The Value of Multivendor Software-Defined Automation

Summary

Software-defined automation allows industry to reimagine automation. The problems industrial automation professionals face today are different from what they were in the past. The energy transition, the accelerated drive to simplify operations and the increased frequency of cyber-attacks are challenging industrial automation professionals. Software-defined automation helps engineers, system designers and industrial business professionals find solutions without the limitations posed by hardware capabilities—or a lack thereof. It is based on industry standards that allow software to be separated from the hardware on which it is running.

This approach is relevant to today’s industrial automation market because it enables multivendor or vendor-agnostic solutions that are interoperable and portable. Software-defined automation makes solutions universally accessible to enable developmental flexibility and widespread adoption.

With a shift to software-defined automation, users can focus on the process. They can determine what is needed from a process or control-strategy perspective without having to be concerned about the limitations of hardware when designing your process control strategy. They can meet the business and operational challenges they face with the help of more and better partners.
 

The challenges

Industrial professionals face challenges on many fronts. 
Energy and sustainability. The industrial automation space faces numerous and increasing challenges related to energy and sustainability. The energy transition, for example, involves a shift from fossil fuels to sustainable low-carbon alternatives like wind and solar. This means utilities and their customers are challenged with integrating renewable energies into existing infrastructures. One of the biggest challenges is variability: Unlike traditional fossil fuels, which can be burned on demand to produce energy, solar and wind power are dependent on weather conditions and fluctuate throughout the day.

Cyber-attacks. Cybersecurity has shifted from “nice to have” to “must have” when it comes to industrial automation and operations. Cyber-attacks have increased in both frequency and intensity in the last 10 to 15 years. Separating the software from the hardware allows systems to become more cyber secure at the component level and with the transfer of data—even within the system.

Supply chain risks. Fluctuating demand affects production planning and supply chain vulnerabilities lead to delays and shortages. Such supply chain crises force system developers to think differently about how to build automation solutions—specifically from an electronics perspective. Software-defined automation decouples software from the hardware, minimizing the risks posed by electronic component shortages. Suppliers can find equivalent solutions on the market and apply software to them.

Simplifying operations. The accelerated drive to simplify operations also contributes to the drive toward achieving autonomous operations. Now that technology is more powerful than ever, there’s more data available. More industrial plants are leveraging this data and making more control-based decisions based on that available data.

Cost. Cost has been a consistent challenge. However, moving forward costs are linked to the energy transition. Existing energy production processes have been optimized for decades. But we are still in the early stages of an energy transition. Cost and process optimization still require work to make clean energy alternatives cost-effective—hopefully more cost-effective than traditional energy solutions.

People. The number of skilled and knowledgeable people proficient with existing industrial automation solutions is declining. New people entering the industry have grown up with different types of technologies; they expect the same type of user experience they are familiar with in their everyday lives to be available in their industrial automation work environment. This is an era of shifting technologies.
 

Meeting the challenges

One way to meet these numerous challenges is through new ways of thinking. The sustainability triad refers to three strategies that, when used together, deliver positive outcomes that are greater than the sum of each part.

The three parts of the triad are automation, software and digitization, and energy optimization.

Automation unlocks production and sustainability by optimizing processes and energy and resource use; cutting operating costs; and liberating workforces from avoidable safety issues. Automation powering remote operations proved highly effective in overcoming recent pandemic challenges. 

Software and digitization can provide data-driven insights so that industrial operations run efficient processes with digital transparency and unified control that can unlock smart scheduling and visualization. Using a full suite of digital tools and end-to-end software transforms information by combining artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins and human insight to unlock higher levels of performance. Deeper analytics optimize assets while real-time data management ensures resilient industrial ecosystems and digitized traceability that supports circularity.

Energy optimization can propel industrial decarbonization at scale. Increased electrification and other fuel-switching strategies—alongside the convergence of power and process energy—can rapidly reduce industrial waste. Recycling also promises to lower energy demand. Smart and green electricity with renewables and storage can alter how we power machines, processes and plants and tackle resource use across industrial value chains.

Increased pressure to adopt sustainable practices is fueled by regulatory requirements and business initiatives driving the need for greener production methods. Industrial sustainability is achievable through the interplay of software with automation and energy optimization. Specific digitized strategies for creating more resilient, agile and eco-efficient operations are directly connected to the need for more sustainable industries.
 

Finding alternative solutions

Another way to meet these challenges is to find an alternative to the traditional vendor lock-in business models that foster reliance on single-vendor solutions. These traditional solutions have limitations imposed by proprietary hardware and software scenarios.

Software-defined automation built on open standards can boost interoperability and digital collaboration, allowing industries to bring products to market sooner, increase competitiveness and turn Internet of Things (IoT) data into bottom-line value. While the innovations of the past were enabled within proprietary vendor systems, these closed systems now restrict progress. Digital transformation using software-driven solutions is only possible if your different vendor solutions communicate. More importantly, the solutions need to interoperate with each other seamlessly and without the need for any hardware and/or software gateway. This has evolved into software-defined automation.

This interoperability and portability is now enabled with universal automation using a standardized automation layer. Schneider Electric is a founding member of the Universal Automation organization, an independent, not-for-profit association that welcomes users and vendors to share a source runtime execution engine designed to “unleash innovation by enabling application portability.”
 

Finding multivendor expertise

UniversalAutomation.org (UAO) is an independent, not-for-profit association managing the reference implementation of a shared source runtime engine based. Information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) software vendors, industrial end users, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and academics share a common automation software layer across their automation technology—regardless of brand. Schneider Electric is among the founding members of the organization.

UniversalAutomation.org drives the development of a vendor-agnostic ecosystem of portable and interoperable “plug and produce” software that can run with almost any hardware. By decoupling software and hardware, sharing a reference runtime, and merging the IT and OT worlds, the organization seeks to create an entirely new category of industrial automation and unleash the full potential of Industry 4.0.

Schneider Electric is leveraging different technology that allows it to remove the need for gateways when different vendors have to communicate to each other. Software-defined automation architectures cultivate the exchange of innovative ideas across diverse domains. This approach cultivates partnerships and enables industries to customize and adapt their operations to meet evolving requirements with flexibility. The interoperability and portability of software-defined automation make it a future-proof solution that drives industrial automation efficiency, productivity and resiliency.

Schneider Electric is a leader of multivendor, software-defined automation solutions. Its expertise and wide range of solutions help users by providing seamless transitions and tailored user mapping. Offers like EcoStruxure Foxboro DCS and the EcoStruxure Platform allow architectural change that increases profitability. EcoStruxure Automation Expert orchestrates different hardware and software into one cohesive system.
 

The benefits of software-defined automation

The benefits that multivendor software-defined automation makes possible for industrial automation start with increased flexibility and portability because of the ability to deploy automation applications across different hardware platforms as well as the reduction in extensive reengineering and testing, which fosters adaptability.

Another benefit is enhanced scalability and efficiency due to minimizing downtime during automation system modifications, which streamlines the integration of diverse vendor equipment and enhances overall operational efficiency.

Cost efficiency is also a benefit of multivendor software-defined automation. Vendor agnosticism allows reductions in capital and operational costs. It also eliminates the need to maintain extensive hardware inventories.

Multivendor software-defined automation empowers the workforce through a shift toward broader skills requirements, which reduces reliance on specialized knowledge. Modernized operational environments allow companies to attract and retain talent.

The concept of interoperability is not new. The industrial automation space has had to deal with interoperability—or the lack thereof—for decades. Existing solutions have different levels of capability when it comes to interoperating with technology from different vendors. Currently, users are doing this by using gateways to get equipment from different vendors to communicate with each other, which increases the cost and risk of any project because there is more hardware—on both sides of each device—and added software on both sides as well.

Perhaps the biggest impact is the engineering effort required to configure these gateways on both sides of each device from different vendors. Throughout the life of a project, there is an extra level of complexity. What is true at startup doesn’t necessarily stay that way. A single source of truth becomes even more relevant throughout the life of the plant as changes are constant and the gateways require constant maintenance every time a change is made to the automation strategy.

To achieve seamless multivendor interoperability from an industrial automation solution, users must all be using the same software. Merely leaning on standards has not allowed our industry to achieve the benefits that multivendor solutions can offer. This is why Schneider Electric is leveraging the technology made available by universalautomation.org, a nonprofit organization focused on the industrial automation landscape. The organization makes available to its members a shared source runtime engine—or in simpler words, the software running inside an industrial automation controller or control processor.

This means that we now can create a control strategy that mimics the plant layout and process without having to consider the hardware architecture it will run on. These two activities can happen in parallel and no longer rely on each other. Once the control strategy and hardware architecture are finalized, the user can decide what portions of the control strategy runs on which hardware platform. This gives them the enhanced flexibility to decide if they want a distributed, very distributed or centralized approach when it comes to running the control strategy.
 

GR3N: A user perspective

Users can leverage the expertise of Schneider’s domain specialists and its collaborative ecosystem of partners to deliver tailored applications and solutions. Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Automation Expert orchestrates different hardware and software into one cohesive system.
 
For example, GR3N, a plastics recycling company in Italy, has implemented software-defined technology in its process using solutions from Schneider Electric and other vendors while leveraging the technology from UniversalAutomation.org. GR3N has a chemical-based process to recycle plastics that allows the company to achieve a higher overall percentage of recycled plastics compared to traditional plastics recycling.
 
Other user examples include AI and ML-empowered  Alkhorayef Petroleum and the real-time network views of Padania Acque.

Software-defined automation challenges automation providers sticking to traditional architectures and hardware-based solutions to think differently about how they build automation solutions. Most automation solutions available on the market are hardware-defined. Traditionally, the hardware is the main focus versus the application. With software-defined automation, the focus shifts from the hardware to the application and, by default, the software.

Software-based solutions and applications can be designed without the concern of the hardware on which it will run. Once the applications or solution is designed, then the appropriate hardware to run it on can be chosen.

Looking ahead

Organizations need to adopt multivendor, interoperable solutions for enhanced agility and efficiency, as well as to enjoy the added benefits of flexibility, portability, cost-effectiveness and workforce empowerment. Embracing software-defined automation presents such a technological shift and promises to revolutionize industrial practices. Industry stakeholders should consider the transformative potential of software-defined automation to address current challenges and future needs. I encourage you to learn more about software-defined automation and universalautomation.org