The following responses were provided by Luis Marrero, Display Products Manager, Information Platforms Business, Rockwell Automation; Cheryl Ades Anspach, Senior Marketing Engineer, Information Platforms Business, Rockwell Automation; and Nicole Denil, Product Marketing Manager, Rockwell Software.
IEN: How can/will this sector answer industry demand for increased automation and flexibility?
Luis Marerro: Information pervades industry today -- it's the companies that best harness information that maintain their competitive edge. HMI is where people interface with their process and obtain information to plan, operate, analyze, and maintain. When people have the appropriate up-to-date information they need, where they need it, and formatted so they can understand the significance quickly, then they can make the best decision and act quickly. From industrial computers to operator interfaces to message displays, the HMI products available today make it easy to communicate the information you want to specific areas on the factory floor. Software programs now allow users to write custom applications, giving them the application they need without compromise.
IEN: Will HMI/MMI shift from client-server to device-based architectures?
Cheryl Ades Anspach: At Rockwell Automation, we don't see a shift as much as we see growth in both architectures. As companies require integration of resources across larger distances and processes, the requirement for distributed systems grows. Data needs to be distributed, yet accessible from many points or a central point, offering the advantages of a distributed system with central information. Integration of distributed systems also eliminates the need to duplicate and maintain information in different applications. As companies continue to enhance client-server HMI capabilities, making them easier to implement, we foresee that client-server architectures will be adopted more frequently in very large distributed systems as well as applications involving a single production line. In the past, lines, processes were hard to integrate without duplicating information. With distributed servers and clients, an operator on a bottling line, for example, can access information on the batch process and/or packaging line with very little integration effort.
On the other end of the spectrum, operator interfaces along with logic controllers and devices including logic are finding their way onto smaller systems where the features provide a cost advantage over a traditional approach.
IEN: What innovations are in store for users of equipment, systems, and peripherals? What enhancements can be expected in software?
Nicole Denil: The ultimate enhancement will be a better integration of data. We can now consolidate the information associated with the control system as a whole; users can now set up one particular database and link applications from many different areas of the control system. The ability to translate information from one area to another is also becoming easier, as is being able to make use of information from one system to another. RSView Studio development HMI software (shown here) has a number of features to reduce development time and maximize reuse -- tools that will continue to be enhanced. By having a single package to program both operator interfaces and distributed multi-client/multi-server applications that allows reuse of screens, developers do not waste time trying to learn another software package and can focus on creating and reusing their work.
Luis Marerro: Also significant to future innovations in software and hardware development is the decoupling of software and hardware systems. Before, if a customer purchased an OI and an HMI, they would also have to purchase separate software packages for each system. And there wasn't much choice of software packages, either; users had to compromise to get the system features they wanted. Today's technology allows users to specify their hardware and software systems to a greater level of detail -- even the support to write custom applications without the development expenses traditionally associated with customization. Now, with the integration of machine level and supervisory level, customers can specify the HMI that comes in on the machines, and it will plug right into the supervisory system.
IEN: How much progress has been made in resolving software and hardware debugging issues?
Luis Marerro: For our new line of industrial computers, VersaView (shown here), we offer a suite of visualization products that have been tested to work on the hardware. We're currently looking at bundling other solutions in future releases. For our customer, these bundled solutions offer the peace of mind that both the hardware and software have been tested for interoperability, eliminating the conflicts that users run into when they start loading different software packages on their computers. This saves a lot of time spent troubleshooting in the field.
IEN: What advances do you see in plant floor connectivity? Open standards? Data sharing?
Luis Marerro: We're noticing more customer requests for Ethernet, so from a connectivity standpoint, Ethernet is starting to take off. We've designed our OI products for both past and future connectivity: multiple communication ports are available for the PanelView Plus and VersaView CE, allowing it to act as a "bridge" between older systems and newer systems while keeping the data in one location. Looking forward, we've also added a USB connection to the PanelView Plus and VersaView CE to accommodate the spread of peripherals to the factory floor.
Nicole Denil: The proliferation of OPC has significantly impacted the ability for hardware and software components in a system to communicate. We've extended standard OPC to provide an even higher level of integration through a platform we call FactoryTalk, which is built right into our products. FactoryTalk is really all about sharing resources such as servers, tags, displays, alarms, etc. across systems rather than having duplication of those resources, or requiring high levels of integration to make them all work together.
FactoryTalk-enabled products use FactoryTalk Directory to share a common address book, which automatically finds and provides access to factory resources such as data tags and HMI displays. Unlike a single database, FactoryTalk Directory provides searchable references to resources stored anywhere across a distributed system, offering the benefits of central data storage without the risk of a single point of failure.
Using this enabling technology, companies can build complex distributed systems in any location and later deploy the systems elsewhere by simply modifying computer names. Resources associated with the system are then available to every participating FactoryTalk-enabled product across the entire automation system, and any changes update immediately.
IEN: Will embedded intelligence play more of a role in HMI/MMI? Collaborative manufacturing?
Nicole Denil: Collaborative manufacturing is high on the list of most organizations as projects become more complex with distributed information across facilities. Organizations are looking at ways to reduce time to market, and one of those ways is to have multiple engineers work on different aspects of a project at the same time, then integrate that information. Rockwell Software provides tools to do this in individual applications and as systemwide capabilities. RSAutomation Desktop™ is one of those tools. RSAutomation Desktop includes built-in controls for managing complex industrial automation projects. A team can work together on a project concurrently without fear of overwriting each other's work. Because the versioning system is tied into an underlying FactoryTalk Audit™ capability, messages about changes to any element of the project are available immediately across the entire automation system.
IEN: Will wireless play a role in HMI/MMI?
Cheryl Ades Anspach: Early adopters are using wireless already, and it definitely has a role to play in HMI/MMI. People have a tendency to move around and having wireless capability with a mobile HMI device that stays with the individual is a natural fit. With the MobileView Tablet (pictured here), plant floor workers can walk up to a machine and read its status off of the MobileView and react to any alarms without chasing back and forth to a panel-mounted OI.
IEN: Where does HMI/MMI fit in today's Internet/intranet plant floor picture?
Luis Marerro: There are a number of ways HMI and the Internet can be integrated. For a machine level application, one solution is to provide a local HMI that monitors and controls a piece of equipment and then launch Internet Explorer from within the HMI application to access information that is available from the company intranet or to view plantwide production data.
Internet connections can also help speed OEM installations, using the Internet and terminal services to connect to the system. With the elimination of custom interfaces, OEMs can focus on setting up the machines.
Intranet access on the factory floor can help simplify tasks like troubleshooting. If someone needs to look up a manual, look on a drawing, gathering information posted on an intranet site is often faster and easier than manual searches.
Some customers use a combination of the Internet and intranet to help complete maintenance activity. For instance, a maintenance order uses the last replacement part in stock. Purchasing can be automatically notified to order new stock with their supplier to replenish inventory. This closes the loop to make sure parts are in supply where they are needed, as they are needed.
There is increasing demand for executives as well as plant managers and machine operators to be able to view information that allows them to make decisions about how to run their enterprise. Plant managers want to see machine status, production, etc., and executives want to know how to increase the bottom line by increasing productivity, increasing uptime, etc. FactoryTalk Portal provides global access to production data and manufacturing reports from a web browser or related remote device. Sales staff, customer support staff, plant floor managers, and company executives all have customized, worldwide access to real-time manufacturing information 24 hours a day, every day of the week.
For example, suppose a plant manager in Minneapolis needs specific production data from a plant in Cleveland. Plant managers in both locations can view the same data at the same time -- without creating custom reports. Half a world away, suppose two executives meeting in Europe want to quickly check manufacturing operations in each of their home regions. They can simply open their personal digital assistants (PDAs) and view the latest operations reports and runtime diagnostic messages.
IEN: How can companies maintain legacy equipment with the latest HMI/MMI technology, in the spirit of the lean enterprise?
Cheryl Ades Anspach: To answer this, we want to define "lean" enterprise. Lean isn't just about making do with less. It is about reducing the wait time -- the time an unfinished product sits around before the next process step or a finished product gets shipped out the door or an operator waits for the equipment to be repaired. Having up-to-date information in the right places is key to creating a lean enterprise, and HMI gives people access to that information. With that information, people know they are doing the best possible thing on the factory floor that benefits the company as a whole.
IEN: Do you have any other comments for our IEN audience?
Luis Marerro: The pace of technology is faster than ever, and people are more comfortable with technology. Looking back at the factory floor 10 years ago, the prominence of computers on the floor and the comfort level of working with those computers was virtually nonexistent. About five years ago, more computers and related technology were on the factory floor. Today, we're at the point where the labor content within higher-end manufacturing locations is relatively low. It's the knowledge base and the application of technology that gives companies the competitive edge.
