5 Predictions for Factory Automation in 2011

　　While no huge technology shifts are predicted in the coming year, five categories will have the biggest impact on control engineers and the factory automation industry in 2011.

　　Micros versus powerful PACsThe distinction between small and big gets more severe as specialized capabilities merge in more powerful controllers and prices hit rock bottom on micro-controllers. Manufacturers of PLCs are giving the market away putting sophisticated capabilities into small controllers that are aggresively priced. The big two of PLCs, Siemens and Rockwell Automation both have . Realistically we have to wonder how much more functionality we can buy for US$90 or so.

　　At the same time high end controllers are becoming more and more capable. Remember the days when we stuffed a cabinet with a PLC, a safety controller, motion controllers, and a variety of process controllers. Expect to have more space in those cabinets in the future. National Instruments, Wago, Beckhoff, Siemens, and Rockwell Automation all call their newest family of controllers PACs rather than PLCs because their controllers can do it all (this list is by no mean complete). The capabilities of controllers still vary among manufacturers, but controllers are getting closer and closer to meeting all needs with one processor. DCS manufacturers are trying to bridge process controllers to the discrete side and controllers such as Rockwell Automation’s Logix controllers are more and more capable of performing all the functions required in manufacturing from discrete, to motion, to safety and process. The processing power of these processors is also increasing exponentially. Just like we moved from 8086-based PCs to Pentium PCs without much inflation in the price of PCs, we are seeing increased processing power in PACs without much impact on pricing.

　　Networks become One – and wirelessAre there reasons left to discuss any control network other than Ethernet? We could debate the merits of Profinet, Modbus TCP/IP, and Ethernet/IP. But really the war is over and future debate will strictly be over what version of protocol on Ethernet will ultimately hold the biggest market share. All versions of Ethernet are fast and dependable, and most versions are adaptable to both wired and wireless connections. Ethernet is proven in applications from the plant floor to . 2011 will see more devices, more applications, and wider acceptance of Ethernet as the default network for industrial control.

　　Security – thanks StuxnetCould there be a bigger wake up call than to make control engineers aware of security issues in control systems. Every magazine and website both in the factory automation industry and in mainstream news surrounding it. Don’t be shocked as variations and copy-cat security threats make news in the coming year. The new fight between controls and IT won’t be about who owns the network it will be about how the network is secured and who has access.

　　Fighting the l engineers like gadgets. We as a group are early adapters of toys but demand proven technologies on our control systems at work. Willingness to try new gadgets on control systems is incresaing though, and over the next year you’ll see more non-traditional devices incorporated into control systems. Macs, iPads, and Droid devices are way cool and we want to use them. One of the biggest obstacles to experimenting with these devices in the past has been the fact that most of the big factory automation device manufacturers only made devices that were supported on Windows platforms. Pile that obstacle on top of our forced migration in operating system from Win32 to 98 to XP to Windows 7–it all changes faster than the control device manufacturers can keep up with.

　　The result? This year will see an explosion of vitualization on the factory floor, on our design computers, and in maintenance computers. If you aren’t familiar with or spend some time familiarizing yourself because there really isn’t any other short-term solution.

　　Information Analysis wins over Data CollectionShop floor to top floor. We’re all sick of the hype we’ve heard for years about connecting our control systems to the enterprise. “We need actionable, manufacturing intelligence, not just data.”

　　No sh*t! Control Engineers have been saying it for years. We can shove every chunk of data we have access to into databases and it doesn’t make our companies a penny more if managers don’t know what to do with it. 2011 will be the year that our data collection efforts finally pay off. Dashboards become easier to integrate and non-standard devices become easier to connect with quickly configured gateways. Look to hardware manufacturers like and and software products like to make huge differences in the way we integrate and analyze the data we collect.

　　We won’t see major technology shifts in 2011 but these five areas will keep us busy helping our companies realize the full value of our automation projects.

　　Doug Brock has a broad range of factory automation and wholesale distribution experience and is an expert on performance improvement using common sense tools and the Baldrige Criteria.