,” Bastone told an audience at the Honeywell User Group EMEA in The Hague, Netherlands, on Nov. 11.

That is the nature of the digital transformation taking place at plants and facilities around the globe. The future of industrial automation includes more IT technology, cloud-based data, modularity and flexibility.

Getting to that future is not without challenges, and Honeywell aims to lead users through the arduous process. Honeywell’s Aptica process solution, which looks and feels like an app store to help manufacturers add applications independent of each other to transform their processes in a stepwise fashion rather than all-or-nothing.

Challenges with digital transformation

Aptica is a response to the challenges operators face when moving to more modular and modern digital control systems. Bastone knows that solutions need to respond to users’ needs, and over the past eight years, he’s led Honeywell’s efforts to cultivate Aptica to the main challenges everyone faces during digital transformation.

“No one is going to adopt a new technology, just because it’s a new technology,” he said. “We see digital transformation as one of those universal challenges out there that everyone can identify with in some way, shape or form.”

While there are many challenges for operators, three stand out. The first is the existence of data silos. Control systems are living, evolving solutions that change when new functionality is added, and a new PLC might not be able to access the information in a pre-existing controller.

Meanwhile, pilot purgatory leads to scalability challenges. When pilots are made repeatedly, it leads to plants and facilities spinning their wheels while trying to transform. So rather than scaling new technology, they end up creating more pilots while never actually scaling anything.

Then there is the uncertain business case. “It's really challenging to be able to say, ‘I'm going to implement this piece of software and it's going to deliver certain results, or it's going to deliver benefits in a certain payback period,’” Bastone said.

Software-defined automation

Aptica helps users with software-defined automation. The idea behind software-defined automation is captured in three main points: hardware abstraction from software, edge-to-cloud connectivity and modular deployment.

It’s a different way of looking at the automation system because it not only lets users build in a piecemeal fashion but also provides comprehensive production oversight. It begins the process of creating a holistic data picture for manufacturers.

Software-defined automation is intended to help take digital transformation another level further, where users can start to decompose elements of their system into software containers. It builds up those software containers, or hives, as they are called, and makes a modular system that is more flexible with much less dependency on the underlying hardware.

“You get this edge-to-cloud connectivity,” Bastone said.

He reiterated that the purpose is to have consistent user experiences, whether deploying something at the edge, next to the process, across a production area, or in the cloud.

Aptica and automation

Bastone said APTICA was developed to offer a transformative user experience, comprehensive production oversight and, ultimately, autonomy and intelligence. Flexible deployment of upgrades across production and business networks, and cloud applications, are the heart of Aptica’s benefits.

Modular deployment, he said, is necessary in today’s industry to be able to prove out the value of individual pieces of technology, applications and functionality. It also enables users to start their digital transformation small and scale as they achieve the goal of a larger operation.

Bastone mapped out three typical phases of transformation that Aptica is designed to help manage. Phase one is to implement slight changes and prove the value of solutions. Phase two builds upon existing installations and addresses production challenges, and phase three enables the addition of new functions and control capabilities.

Ultimately, Bastone said Aptica lets users achieve unified data across platforms, pilots that scale, and incremental benefits for each step along the digital transformation journey.