Automation pyramid

A city within a state? The process plant

The people of ancient Greece worshipped the goddess Automatia (“the one who comes by herself”). In addition, the Greeks at that time created city states (polis) with the claim of “autonomia”, to live as an independent unit. Today, on the journey from industrial automation to industrial autonomy, we are using an understanding that people already had in ancient times. However, the question remains: will the process plant of today develop into an autonomous polis?

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Autonomy through perseverance

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, information retrieval or even data mining – these are all buzzwords that come up in connection with autonomous systems within the process industry. Are autonomous systems the future in the process industry and thus practically the next step beyond automation? I already wrote in my previous post that I see in precisely this circumstance the beginning of a change in automation that is moving towards industrial autonomous systems. But what actually makes us so confident that this transformation will actually take place?

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Make your digital transformation in the process industry

Digital transformation, so-called Industry 4.0, has been talked about for ten years now. What began at that time as a future project for comprehensive digitalisation is now taking place as a transformation throughout society and is also establishing itself in industry. The past twelve months in particular have given another enormous push in this direction. For example, the pandemic has accelerated the digital communication strategy of companies by six years on average worldwide. Digital transformation offers opportunities in all areas of business to adapt and evolve in the world of rapidly changing markets and technologies. The continuous development of digital technologies opens up new opportunities in research and development, but also in the areas of engineering, marketing, sales and services, all the way to logistics and value chains. Join us here on this blog with more topics on digital transformation in the process industry.

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AR and VR offer enormous potential – including for the process industry

#BLOG Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality – even if their exact meaning is certainly not familiar to everyone, today at least everyone should have heard of these two terms before. And this mostly in connection with video games like #Pokémon Go, #TV and movies. Or perhaps with a view to architecture, sports, medicine, navigation, (flight and driving) simulation, learning, art, photography, or entertainment in general.
But both augmented and virtual reality have long since found their way into the (process) #industry. There, they are used in industrial applications, maintenance, medicine, learning or #work safety. #AR #VR #AugmentedRealitiy #VirtualReality #automation #security #safety

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Digital Transformation: Can there only be one?

Although the digital transformation in the process industry is facing a significant change, there is still the view in some places that the change in technology, processes and business methods can be carried out using tried and tested methods. Some defend the respective historically grown areas and solutions. However, the implementation of digitization projects is a highly interdisciplinary task, and it affects all areas of the company.

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Panta Rhei – everything flows

The world is changing and new trends, technologies and business models will always prevail. Or as Heraclitus said about 2500 years ago: “Panta Rhei – everything flows”. This statement is based on his recognition of the natural process of constant becoming and change. Now this phenomenon has also reached process automation. This has always been known as conservative and also as sluggish. At least as far as the fact of adapting new technologies is concerned. The process industry is also constantly confronted with new challenges and must exploit the opportunities provided by digitization. The process automation community is quite proud of clear structures that guarantee high availability and functional security. This refers to the automation pyramid (photo: NAMUR), which, despite all its advantages, is unfortunately the brake pad for the digital transformation of the process industry. Everything within the pyramid is structured. NAMUR’s proposal is now on the table with an open architecture that combines the availability and safety of the automation pyramid with the advantages of digital transformation. In short: the NAMUR open architecture (Photo: NAMUR), abbreviated NOA.

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