control engineering_

Control, Instrumentation and Automation in the Process and Manufacturing Industries September 2022 www.controlengeurope.com Employing effective condition monitoring for more efficient production Identifying threats Is it time to go Controllers in an era and finding solutions wireless? of high availability

| PC11-55E | Highly individual: custom-designed Panel PCs and Control Panels As a specialist for PC-based control technology, Beckhoff offers a great variety of Panel PCs and Control Panels of the highest build quality, which are also available as customized solutions. The range stretches from visual adaptations and logos in the customer’s corporate design to individualized configurations with special keys such as emergency stop buttons, scanners, or RFID readers through to complete custom enclosure design. Highly available and reliable operation are assured through the continuous development and inte- gration of electronic components, displays, and touchscreens. Beckhoff Panel PCs and Control Panels can be operated optionally as stand-alone devices, DVI/USB Extended Control Panels, or via CP-Link 4. Whether integrated in control cabinets or installed on a mounting arm: custom Panel PCs and Control Panels meet the most varied requirements. Scan to ex- perience the complete Panel and Panel PC portfolio

CONTENTS Editor Now is a good time to focus on energy and Suzanne Gill operational safety and efficiency [email protected] The long, hot and dry summer that many of us has endured Sales Manager this year will soon give way to autumn and its longer, colder Colin Campbell nights. Industry today is now facing the same issues that we, [email protected] as consumers, face, as the cost of energy continues to rise, making energy management a much more pressing issue. Production In this issue we look at how having site-wide vision of your Nick Jacobs energy consumption – right down to the equipment level – [email protected] can help improve both energy and operational efficiency (pg 29). Every little helps! Dan Jago Group Publisher Also in this issue we take an in-depth look at the network security threats that David May Production Manager face the operational technology (OT) environments today and get advice from some industry experts on how these threats can be reduced (pg 12). G and C Media Studio Design Suzanne Gill Editor – Control Engineering Europe [email protected] INDUSTRY REPORT DIGITALISATION 4 Component traceability facilitates cross-process 24 Data as the basis for digitalisation – what’s in it for quality control you? EDITOR’S CHOICE WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY 6 Automating the machine tending function; OPC UA 26 Technology advances has made wireless technology OT/IT integration solution with MQTT connection a more appealing choice for industrial applications CYBERSECURITY ENERGY EFFICIENCY 10 Advice on implementing and obtaining certification 28 Optimising pump systems to reduce energy for an information security management system to consumption meet the requirements of ISO/IEC 27001 29 Gaining energy intelligence to transform both 12 Suzanne Gill investigates the network security energy and operational efficiency threats that face the OT environment today EVENT PREVIEW 16 We report on the highlights of the forthcoming PPMA Total exhibition that will take place in Birmingham, UK from 27-29 September PLCs & PACs PG 8 PG 12 20 Find out how controllers have developed since the PG 29 introduction of the first PLC, and what their role is in modern and future automation systems Qualified applicants in Europe must complete the registration form at 22 Controllers in an era of high availability – http://imlrenewals.managemyaccountonline.net implementing redundancy strategies for PLCs, PACs to receive Control Engineering Europe and edge controllers free of charge. Control Engineering Europe is a controlled circulation Control Engineering (USA) Paid subscriptions for non-qualifying journal published eight times per year by IML Group Mark Hoske, applicants are available for £113 (U.K.), plc under license from CFE Media LLC. Copyright in the Circulation £145 (Europe), contents of Control Engineering Europe is the Tel: +44 (0)1732 359990 £204 (rest of world); property of the publisher. Email: [email protected] Completed print or on line registration forms will single copies £19. ISSN 1741-4237 be considered for free supply of printed issues, web site access and on line services. IML Group plc Blair House, High Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1BQ UK Tel: +44 (0) 1732 359990 Fax: +44 (0) 1732 770049 Control Engineering Europe www.controlengeurope.com September 2022 3

INDUSTRY REPORTS COMPONENT TRACEABILITY FACILITATES CROSS-PROCESS QUALITY CONTROL Industrial production processes can fingerprint is recorded in a database. This with the rate of production, even if the only be optimised if components process can be repeated to identify the rotational position is unknown. can be tracked and traced from component at a later date by matching production to the point of integration the fingerprint and returning the ID The fact that this works has into an assembly. code. been demonstrated using precision The ProIQ project, sees Fraunhofer components from project partners IPM joining forces with partners from In the ProIQ project, the technology Robert Bosch GmbH and Sirona Dental the fields of industry and research to has been used for rotationally Systems GmbH. The Bosch team was able develop technologies for adaptive symmetrical objects for the first time. to achieve the near-line identification of production of precision components. To The challenge is that the fingerprint nozzle needles for a high-performance this end, the Track & Trace Fingerprint area must be positioned precisely for injector on the basis of the front face method has been extended with a view identification to work. With rectangular of the cylinder-like components. In the to tracking and tracing rotationally components, slight inaccuracies can be case of the head shaft of a Sirona dental symmetrical objects. Many components corrected in the software by moving or component, there was no front face are only a few millimetres in size, and rotating the image into the fingerprint available, so here the lateral surface was their geometries are complex and area. This is not the case with rotationally recorded using a specially developed manufacturing tolerances are often just a symmetrical components: Here, the reading system. A particular challenge few micrometres. rotational position remains unknown, was that the components are sanded and Optical 3D measurement techniques which means that the fingerprints cannot hardened, which changes the surface. are able to detect geometry or surface be matched. Fraunhofer IPM has now Nevertheless, with the exception of a defects during production. However, to improved the Track & Trace Fingerprint single badly damaged component, all learn from recurring errors, it is necessary algorithm so that the fingerprint components were reliably identified to use measurement data intelligently contains information from all rotational at the end of the project. This means and be able to assign it to individual positions, while at the same time that mark-free tracing based on the components at every point in the discarding the redundant information surface is clearly superior to alternative production process. Component tracking that arises in the process. This makes it technologies such as the data matrix and tracing is a prerequisite for this. possible to get a match while keeping up code. plus-cir The consortium has demonstrated that such adaptive production of precision Rotationally symmetrical head shaft for a dental instrument. The Track & Trace reading system detects components is possible using the the delicate, high-performance components using the surface structure of the lateral surface (Image examples of a high-performance injector courtesty Fraunhofer IPM). component and the head shaft for a delicate dental instrument. The marker-free Track & Trace Fingerprint method developed by Fraunhofer IPM uses the component’s individual surface microstructure for identification. A camera captures a high-resolution image of a defined area of the component’s surface. The specific structural patterns captured in the image and the way in which they are positioned are used to generate a numerical code, the fingerprint, and pair it with an ID. This pairing of component ID and 4 September 2022 www.controlengeurope.com Control Engineering Europe















CYBERSECURITY IDENTIFYING THREATS AND FINDING SOLUTIONS Suzanne Gill investigates the network security threats facing the operational technology (OT) environment today. A s a result of ever-improving • Insecure OT communication: “All of these challenges need be connectivity between Traditional OT communication considered as a root cause of severe Information Technology protocols have been designed for cybersecurity risks,” said Jenkner. (IT) and Operational versatility, reliability, and even “Considering how different IT and Technology (OT) networks, it is not real-time performance. Many OT networks are, the gap between only the availability of data that has popular OT protocols still rely on these two domains must be bridged. reached unprecedented levels – threat unencrypted communication also To enhance operational resilience, proliferation has also grown rapidly. lacking authentication mechanisms. OT networks need to ensure their According to Martin Jenkner, head of Security features have been added cybersecurity measures are as mature as cyber security at Moxa Europe, there are only recently, if at all. This means that those utilised in IT networks.” some security challenges that represent valuable data is more likely to be an overarching pattern which enables subject to sniffing attacks. His suggestions as to how it is possible threats such as malware and Distributed to secure OT networks and increase Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to • Difficult to patch devices: Field level resilience include: repeatedly cripple large industrial targets. devices run on firmware or operating • Manage OT networks: You cannot These include: systems which are as subject to • Lack of network visibility: More vulnerabilities as any other IT device. protect assets you do not know you Patching can result in interoperability have. The first step to improving than 30% of respondents to IDC risks, need for recertification as well resilience requires OT operators to (International Data Corporation) as production downtime. In many monitor networks in a comparable EMEA’s European IT Security Survey cases patching cannot be performed way to how IT network administrators in 2020 thought that a lack of asset at all or only a long time after the do it. The most important questions visibility across network infrastructure publication of a vulnerability. are: Is everything present that should was a security concern. This is a valid be present in your OT network? Is concern. Unknown devices or network connections contribute to an overall unknown cyber threat status. • Lack of security boundary OT networks: Flat networks are commonplace in OT environments. In recent years, these network architectures allowed cyberattacks to spread easily across entire networks. Overreliance on single point firewall perimeter protection creates a false sense of security. • Uncontrolled access on OT network and device: With ‘Bring Your Own Device’ policies becoming popular even in OT networks more devices are connected, which are not intended nor ready to be connected to a secure network. It is imperative to control access to networks and devices to avoid even temporary, unauthorised access to device or network. 12 September 2022 www.controlengeurope.com Control Engineering Europe

CYBERSECURITY there anything in your network that legacy devices. This creates a ‘virtual largest security threats are ransomware does not belong there? patch’ protecting unpatched devices – the OT environment is now clearly in • Segment OT networks: In contrast against known exploits. the attackers crosshairs – and Advanced to IT networks, which are often • Secure remote connections: Persistent Threat (APT) which is cyber segmented along departmental Protecting the data that is warfare or espionage from one country boundaries with the corresponding transmitted from the plant or remote to another. rights management, OT networks site back to the monitoring and are often a single, flat network in control center is crucial. Ensure that To overcome these threats his advice which everything is connected. This each remote connection to the OT is to ensure you have a full security makes OT networks more difficult network is both authenticated and programme. If you don’t have the but still possible to expertise yourself, get help – most segment. There are two encrypted. Authentication verifies the ways of segmenting an identity of the user requesting access, industrial vendors will have OT network – Vertical whereas encryption ensures that the capabilities to support you. segmentation involves data transmitted is securely encoded “A security programme adding an Industrial and cannot be easily deciphered. starts with making sure the Demilitarized Zone Besides managing and segmenting people in the organisation (IDMZ) between the OT networks, OT operators also need are aware,” he said. “Do a IT network and OT to ensure their systems are properly security risk assessment and network. Although patched and remote connections gather facts to see where this separation should are secure. These steps not only help your system is vulnerable be mandatory, many reduce the gap between OT and IT or where your highest risks companies still have departments, but also protect industrial are; establish OT policies not segmented their OT control systems, which are increasingly and procedures; define networks from their IT being connected to the Internet, from the best way to organise networks. Horizontal cyberattacks. and manage your OT or lateral segmentation automation system; set involves creating and Ransomware and APTs the budget based on the separating cells, zones risk assessment and on and sites on the OT Mark Hellinghuizer, industrial the policies. The next step network. A cell is a automation and OT security consultant is to implement technical tiny place where all at Yokogawa, believes that the two and operational solutions. equipment is stored, Yokogawa recommends such as a cabinet. Several cells can following IEC-62443. form a zone, and multiple zones can “Finally, maintain your form a site. Segmenting OT networks security solutions and ensure that there using either method, or both, allows is a security structure that maintains operators to prevent cyberthreats the security of your system,” said from spreading to other parts of the Hellinghuizer. network. • Patch vulnerabilities: Since equipment The cloud and devices running on OT networks cannot be upgraded or replaced The OT environment is ideally air- as frequently as endpoints on IT networks, OT networks still have gapped but in practice it almost never many legacy devices. Some of them may even be running on obsolete is. “Being networked and then moved operating systems. Many legacy OT devices remain unpatched and are to the cloud could be regarded as the easy for hackers to exploit. If no patch is available from the original antithesis of ideal,” said Edward Kessler, equipment vendor, consider inserting compact industrial IPS (Intrusion technical executive at EEMUA. He Prevention System) devices in front of pointed out that, while the cloud can be very secure, its strength comes with a sort of brittleness. Extra dependencies are introduced for a cloud-based solution. “There is a need for reliable, dependable, secure, correctly configured communications; correctly configured in-cloud virtualisation; and correct and appropriately configured site > p14 Control Engineering Europe www.controlengeurope.com September 2022 13

CYBERSECURITY equipment,” he continued. maintained. He said: “To minimise is balanced with performance and “Experience has shown that accidental disruptions, it is not uncommon to availability of critical industrial processes. have systems with rudimentary security “The solution must combine the benefits mis-configurations can exist in any protections. Security best-practices of industrial endpoint-focused security one of those dependencies, and that commonplace in IT environments – such with threat awareness and intelligence,” is without considering the inevitable as vulnerability scanning – can cause he said. “Furthermore, it must provide zero days and known but unpatched malfunctions in industrial controllers granular visibility and control at problems.” that were not designed to deal with such application and user levels to allow for events. “These constraints make securing network segmentation that better aligns Kessler argues that it is, therefore, ICS/SCADA environments both unique with business needs.” This should entail necessary to consider the insecurity of and difficult. The result is that many adoption of security best practices and the Internet, which was never designed organisations still work with a mixed solutions deployed in the traditional IT for mission-critical use. By now we bag of antiquated security technologies environment such as advanced intrusion should all be well-educated in the that operate in silos, are difficult to prevention and threat response systems, inherent deficiencies of bolt-on security. manage, provide limited situational which combine DDoS mitigation He said: “The answer to these problems awareness and do not provide the kind methods with firewalls, anti-spam, is firstly to have robust processes that of preventive security.” content filtering, and other network build security into all possible modes security functionality. “Together, these of operation – cloud, local, remote; Many organisations still using legacy next-generation security capabilities and secondly, to manage the changes technologies that are inadequate enable constant and consistent network needed to those processes as the to address modern ICS cybersecurity protection to contain a DDoS attack business evolves its use of each. Business challenges. This is why, according to and protect business-critical internet cases should include process change Desai, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) resources more comprehensively,” costs! You have to remember who is such an important framework for concluded Desai. carries the risk – it isn’t the provider of enterprises to consider. He said: “The the cloud, nor the provider of the links SASE approach provides a complete, High value targets between your sites.” tightly integrated set of capabilities to prevent threats while reducing the Industrial automation presents a high These are things that the user can burden on organisations in deploying value target for bad actors given that do something about – at least to some and maintaining security. By converging the revenue producing side of a business degree. However, Kessler points out WAN and advanced cybersecurity can be completely shut down. For this that the deeper concern has to be services in one integrated solution, reason the most significant security the supply chain, not least because organisations effectively keep their threat facing continuous and discrete the user has no control over most of critical business assets secure while still manufacturing today is inaction. it and often very little knowledge supporting an increasingly growing or resources to check or test what is network perimeter.” As Steven Fales of the ODVA, pointed supplied. “The result is that it’s difficult out, one critical security threat is to to patch or even to know whether a Desai goes on to point out that, provide a sole security measure in an patch is needed. When suppliers fail in to protect against cyber threats, effort to create an easy-to-manage and this way, and there are potential safety organisations need to implement a low-cost solution. “While firewalls can consequences, a shake-up is needed in comprehensive defence posture that be rugged and comprehensive or deep the regulations governing the products because there is very little that the user can do about it. The user’s best defence is at the procurement stage to ask some searching questions – EEMUA has some examples. If the supplier cannot answer fully and plausibly it should be taken as a warning,” concluded Kessler. Rudimentary protection Samir Desai, director of managed security services at GTT, believes that the focus on ensuring availability and performance of industrial applications leads to more conservative approaches as to how security is deployed and 14 September 2022 www.controlengeurope.com Control Engineering Europe

CYBERSECURITY packet inspection can be very thorough, defence in depth architecture. “A bad devices such as contactors and push a single obstacle, even a substantial actor can be a singular, highly skilled buttons.” one, makes it easier for a bad actor to person, a cooperative group, or even infiltrate an operational technology a nation state,” explained Fales. “With Another method to minimise the network. Attitudes can also present that in mind, it’s necessary to create a potential for attackers to be successful a serious security threat if there is a defence that includes many layers of is to conduct regular threat modelling pervasive ‘it won’t happen to us’ point deterrence. Physical security is a valuable using the STRIDE, DREAD, or Attack of view,” he said. consideration given that wireless Tree approaches. The STRIDE approach networks can be potentially reached covers spoofing, tampering, repudiation, It can be helpful to think like an outside of company property, open USB information disclosure (privacy breach attacker to better understand and ports invite spyware, and lost electronic or data leak), denial of service, and prepare for threats. The raw value of a entrance security keys allow uninvited elevation of privilege. The DREAD threat target can be thought of in terms of the access that can increase the attack vector model includes damage, reproducibility, revenue of the total company. The value of a facility. Contractors and supply chain exploitability, affected users, and is then reduced by the number of security partners should not be forgotten as they discoverability. Attack Trees or Threat measures that are in place, which both can have access to critical OT systems or Trees are a logical approach to better increase the time and expense required be the weak link in the supply chain if understand how an intrusion could to be able to defeat the defence. It is a they present a soft or easy to beat target happen in a detailed, logical, and step by mistake to think that smaller firms will due to limited security measures.” step manner. not be targeted, given that supply chains for much larger companies can be heavily From there, traditional security within Regardless of the threat model impacted from a successful cyber-attack switches including firewalls, approved employed, it is important to conduct and because smaller firms often present a listing and deep packet inspection is a these analyses on a regular basis soft target. Another consideration is that must. “Don’t forget about the value of to take into account changes in the more information that is available protecting the final mile of automation manufacturing footprints and newly about a target, the more likely that in terms of field devices,” warned Fales. discovered threats. Another valuable there will be an intrusion. Discoverable IP “Consider leveraging CIP Security to approach is to think of security as a addresses, information from disgruntled help protect EtherNet/IP devices from state of mind within an organisation. employees in discussion forums, and attack on at least your most high-risk The best policies, procedures, and excessive disclosures in publicly available devices that could reveal secret recipes, systems can be overcome, but a host information can serve as unintentional lead to worker injury, or shut down of vigilant employees can be much marketing to those looking for an easy manufacturing lines. CIP Security can harder to defeat. In summary, security target. now be implemented via a proxy should be treated with the same care as device to help protect existing assets. safety when designing, updating, and The ODVA believes that one of Additionally, CIP Security can be used on operating an industrial facility. Security the most important ways to reduce the lowest level for resource-constrained is an invaluable investment in the future your attack profile is to implement a of your enterprise. plus-cir Good Practice Guidance for Electrical, Control and Cyber Security in Industrial Engineering – Improving efficiency and safety • Practical guidance for everyday and Management of ageing irregular situations and tasks electrical assets Publication 227 • Verified and developed from Edition 1 contributions by the industry, for the industry ® • Readily accessible for all in the To purchase or for more information, please visit www.eemua.org industry – wherever they are, whatever time they have • FREE task and procedure checklists • E-learning for professional development • Active guidance publications















PLCS & PACS field devices, and this is best achieved through a fault-tolerant Image Ethernet ring network. A ring network can often be created with minimal additional materials and effort when compared — with traditional dual line or star networks. AquaMaster4 Mobile Comms Secondly, the controllers need to communicate with each Measurement with other over high-performance links designed to support immeasurable lock-step synchronisation, scan for scan. This enables the connectivity back-up controller to always have the same dataset as the active controller. These links permit control failovers as fast Across the world, and especially in arid regions, water as three milliseconds in a single PLC scan. The main benefit scarcity is forcing significant investments in the of these dedicated synchronisation links, however, is that development of new water management. Cities are the failover time is deterministic and not variable due to the looking at synergies between smart energy, smart side-effects of other network devices or events. When other infrastructure, and smart water. Compliance to architectures try to synchronise the two controllers via the regulations have created higher standards for drinking I/O networks, interactions with other networked devices water quality. To answer these demands, ABB is adding can cause control switchover lag. In the worst instances, the mobile communications to AquaMaster4. non-deterministic failover of these other architectures could With AquaMaster4 Mobile Comms, gain total flexibility cascade into additional system failures or even a total halt of (measure, log and communicate) in a single box for both redundant controllers. district metered areas, achieve more with less capital expenditure, increase billing confidence, and experience Thirdly, while the two controllers can be installed in the how support has been redefined through digital services, same location, it is best to separate them geographically to all with the industry’s most accurate flowmeter with avoid both being subject to common localised problems, long-term stability. abb.com/measurement such as power outages, fire or flood. The latest HA solutions use dedicated controller-to-controller links and support I/O networks over distances of up to 10km via fibre-optics. Finally, the latest HA solutions are designed to continue seamless operations even with different software or firmware versions installed on the paired controllers. If the control software or firmware needs updating to deploy a new cybersecurity patch, the primary controller can be updated while the secondary controller runs and vice versa, meaning that the machine or process does not need to be shut down while this critical update takes place. This can lead to additional economic benefits. Users may be able to perform routine maintenance and even upgrade activities without having to stop the application. Activities that were once relegated to night and weekend shifts, resulting in costly overtime, can therefore now be performed during daylight shifts, without a loss of production. Conclusion It is no longer necessary for organisations to sacrifice performance or costs in order to reap the many benefits of HA control architectures. Modern control system redundancy architectures provide cost-effective HA solutions with fast, deterministic and consistent failovers. Operational availability can now be maximised and maintenance costs minimised, leading to increased and quicker return on investment. With the additional benefit of improved cybersecurity resiliency, it is apparent that HA control architectures have become a critical evolution in modern control strategies. plus-cir Darrell Halterman is director for PACSystems control products at Emerson. Control Engineering Europe September 2022 23

DIGITALISATION DATA AS THE BASIS FOR DIGITALISATION There can be no question that data and networking between machines will lead to new business models and services. Jan Kiehne explains how industrial owner/ operators of all sizes can participate and why they can gain from digitalisation. A comparison of plant owners’ Digitalisation in the process industry opens up added value at all levels. top goals from 30 years ago to today would yield fairly service, quality and production-relevant commercially available mobile device and constant results – productivity, information about themselves and their the download of an app. cost efficiency and plant availability. direct environment. By transmitting data such as the quality of echo signals in What does this mean for field devices? But new additions to these goals – radar-based level measurements or the If control buttons and large displays are made possible by new technology – wear of valves, they create a significant eliminated, they can be manufactured include flexibility, networking, plus in transparency and traceability. much more cheaply. The device operator transparency, and support in using also gains increases in convenience and artificial intelligence. It is therefore difficult to understand safety – maintenance technicians no why this data remains unused in longer have to work on the physical This duality is reflected in current many places in the field. Intelligent, device itself but can conveniently connect recommendations, for example, from often platform-based field devices are to the device from a short distance away. NAMUR. The NE 175 NAMUR Open flexible in terms of the desired form of Architecture - NOA Concept, for example, communication. For a cost-effective entry Data transmission describes how the data from smart into the digitalisation of automated field devices can be transferred to a plants 4-20 mA devices without any The second development phenomenon monitoring and optimisation domain communication can be replaced by those of digitalisation that makes Industry 4.0 without repercussions, while retaining with an additional HART protocol. possible are reduced costs. Today, it is the generally accepted advantages of possible to transport and store data at traditional automation structures and Existing industry standards such as marginal costs and in such a way that enabling new use cases. Profibus also provide easy access to vital the main task of automation – safe plant data. However, digitalisation will then operation – isn’t impaired. In addition, there are countless areas receive an enormous boost with new in the digitised automation world where standards such as Profinet or Ethernet In modern process plants using data plays a fundamental role. Three Advanced Physical Layer (Ethernet APL), control technology from Siemens, this general developments of this role – the as these will increase the transmission functionality is already integrated. The ‘triple jump’ of digitalisation – include: bandwidth many times over. Simatic PDM Maintenance Station can 1. The generation of increasingly be used to efficiently monitor the status But there are other developments – of intelligent field devices. Existing comprehensive data in the field thanks devices now use wireless connections plants can also be retrofitted with the to smart field devices. (including Bluetooth) for safe system, regardless of the automation 2. The transmission of data at ever-lower parameterisation and monitoring from and control systems used. Even in plants margin costs. a distance. All that’s needed for this is a with no communication infrastructure, 3. The use of data in networked systems, both in the field (edge) and in the cloud, in such a way that they contribute to value creation. Let’s take a more detailed look at these three areas of development below. Smart field devices Intelligent field devices or actuators can process data digitally and can record (analogue) process values, but also generate additional vital data, e.g. 24 September 2022 www.controlengeurope.com Control Engineering Europe

DIGITALISATION access to vital data can be opened for today can be accessed and networked co-creation partners – the possibilities are individual plant components – the Sitrans securely and cost effectively with the help manifold. CloudConnect 240 industrial gateway, for of connectivity elements with the cloud example, can integrate up to 64 HART or an on premise solution. Process sensor technology and devices and convert and pass on their instrumentation play a central role in data in a harmonised data model based The use of data digitalisation efforts. Data generated on NOA. in the field by intelligent field devices, After generating data and making it collected consistently by connectivity However, one important aspect must available in a standardised way, we elements and passed on in a standardised be highlighted. More data does not generate added value from it. Diagnostic manner, and then processed and automatically mean more knowledge. It data is provided in addition to process visualised in an integrated manner via is important to select the ‘right’ data as values. With the vital values of hundreds apps in an IoT ecosystem, will become the early as possible and, ideally, to actually of devices, which do not have to be new oil of the 21st century. transport only this data. read individually on site, users can set up completely new strategies in Processed and systematised In addition, data today differs from maintenance and servicing. appropriately, data contributes to greater instrument to instrument and from productivity, improved product quality, manufacturer to manufacturer. In Even in plants that do not have their higher plant availability and more order to be able to use them sensibly own maintenance crews or operators on efficient maintenance strategies. Agile despite this, standardisation is required, site, plant availability can be increased. development environments in which For example, on the basis of the NOA This requires systems that aggregate operators, users, IT and OT specialists Information Model (NOA-IM) based on and analyse this data and relate it work together on solutions will open OPC UA or PA-DIM (Process Automation to parameters, tools that provide potential in the future and enable new - Device Information Model), an object algorithms, and visualise information in business models. plus-cir model in which all devices are to be a user-specific way. Siemens can offer a mapped in the future. growing number of apps for harnessing Jan Kiehne is product manager Digital data, which are developed jointly with Solutions and Tools at Siemens. Measuring points that are still isolated