DCS or SCADA? - What's the difference
Last week on LinkedIn I asked the pertinent question : ???? ???????? ?? ?????????? (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) ???????????? ?????? ?? ?????? (Distributed Control System) ???????????? ?????? ?? ???????????????????? ???? ???????????????? & ???????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ?????????? ?????????????????????? & ?????????????? ???? ????????????, ???????? ?????????????? & ????????????????.... ?????????? ?????? ???????????????????? ?????????????? ?????????
Just a simple Google search will bring up thousands of posts arguing that one system is better than the other & taking it further, discussing the limitations in an almost 'Top Trumps' fashion!
The great news, is that I was inundated with answer to this question, fascinating for me because traditionally my understanding had always been that there wasn't a huge difference & that the difference boiled down to the design preference of the user and their specific production. Naturally, of course, there are some significant overlaps between their capabilities.
Thank you to all those you posted their views & opinions on this debate, you really helped add clarity and context to an grey area.
My Take Away Points to understanding the key differences:
- Neither system are mutually exclusive. In fact, both are fundamental to take advantage of the most recent Industry4.0 advancements.
- SCADA systems cannot carry out advanced process control techniques.
- DCS consists of one or more controllers used to direct advanced process control techniques.
- SCADA systems are data-oriented and event-driven.
- DCS are Process-oriented and concentrated from central control.
- SCADA are flexible and easily scalable across different plants & geographies.
- DCS are ideal for localised process manufacturing especially within one location.
So there you have it, my peer led summary of the key differentiators between a DCS and SCADA systems. Feel like I've missed something out? Add your opinion to the comments below.
Lastly, if you ever hire Process Controls or Automation professionals and are currently working with a Recruitment Partner who doesn't know their DeltaV from their Allen Bradley - give me a shout. I have access to some of the best-in-class professionals who are experts in these fields across Europe & the USA.
All the best,
Dan
Group OT Security Manager
4 年https://youtu.be/B3YVpgs9RY4
Digital Manufacturing Operations- MES/MOM & Industry 4.0 | IT OT | Enterprise Architect Smart Plants
4 年DCS - Distributed Control Systems - is a central processing unit or a control device that has more capabilities in comparision to PLCs. whereas,SCADA - supervisory control and data acquisition - is a software environment that can communicate with group of PLC's individually and DCSs also for that matter. It monitors the devices and perform data acquisition and logging to a monitoring framework- Eg. control system in a control room. Such systems can also send in control commands into the PLCs - eg. parameter and attributes set points. Can be understood in a way-SCADA system is set-up at component level and acts as a DCS at instances only difference is that it does not perform complex processings. Example to explain - assume that there is a weighing system, a mixing system and a blending system. If each system has its own Controller and can operate autonomously then, its a DCS system because the control set-up is distributed. Although if we use a Controller Area Network (CAN) and link all the controllers to a single RTU then we have a centralized control system. If we then use a Software package on top of this to Monitor and carryout Data Acquisition with aid of a Historian and Alarm Management then we have a SCADA.
Director of Strategy & Business Development | Driving Growth & Innovation in Energy, EV, Battery energy storage, IIoT, Industrial Automation & Sustainability | 20+Years of Experience in Global Markets
4 年A DCS includes hardware . Scada is just software ...scsda can sit above a plc system or be part of dcs . The right comparison is between a dcs and plc ..dcs and scada are two different xoncepts
MES | Industry4.0 | Smart Manufacturing Recruitment | USA & Europe
4 年A very warm welcome to my network for my latest connections: Andreas Kaulich Ludovic Janvy Krishna Koya Sue Maulucci Matthew Laing Brittney Gaborko Ryan Bernhardt Navin Sangwan Chuck Womeldorf, CSSBB?, PMP?Shashank Das Gisela de León Naren Kuridi Karen Mootrey Carlos Candido Colby Jacobs Thomas Buckley Jerry Megaro Angel Gonzalez Amy Gau Julio Santiago Steve Ward Eduard Beca, Ph.D, P.Eng. Michael Dale Kenny G.Joe Fierro Andy Larson Brendan Collins Rick Guill Juan Daniel Bermudez Salvato Wayne Belnavis