Study highlights collaborative process automation

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 18, 2002

The process industries are entering the collaborative manufacturing era with roughly $65 billion worth of installed process control systems that are rapidly approaching the end of their useful life.

The process industries are entering the collaborative manufacturing era with roughly $65 billion worth of installed process control systems that are rapidly approaching the end of their useful life.

These systems simply cannot deliver the level of functional autonomy and coordination required to be competitive.

Process manufacturers face further challenges in their quest for operational excellence and the need to maximise return on assets (ROA) that characterise this collaborative manufacturing era.

Dave Woll, Vice President, ARC Advisory Group, is the author of a new study titled "Collaborative process automation system of the future" and said, "Manufacturing assets represent 75 percent of capital assets for most process manufacturers and most of these assets are controlled by process automation.

Process automation presents an outstanding opportunity to make a big change in ROA by catalysing a small change in asset utilisation.

" In today's collaborative manufacturing era things are considerably different than they were in the past.

Process control is no longer independent or the focal point.

Woll continued, "The focus is on enterprise performance with the business systems responsible for optimising planning and scheduling.

Manufacturing systems are poised to respond".

This level of collaboration highlights the need for business performance requirements and emerging technologies to converge into a collaborative process automation system (CPAS) that delivers a strategic competitive advantage for both process manufacturers and their suppliers.

Manufacturing assets make up the majority of total assets in the process industries and raw material and conversion costs account for the majority of operating costs.

For the most part, process automation systems (PAS) are controlling these assets and, if they are not performing effectively as an integral part of a company's business strategy, then profits and competitiveness suffer.

A collaborative approach to process automation can deliver an extraordinary competitive advantage to process manufacturers.

ARC's study, "Collaborative process automation system of the future", is built on the premise that process automation has the potential to deliver significantly improved return on assets.

This is a response to the need to define the future of process automation in terms of manufacturers' business requirements and is independent of any supplier offering.

Operational excellence and its characteristic effectiveness, agility, and performance visualisation is the first supporting layer to asset utilisation and improved ROA.

ARC's CPAS vision points to the need for globally available data and information to be synchronised and revealed within the context of work processes, both in manufacturing systems and business systems.

Information synchronisation and empowerment, including the ability to deal with information in context, are fundamental to collaborative manufacturing and are discussed in detail in this study.

Addressing the enormous installed legacy that can threaten continuity in operations will be a challenge.

ARC's collaborative process automation system vision will provide users the insight they need to begin planning for the new era and provide suppliers insight into how they can enhance their value proposition.

Further information on this study can be found on the ARC website.