For the IT-minded: IT methodologies in the OT world

How can well-proven IT solutions help the industrial automation domain?

The industry automation domain is experiencing a shift due to digitalization, moving from traditional OT (Operational Technology) solutions towards more IT-oriented workflows. This trend reflects the blending of IT and OT as businesses adopt Industry 4.0 practices.

The well-known solutions from Siemens are tailored primarily to OT (Operational Technology) engineers. However, with the ongoing trend toward digitalization, a stronger focus on IT-oriented workflows is anticipated. The increasing demand for automation requires a higher level of software development expertise, shifting workflows towards a more IT-centric approach. As a result, it will be crucial to adapt to this transformation by integrating software development processes and IT-oriented solutions into the running OT operations.

There is a growing demand for automation tools that support CI/CD pipelines, code generation, automated testing, and source control management to enhance collaboration. These are areas where existing IT workflows and expertise from the IT world can offer significant benefits to the OT space. Methods commonly employed in software development, such as version control and continuous integration, can be effectively applied to the creation, engineering, and development of HMI (Human-Machine Interface) and PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) projects improving efficiency in OT environments.

The Engineering System

In the industrial automation the term ‘Engineering System’ refers to a specialized tool or a suite of tools, which is used for designing, developing, and managing automation systems.

To ensure, that the IT workflows function effectively in the OT world, the Engineering Systems must meet a crucial requirement, which is having a document-based project storage. This is foundational in software development, where projects are typically text-based.

Tools like Git, commonly used for source control, rely on working with text-based documents, enabling features such as version control, modification tracking, merging, and maintaining history.

To integrate Git as a source control tool for HMI/PLC projects, the system must support text-based project storage, ensuring that collaboration features are available out-of-the-box. This support allows for multi-user scenarios, where multiple engineers can work on the same project simultaneously, enabling easy collaboration.

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CI/CD

Additionally, this setup is also crucial for implementing CI/CD pipelines in OT projects, enabling continuous integration and delivery.

Continuous Integration

In traditional IT development, continuous integration refers to the practice where developers frequently merge their code changes into a shared repository. This allows for automated builds and testing to ensure that new code doesn’t introduce errors.

In the OT world (HMI/PLC projects), continuous integration would mean that every engineer's changes to a control system or automation project are continuously integrated and tested within the system. For example, updates made to HMI screens or PLC logic can be automatically tested to ensure compatibility with the overall system.

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Continuous Delivery/Deployment

Continuous delivery ensures that changes made by engineers are automatically prepared for deployment to a production environment. In OT environments, this could involve ensuring that updated HMI or PLC configurations are packaged and ready to be deployed to physical devices in the production floor.

For continuous deployment, these changes could be automatically pushed to production as soon as they pass automated tests, ensuring that updates are quickly delivered to the field with minimal manual intervention.

This can be crucial in fast-paced industrial environments where uptime is critical, and manual deployment processes can lead to delays and errors.

Automation of Repetitive Tasks

OT teams could also benefit from automation tools for code generation, which help reduce manual efforts and streamline repetitive tasks. This not only accelerates project development but also enhances the efficiency of deployment processes, ensuring smoother collaboration and improved project outcomes across teams.

In OT engineering, many tasks, such as creating control logic for multiple PLCs or designing HMI screens for similar use cases can be repetitive. For example, defining similar sensors or actuators for multiple machines could involve repeated configuration.

Code generation tools allow engineers to automate the creation of this control logic or UI elements. Instead of manually writing each line of PLC code or configuring each HMI screen individually, engineers can use templates and scripts to automatically generate large portions of the system.

This approach reduces human error, speeds up development, and allows engineers to focus on more complex or unique tasks.

Automated Testing

Automated testing in industrial automation (OT - Operational Technology) projects is still relatively uncommon compared to its widespread use in software development. In the software world, automated testing and unit testing have become a fundamental practice. Today, there are virtually no serious software development projects that do not include automated testing as part of their workflow.

Bringing automated testing into the OT world, where complex systems and machinery are managed, holds great potential. It can significantly improve the robustness and stability of development processes, leading to more reliable systems, reduced downtime, and early detection of errors.

Summary

Combining the listed methodologies accelerates OT project development. Engineers no longer need to manually test every change or perform repetitive configurations; automated tools now handle these tasks. This reduces development cycles, enhances software quality, and ensures consistent updates to production environments. Integrating CI/CD pipelines and code generation into OT workflows leads to faster, more efficient development, improved collaboration, fewer errors, and streamlined deployment with minimal risk.

The adoption of these practices in OT could bridge the gap between software and industrial automation, fostering innovation, efficiency, and resilience.

A good example

In the Siemens world, for PLC engineering there is already a great product, Simatic AX, which follows these principles, and offers all the advantages we talked about.

You can check it out here.

What about HMI engineering?

Stay tuned...

-The article was written by Istvan Galantai .-