Bill Lydon – Industrial Digital Automation Expert

Roots of the Open Process Automation Forum
“Compliance of the victim”, in the context of the automation industry, means if one is unhappy with automation systems as they exist, and do not take action to help change the industry, one is a compliant victim. These ‘victims’ end up setting themselves up for recurring frustrations, disappointments, and lost opportunities.

More Details: Compliance of the Victim: ARC Industry Forum Highlights an Industry in Transition

Performance  –  I have not seen any OPAS preformace benchmarking only overly simplistic raw cost savings.

Open Systems Initiatives Require Critical Business Management Decisions
There are many open architecture initiatives, discussions and products for industrial manufacturing and process companies to consider and determine if they are positive business investments that will improve or hurt competitiveness and profits. Understanding the trade-offs and using accurate criteria to measure and judge investments to create an integrated real-time industrial manufacturing business is an important strategic management activity.    More on this link: Open Systems Initiatives Require Critical Business Management Decisions

O-PAS™ Standard Specified Programming Languages IEC 61131 & IEC 61499
At the 28th annual ARC Industry Leadership Forum in Orlando, Control Software Standards proved to be an important piece of the discussion, particularly IEC 61131 and IEC 61499, which are part of the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) TC65 Industrial-process measurement, control and automation standards.

Execution Models IEC 61131 and IEC 61499 – The IEC 61131 program execution model is deterministic, and IEC 61499 has an event driven execution model that is defined by the user as a build program. IEC61131 deterministic cycle reads inputs, resolves program logic defined by the user, and writes outputs. IEC 61499 has an event driven execution model where users writing program logic explicitly defined execution sequence. The event driven IEC 61499 execution model creates a level of complexity for applicaiton engineers writing programs that needs to be managed as applications become larger. The current O-PAS testbeds are relatively lightweight applications and have been using both IEC 61131 and IEC 61499 successfully.

More Details: Deep Dive O-PAS™ Standard Specified Programming Languages IEC 61131 & IEC 61499

O-PAS™ Red Flags, Questions; Decoupling I/O Issues at ARC 2024

• Danger of the “We are different trap” creating unique standards vs leveraging COTS (commercial Off-The-shelf)?
• Does off-the-shelf edge computing and open industrial networked I/O accomplish the O-PAS objectives?
• Why create the new InterEdge hardware form factor and computer BUS Standard?
• The Open Process Automation Forum™ needs more users with broader experience.
• When is the O-PAS tipping point for success or failure?

More Details: Open Process Automation: Open Controllers and Decoupling Field I/O

Open Process Automation: Update from ARC Forum 2024
Important issues and information were discussed about the Open Process Automation Standard at the ARC Orlando Forum, February 2024. The Open Group Open Process Automation™ Forum is a complete design of an open process automation system including field controllers.

• Requires Broader Scope
• Strategic Decisions
• Revolution vs Evolution
• O-PAS Proving Concepts
• Embracing Open Standards

More Details: Open Process Automation: Status Update from ARC Forum 2024