{"id":1374,"date":"2018-01-29T10:49:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T09:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.blogs.yokogawa.de\/chemical-pharma\/uncategorized\/the-evolution-of-the-automation-pyramid\/"},"modified":"2022-07-04T06:59:19","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T04:59:19","slug":"the-evolution-of-the-automation-pyramid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yokogawa.com\/eu\/blog\/chemical-pharma\/en\/the-evolution-of-the-automation-pyramid\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of the Automation Pyramid!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was inspired by an article by Kepware on the Timeline of IIoT<\/a>, this made me look back the long evolution automation has had and makes me wonder about how could the future of the automation pyramid look like. Even though automation itself, in general, has numerous clear advancements and goals for the future such as Smart manufacturing, Smart factory, adapting to digitalisation, IIoT and Industry 4.0. These stay as interesting keywords and their proper formulation or transcription for process industry in specific is missing. Simple words, what is smart manufacturing in terms of chemical production? Should all the transmitters be replaced in order to implement digitalisation or IIoT? There arise a lot of questions around these. These questions are being answered by NAMUR<\/a> and The Open Group<\/a> through their concepts NOA (NAMUR Open Architecture)<\/a> and OPA (Open Process Automation)<\/a> respectively. Let us analyse them one by one.<\/p>\n

A little bit of “history”! NOA(h)<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

NOA an abbreviation for NAMUR<\/a> Open Arichtecture has formed an acronym among people pronounced NOA(h)<\/em> gives me a reminder of the biblical story Noah’s Ark<\/a>. Noah’s Ark is the ship built by Noah to save his family and two of every kind of animal from the flood and extinction. The situation of today’s automation pyramid is similar and the similarities are uncanny. Even though today’s  automation structure is widely accepted and is mature systems with long life cycles, It is too complicated to implement new technologies into this architecture, even if implemented it is either rarely used or ignored. The end user would want to keep those traditional advantages and also be up to mark on new innovations, meaning an evolution of the systems is required.<\/p>\n

Here<\/a> you can find another interesting post about open communication<\/a> by Tim-Peter Henrichs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Natural Selection<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the basic principles of evolution is Natural selection, where genetic alterations to the species are required for survival. This can be seen in the today’s automation infrastructure. The advancements to IT technologies post risks and sometimes are threatening to the basic advantages such as Availability, Reliability on which the automation pyramid was built on, above all to the huge investments end-users have made so far to their infrastructure. To the rescue comes “The Ark” here being NOA (NAMUR Open Architecture) and OPA (Open Process Automation), which defines the systems and technologies that are selected or fit for survival in the flood of today’s technological and economic challenges. What could be those evolutions items to the existing system?<\/p>\n