2016: Digital Transformation

My prediction for 2016 #BigIdeas2016 is that foundations for new technologies will be introduced but we will not realize their transformational nature during 2016 itself, not until decades later. In the mean time, in 2016, automation will continue its digital transformation based on wheel set in motion long ago. Here are my personal thoughts:

The Internet started in the sixties but it was not until the introduction of the World Wide Web in the mid nineties that most of us could start reaping the benefits of the Internet, monetize it, and realized the fantastic possibilities of the technology which had been started decades earlier. Even Bill Gates himself in the 1995 book The Road Ahead at first didn’t realize that the Internet is The Internet (information superhighway): “Personal computers... and the Internet are all important precursors of the information highway. Each is suggestion of the future. But none represents the actual information highway” and “Today’s Internet is not the information highway I imagine, although you can think of it as the beginning of the highway.” Anyway, afterwards he redirected Microsoft’s focus on the Internet and released a second edition of the book.

I personally see much the same happening with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) as well. IIoT is already here, since many years. When Foundation Fieldbus was introduced this was the start of the IIoT. We didn’t use the term IIoT at the time, but nevertheless that is how IIoT started; smart connected devices; autonomous embedded devices with unique identifiers for the first time communicating using a real-time digital network without the need for 4-20 mA. Several companies in the process industries such as many oil & gas companies immediately recognized the awesome potential of digital networking from the very first meter; from sensors and actuators. What they are so excited about is the ability of having more sensors using fewer wires, more measurements in every transmitter, with real-time status, the ability to freely add devices to a junction box ‘at will’ without having to run cables all the way to the I/O cards or add the I/O cards themselves, ability to monitor self-diagnostics in a valve from an office on the other side of the world, about the prospect to perform more diagnostics such as using the combined input from multiple sensors to detect the onset of cavitation in a pump or valve etc., the ability to put an indicator on the network to display values from transmitters and valves in inconvenient locations, or compute tank inventory or compensated flow from multiple sensors etc. The possibilities of smart connected devices within a plant are endless, and once a connection across the Internet s also provided even more value can be extracted from the functionality of these devices. Digital devices working together without the limitations of 4-20 ma and on-of signals. Anyway, not everyone shared this enthusiasm at the time, although now thanks to the all the attention IIoT is getting, the enthusiasm is spreading

Just like the early Internet wasn’t particularly user friendly and therefore limited to very few users, the first generations of fieldbus wasn’t for everyone, so plants using 4-20 mA and on-off signals are still being built. However, just like the Internet was made easy using HTML and the World Wide Web, the fieldbus technology and products have since been made very much easier to use, removing these old obstacles to adoption.

Now, as many talk about IIoT as a brand new idea it may be hard at first to see that Foundation Fieldbus and WirelessHART indeed already are this IIoT which we already have and already use. So why all the excitement about IIoT and Industrie 4.0 now? Well, because although Fieldbus and WirelessHART have been around for a while, products are still not taking advantage of their full capabilities, with a few great exceptions. For instance, a 4-20 mA level transmitter simply became a fieldbus level transmitter and a wireless level transmitter. However, a digitally networked level transmitter could also provide the pressure and temperature measurement etc. Some of these exciting new devices are already available such as two-wire tank gauging systems, 4/8-input temperature transmitters, intelligent on-off valves, and other smart connected devices, but more will be coming. Fieldbus and wireless is also changing how plants are designed. Thanks to digital networking we can now deploy many more sensors in a plant because you pay for control loops, while the monitoring points are essentially free. It enables new business models like remote monitoring services to improve energy efficiency and reliability. This digital transformation is new. This is what the fuss is all about. Anyway, since even Bill gates himself could get the Internet wrong then I guess we are all excused if we at first didn’t see that IIoT has been brewing for all these years and the enormous potential that Fieldbus and WirelessHART give smart connected devices. So 2016 is the year when process industries and instrument manufacturers still using 4-20 mA and on-off signals must revisit plant automation architectures, product designs, and figure out their new business models to take advantage of the IIoT, because it is already here and the most modern plants have already deployed it. New plants will be built on Fieldbus, and existing plants will be modernized using WirelessHART. On your marks.  I already spilled my automation predictions in two essays earlier this year:

Saving Time Is Not Magic, It's Method

Sensors 4.0: The Road Ahead

Well, that’s my personal opinion. If you are interested in how the digital ecosystem is transforming process automation click “Follow” by my photo. Let me know what you think of this essay by providing your feedback below, and click “Like” if you found this useful.