7 ways SCADA software can advance IIoT implementations, if you do it right
Latest trends in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software are helping industrial internet of things (IIoT) implementation, including with more integration (north, south and with databases), infrastructure monitoring and three other critical areas.
Learning Objectives
- Understand how modern SCADA software upgrades bring advantages, benefits to industrial applications, north, south and across the enterprise.
- Learn how SCADA integration and applications have improved with tighter and faster configuration and connections.
- See how software has improved using available and emerging standards for better design and implementation, including with 3D representations where appropriate.
SCADA upgrade benefits, insights
- 现代SCADA软件升级nefit industrial applications, north, south and across the enterprise.
- SCADA integration and applications have improved with tighter and faster configuration and connections.
- Available and emerging standards are helping SCADA migrations improve designs, bring faster benefits and ease integration and implementation, including with 3D software representations where appropriate.
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software was initially designed to aggregate information from distributed sources and provide operators with the information needed to best control processes. Today, with SCADA being so easy to implement and taking on more analytic functions, it has become the staple for every serious manufacturer. Although the market is mature, SCADA technology is evolving and improving.
Below find 7 key SCADA developments critical for manufacturers to know today.
More industrial integration for SCADA
1. Southbound integration:SCADA applications continuously grow and tend to integrate with more industrial data, thereby enabling owners to build additional value into their existing SCADA systems. Where in the past, the SCADA was installed to improve the performance of primary processes, today, these systems are collecting far more data, especially distributed and previously difficult to access data which is now available through internet and cellular connections.
The biggest change in connectivity below the SCADA is the introduction of IoT protocols, the three most common being a Web Services client, an message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) broker and client, and an OPC Unified Architecture (UA) client. These Internet-ready protocols offer high performance and security and are ideal for use in collecting data from remote sensors.
SCADA to monitor building, network infrastructures
2. Infrastructure monitoringis another key area of development, tying SCADA to building infrastructures and network infrastructures and other areas for the benefit of improving system reliability. This capability usually means the inclusion of BACnet, SNMP or operating system services connectors to collect and monitor data from those sources.
SCADA connections to MES and other areas
3. Northbound integration:Modern SCADA systems are vast repositories of data and layered analytics. This information is integrated into other systems, specifically manufacturing execution system (MES) solutions that are either local or remote as well as cloud analytics and dashboards to involve a wider audience in performance tracking and improvement. SCADA solutions are now equipped with modules that can package data into contextualized transactions, as appropriate for the information systems these are feeding. These SCADA solutions are often called workflow or bridge modules that not only create aggregations of data, but also transact the datasets with other systems for genealogy tracking, order processing, work in progress tracking, scheduling and dispatching, maintenance management and other functions. SCADA software have become enhanced with Web Services, MQTT Publishing, OPC UA server, and purpose-built interfaces for key industry needs.
SCADA integration with industrial databases
4. Database integration:Modern SCADA software platforms are more than industrial solutions, with ability to integrate with all other plant systems, feeding and extracting data for display and analytics. This means SCADA graphics are enhanced for more database- and forms-oriented applications, in addition to the capability to deliver objects for traditional operator interfaces. When thinking about SCADA displays, users should consider the data in inventory systems, asset management systems, and even customer relation management (CRM) systems as potential sources of valuable information to be integrated with SCADA dashboards.
Supervisory control and data acquisition software platforms of today offer many more capabilities and advantages compared to platforms of 20 years ago. Shown is an Iconics Genesis64 High Performance SCADA view of a chilled water cooling system. Courtesy: Iconics
Easy-to-configure SCADA platforms
5. Rapid development:Time is money, and the path to a more cost-effective SCADA implementation is a simpler and more intuitive configuration. While developers are always getting smarter with the use of software development tools and technology, in the end, the SCADA is the property of the end customers, and it is important for them to have some level of autonomy in supporting the way SCADA is applied.
SCADA systems are trending to more canned solutions with configurable functionality over the need for custom development and scripting. SCADA also is being delivered with rapid development tools to enable high degrees of scalability through importing, exporting, and automated replication functions for cloning and multiplying configurations.
Optimize SCADA data use with information models
6. Information models:One of the biggest industrial changes in progress is the drive toward Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing and digital transformation. The idea is to make optimal use of all data to improve performance and quality and reduce costs. Optimizing data use is a lofty goal that may seem out of reach for most, outside the best and the brightest or the largest corporations. To make better use of data, the industry will be relying and integrating on future standards. That includes not just data transfer standards, such as MQTT or those from OPC, but data structure standards for equipment and processes, also known as information models.
Ideally, if data exists in standard forms, then applications can be developed to consume these models, configuring automatically benefiting users. Users can create data models to deliver incremental improvements within an organization (a unified namespace) or users can leverage industry standard data models (a relatively new and ongoing development).
The vision for the future is a world where value added applications will be able to communicate with information sources (such as SCADA), will automatically discover information models of machines and processes, and will therefore be configured at the press of a button. SCADA software should support information models (asset definitions) and follow standards like ISA-95 for enterprise to control system integration.
SCADA,支持使用of 3D graphics
7. 3D graphics:Process graphics that are 2D in design are common. The focus is on the simplification of operator screens to deliver progressive disclosure when more information is needed and to leverage muted colors to remove eye fatigue, with graphics becoming bolder when conditions require it. This trend is called high performance graphics and is embodied in a standard called ISA-101.
But technology also is delivering the capabilities for 3D animations, based on real-time process data. For example, depictions of robot positions can match real world conditions. 3D is especially valuable in depicting information in building information/management/automation systems (BIM – BMS – BAS). SCADA systems also are improving to leverage 3D models from computer-aided design (CAD) software offerings to animate these with real-world information.
Modern SCADA software upgrade advantages, benefits
It may seem that SCADA has been around for a very long time, and many organizations still use the SCADA platforms installed 20 or more years ago. Modern SCADAs platforms have a lot to offer. Moreover, with significant focus placed on rapid development, the conversion from one SCADA solution to another also is greatly simplified compared to prior SCADA migration paths. Given this, it may be time to consider new SCADA options.
Tom Burkeis director of strategic marketing,Iconics; edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager,Control Engineering,CFE Media and Technology,mhoske@cfemedia.com.
KEYWORDS
Modern SCADA benefits, SCADA upgrade advantages
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For more information on these standards, see
https://opcfoundation.org/about/opc-technologies/opc-ua/ua-companion-specifications/
https://cirrus-link.com/mqtt-sparkplug-tahu/
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