Fran Scott: Hello and a welcome to the Process Automation podcast. A
Fran Scott: podcast from ABB that shines a light on their process
Fran Scott: automation business area and the work they're doing around the
Fran Scott: world. I'm Fran Scott, maker, presenter and all around engineering
Fran Scott: geek. And across this series we've been exploring the invisible
Fran Scott: force of automation. So that's the incredible processes happening under
Fran Scott: the surface that enable our day- to- day lives from
Fran Scott: the heating in our homes to the water in our
Fran Scott: taps, ABBs technologies are working behind the scenes, orchestrating industrial
Fran Scott: processes, machinery, and systems. Today we are looking at the
Fran Scott: future of process automation. For more than a century, automation
Fran Scott: systems have been absolutely central to empowering industries that provide
Fran Scott: these basic building blocks of our everyday lives. From energy,
Fran Scott: power, water, metals, minerals, chemicals, and transportation, and enabling them
Fran Scott: to scale to meet the needs of a growing population.
Fran Scott: For more than 40 years, ABB has been leading the
Fran Scott: way when it comes to something called distributed control systems
Fran Scott: AKA DCS. Now these are at the heart of the
Fran Scott: largest and most critical operations on our planet. Now, if
Fran Scott: you recall the first episode of this series, I spoke
Fran Scott: to Peter Turk, the president of ABB's process automation business
Fran Scott: area, and we discussed the key role that process automation
Fran Scott: is playing in making the world safer, more efficient, and
Fran Scott: increasingly sustainable. Now, Peter introduced us to many of the
Fran Scott: industries that are benefiting from ABB's work in process automation,
Fran Scott: and over this series we have put those under the
Fran Scott: microscope. Industries like shipping and water to mining and continuous
Fran Scott: emissions monitoring. Today we are going to dive deeper into
Fran Scott: the driving force behind process automation and find out exactly
Fran Scott: how distributed control systems are transforming the future of so
Fran Scott: many industries. To do this, we'll be speaking to Mike
Fran Scott: Williams from Modern Automation Consultant Services based in Boston about
Fran Scott: the workforce of tomorrow. But first we'll hear from Bernhard
Fran Scott: Eschermann, chief Technology Officer for ABB's process automation business area
Fran Scott: about the development and trends that ABB predict will impact
Fran Scott: automation in the future. I started by asking him where
Fran Scott: exactly it is that we see process automation.
Bernhard Eschermann: If you look at the industries that we serve, like
Bernhard Eschermann: energy, power, water, metals, chemicals, farmer, and so on, typically
Bernhard Eschermann: they operate around the clock either with a continuous production
Bernhard Eschermann: flow or running a sequence of production batches. So for
Bernhard Eschermann: example, if you open the water tap at home, you
Bernhard Eschermann: just expect water to flow all the time and without
Bernhard Eschermann: interruption. And while all of these commodities are central to
Bernhard Eschermann: our everyday lives, they're actually provided with a relatively small
Bernhard Eschermann: number of people running such facilities around the clock. And
Bernhard Eschermann: the automation systems thus provide a large and growing well
Bernhard Eschermann: population with a reliable and cost- effective supply of these
Bernhard Eschermann: basic needs. And they optimize productivity, ensure product quality, reduce
Bernhard Eschermann: risks to people and the environment and optimize resource and energy consumption.
Fran Scott: Got you, just a few things there that they do, but let's focus in on the distributed
Fran Scott: control system. So DCSs, so can you tell me a bit
Fran Scott: more about how they work?
Bernhard Eschermann: Obviously, it's a very abstract subject, so I always try to
Bernhard Eschermann: compare that with something that people know. And the thing
Bernhard Eschermann: that people usually know best is their own body, and
Bernhard Eschermann: the automation system is like the nervous system and the
Bernhard Eschermann: brain of the human body. So it collects sensory information
Bernhard Eschermann: from all parts of the body and triggers certain reactions.
Bernhard Eschermann: Industrial plants are obviously much bigger than human body and
Bernhard Eschermann: thus the nervous system in the brain are distributed over
Bernhard Eschermann: this large expands, which is why the automation system for
Bernhard Eschermann: such industries is known as distributed control system or in
Bernhard Eschermann: short DCS. And if you look at these distributed control
Bernhard Eschermann: systems, they can be found pretty much anywhere in industry
Bernhard Eschermann: where critical processes need to be monitored or controlled, and
Bernhard Eschermann: the sensors that they rely on our instruments measuring properties
Bernhard Eschermann: like temperature, pressure or flow, and the muscles, if you
Bernhard Eschermann: compare that with the human body that they use to
Bernhard Eschermann: control the plant or industrial equipment like motors, valves, pumps,
Bernhard Eschermann: stuff like that. And in a larger industrial plant, you've
Bernhard Eschermann: got tens of thousands of such sensors and actuators. Now
Bernhard Eschermann: in between you've got communication networks and industrial grade computers,
Bernhard Eschermann: and they actually decide on what needs to be done.
Bernhard Eschermann: As an example, to ensure the safety of a process,
Bernhard Eschermann: you might measure the pressure in the tank and the
Bernhard Eschermann: computer would reduce the flow into the tank and increase
Bernhard Eschermann: the flow out of the tank by communicating appropriate signals to
Bernhard Eschermann: the equipment connected with the pipes going in and out of the tank.
Bernhard Eschermann: And if the pressure becomes too high, obviously that might
Bernhard Eschermann: be dangerous, and thus this whole thing has to be
Bernhard Eschermann: done with an extremely high reliability of the computer and
Bernhard Eschermann: the communication system, which is why multiple redundant components might
Bernhard Eschermann: be used. They monitor each other or are able to
Bernhard Eschermann: jump in if needed and thus provide for uninterrupted safe
Bernhard Eschermann: operation. You also have all of these different levels in
Bernhard Eschermann: industrial control system from keeping the pressure in the reaction
Bernhard Eschermann: vessel safe through controlling the overall reaction in the vessel
Bernhard Eschermann: to control the overall production in a part of the
Bernhard Eschermann: plant to coordinate multiple plants. For example, you might need
Bernhard Eschermann: the steam output from one plant to feed production in
Bernhard Eschermann: another plant, and ultimately you have to decide what specific
Bernhard Eschermann: product variant you want to produce anyway, some level you
Bernhard Eschermann: move then from automation to human decision making. At this
Bernhard Eschermann: interface between automation and humans, it's critical to provide the
Bernhard Eschermann: needed information to human people, to the plant operators and
Bernhard Eschermann: other staff through computer work stations or so- called human
Bernhard Eschermann: machine interfaces, and which are typically located in a so-
Bernhard Eschermann: called controlled room. So it has to enable a person
Bernhard Eschermann: to deal with the huge complexity of a plant. And another function
Bernhard Eschermann: needed in the DCS is to allow for engineering changes as raw materials
Bernhard Eschermann: or production processes change over time or certain production equipment
Bernhard Eschermann: is replaced. And by the way, the control rooms do
Bernhard Eschermann: not necessarily have to be in the plant like on
Bernhard Eschermann: an offshore gas platform in rough seas. Instead, you might
Bernhard Eschermann: have the operators sit in a cozy office somewhere on that.
Fran Scott: In terms of as industries are obviously developing, how does a
Fran Scott: distributed control system support them? I suppose as they're going
Fran Scott: through this fourth industrial revolution and what I see as this
Fran Scott: up and coming fifth industrial revolution, what is the role
Fran Scott: of the DCS in supporting these changes?
Bernhard Eschermann: If you look at these process plants, they live quite a long time and you don't tear
Bernhard Eschermann: down and rebuild a chemical plant every five years. While
Bernhard Eschermann: on the other hand, you actually have a couple of
Bernhard Eschermann: Windows versions during the same timeframe. At the same time,
Bernhard Eschermann: market requirements influencing what exactly should be produced are changing
Bernhard Eschermann: more and more quickly. And so customers need to renew
Bernhard Eschermann: technology to stay competitive, but with this 24/ 7 production,
Bernhard Eschermann: they also want to keep producing continuously while technology might
Bernhard Eschermann: be updated, even if it's only for the newest cybersecurity
Bernhard Eschermann: patches. And ABB has always provided new capabilities to meet
Bernhard Eschermann: these changing needs of the time while preserving the investments
Bernhard Eschermann: that customers have already made in their plants. That's one
Bernhard Eschermann: of the reasons I guess that ABB has built and
Bernhard Eschermann: maintained the leadership position in DCS over the last 40
Bernhard Eschermann: years and has been a number one choice according to
Bernhard Eschermann: market analysis for more than 20 years. If you look
Bernhard Eschermann: in the future, one of the newer development central to
Bernhard Eschermann: the fourth industrial revolution is a much higher level of
Bernhard Eschermann: flexibility. For example, you want to produce personalized medication that
Bernhard Eschermann: is not the standard medication for everybody, but just for
Bernhard Eschermann: one person. We've also been working on the use of
Bernhard Eschermann: artificial intelligence and machine learning to augment human's capabilities for
Bernhard Eschermann: decision making that allow them to focus on the higher
Bernhard Eschermann: level decisions that I described. Another development that we've been
Bernhard Eschermann: supporting is the digitalization of industries. With the control system
Bernhard Eschermann: having all of these inputs from the sensors, there are
Bernhard Eschermann: huge amounts of data available on the operation of a
Bernhard Eschermann: plant. And an obvious move is to bring the data
Bernhard Eschermann: out of the control system to analyze it based on
Bernhard Eschermann: this to optimize the overall production or the energy efficiency
Bernhard Eschermann: or whatever of the production. And in order to combine
Bernhard Eschermann: the ability to adapt to these technologies quickly while having
Bernhard Eschermann: a very reliable production that should not be interrupted, our
Bernhard Eschermann: concept is to have a very stable and robust inner
Bernhard Eschermann: core of the system that can be extended however, by
Bernhard Eschermann: additional capabilities without creating risks on the basic operations and
Bernhard Eschermann: their safety.
Fran Scott: With all the changes that we're seeing in the industry
Fran Scott: and technology, we are already seeing I suppose a new
Fran Scott: generation of digital industrial workforce so people, so could you
Fran Scott: tell me how this digital workforce are influencing the developments
Fran Scott: of future distributed control systems? So what are they seeing
Fran Scott: that's happening now and how are they, I suppose, swaying
Fran Scott: the developments of the future?
Bernhard Eschermann: Yeah. If I look at my children, and that's probably true
Bernhard Eschermann: for a lot of this generation Y or the generation
Bernhard Eschermann: Z employees, they are digital natives that are used to
Bernhard Eschermann: interact with technology without ever reading a manual or going
Bernhard Eschermann: through a training. And on the other hand, they don't
Bernhard Eschermann: have the 20 to 30 year experience that the baby boomers have
Bernhard Eschermann: accumulated that have been operating these plants over the last 20,
Bernhard Eschermann: 30 years. And thus, the automation system has to provide
Bernhard Eschermann: support and interaction patterns that this generation is used to
Bernhard Eschermann: as an example, rather than people scanning through long alarm
Bernhard Eschermann: lists, the system has to identify critical situations by finding
Bernhard Eschermann: anomalies autonomously, by looking at the data stream, dig out
Bernhard Eschermann: automatically what mitigated such a situation in the past, and
Bernhard Eschermann: maybe offer the operator to also simulate the result of
Bernhard Eschermann: an action before actually doing something. And this is exactly
Bernhard Eschermann: where AI and machine learning in today's technology can help.
Fran Scott: There is no doubt that we are seeing machine learning and AI
Fran Scott: integrated into our lives, and as we look to the
Fran Scott: future, we can see that how we work is also
Fran Scott: changing. I spoke to Mike Williams from Modern Automation Consultant
Fran Scott: Services to ask where process automation and distributed control systems
Fran Scott: come into this?
Mike Williams: It's very important when you look at autonomous operations, essentially
Mike Williams: taking yourself on a journey from manual to automated and
Mike Williams: ultimately fully autonomous solutions, you must look at that as
Mike Williams: an investment and future proofing means making sure that that
Mike Williams: investment is spent wisely. The definition of future proofing is
Mike Williams: the ability to expand and adapt to the business changes
Mike Williams: without wholesale rip and replacement of those legacy systems. This
Mike Williams: is very important from an economic standpoint. It permits the
Mike Williams: end user or customer to implement new or upgrade old
Mike Williams: functionality incrementally, no big bangs here, investment incrementally to achieve
Mike Williams: business requirements, which do change over time. Future proofing allows
Mike Williams: the business to lower the business risk and increase the
Mike Williams: return on investment without the fear of becoming obsolete or non- competitive.
Fran Scott: So what you're saying is the DCS in a way
Fran Scott: laser a digital foundation that can then be added to
Fran Scott: bit by bit as new technology comes on the scene?
Mike Williams: That's absolutely correct. And fundamentally, the attributes of a future- proof
Mike Williams: system address the issues of horizontal and vertical integration, specifically
Mike Williams: horizontally the ability to scale or add to shop floor
Mike Williams: devices over time, and also vertical integration or extensibility upward
Mike Williams: from sensor to the boardroom from a communications application interaction
Mike Williams: capability. This interaction may involve not only the shop floor,
Mike Williams: but it may involve design, engineering, supply chain, financial, and
Mike Williams: even research and development.
Fran Scott: So what you're saying is there's this holistic approach, all
Fran Scott: levels of technology and all levels of people as well
Fran Scott: I suppose because along with the changes in industry and
Fran Scott: technology, we are already seeing the workforce adapting into, I
Fran Scott: suppose, the next generation of digital industrial workforce. So how
Fran Scott: are the developments in the technology changing the industrial workforce
Fran Scott: so changing the people themselves, I suppose?
Mike Williams: You've probably heard of something called the Industrial Revolution 4.0 or
Mike Williams: Industry 4. 0. We've entered a new age of digital
Mike Williams: transformation where computers are fundamentally being substituted for actual human
Mike Williams: beings. This is because of the need or requirement for
Mike Williams: higher computational and communications capabilities. And the question that you're
Mike Williams: asking is how do we navigate from what is a human-
Mike Williams: centric environment forward into a computer centric or autonomous plant
Mike Williams: operations environment using the new technologies? Quite honestly, the result
Mike Williams: of digital transformation simply is that physical tasks are being
Mike Williams: replaced with logical execution executed by remote devices. So simply
Mike Williams: put the answer is traditional operators are now going to
Mike Williams: become knowledge workers, and these knowledge workers will be using
Mike Williams: computers augmenting their human cognitive abilities to solve very complex
Mike Williams: problems which they could not solve on their own. And
Mike Williams: these complex problems are situations like abnormal equipment operation or
Mike Williams: suboptimal situations where the equipment is not performing as built
Mike Williams: well as it could. With these new digital transformation tools
Mike Williams: and techniques. Human beings who are still in the decision
Mike Williams: making loop can make these decisions quicker with better accuracy
Mike Williams: and less variability. Essentially, you're translating less hands into more
Mike Williams: heads. So the need for human beings is accentuated and
Mike Williams: the span of control of the human operator is going
Mike Williams: to increase resulting in less human error and more importantly,
Mike Williams: less human beings in the hazardous environments which exists in
Mike Williams: the process industries, thus improving the quality of life while
Mike Williams: increasing in productivity, safety, and quality.
Fran Scott: And I suppose the next stage of automation is the
Fran Scott: introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence. So how will these
Fran Scott: become part of these systems?
Mike Williams: That's a very good question and is not well understood
Mike Williams: in the marketplace today. I like to use a maturity
Mike Williams: matrix called the level of autonomy, which starts with fundamentally
Mike Williams: totally manual operations and evolves as DCS control systems have
Mike Williams: evolved through time over a five distinctive capabilities or levels
Mike Williams: of autonomy from zero to five. When you're talking about
Mike Williams: technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, what you're trying
Mike Williams: to accomplish is even more sophisticated tasks than simple loop
Mike Williams: control and understand the interdependence of equipment not only with
Mike Williams: the human being, but machine to machine, using advanced mathematics
Mike Williams: and statistics to predict the future, not just the current
Mike Williams: situation, but predict the future and be able to optimize
Mike Williams: the processes to achieve the maximum result. An example here
Mike Williams: might be quite useful. You've heard about autonomous vehicles, autonomous
Mike Williams: automobiles, multiple sensing devices are mounted on the car and
Mike Williams: continuous calculations are made to ensure that the vehicle operates
Mike Williams: safely in an optimum manner. The same example exists in
Mike Williams: the process industries, and the objective here is to use
Mike Williams: artificial intelligence and machine learning to perform similar duties as
Mike Williams: an example, to extend the meantime to failure of a
Mike Williams: piece of equipment, thus avoiding unplanned downtime, which disrupts the
Mike Williams: customer fulfillment process, minimize the maintenance costs, and even improve
Mike Williams: the quality of the product that's being manufactured. Now, I'd like
Mike Williams: to remind you at this particular point in time, one
Mike Williams: should always remember that a sound level three autonomous DCS
Mike Williams: foundation is required to enable the advanced capabilities of artificial
Mike Williams: intelligence and machine learning. I have a saying that I like to
Mike Williams: tell my clients. Actionable intelligence has zero value unless it
Mike Williams: is acted upon in the correct context, in a timely
Mike Williams: manner. This is the role, the action is the role of the
Mike Williams: DCS, and the intelligence is provided by artificial intelligence and
Mike Williams: machine learning capabilities.
Fran Scott: So if we looked at this I suppose zoomed out,
Fran Scott: what are the key benefits of all of this?
Mike Williams: The benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning are in
Mike Williams: the process industry, specifically related to process safety, product quality,
Mike Williams: the ability to improve the productivity without eliminating the human
Mike Williams: being, elevating the human consciousness and being able to achieve,
Mike Williams: most importantly, our sustainability goals, which is our right to
Mike Williams: operate or permit to operate. So one of the emerging
Mike Williams: issues out there, benefits of higher levels of automation and
Mike Williams: artificial intelligence, is to achieve our sustainability goals to protect
Mike Williams: our planet. Let me give you an example. Process plants
Mike Williams: are huge consumers of energy and water resources required to
Mike Williams: sustain human life. Consuming these resources in a responsible manner
Mike Williams: is the objective of companies today. More than 80% of
Mike Williams: the C- suite executive officers see sustainability is a prime
Mike Williams: objective of them remaining in business and being profitable. To
Mike Williams: achieve this automation and an advanced autonomous solutions like AI
Mike Williams: and machine learning are required to meet these business objectives.
Fran Scott: Such an important part of it, is sustainability not just from a
Fran Scott: planet friendly point of view, but from a continuous production
Fran Scott: point of view as well with things like the pandemic
Fran Scott: that showed us that automating your processes meant that they
Fran Scott: could continue in a way that if they were manual,
Fran Scott: they just wouldn't be able to.
Mike Williams: Right, the process industries exist to improve the standard of
Mike Williams: living and those things that we enjoy as part of
Mike Williams: our livelihoods. And to achieve this in an economical way
Mike Williams: and meet the objectives of sustainability, we believe in the
Mike Williams: process industries that automation or the in industrial re revolution
Mike Williams: 4.0 is absolutely essential. The digital transformation is absolutely essential
Mike Williams: to achieve mankind's goals.
Fran Scott: I absolutely couldn't agree more. And it's not just the digital
Fran Scott: workforce that process automation is transforming. This technology can also
Fran Scott: be used for so many industries. So it's back to
Fran Scott: Bernhard for a final word on how a ABB's technology
Fran Scott: is transforming industries from energy right through to the world
Fran Scott: of fashion.
Bernhard Eschermann: Obviously, two of the most important topics to make human
Bernhard Eschermann: life more sustainable are circularity to avoid waste creation and
Bernhard Eschermann: reducing carbon emissions by increasing energy efficiency and the use
Bernhard Eschermann: of renewable energies. Renew Cell is focused on the first
Bernhard Eschermann: of these aspects. It's a fast growing Swedish company specializing
Bernhard Eschermann: in textile to textile recycling. So they close the loop
Bernhard Eschermann: when garments are worn out or no longer wanted. Some
Bernhard Eschermann: are obviously sold secondhand or used as hand me downs,
Bernhard Eschermann: but the vast majority today ends up in landfills or
Bernhard Eschermann: are incinerated. And what Renew Cell is doing is that
Bernhard Eschermann: they are changing that with a new technology by dissolving
Bernhard Eschermann: the used cotton and other natural fibers into a new
Bernhard Eschermann: biodegradable raw material, which is called Renew Cell pulp. And
Bernhard Eschermann: that can be turned again into textile fiber and thus
Bernhard Eschermann: goes into this textile production cycle again. They are using a
Bernhard Eschermann: number of ABB technologies among those ECS that enables the
Bernhard Eschermann: production to be as resource efficient as possible with less
Bernhard Eschermann: material consumption and reduced waste.
Fran Scott: Gosh, that sounds fascinating. And that is the very definition of a
Fran Scott: circular economy right there, isn't it?
Bernhard Eschermann: Yeah. And obviously while you circulate garments in this case,
Bernhard Eschermann: obviously the process uses energy. And so this is exactly
Bernhard Eschermann: where you also have to look at the second aspect that this
Bernhard Eschermann: whole process becomes as energy efficient as possible and hopefully
Bernhard Eschermann: uses renewable energy to be driven.
Fran Scott: Yeah, and exactly switching the conversation now onto energy usage,
Fran Scott: because energy is the largest consumer of natural resources and
Fran Scott: when it comes to industrial plants, I suppose shifting to
Fran Scott: electricity and so having that potential of using renewables I
Fran Scott: suppose is part of the solution but could you tell
Fran Scott: me briefly what role the DCSs would play in enabling this
Fran Scott: clean energy transition?
Bernhard Eschermann: Yeah, again, I try to use an example from everyday
Bernhard Eschermann: life. Let's assume you sit at home and want to
Bernhard Eschermann: mainly use electricity from the solar panels that you have
Bernhard Eschermann: on your roof, and then you've got certain electricity loads
Bernhard Eschermann: like right now your computer that probably don't want to
Bernhard Eschermann: switch off. Then you've got other loads like the refrigerator,
Bernhard Eschermann: you can switch that off for a certain amount of
Bernhard Eschermann: time, but probably not too long. And you've got other
Bernhard Eschermann: things like your sauna that you might decide, okay, I
Bernhard Eschermann: don't want to operate at this point in time because
Bernhard Eschermann: there's no sun right now. And all of these decisions
Bernhard Eschermann: are now decisions that you take, but you've got hundreds
Bernhard Eschermann: of similar decisions to take in an industrial plant that
Bernhard Eschermann: uses both conventional and renewable energy resources. And at the
Bernhard Eschermann: same time, obviously, the plant needs to produce something to
Bernhard Eschermann: create a payback for operating plant. Another example that you
Bernhard Eschermann: can actually look at is this topic of carbon capture
Bernhard Eschermann: and storage, trying to get CO2 out of the air
Bernhard Eschermann: and moving the carbon out of that in a safe
Bernhard Eschermann: place where it can be stored forever. This is a
Bernhard Eschermann: technologically very complex process that needs lots of equipment that
Bernhard Eschermann: again, needs to be controlled in the best possible fashion
Bernhard Eschermann: and as energy efficient as possible. So again, it's a
Bernhard Eschermann: typical application for a distributed control system.
Fran Scott: So when it comes to the future, Bernhard, what excites
Fran Scott: you, I suppose, when it comes to DCSs and also
Fran Scott: process automation in general?
Bernhard Eschermann: Fran, if I think back 20 years ago, computer and
Bernhard Eschermann: communication technology created a lot of constraints that we had
Bernhard Eschermann: to deal with and that we had to build the
Bernhard Eschermann: system around. And now most of these bottlenecks are gone.
Bernhard Eschermann: So we've got all of these great new technologies at
Bernhard Eschermann: our disposal, powerful computers, powerful communication systems, AI, machine learning,
Bernhard Eschermann: augmented reality, all of these things that means that instead
Bernhard Eschermann: of focusing on the constraints of the technology, we can
Bernhard Eschermann: really focus on creating value from this technology now.
Fran Scott: What a pleasure it was to speak to both Mike
Fran Scott: and Bernhard about these distributed control systems and what an
Fran Scott: insight they gave me and hopefully you about how these
Fran Scott: systems are at the heart of process automation and these
Fran Scott: systems that we all take for granted and take advantage
Fran Scott: of, and also how these DCSs can future proof these
Fran Scott: processes, so they're there for this growing population. But unfortunately,
Fran Scott: that is it for this episode. Of course, a massive
Fran Scott: thank you to Mike Williams and Bernhard Eschermann for their
Fran Scott: brilliant insight and expertise. I'm Fran Scott, and the Process
Fran Scott: Automation podcast is a Fresh Air Production for ABB. Follow
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