Industrial Automation is the industry that provides for the automation of mine sites, manufacturing, water and wastewater, power generation and distribution, food and beverage and much more. It is the use of some or all of the following hardware and software to minimise labour and increase production: Sensors, HMI’s, PLCs, SCADA, Telemetry, RTU’s and other technologies.

While this is the more technical answer of what do we mean by Industrial Automation lets look at some simpler answers that you can relate to below and see some of the common questions that get asked about Industrial Automation.

What is an example of industrial automation?

An example of Industrial Automation is a mobile phone manufacturing plant that takes in all the components to make a phone and provides a completed boxed and ready to go phone at the other end.  These types of manufacturing plants work in an IPO or Input Processing and Output type model.  The components and packaging materials go in one end as the inputs, the industrial automation process puts them all together and load the software and the finished package phone comes out the other end.

From when you wake up in the morning and get out of your bed you touch a hundred things that have been made in a manufacturing plant like your toothbrush, clothes, blankets, coffee mug, milk, coffee and much more.  

You have also used power which is brought to you through industrial automation power generation and distribution systems.  The water you brushed your teeth, had a shower and boiled in the kettle comes from a water treatment plant.  And when you flush your toilet it goes to a wastewater treatment plant.  

As you drive to work the traffic lights are part of a traffic control system and even the building you work in has a building management system.  These are all practical examples of what industrial automation provides for you.

What are the 4 types of industrial automation?

There are many types of industrial automation but basically they are fixed, programmable, flexible and integrated. A fixed industrial Automation process is when they only create one type of product like milk where the container remains the same but the recipe may change. A programmable automation process is where the product is similar but may have different containers for example like coffee. It can come in a glass jar, tin or even a bag.  

Flexible automation is where the product and packaging can change and these are generally seen in co-packers where they do automation work for many clients so the system needs to be flexible to customer needs.  Generally these co-packers are category specific like meat, dairy or canned goods for instance. 

Integrated automation is where the system can design and build multiple products so think of CNC or 3D printing and then build and package the product where you can change the whole process with minimal human interaction. 

What is the function of industrial automation?

Industrial automation uses computers, software, PLC’s, machinery, robots and sensors to remove human involvement in manufacturing, mining, power generation and distribution, water and wastewater, oil and gas and many other industries to increase quality, performance and decrease shutdowns and slow running in plants.

So simply since the start of the industrial age where machinery was initially included where one piece of machinery replaced many people doing a task or sped up a task.  Then with the introduction of computing to plants a single computer controlled many pieces of equipment. Finally we are at the age where one person as plant operator can sit in a control room and control and monitor the whole plant.  So with each stage less people were required.

While full automation through AI and Big Data is definitely a possibility, you will always need a person to monitor a single or multiple plants for when things need repairing and either repair robots or maintenance staff on sight to fix the plants.

What are three examples of industrial automation?

Three types of industrial automation are:

1. Manufacturing
2. Mining
3. Water & Wastewater

Manufacturing

This is by far the most well known of the automation industries and is normally the first to implement new technologies in the industry with a 726 billion market size.  There is a massive amount of manufacturing plants such as food and beverage, cars, mobile phones or cell phones, clothing, tooth brushes and most other things we buy these days. They are typically hard wired systems so they are computerised but have direct computer networking cables and power cables everywhere. They use a lot of OEM equipment that is linked together into more complex processes.  OEM equipment is just a fancy way of saying specialised machines created by a third party like a piece of equipment that puts labels on bottles for instance.

Mining

Mining is a $2.14 trillion dollar market and is the process we have to pull everything from the ground or under the oceans and is broken down into many segments like minerals, metals, stone, oil, coal, gas and many other things. The process is normally done on land but can also be done at sea and in space. On land for metals, minerals and coal it generally is an open cut mine or underground mine.  Both processes involve using explosives to break into stone and retrieve and process it.  This is generally done with breaking the big rocks down into small rocks and then going through a wash plant or chemical process where the ore is extracted and then stored for transport to the customers. These processes are different for oil and gas where they drill down to them and then extract them by pumping it out.

Water & Wastewater

One of the least talked about industrial automation processes but one that is critical for our survival as humans is where do we get clean drinking water and what happens when we flush the toilet or have a shower.  This 295 billion dollar industry takes water from lakes, springs, rivers and oceans and removes particles, chemicals and contaminants and makes it safe for us to drink.  

After we use the water it then does the reverse process to put that water back into those same places again.  A little known fact is that in most countries without these systems running you only have two days of flushing the toilet before it overflows.  They don’t show you that in the end of the world movies.

Why is industrial automation important in today’s life?

It simply allows us to live our current level of lifestyle without it we would have to use tank water and drop toilets.  Everything would have to be locally sourced and made by hand for things like clothes, furniture, toothbrushes, cooking utensils and more.  We would not have refrigeration or air conditioning.  There would be no internet or power grid to power our devices.

What industry is automation used in?

Here are some industries automation is used in:

• Mining
• Manufacturing
• Water and Wastewater
• Power generation and distribution
  • Nuclear
  • Coal Fired Power Plants
  • Renewables
  • Fuel Cells
  • Oil and Gas
• Building management systems (Stadiums, High rises and more)
• Transportation systems (Planes, Trains, Car Tunnels, Traffic Control and more)
• Naval Craft (Cruise Liners, War Ships and Science Vessels)
• Dams and other water storage
• Rockets, Space Craft, Moon and Mars Landers
• Home Automation

What are 10 disadvantages of automation?

Here are 10 disadvantage of automation:

1. Job displacement
2. Ongoing staff training
3. Dependence on the technologies
4. Implementation Costs
5. Maintenance Costs
6. Higher employee skill level required
7. Harder to find skilled workers
8. Physical and Cyber Security Concerns
9. Rapidly updating technologies
10. Upgrading existing systems

What is a PLC in automation?

A PLC is a Programmable Logic Controller and is basically a ruggedised modular computer used in industrial settings. It is normally programmed using 5 special IEC coding languages such as Instruction List (IL), Function Block Diagram (FBD), Ladder, Sequential Function Chart (SFC) and Structured Text (ST). It repeats the code inside until it is told to stop or is turned off. 

By ruggedised it means that PLC’s are designed for harsh industrial environments and can handle much more than your normal desktop or laptop computer.  As well as being able to be in higher heat environments they are also conformally coated which makes them dust, dirt, chemical, moisture, rust, abrasion and mechanical resistant. So in simple terms your normal desktop computer would fail in an industrial plant while a PLC can last many years without failure due to environmental conditions.

How does a PLC work in automation?

The role of the PLC is to control the startup, running, shutdown and failure of a process or plant and act like the brain controlling multiple pieces of equipment. So if we are making soft drink bottles then it would control the operation of the bottle filler, bottle capper, bottle labeller and packaging. They do this with input and output modules most commonly digital or analogue in nature.

As in the section above there are 5 IEC programming languages used to program a PLC and it runs in a loop reading from the plant or process inputs, processing the code in the PLC and then writing to plant or process outputs. It does this at extremely high speed with each IPO (Input, processing, output) cycle typically being only a few milliseconds.

A group of PLC’s can have a master PLC that sends commands to them and whether the individual or master PLC’s also communicate with software up the automation stack like SCADA software. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition software that is the software most commonly seen in control rooms in plants or processes that provide a single person or operator full visibility and control of the plant or process.

PLC’s use Input and output modules to send and receive boolean or analogue signals to other equipment or sensors and actuators in the plant. Boolean means a zero or one and analogue are just a ranging number typically from 0 to 10000 or 0 to 32767. An example of a boolean input would be whether a piece of equipment is on or off. An Analogue input may be something like an Oven Temperature.

For more information on PLCs check out this article:
ARTICLE: How To Learn PLC Programming At Home For Free

What is automation in simple words?

The simplest definition of automation is the removal of human or manual processes with computers and equipment to make a plant or process more efficient and repeatable with better quality and higher output. Automation has an expensive up front cost but means you minimise labour cost, rejects and waste.

What is the highest level of industrial automation?

In the Automation stack the ERP is the highest level of automation but practically in plants and processes it is currently the MES level for most of the industry at the moment. ERP is the Enterprise Resource Planning which are the business functions like supply chain logistics, HR and Sales.  MES is the Manufacturing Execution Systems which is where current automation stops and where Big Data and AI are implemented.

Why is industry 4.0 known as automation?

Industry 4.0 is known as automation because it is the 4th industrial revolution that includes not only mechanisation but computers, networks, software and more advanced things like AI, Big Data and MES systems to optimise plants and processes.

If you want to know more about MES systems check out this article:

ARTICLE: What is a Manufacturing Execution System (MES)?

What are the three essential elements of automation?

Three essential elements of automation are controllable equipment, sensors and actuators  and controllers. The equipment needs to be able to have functions like being able to be told to stop, start or change. These changes are then monitored by the sensors and relayed to the controller typically a PLC or RTU.

The control signals and sensor feedback go through typically a 4 to 20 mA electrical cable between the equipment and a local, distributed or remote IO module where they are converted to a digital signal.  That is then used in the program running in the controller like a PLC or RTU to then decide if there are any changes required to the plant process.

What are the skills required for industrial automation?

The common skills required for industrial automation regardless of job role are:

• Installation and Maintenance of Instrumentation
• Industrial Communication Protocols (Hart, Profibus, Modbus ect)
• Basic Computer Networking
• Programming PLC’s and / or RTU’s
• Programming SCADA systems and HMI’s
• Typically a Low Voltage Electrical License (optional)

There are many other skills you may require depending on the specific job role that you have but having these basic skills will definitely have to be employed and in high demand for future jobs.

Is automation in high demand?

Yes, automation is in high demand and is only getting greater as Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technologies (OT) become more and more integrated. The application of the Internet of Things, Big Data, AI and other modern technologies will also increase this demand as the need for data to drive them and provide visibility for competitive advantage for companies becomes greater.

Is industrial automation a good career?

Yes, industrial automation is a great career for those that like varied work, technology, great pay and a constant challenge. The industry is always evolving with new things to learn and technologies to play with and implement into the processes and systems. Whether you decide to take a technical career path or a managerial one there is plenty of opportunity.

What is the highest salary in automation?

How much do you make in automation? The highest salary in the USA at the writing of this article on Indeed was $252,000 USD for the Head of Automation role. The roles in automation are varied and can be both technical, managerial or business support staff.

For the latest highest salary on Indeed in the USA you can go here:

LINK: Indeed USA Automation Jobs over $140,000

The Motor does the mechanical pushing, pulling, lifting and hoisting so mechanical work. The Drive is an electrical controller that changes the flow of electricity to the Motor for speed and torque and they come in different types like servo and stepper drives depending on their application.

Now that you know the basics let’s look a little more in depth as to how each works.

Introduction To Motors and Drives

Whether you realise it or not you are surrounded by motors every day at work and at home. The fan on the ceiling, your washing machine and drier, your car engine, in air conditioners and refrigerators. Specifically we are talking of more industrial applications in this article where those motors are used in plants and processes.

Some examples of industrial applications of motors and drives are:

• Conveyors
• Pumps
• Fans
• Condensers
• Turbines
• Alternators
• Compressors
• Material Crushers

To understand these applications lets discuss motors and drives on their own and see how they then build into a motor drive system.

What does a Motor do?

There are two main uses of motors which are: putting electricity in to get the drive shaft to spin which is called mechanical power, or rotating the drive shaft to produce electrical power. So to simplify it we put in power and get movement of something like conveyor belts or cranes. Or using it as a power generator like in a power plant and turn a turbine (basically a fan) that is attached to the motor drive shaft to make electricity.

There are two type of electric motor and they are:

• Alternating Current (AC) Motors
• Direct Current (DC) Motor

Essentially motors use electromagnetism to produce motion and this is done with the winding wire around the shaft of the motor and turning on and off these bundles of wire to produce motion. Alternately the motion of the drive can also produce electricity as we mentioned earlier if run in reverse.

Here is a quick video that explains how the internals of a DC motor actually work:

For an AC or Induction Motor typically this is done using what is called 3 phase or three sets of power cables. This is commonly referred to as Industrial Power and is something you will see in most industrial applications. To understand this think of your power at home when you plug into the wall as a single phase. You have a positive and negative terminal on a plug and an earth in case something breaks so you don’t get electrocuted.

So if we ignore the earth on the plug for the moment we have a single phase. So now in Industrial Plants the power normally comes from the power plant as three sets of these pairs of cables. So why is having these three sets of cables important to us? Well we use them to make a 3 phase AC motor or induction motor to spin.

Here is an example video of just how this works:

What is a Turbine?

This is a mechanical device that is a motor that is made to spin to produce power. These are generally used in power plants where the movement of heated liquids moving through pipes causes that spinning motion. Wind turbines are another example of this as a renewable energy source. This is the opposite of applying power to make the drive spin.

What are the types of Motor Drives?

How can you directly connect a Motor?

For 3 phase AC or inverter motors we can have Direct On Line or Star Delta connections or motors directly to power with traditional start, stop and trip controls. There is no smarts in connected motors in this way and they apply the full power and therefore load to the motor straight away. This is generally done for motors that are not under huge load like a fan in a bathroom for instance. It is only pushing air and is only a small motor.

What is a Soft Starter for a Motor?

Essentially this is a dumb controller that slowly starts and stops the drive with minimal controls. This is critical for instance if you were at a mine site and wanted to start fully loaded conveyors that are pushing coal to a stockpile. If you tried to put full power to the motor it would blow up or burn out. This way you can slowly start the conveyors and stop them to protect the motor.

What is a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD)?

This type of drive controller can be used to change the speed and hold the speed at certain levels from 0 to 100 speed which is the Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) of the motor. It can also control the torque of the motor which is in simple terms the power or push of the motor. There is a lot more to VFD’s and we will discuss them below. VFD’s are also referred to as Variable Speed Drives (VSD). As well as being able to control speed these also allow the ability to save power by setting the motor at optimal speeds for different applications rather than fully on or turned off. They also allow for more complex control like that of Proportional, Integral and Derivative (PID) control for specialist applications.

What is a Servo Drive for a Motor?

This type of controller and drive is used for precision control that we often see with robotics or in manufacturing where there is not just speed and torque as with a VFD but also position and gears. The motor for a Servo often uses rare earth materials in its creation that provide this higher form of control over a standard VFD and motor combination.

Here is a video explaining what servo motors are and what they do:

What is a Stepper Drive for a Motor?

A stepper drive is like a servo motor that has more steps or stopping points than a standard servo drive. A servo drive will have 4 to 12 stopping points on average and a stepper motor will have 50 to 100 steps or stopping points. Stepper motors move by being given pulses of power where a servo motor compares with where it should be to where it is as a command from the drive and adjusts accordingly.

Here is a video that will explain the applications of a stepper motor:

For more info try on below  links:

http://www.acontrol.com.pl/drives-control-engineering/engineering-in-automation/applications-ac-dc-drives/
https://www.motioncontroltips.com/motion-applications-dc-drives/
https://www.st.com/en/applications/industrial-drives/servo-drives.html

Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems commonly known as SCADA are the visual representations of what is happening in your plant or process used for centralized control.  Common major features are: Alarms, Trending, Graphics, Communications,  Redundancy, Scripting, Reporting and Security. 

What do Industry Professionals need to know about SCADA?

• Types of SCADA
• Common Features
  • Alarms 
  • Reports
  • Trends
  • Security
  • Graphics
  • Connectivity
  • Redundancy
  • Scripting
• Licensing & Costs
• Market Share
• Manufacturers

The global automation industry market size is 214 billion and there is a massive
opportunity for employment.

What is the main function of SCADA?

SCADA allows you to have a single person or operator as they are known in the industry, to monitor a whole plant or process from a centralised control room. This is done through the use of a interactive graphical representation of what the plant looks like on a computer screen.

Here is what a SCADA runtime looks like:

NOTE: The picture above is the example project in CitectSCADA 2018R2

SCADA sits at level 2 of the MES hierarchy which is simply a technology stack of what is in your plant or process, from the physical equipment all the way up to the enterprise resource planning level.

For more information about MES and the MES Hierarchy take a look at this article:
LINK: What is a Manufacturing Execution System (MES)?

What is SCADA used for?

Here are some industrial applications that SCADA is used for:

• Water & Waste Water (WWW)
• Power Generation & Distribution
• Oil & Gas
• Building Management Systems (BMS)
• Mining & Minerals
• Transportation
• Refrigeration
• Shipping
• Aircraft
• Manufacturing
  • Food & Beverage
  • Mobile Phones
  • Cars
  • Computers
  • And all other manufacturing area

So essentially SCADA is part of the technology stack that is used to run the world and supply everything you use every day from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. A technology stack is the vertical layers of technologies used to solve complex technical problems.

Here is an example Technology stack for Industrial Automation:

• Enterprise Software
• MES Software
• Process Historian
• SCADA
• Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC)
• Sensors and Instrumentation
• Plant or Process Equipment

How does SCADA work?

SCADA essentially connects and talks to physical equipment or smart controllers in the plant to tell the plant or process what to do. It then takes this information and represents it in a graphical way to the person or operator in the control room in a more meaningful way. Through SCADA operators are able to turn on and off equipment, areas of the plant or the whole plant or process. They can also change values like temperatures, speeds, levels and flow rates for the equipment as well.

What are the types of SCADA?

There are two major types of SCADA systems, those used for Hard Wired networks and those used for Telemetry networks.  A hard wired network SCADA is one you would see in a Manufacturing plant, Mine site or Building Management System.  Hard wired just means you have physical computer networking cables between all the computers and it is generally in a small geographic area.

NOTE: The diagram above is a simple diagram of a hard wired SCADA only and does not include PLC’s, Equipment, Sensors or any other industry components and is just to show a simple hard wired computer network.  More will be shown in later more advanced articles.

A telemetry network is one that does not use physical computer networking cables and uses data radios instead.  They are used mainly for wide area networks over large geographic areas.  These would be something like Water & Waste water networks (excluding the treatment plants) or Oil and Gas networks.

NOTE: This is a simple network diagram only showing a basic telemetry style solution and does not include RTU’s, Sensors, Equipment or any other components.  These more advanced diagrams will be shown later in more advanced articles.

So why is there a difference?  The main reason is that telemetry networks (computer networks using data radios) have very limited data they can send so the data needs to be monitored closely and prioritised across the network.  They also use different communications protocols to communicate as well that take this into account.

A communications protocol is just how computers talk to each other.  An agreed set of rules just like when you are talking to someone in english.  English is a form of communications protocol and if you think about when you know when it is your turn to speak in a conversation or how priority messages are sent when talking to your friends computers do exactly the same thing.

Now hold on can’t SCADA’s primarily used for hard wired networks also use the same way to talk to telemetry networks as well?  Yes but the features for a Telemetry SCADA are much more advanced and they have many more features that hard wired SCADA’s specifically for radio based networks.  

They work directly and have much more control of the communication protocols like the Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3).  This allows you to control each pump station update times individually and also remotely update them.  We will talk more about this in our telemetry article.

You may use both of them in your plant or processes and Water Treatment plants are a perfect example.  You may use a hard wired SCADA for your Water Treatment plant itself but for your water pumping stations all over a city or region you may use a Telemetry based SCADA.

We will discuss each style of implementation in later articles in more detail and talk about the specific technologies involved.

What are the core features of SCADA?

No matter what type of SCADA you have there are some core features required by them all for use in the industry.  So let’s discuss some of these common features so you understand why they are so important.

Alarms 

The ability to let you know when something is going wrong in the plant is critical to a Supervisory System like a SCADA system.  The ability to alert your operators to know that something may be about to go wrong or has gone wrong so they can intervene means you can keep your plant or process running smoothly and maximize your assets.

Some of the reasons we use alarms are:

• Hardware failures – Computer hardware
• Software failures – SCADA software
• Communications – Connections to controllers and equipment
• Process related – Related to what you are making or processing
• Human Error – Related to Operational Staff

We will talk more about alarms in each product that is reviewed on how they handle alarms and what kinds of alarms they have.  Below you will find an example of a live SCADA alarm page.

Reports

SCADA is classified as an operational system that you use to run and monitor your plant or process so reporting is not what it is good at.  You also don’t want to slow down operational systems while someone runs a big report.  For serious reporting tools and also to not affect live operational systems you should use a Process Historian for advanced long term storage or process data and reporting.

That being said most SCADA’s allow some level of inbuilt reporting but not all of them.  If you want a quick snapshot report of what your plant is doing right now then that would be a simple report you could run.  Likewise a downtime report where you are getting information on why the plant or process just stopped and for how long.  Generally these reports will be a page or two and for more advanced analytics use a proper historian.

Here is a simple example report

Trends

Trends are snapshots of what is happening in your plant over time.  So for example if you are making bread and you have an oven that is constantly trying to turn on and off the heat to keep at the right temperature.  This is something you could trend over time.  Trends are critical for both operation of your plant or process as well as for maintaining equipment.  If the oven temperature gets too high the bread is burned and if it is too low for extended time then you only get proofed dough.

So trending is how operators of your plant and maintenance staff keep the plant running at optimal levels.  They can also be used for fault finding when the plant stops or is running abnormally.  You can see when the oven gets too hot the radiant temperature causes equipment nearby to be affected which may make them fail for instance.

Most of the information from the plant is trended not only for the running of the plant but for analysis later on how the plant can be run cheaper and more efficiently.

Here is an example trend page from a live SCADA system.

Security

When I first started teaching in the industry over 15 years ago I was astounded how few people used security in their plants.  Everyone used generic logins with no accountability or the ability to know who needed further training.  

These days those with generic logins or no security are the rarity.  This has been brought on by the connection of enterprises to plants and processes and remote workers using the internet.  This has also brought about the growing risk of threats from the internet and the need for cyber security as well as local user based security.

Most SCADA systems have built-in User and Group level security as well as the ability to link that to your Windows Domain security as well.  Some SCADA’s now also have end to end encryption as well to protect the traffic going between nodes.  

The more information is shared throughout your organisation both locally and geographically you need to be aware of what security you can implement to minimise risk to your sensitive process related data.

If the simple act of logging in on a keyboard is an issue in your plant for whatever reason you can always implement security cards or RFID tags to auto log on operators when they bop on equipment or in the control room.  This can be tied to your physical security measures on building and site entrances as well.  

Graphics

The graphics displayed on the screen are also a primary component of how the information collected in your plant or process is shown to your staff.  A physical pump and be shown with a pump graphic on the screen in different colours depending on the current status of the real world equipment.

The trend for graphics is moving away from bright and flashy screens using heaps of colour are giving away to Abnormal Situation Management (ASM) compliant graphics.  The ASM Consortium has been around for 20+ years and has been providing guidelines for Alarm Management, HMI Graphics and Procedural Practices.  

Human Machine Interface (HMI) screens are basically the computer screen attached to a single piece of equipment in the plant or to a couple of local pieces of equipment that allows for local control.  SCADA is its big brother and allows for plant or process wide control.

The guideline relating to HMI / SCADA graphics can be found here:

LINK: ASM Consotium

The ASM compliant graphics are basically grey only graphics for equipment and with colours only used for alarm states.  While it is much more than that it will give you a basic understanding of graphical differences.  They were designed with operator response times in mind and to declutter computer screens.  We will discuss it more in later articles.

The availability of graphics libraries and page templates is another feature most SCADA products have to increase reuse and standardisation of graphics as well as to minimise future work and maintenance.

Connectivity

The ability for your SCADA system to connect to the equipment in the plant is another critical feature.  There are multiple types of communications that can be done but the main two used in industry are Direct Driver and OPC.

Direct Driver is a communications driver for a specific device made for your SCADA that can only talk to that specific device like a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) or other smart device.  All of these devices are essentially ruggedised computers specifically designed to use in your plant or process and we will talk about them more in future articles.

OLE for Process Control (OPC) is a generic communications protocol.  It was primarily made as a generic method to connect between different vendor hardware.  This way the OPC Server or communications gateway could be a third party and use direct drivers to connect to all equipment and then anyone that wanted to get data only needed to connect using OPC.

The OPC foundation is the one that makes the specification for OPC and then any company can create a opc server and / or client that uses those standards as a way of connecting and sharing data.

LINK: OPC Foundation

The OPC Training institute does monthly webinars and supplies training which can be found one the link below:

LINK: OPC Training Institute

Redundancy

In 24 hour / 7 days a week operations it is another core requirement to be able to ensure as close to 100% uptime for the SCADA system as possible.  This means that you can not just rely on a single SCADA server to run your system.  If the computer hardware that server is running on breaks then you lose your centralised view of your plant.  This means more labour to run the plant.

So the solution is redundancy in your SCADA system so that you can have many servers that can take over from each other if one server should fail.  All SCADA systems implement some form of redundancy but all redundancy systems are not equal and it is important you check whether that SCADA system has the right redundancy for your plant or process.

Some systems only support dual server redundancy, some support triple redundancy and others support almost unlimited redundancy.  We will discuss this in further detail with each different product as we talk about the pros and cons of each SCADA system.

Scripting

Most major SCADA systems on the market allow for some sort of programming or scripting to allow you to do more complex tasks.  It also allows you to interface through code to other systems and the operating system when needed.

Typically all the SCADA’s also have an API or Web Service interface as well if you wish to connect third party software or custom applications into the SCADA as well to send and receive data or take certain actions.

The coding interface is normally a cut down version of a commercial programming language or a small proprietary coding language.

Licensing & Costs

While the licensing for each SCADA is slightly different, most of them have a point and license type style approach.  That means if you read from the field and oven temperature value regularly this would consume 1 point.

The types of licenses are generally function based where you may get a server license and client license for instance for each type of software.  So you could have a SCADA Server license with 1000 points which means it can run your SCADA server and get 1000 pieces of information from the plant.

As for costs these vary widely and can get complicated for some of the vendors out there with Aveva System Platform licensing being the most complex I have seen and the most expensive.  Where the Ignition SCADA license can be the cheapest for a small install.

Both the pricing and licensing I will go into further detail in the articles directly on each product.

Market Share

The Arc Advisory Groups annual HMI research report is considered the go to for global market share by Vendor.  It only breaks the SCADA and HMI products down by Vendor and not product but typically System Platform below has the largest global market share followed by Plant SCADA and then the rest have smaller market share components.

The last report I saw from them had System Platform at around 25% with Plant SCADA (CitectSCADA) at about 15% to 20% and the rest in single digits.  This is just to give you an understanding of where they were a few years ago.

LINK: Arc Advisory Group – HMI research report

Manufacturers

Aveva Plant SCADA

https://www.aveva.com/en/products/plant-scada/

Formerly known as CitectSCADA and Vijeo Citect this product has been around since 1987 with its first Dos based version and still continues today as a major player in the global market.  It moved to AVEVA with Schneider Electrics reverse takeover of AVEVA in late 2017.  

I am a certified trainer for Citect SCADA and have been since June 2006.  I also ran the national Australian Training Team for many years as well as the global training development and delivery globally for years as well.

Plant SCADA has a single IDE which is a reason why it is simpler to use and understand and has a great help system that not only has the answers you seek but an example of how to do each task.

The product was initially developed in Australia and it had the dominant market share there for many years and its market grew from there to the rest of the world.  The product was made with the end user in the plant in mind and is fairly simple to configure and use by someone new to the industry.  The training is good for the product and in one 4 day course you will be up and running.  

Out of the box without a license you can develop and run a project for 8 hours not connected to real equipment or 20mins connected to real equipment.  You can not do Citect SCADA networking but all other networking to devices is ok until you get a real license.

Aveva System Platform

https://www.aveva.com/en/products/system-platform/

Formally Wonderware System Platform this product has also been around since 1987 and started in the USA in California.  This is where its head office still exists today in Lake Forest.  It was bought by Schneider Electric and then handed across to AVEVA with the reverse takeover as well in 2017.

This product is more technical and object orientated and was built more with System Integrators in mind and can be a bit more complicated to initially learn for someone new to the industry.  It does however have more advanced features and integration with the suite of products that make up System Platform.

Due to the bundle of products that make up System Platform the licensing can be a bit more complicated and expensive than some of the other SCADA systems.  The benefit is the extra features that come along with that.  The help system needs some work and you may spend more time on the phone with support if you are trying to do something more complex.

I am also a certified trainer for System Platform and have been for many years and used to run the APAC delivery of the training with my team.  I was the primary trainer for it and also ran the team of trainers for Schneider Electric.  I still contract train for Schneider to this day delivering training on both System Platform and Plant SCADA.

The training for System Platform is a little longer due to the bundle of tools in the suite of products and you will need to do 2 courses or 8 days training to get a SCADA back and front end up and running and another 4 days for your Historian configuration and client tools.

System Platform trial licenses are only for 30 days and you will have to talk to your account manager for a new one every time it runs out.  This can be a pain and while the license lets you do most things it is a bit annoying.

Schneider Geo SCADA Expert

https://www.se.com/us/en/product-range-presentation/geo-scada-expert/

Formerly known as ClearSCADA this is a telemetry based SCADA developed primarily for radio based wide area networks.  The rest of the products listed here are primarily hard wired SCADA’s with telemetry driver communications drivers.  

Geo SCADA has many more features when it comes to dealing with DNP3 (Distributed Networking Protocol) and even allows you to update firmware remotely in radios.  This product did not go with the reverse takeover of AVEVA and is still part of Schneider Electric.

It is also object orientated in nature and mainly built with vector only graphics so that is maximised the speed of delivery of pages through the data radios and other telemetry communications devices.  This is needed due to the limited bandwidth as discussed above in the article.

Remember it is not uncommon to use Geo SCADA for your telemetry network and another SCADA completed for your hard wired plants.

Inductive Automation Ignition

Ignition is the relatively new kid on the block on the global SCADA scene.  While the company was founded in 2003 they only went really global with their SCADA 5 to 10 years ago enough to start being taken seriously by the major players.

100% of their training is online for free and the simple licensing model that is generally cheaper for small installs then the other players have been the major drivers in their growth.  There is also a built in trial for people which makes it easy for people to download, learn and use quite quickly and cheaply.

They have done well with their marketing as well which has helped them catch up to the bigger players like a product wrapper on the ISA magazines and to members.  ISA we mentioned in the article above as the global organisation that helps with training and setting industry standards.

What makes Ignition unique is that it is truly web browser based and will work with all devices.  There are pros and cons to that but it does mean you don’t need to install client software.  They have done well to make it look good in a browser and you can look at the demo scada on their demo website below.

LINK: Ignition SCADA Demo Website

Inductive Automation is really waking up the bigger players in the market and encouraging them to speed up development in an industry that had stalled a little and lost touch with what customers were asking for.  Ever since I have been in the industry there has been a slow push to more customer driven functionality rather than prescription by vendors who had lost touch at times.

Siemens 

https://new.siemens.com/global/en/products/automation/industry-software/automation-software/scada.html

Siemens is a company that has their fingers in a lot of pies but don’t have a huge market share in the SCADA market.  Their SIMATIC WinCC product range is what they sell and the WinCC Professional for use with their TIA portal, WinCC 7 stand alone SCADA and finally the WinCC OA (Open Architecture).

There is a video half way down the page above that will explain these differences to you if this is your first time using their SCADA products.  Essentially it is WinCC Pro for small implementations and only 1 server, WinCC 7 for medium implementations with multiple servers and more clients, WinCC OA for large installations.

Rockwell

https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/products/software/factorytalk/operationsuite/view.html

FactoryTalk is the marketing brand for the automation software from Rockwell with FactoryTalk View being their SCADA product. Factory Talk View is part of their Factory Talk Operation Suite of products.  Their SCADA sales are driven mainly by their large PLC market share that is slowly changing due to competition and equal features at a cheaper price by most other PLC manufacturers.

While not as popular as some other SCADA products it can be used as a full SCADA system or as a single screen HMI as well as with a pocket version for mobile devices.

Honeywell

https://www.honeywellprocess.com/en-US/explore/products/control-monitoring-and-safety-systems/scada-systems/Pages/experion-scada.aspx

Experion SCADA is Honeywell’s SCADA solution that they have gone 100% virtual or cloud based which has it pros and cons.  All other SCADA products will also work in the cloud as well as locally but this is one of their major selling points.

Performance is the problem with this approach that you don’t notice on small implementations but nothing beats local I/O servers when you are trying to grow a project.  I will let you explore this product more on the link above but be sure to do performance testing on this one prior to committing.

Other Companies

Here is a list of other companies you can look at products for as well:

• Yokogawa Electric
• Emerson Electric
• ABB
• General Electric

Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) are systems that do relative real time calculations of your plant metrics to allow you to make decisions about your process or plant while it is running.  They sit above operational systems and below enterprise resource planning and allow you to handle down time (delay accounting), monitor and reject product quality and much more.

What do you need to know about MES?

• What is MES?
• Brief History
• MES Hierarchy
• MES Standards 
  • ISA-88
  • ISA-95
• MES Core Functions
  • Production process management
  • Production planning and scheduling
  • Production evaluation
  • Downtime management
  • Quality process management
  • Material traceability
  • Document Control
  • Dispatching production Units
  • Labor management
• Key Performance Indicators
  • OEE
• MES Integration
  • IoT
  • ERP
  • PLC and SCADA
  • Cyber Security
• Resources
  • MESA
  • ISA.org
• Software Solutions
  • AVEVA MES
  • AVEVA

Now that you understand what is involved in MES, let me explain what you actually need to know to improve the performance of your plant or process.

What does a Manufacturing Execution System Do?

Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) are software tools that allows plants and processes to look at how they monitor their plants performance in relatively real time.  It allows you to make quicker decisions in your business to increase performance, increase quality and reduce downtime.  There are plenty of other things an MES system can do like material tracking and handling managing your whole business industrial processes as well as much more. It allows plants and processes to look at how they monitor their plants performance in relatively real time.

MESA (Manufacturing Execution System Association) the global non-profit organisation that looks at creating a community and training around the MES standards that are part of the International Society for Automation (ISA).  They look after presenting a standardized definition of MES according to the 11 key MES functions we will discuss below.

MES is the basic technical means to implement an agile manufacturing strategy and achieve agile workshop productivity. It improves and optimizes the production management functions and increases visibility into the manufacturing process.

What is the purpose of MES?

MES optimises plant or process performance while it is running instead of after the fact like a typical reporting system. By monitoring the plan live you can fix or tune the plant or process to resolve minor issues before they escalate and cause break downs, poor quality product or product waste.

What is the difference between MES and ERP?

A MES system manages improving plants or processes at the industrial level and provides analytics like best crew on best shift, dollars or power consumption per widget or tonne. At the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) level runs the business and has functions like Accounting, HR and Sales.

NOTE: The ERP sits above the MES level as per the MES Hierarchy below.

How Does The Manufacturing Execution System Work?

An MES system collects data and provides relatively real time analytics on just how that plant or process is running. Typical key performance indicators are to the performance of the plant or process, the availability of equipment and the quality or the output as well as measuring consumables and waste.

Brief History Of MES Software

Advancement in mainframe computers in the 1950s and 60’s gave manufacturers the ability to capture, manipulate, share information and automate calculations and analysis in order to support the design of increasingly complex systems.

 The focus shifted in the 1970s to Material Requirements Planning (MRP) as the complexity of manufacturing operations increased. Material requirements planning is a production planning, scheduling, and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes. 

Subsequently in the 1980s, the term Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP) became popular. MRP II presented an extension of MRP functions to integrate all aspects of the planning and control of the personnel, materials and machines. It then expanded further to what is now known as ERP.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) started in the early 1990s. An ERP system can be defined as an integrated information processing system supporting various business processes such as finance, distribution, human resources and manufacturing. 

Initially this concept gained huge popularity among manufacturers, but as the scope of managed systems increased, the ERP system was not suitable for controlling activities on the shop floor level. For this purpose, a new tool of manufacturing management called MES “Manufacturing Execution Systems” was evolved and utilized during the 1990s.

 There are more interpretations of MES depending on different manufacturing conditions, but the common characteristic to all is that an MES aims to provide an interface between an ERP system and shop floor controllers by supporting various “execution” activities such as scheduling, order release, quality control, and data acquisition.

MES capabilities have improved greatly since 1992 thanks to the advancements in technology in part to MESA over the last few years in promoting the use of MES.  MESA has acted as a global forum for manufacturers and software vendors alike and provided training first in person and lately online. The organization also has helped the growth and adoption of the ISA-95 continuous process and ISA-88 batch international standards.

MES Hierarchy

The functional hierarchy model of the ISA-88 and ISA-95 standard is very similar.  It  demonstrates the different levels of your business from the process or plant up to the ERP.

Level 0 is where the physical plant or process equipment is located.

Level 1 is the actuators that cause movement in the plan like a valve opening and the sensors that monitor the movement.  The sensors being the instrumentation that converts the digital and analog data from temperature, pressure, flow and movement into digital signals for higher levels. 

Level 2 is normally considered the control layer where you see PLC and DCS systems that run the plant or process.

It is also where the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) layer where your plant wide control and monitoring is done.  It is also the data acquisition level to concentrate information to pass to higher levels.  When you see the graphical screens in a control room this is what the SCADA systems are.

Level 3 is the Manufacturing Execution Systems that allow you to fine tune your plant and analyse downtime or delay accounting as well as look at plan Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and many other metrics.  This is where you can analyse and find out where the bottlenecks in your plant are as well as the best crew on the best shift is and like metrics.

And finally, you have Level 4 which is the ERP where all the Logistics, Human Resources, Finance, Marketing and all other higher level business functions live.

The Automation Pyramid as put forth some companies and by Real Pars below is an adaption of the MES hierarchy and it splits the PLC/DCS level from the SCADA level and ignores the physical equipment in the plant at Level 0.

MES Standards

The International Society of Automation (ISA) is a professional association specializing in automation and control systems and develops international standards for the industry.  It also provides training and certifying professionals as well as news and updates in a membership program.

ISA-88 and ISA-95 are two well accepted standards in industrial automation that provide a set of models considered as best engineering practice for  manufacturing execution (MES) and business logistics.

 Both standards do have overlap and the MES hierarchy is one of these areas as well as some of the KPIs that can be used for them.

ISA-88

The main goal of ISA-88 is the control of batch processes like cars that have distinct numbers.  This is for all processes that change what they produce or where the plant does not need to produce 24 / 7.

 ISA-95

ISA-95 is for continuous processes like mine sites and water treatment plants.  Processes that don’t change what they produce and normally run 24/7 plants and processes.

What are MES Core Functions?

 The MESA-11 standard is function-focused and identifies 11 principal MES functions to meet the needs of various manufacturing environments.  From the standard the functions below are required for effective support of the production management process.  Let’s have a brief look at each of them.

Resource Allocation And Control

The MES system should allow you to monitor resource allocation and control.  These resources are required by your plant or process to control things  such as machines, personnel, tools, documents, etc.  The control system is responsible for the control of the plant and that means your PLCs and DCS as well as your SCADA systems.  It is also responsible for making sure the equipment is set-up for production as well as providing real-time status and historical resource usage.

Dispatching Production

The functionality of managing the production flow through dispatching production to specific personnel or equipment lies within the control system and includes dispatching information such as jobs, orders, batches, etc. With this functionality the WIP (work in progress) can be controlled by managing buffers and rework processes.

Data Collection And Acquisition

Within the control system, the functionality of obtaining information from the production floor is crucial. This functionality includes both operational data as well as data associated with a certain process or machine.

Quality Management

The control system is responsible for providing quality-related data collected from manufacturing such as test results to enable product quality assurance. Additionally, the data collected from manufacturing can be used for analysis to identify issues, recommend actions, correlating symptoms to determine a problem cause. It often includes SPC (statistical process control) tracking, which is a statistical tool that reduces waste in the form of reworked and scrapped products.

Process Management

The functionality of monitoring production processes and providing operator support for corrections or in process improvements lies within the control system. It may include alarm functions for ensuring awareness of process deviations that are outside the acceptable tolerance.

Production Planning And Tracking

The control system contains the functionality of production planning and tracking, which includes keeping and providing production status. This may include for example resource allocation for a specific order, current production conditions and production exceptions such as rework. It also includes the functionality of recording production data related to a specific product, such as genealogy data and product path.

Performance Analysis

The data collected within the control system enable the functionality of real-time reporting on manufacturing operations. The reports can contain PKI results, such as utilization, cycle time, WIP levels and OEE (overall equipment efficiency).

Operations & Detailed Scheduling

To minimize production set-up time the control system includes the functionality of sequencing orders in the production schedule based on for example priority or product type.

Document Control

The document control functionality is controlling and maintaining records related to a specific production unit. The records may include drawings, SOPs (standard operating procedures), recipes and more. The document control activities also include distributing the records, by for example providing an operator with the correct instructions.

Labor Management

Within the control system some of the labor-related functionality such as time reporting, training and certification tracking. This functionality often collaborates with the resource allocation function to optimize the allocation of personnel based on for example competence.

Maintenance Management

The functionalities of maintenance management are partly contained in the control system. Within the control system the functionality of ensuring equipment availability is included. This is based on the scheduling of periodic and preventive maintenance work, which may lie within the control system. In the control system a history log is stored in the maintenance activities performed in the production.

Key Performance Indicators

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)

OEE is a hierarchy of metrics that focus on how effectively a manufacturing operation is utilized. The results are stated in a generic form that allows comparison between manufacturing units in differing areas of the process, organizations, machines, and industries.

Components of OEE

OEE breaks the performance of a manufacturing unit into three separate but measurable components: Availability, Performance and Quality.

Each component points to an aspect of the process that can be targeted for improvement. OEE may be applied to any individual work area, or rolled up to areas or Plant levels. This tool also allows for drilling down for very specific analysis such as a particular piece of equipment, staff shift or any of several other parameters.

 It is very unlikely that any manufacturing process can run at 100% OEE. Many manufacturers benchmark their industry to set a challenging target; 80% is not uncommon for continuous processes and 65% for batch processes. 

OEE Equation

The calculation formula for the OEE is 

OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality

OEE measurement is also commonly used as a key performance indicator (KPI) in conjunction with manufacturing continuous improvement plans like Lean or Six Sigma to provide an indicator of success.

Continuous Improvement Plans

When we look at implementing an MES solution the software is only half of the solution and the other half is ensuring that the plant or process adopts a Continuous Improvement Methodology.  If you are in the ERP you may be using something like Total Quality Management (TQM) which is all about customer satisfaction.

If you are in the process or plant then you would use an Industrial Methodology depending on whether you are batch or continuous process. 

Lean is used if you are in a batch process. While this is not always true most of the time it is.  Its goal is the reduction of inputs, consumables and waste to create a set amount of something from your process.

Six Sigma is used for getting rid of bottlenecks to maximise the throughput of the plant.  If you were a mine for instance and the more you could pull out of the ground the more you could sell.  This would be a good methodology for you.

MES Integration

IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the concept of everything that is electrically powered to be controllable via the internet or similar large area network.  Whether it is traffic lights or a city’s street lights to make smart cities or home electrical devices like air conditioners.

Connecting an Industrial MES system to an IoT system allows you to optimize smart city’s and whole housing estates air conditioning systems to avoid brownouts and black outs during the middle of summer.  

ERP

ERP are the top end functions of the business and MES can provide them relative real time data to enable them to do their jobs more efficiently. From accounting and finance to warehouse management, inventory, sales, purchasing and reporting.  The ability to provide them information quicker as the processes are running means you can make quicker decisions that will keep the business flexible and competitive.

Tasks such as scheduling of machines and ensuring traceability via batch management are all handled by MES software. MES allows manufacturers to connect manufacturing operations to the rest of the company.

MES feeds ERP with timely information for just in time manufacturing and production.  It allows you to change production to meet customer orders and be flexible with their demands.  It also allows the enterprise to handle issues with production or if different quality products are coming from a farm field or mine for instance.

PLC and SCADA

When we look at the role of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) in the MES technology stack its role is to run the plant 24/7.  It provides the low level control and interlocks for how the plant is to run and to protect your assets and people.  They provide the digital and analog data that is fed up to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems.

The SCADA systems provide the data to process Historians and from there to the MES systems to optimize your plants and processes.  The SCADA systems provide supervisory control and the PLC’s provide actual control.  While the MES systems provide the high level analysis and control.

Cyber Security

When you have so many systems interlinked from instrumentation to enterprise cyber security becomes a serious concern.  From your hard wired instrumentation to telemetry that is linked to your PLC and SCADA systems.  

To your site management and the internet WAN links across the internet to your enterprise on VPN links.  With third party access like System Integrators and contractors there are lots of places to secure and with the threat of hackers and state based actors you need to minimise your risk.

You should have people inside your organisations that look at securing your assets and making your site harder to get into like steering wheel locks on cars.  Don’t be the easy target.  In industrial control you can look at training a staff member on ISA-99 or SANS ICS.

Obviously people that look after security like this should have a base knowledge in Cisco Networking certification or Hirschmann that are more mature in rack mounted network hardware. 

Resources

MESA

https://www.mesa.org

Mesa is a not for profit collection of industry companies that helps develop that have banded together to help with education on MES as well as providing best practice and support for companies.

They run training courses around the world and have an online course as well for MES. Their training includes information on the ISA standards and has two levels of certification. I attended their early training when working for Schneider Electric when we hosted them in Australia.

ISA

https://www.isa.org

The International Society for Automation organisation is the globally accepted best practice and standards body. They work to put in place training, certification and standards for the Automation Industry.

Software Solutions

AVEVA Production Management

https://www.aveva.com/en/products/production-management/

Initially created by Citect and then moved to Schneider Electric with an acquisition and finally to AVEVA with the reverse acquisition of AVEVA by Schneider Electric.  The software was designed for all Industrial verticals as a total MES solution.  Later rebranded to Mining with the acquisition of Wonderware MES that took on the Manufacturing industry vertical.  Formerly known as AMPLA it is now known as AVEVA Production Management in a big rename of products by AVEVA at the start of 2020.  This is a single integrated product.

AVEVA MES

https://sw.aveva.com/operate-and-optimise/batch-and-hybrid-process/manufacturing-execution-system

Formally known as Wonderware MES and now Aveva MES.  This solution sits on top of Aveva System Platform (fna Wonderware System Platform).  It pulls data from the Process Historian to precalculate your KPIs on the fly to help you make quicker decisions like all MES software.  Its main industry is manufacturing.  It is more a set of tools then one integrated product.

Siemens MES

https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/global/en/products/manufacturing-operations-center/

Siemens is another well known company with an automation industry division. Up until now they only had a set of tools but have bundled this together into their new OpCenter offering. They mainly focus on Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) and are not seen too much in other industries.

Rockwell MES

https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-au/products/software/factorytalk/innovationsuite/mes.html

Rockwell more known for their programmable logic controllers (PLC’s) also has two software bundles in MES. The first is Production Management and the second is Quality Management. The Delay Accounting or Availability is handled in the Production Management. If you look at their website they are focusing on Life Sciences, Automotive, Consumer Packaged Goods and Metals. There is more information about what solutions they have in these areas on the link above.

Other MES Providers

There are many other players in the MES market and you can find a list of the providers at the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:MES_software

A Control Systems Engineer works in the Industrial Automation to design and maintain processes that automate manufacturing, mining, water and wastewater, food and beverage, and more.  They do this by designing and installing systems composed of PLCs, DCS, SCADA, Instrumentation, and Telemetry.

Now that you know basically what a control systems engineer is, we can dig in deeper and look at various skills and job opportunities for control systems engineers.

Control System Industries

Before we look at the specifics of the role let’s look at the industries that use control system engineers.   I have taught people from all of these industries over the last 15 years teaching for a Fortune 500 company.  If you would like to know more about me see the About page of the website.

Industries that use Control System Engineers:

• Water & Wastewater
• Oil & Gas
• Power Generation & Distribution
• Manufacturing
• Food & Beverage
• Shipping
• Building Management Systems
• Mining

NOTE: This is just a short list but there are more and it basically is an industry that requires industrial-grade automation.

Educational Requirements

The first thing you probably want to know is what the educational requirements are for a Control Systems Engineer.  It used to be the word Engineer could be used for any job title but now legally the word can only be used by those people that have formal training that is accepted by the country Engineers associations.  For a list of those organizations check the link below.

LINK: Country Engineers Associations

Basically the qualification required is normally a Bachelor in an accepted subject area that the association accepts like Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Computer Science.  The best way to find out the right qualification is to look at the Engineers association website and the online job advertisements in your country.

If you were in the USA you would look at the requirements of people hiring on Indeed.com.  If you were in the UK you would look at Monster.co.uk.  If you were in Australia you would look at Seek.com.au.  If you are in another country look at your local job website.

As well as your qualification you will also need the following skills:

• Configure and Install Instrumentation
• Low Voltage Certificate (In most countries)
• PLC Programming
• SCADA / HMI Configuration
• RTU Configuration  
• Pipes and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID)
• PID Loop Control Basics 
• Process Historian & Reporting Basics
• Industry Knowledge for that Industry
• Computer Networking and Diagnostics
• Basic Fault Finding Knowledge
• Knowledge of Industry Standards

Now don’t worry if some of this stuff you don’t know quite yet as we will discuss them all in detail below.

IMPORTANT:  It is not required to have every skill depending on what type of Control Systems Engineer you will be but a good understanding of the basics is always a good idea. Each Job advertisement will request slightly different skills.

Instrumentation

Is a collective term for equipment to measure and collect information in an industrial automation plant or process.  This information is generally fed in as digital or analog data.  So whether a piece of equipment is on or off as a digital signal or 1 or 0.  The alternative is a changing value as an analog value like an oven temperature.  It can have a value of 0 to 16,000 in value at the instrumentation level.  This is then converted to an engineering scale of 0 to 255 degrees celsius for example.

Low Voltage Certification

While an Electrician has the full certification to work with domestic power and an industrial electrician works with all power sizes.  Low voltage is for automation systems that are 0 – 20 mA (Milli Amps).  0mA being turned off and 4mA to 20mA being the 16000 increments for an analog signal.  If you are certified in your country for low voltage then you can wire automation equipment together. 

PLC Programming

There are 5 IEC programming languages that you can use to program all vendor programmable logic controllers (PLC).  A PLC is essentially a computer that has been built to handle the harsh environments in an industrial plant.  They work in an endless loop to do the low-level control of a plant or process.  The 5 IEC programming languages are Ladder, Structured Text, Sequential Function Chart, Instruction List, and Function Block Diagram.

SCADA / HMI Configuration

A human-machine interface (HMI) is a replacement for old push-button control panels in control rooms.  These days they are used for a single piece of equipment or a production line in a plant or process if the SCADA system does not work.  A supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system is a visual representation of the plant or process that you normally see in a control room in a typical complex plant or process.

RTU Configuration

Remote Telemetry Units (RTUs) are used for Industrial Automation systems that are geographically dispersed.  They use data radios to transfer information and are generally used for Water and Wastewater and Oil and Gas.  Telemetry networks are designed to prioritize traffic as the data bandwidth is limited.  While PLCs are used for hard-wired networks.  RTUs are used for distributed networks.

Pipes and Instrumentation Diagrams

P&IDs are used to design Automation Control networks to show the plant and process design in a visual way.  Understanding how to design these documents and implement them in a real plant is essential to being a Control Systems Engineer.

PID Loop Control

Proportional, Integral and Derivative control is all about how you keep a real-world value close to a set point.  Simply think of it as how your air conditioner works.  You set what temperature you want it on and the air conditioner itself cools and stops to try and keep the temperature at what you have set it too.  We will discuss this more in later articles.

Process Historian and Reporting

When we look at storing data in a database like SQL Server or Oracle we look at normally storing data in a relational database.  Industrial Automation plants and processes collect large amounts of data and require special types of databases.  These are called process historians.  They are used for collecting large amounts of data quickly and that can be done 10x faster than normal relational databases on average.

Industry Knowledge

When you are a Control Systems Engineer you not only need to know the technologies that are in all industries but you also need to know the specific industry you are in.  How each plant or process works is different and having specific industry knowledge makes you very employable. 

Computer Networks and Diagnostics

Ever since Automation and Control became computerized all of the systems are based on computer networking.  It is critical you understand the basics of how TCP/IP works and how you can diagnose these networks.  This will allow you to do root cause analysis.  So basically find in a plant or process the problem that you can fix to keep everything running.

Basic Fault Finding

It is one thing to be able to design and build industrial automation systems.  It is another to understand them enough to be able to find the faults and fix them.  Root cause analysis after a plant or process has been created is on average 80% of the lifecycle of a plant or process.  This is normally done by the maintenance staff.  While operational staff keeps a plant running the maintenance staff fix it when it breaks.

Industry Standards

Whether it is at the design stage or the maintenance stage having a set of standards helps you be consistent in your approach and speed up building and the long term maintenance cycle.  The international society of automation (ISA) standards has standards for continuous, batch, and discrete processes.  There are also specific standards for each industry that you work in.  It is important to know them.

Salary

A Control Systems Engineer is a well paid position in most countries and there are always jobs available.  The range of salary in the USA is $62k to $116k on payscale.  The graduate salaries would be at the lower end and after your first 2 to 5 years experience you should be able to get the median salary of $80k quite easily.

The best way to find the real salaries go to job websites I mentioned earlier in the article. Then filter by salary to see how many jobs at each pay level.  This is what I personally do.

If you are interested in salaries in the UK or Australia click the links below.

LINK: Control System Salary Australia

LINK: Control System Salary UK

Career Potential

In this role you will be learning new technologies all the time and some your work will pay for and some you will have to pick up on your own.  This is generally new hardware and software.  The vendors that supply these products do provide training for all of their products.

This is definitely not a job you will get bored of.  Each new project has its own challenges and different technologies that you will use.  If you are working for an end user you will not have as much variety due to the plant or process technologies will remain fairly constant.  Therefore, I would recommend you start with a system integrator to widen your knowledge before finding the industry vertical or company you like the best.

Like with most jobs you have the option of taking a technical path where you become an expert in one of the above technologies or you could do a managerial path.  If you choose a managerial path you can either do project management or staff management.

Largest Industry Companies

When you are looking at what companies have the above technologies you might want to research and where you may be able to get a job here are some of the biggest companies in the industry.

Automation Industry Companies:

• Schneider Electric
• Honeywell
• General Electric
• Rockwell Automation
• Siemens
• Inductive Automation

If you are new to the industry it would be a good idea to check out their graduate programs in your local country.

Here is what you should learn about when programming PLC’s:

• Industrial Automation
• Job Roles Requiring PLC Programming
• Who Makes PLCs
• Equipment Required
• International Standards
• Download PLC Software
• Where To Find Training
• Common PLC Applications
• Salary

Now you know what you will need to learn about.  I can now show you where to get free training and software as well as what salary to expect.

IMPORTANT:  It is not required to have every skill depending on what type of Control Systems Engineer you will be.  But a good understanding of the basics is always a good idea. Each Job advertisement will request slightly different skills.

Industrial Automation

Industrial Automation is the automation of any industrial process like the ones I have listed below.  There are many technologies that are combined together for either hard wired computer networks or radio telemetry systems that allow for this automation to happen.  Depending on the country you are in depends on their level of automation. 

Industries that use Industrial Automation:

• Water & Wastewater
• Oil & Gas
• Power Generation & Distribution
• Manufacturing
• Food & Beverage
• Shipping
• Building Management Systems
• Mining

NOTE: This is just a short list but there are more and it basically is any industry that requires industrial-grade automation.

Industrial automation uses PLCs to do the low level control of the plant directly to the equipment and reads the responses from the process using industrial sensors.  This means having knowledge of how to program a PLC provides you with a very hirable skill that can be used throughout the world.

Job Roles Requiring PLC Programming

PLC programming is a useful skill in industrial automation regardless of whether you are in operations or maintenance teams or in a managerial role.  Understanding the code of the PLC means that you understand the workflows of the plant to a highly technical level.

Job roles that require PLC programming knowledge:

• Industrial Maintenance Electrician
• Control Systems Engineer
• Automation Engineer
• Engineering Manager
• Electrical Production Supervisor
• Process Control Technician
• And many more

To find a full list of roles and salaries requiring PLC programming skills search your local job website.  For instance, if you were are in the USA you could search PLC on Indeed.com.  If you were in the UK you could search PLC on Monster.co.uk.  If you were in Australia you could search PLC on Seek.com.au.  If you are in another country do the same with your local job websites.

Who Makes PLCs

Here is a list of the major companies that make PLCs:

• ABB
• Allen-Bradley
• Siemens
• Honeywell
• Mitsubishi
• Yokogawa
• Toshiba
• General Electric
• Omron
• Schneider Automation

If you are new to the industry it would be a good idea to check out some of the above companies and look at the names of their PLCs as well as the names of the software they use to configure them.

If you would like a full list of PLC manufacturers then check out this article:
ARTICLE: PLC Manufacturers on Wikipedia

Equipment RequiredPLCs are basically a rugged computer that is in modules and can be put together very similar to leggo.  In any particular industrial plant or process there may be one or many PLCs that are controlling different areas of the plant.  They are often connected together for processes that are sequential in nature.  This is so if something up stream to what the PLC controls breaks down then down stream PLCs can stop or take appropriate action.

When you are learning to program a PLC you will need the following equipment:

• Computer or Laptop
• PLC programming software
• PLC simulator

So when you are learning you may ask why you would not need a physical PLC as well to program.  The answer is that you don’t need to for the programming of the code for the PLC but you will when you want to run a plant or process.  But the 5 IEC programming languages we will talk about below you can learn without physical hardware.

Laptop or Computer

This is the most important piece of equipment for your learning to program a PLC for free is obviously the laptop or computer you are viewing this article on.   It will need to be a Windows based machine as that is what most industrial software requires.

Generally any computer less than 4 years old of around $500 will do for this style of training.  For most industrial software a i3 or i5 Intel processor with 4gig of RAM with a solid-state disk (SSD) or 8 gigs so RAM with an older style hard drive is more than enough to start learning with.

Depending on what other software you load onto the computer you may need better hardware but not for the software you are using in this article.  You can also check the install guide for any other software you may think of using to see what hardware and software requirements it has.

PLC Programming Software

The software you use to write your program you will later download into a PLC to run a plant or process.  Each manufacturer of PLC has their own dedicated software to program their range of PLCs.  We will discuss this more below when you download your PLC programming software to learn to program a PLC.

Simulator

Most PLC programming software comes with an inbuilt PLC simulator that allows you to run your code and check that it works the way you wanted it to work.  You can also use third party PLC simulators that are stand alone as well.  We will discuss a couple below in the download section.

International Standards

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC 61131-3)  standards have standards for programming PLCs.  They define the 5 programming languages that you can use for various reasons.

The 5 IEC PLC programming languages are:

• Ladder
• Sequential Function Chart (SFC)
• Function Block
• Instruction List
• Structured Text

For more information about each of the programming languages you can look at the article above about PLCs in the Equipment Required section.

For more information about the International PLC programming standard section that relates to the languages you can use read the below article.

ARTICLE: IEC 61131-3 on Wikipedia

For the IEC web page go here.

LINK: IEC 61131 official website

Download PLC Software

The first thing you will need to download to learn how to program a PLC is some PLC programming software.

Here are a couple you can look at using:

• Open PLC 
  open source free plc programming software

• Schneider Electric Remote Connect 
  While designed for Schneider RTUs it is just a cut down version of the full software used for programming the Schneider PLC range so a great way to learn the 5 IEC programming languages for free and it has a simulator built in.

• Codesys Development Environment
  This software is free to download after you sign up for free on their store and then it will let you download and learn on the platform.  You need to select “Private User” during sign up.

There are other software products that you can use but these will get you started.

Where To Find Training

To save you time I have scoured the internet to look for some free training for you to start your PLC programming learning journey.

Firstly here are a couple of training videos on PLC programming in general to get you started.

• Free Udemy Course – PLC Programming 100
• Free Udemy Course – PLC From Scratch In Under 1 Hour

Now lets look at some articles specifically related to the PLC software packages above that will show you how to use them.

Open PLC

Schneider Remote Connect

Codesys

Below I have also included a few websites that will provide you with more video training around other topics to do with PLC programming.

LINK: PLC Academy 
LINK: Automation Direct 

Salary

A PLC Engineer is a well-paid position in most countries and there are always jobs available.  The range of salary in the USA is $75k to $100k on payscale.  The graduate salaries would be at the lower end and after your first 2 to 5 years experience, you should be able to get the median salary of $80k quite easily.

The best way to find the real salaries go to job websites I mentioned earlier in the article. Then filter by salary to see how many jobs at each pay level.  This is what I personally do.

If you are interested in salaries in the UK or Australia click the links below.

LINK: PLC Engineer Salary Australia
LINK: PLC Engineer Salary UK