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PROCESS AUTOMATION A HYBRID APPROACH TO DATA


Dan Rossek, regional marketing manager at Omron, looks at the different data storage and processing options available – edge, on- premise or cloud-based servers – that suit the needs of all applications


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here is certainly a buzz around the idea of digitalisation, for its ability to deliver the benefits offered by greater


visualisation and analysis of data and to gain a greater understanding of the root causes of unexpected downtime and production bottlenecks. But what are the options and how can they best be employed? One benefit of digitalisation is its potential


to escalate data to other systems and to make it possible to monitor plants remotely, in more depth, over wider distances and longer periods than has been possible in the past. Manufacturing traceability, for example,


would traditionally have been achieved via paper-based batch recording, while product level traceability would not have been achievable without digital technology. Predictive maintenance could be achieved, but only via periodic monitoring of devices. So, digitalisation brings with it a host of


valuable new functions which make use of the data that probably already existed on the production line, but was in disparate systems. At its most simplistic, digitalisation is about


integrating devices to gain information about them that helps rectify problems. However, the potential goes much further. Visualisation, for example, can give greater insight into how productive and efficient the entire manufacturing plant is. The biggest barrier to adopting digital


technology revolves around the fact that operational technology (OT) was traditionally designed around the need for machine optimisation, employing architectures and networks that provide optimal performance for machines. However, because any digitalisation project's success relies on the IT and OT worlds merging, there has been a need for OT technology to evolve to make it more able to integrate with the wider world


26 APRIL 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL


and today, modern machine control solutions incorporate IT functionality. Omron's Sysmac controller, for example, includes direct SQL database connectivity and can also be provided with OPC-UA, as well as MQTT. These solutions provide a simple method of escalating operational information from machine level to the IT environment and vice versa. Middleware solutions are also now available, which can act as a gateway to connect legacy devices to the IT world, where necessary. On-premise servers can offer a good data


handling solution for applications that need fast access to data. When it comes to connecting the OT environment to the rest of the world, security is often a concern. However, if the intention is to analyse and store data in an on-premise IT server, security should already be provided by the factory firewall or existing security infrastructure. But, because any connection point may be


a potential security threat, there are always some security measures that should need to


be taken – Omron has addressed this issue through the use of 'trusted certificates' – a recognised IT security measure. The trusted certification is unique to the OT device on which it resides and can be easily identified by the IT server. The downside of on-premise servers is that


they are not able to store infinite amounts of data, so if an application requires huge amounts of data to be processed, a better solution would be to use a cloud-based server – however, this would require more stringent security considerations. The cloud can provide a scalable data storage solution not limited by capacity and requires no architecture changes if storage needs alter. The downside of cloud-based servers is


that they cannot provide a real-time connection. There will always be some latency when it comes to processing and reacting to data. When it comes to data storage platforms,


different solutions offer benefits in different applications. Tasks such as production


Engineers should consider digitalisation to be just another tool that can give them greater insight into their processes to help improve efficiencies


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