SCADA is as useful a tool to end users and OEMs as ever – but it’s not your grandfather’s SCADA. In a recent interview in Control Engineering Europe, Rich Carpenter, general manager of product management for automation and control systems at Emerson, explained what SCADA must deliver to users today in order to speed their digital transformation journey.
Rich says that first and foremost, SCADA systems must help the customer to improve operations by optimizing the plant, identifying issues and areas of potential improvement, and helping it run more smoothly. To achieve those goals, end users are demanding greater functionality and the opportunity to maximize use of the available data. SCADA must help companies target rapid improvements to boost profitability. Also, it’s essential that existing systems and equipment can be integrated into the SCADA system, which requires communication with legacy hardware, usually with OPC UA connectivity and native drivers that support older equipment. End users also require greater flexibility from SCADA systems, with the ability to implement projects in phases and expand and add equipment, systems and functions in the future as well as to minimize investment risk, which means looking beyond the initial software price and considering the longer term.
How does modern SCADA accomplish these goals and what can it do in your applications? Check out this article here.
How are you employing SCADA today?