I tell publicists continually that this is a personal blog. That I write everything—except for quotes and relevant parts of releases.
Bill Lydon has been colleague and media competitor for decades. I had experience and some technical skills. His puts mine to shame. I saw this article about Open versus Proprietary systems on LinkedIn. He sent the document with a couple images. I’m posting without interposing commentary.
I first left the factory floor to begin writing at the rise of “PC-based Control.” These “open systems” were supposed to make control and programming better, cheaper, faster. The PLC suppliers promptly adapted some of the technology. The PC suppliers did not have the market muscle to displace the incumbents.
Systems Integrators told me that open systems would put them out of business. I counseled them that on the contrary it would take more integration expertise to apply these systems. I was also annoyed by the reliance on technology explanations. If the solution does not make business sense, it should not be considered.
I’m passing the commentary over to Bill to expand his thoughts on the subject. It’s worth saving and discussing with your team.
Open , Proprietary, or Managed Ecosystems
By Bill Lydon, Digital Manufacturing Transformation Consultant
Key Highlights
- Open Systems Investments Require Critical Business Management Decisions
- Purchase Financial Criteria Incudes Business Competitiveness, Implementation, Installation & Startup & Lifecycle Cost
- Evaluate Purchases Inhouse & As Appropriate Consultant NOT Involved in Project Design, Engineering, Installation; Integration
- Using accurate information “Kicking hard” against assumptions.
Industrial Manufacturer Strategic Competitive Issue
Open industrial control & automation systems investment decisions at user companies need to be made based on clear technical and business criteria to be successful. The fundamental decision process for industrial manufacturing businesses is what investments are required to reliably continue to be competitive and profitable over time? As technology development and system integration become easier with plug-and-play and no-code programming of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies, the criteria change for making these decisions.
Analysis that simply looks at raw costs without considering other factors, including lifecycle costs, is incomplete and misleading.
When deciding to purchase any control and automation solution, the first question: Does the solution meet my project application performance requirements? Additional fundamental questions must also be asked about initial and lifecycle costs, reliability, and system maintainability:
Lifecycle Investment- System maintainability
- Maintenance People Training, Knowledge, & Skill Requirements?
- Software Maintenance Resources Required, Service Contracts, & Lifecycle Investment?
- Spare Parts Inventory Requirements & Investment?
- Lifecycle Spare Parts Investment?
- Hardware & Software Component Obsolescence Risk?
Installation & Startup Investment
- Application Engineering & Configuration Labor Hours
- Software Programming & Configuration Labor Hours
- HMI Application Engineering & Configuration Labor Hours
- Software Programming & Configuration Labor Hours
- System Commissioning Labor Hours
Implementation Investment
- Purchased Hardware & Software Investment
- Control & Automation System Integration Investment
- Software Integration Investment
The analysis needs to be performed internally and possibly with the assistance of an unbiased consultant that would NOT be involved in any of the ultimate system design, project engineering, system installation, and/or system integration. Using accurate information “Kicking hard” against assumptions is a critical part of this process.
Industrial Digitalization Imperative
Understanding the trade-offs and using accurate criteria to measure and judge investments to create an integrated real-time industrial manufacturing business is an important strategic management activity. Companies are becoming more aware of the need to modernize creating an integrated real-time industrial manufacturing business using production methods and automation to compete globally. Organizational competitiveness and flexibility can only be accomplished by critical business management decisions rationally and deliberately leveraging advanced technologies, centering on automation, to enable a successful transition. Taking advantage of the new technologies and initiatives have allowed leadership companies to leapfrog competitors. The process requires avoiding looking for “silver bullets” to achieve long-term goals.
Make versus Buy
Some believe using open computer platforms and open-source software is the best solution rather than integrated control and automation software and hardware from traditional suppliers. This reminds me of the early days of PCs, some businesses thought they saved a significant amount of money buying motherboards, cards and pieces of software to create internal systems. Those businesses learned that integration was not trivial and, depending on the vendor selected, keeping systems running could become a challenge over the lifecycle. Control and automation systems used for discrete or process industries are significantly more complicated and must meet performance and system availability requirements for manufacturers to be profitable. Manufacturers of products continually are faced with fundamental make-versus-buy decisions for their business to be successful.
Industrial Automation Open Systems Ongoing & Evolving
The entire controls & automation industry has been on a journey from completely proprietary systems driving towards open systems since the 1980s.
Architecture Models
Closed System Model
The Closed System Model describes the computer industry when mainframe and minicomputer companies were vertically integrated including hardware, software, peripherals, and service. Distributed Control Systems (DCS) serving the process industries adopted the same closed system model.
Fully Open System Model
Personal Computers and open standard data networking introduced open architecture concepts starting in 1970. Hardware from multiple vendors could be used in the computer when the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus became common. Competing operating systems, particularly CP/M and the more dominant MS-DOS, allowed people to write computer applications since these ran on open platforms. Windows and Linux came later, allowing developers to create applications. Linux had the distinction of being open source.
Gated Ecosystem Model
Gated Ecosystem Models came into being centered vendors including Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat’s with these vendors qualifying third-party suppliers to give users confidence systems meet reliability and performance requirements. For serious businesses, including industrial, applications it became apparent building and integrating hardware & software components to create internal systems was not trivial and, depending on the vendor selected, keeping systems running could become a challenge over the lifecycle. Responsible management at end user companies thoughtfully and accurately performed make/buy investment analysis for purchase decisions. This represents the model today and the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) industry has adopted this model.
Industrial Automation Managed Ecosystems vs Open Systems Debate
The industrial control & automation open systems debates bring the light valid points of view. I have been reflecting on automation & control system architectures with the latest frenzy about open systems since I have participated in design, architecture analysis, discussions, and standards for many years including being a cofounder and president of an industrial software company.
PLC Gated Integrated System Architecture Model
The PLC industry has been more progressively slowly adopting open system building blocks compared to DCS systems that have basically remained closed architecture. Major PLC vendors have been on an open systems journey using a gated system architecture model. The gated system architecture model is based on each supplier’s core propriety systems architectures designed for system integrity including performance, reliability, lowest Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), and quality. The system architecture leverages third-party hardware and software with partner programs that create a managed and gated ecosystem that expands capabilities by leveraging vetted and qualified third-party companies. Inherently the architecture and commercial policies do not provide users with seamless multivendor application program portability and field hardware interchangeability.
The PLC industrial automation & control vendors gated integrated system architecture model certainly improved price/performance with the adoption of many open and commercial technologies including industrial network standards including Modbus, Profibus, DeviceNet, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP and, EtherCAT, and MQTT. OPC UA systems interfaces are more recently is being embraced. Microsoft Windows HMI and Linux server implementations of SCADA, data historians have been another step forward. Using open I/O intelligent protocols including Modbus, PROFIBUS, DeviceNet, HART and I/O Link enable more intelligence to be driven into edge devices including sensors, analytic instruments, valves, and drives.
PLC hardware remains closed architecture controller backplanes with only third parties allowed to provide I/O and peripheral hardware modules after rigorous analysis and licensing agreements. In some cases third party partners are given access to proprietary interfaces through tight licensing agreements so they can provide specialty hardware modules.
PLC systems however have greater flexibility and lower engineered & installed cost than traditional DCS systems.
DCS Remain Closed Proprietary Architecture
Major DCS vendors have maintained closed systems. DCS suppliers have made innovations inside of their closed proprietary architecture. DCS suppliers based on user demand have interfaces in their controllers for select open architecture field I/O networks particularly HART communication protocol for field instruments.
Closed architecture DCS systems suppliers’ resistance to open standard adoption inspired creation of the Open Process Automation System (O-PAS) initiative driven by a group of process industry users primarily oil & gas producers.
PLC/DCS Convergence
PLCs have been displacing DCS process control systems for several years with powerful PLCs and industrial edge computers leveraging more open standards. Some industries, particularly oil & gas producers, have primarily continued to use closed architecture DCS for process control which I find hard to understand. In the early days going back to 1970s PLCs addressed discrete control & automation but over the years with increased performance with technology advances PLCs have been displacing DCS process control systems.
Critical Manufacturing Business Decision
Industrial control & automation systems investments require critical business management decisions for long term competitiveness, growth and profits over time applying technical and business criteria to be successful. Evaluate purchases should always be done in-house & as appropriate engage consultant(s) that will NOT be involved after purchase in project design, engineering, installation, and integration. Using accurate information “Kicking hard” against assumptions.
