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There has been a lot of discussion about the ExxonMobil Next Generation Control System initiative. This session will help to clear the air and explain the positive and negative consequences of changing the existing DCS and PLC architectures by one of the participants in the initiative. The current architectures have not changed significantly since the 1970’s. They are still based on the concept of one or more computers in a hardened box, what connects to tens to thousands of I/O points, connected to dumb devices. There have been incremental advances in functionality, and decreases in size and cost, but the basic architecture has remained the same. The advances that are shaking up the world through connected smart devices in homes, stores, health care, transportation, and energy have not penetrated the barrier of obsolete industrial system architectures. The ExxonMobil initiative was designed to break down the barrier and fix the major limitations of the DCS and PLC architectures. The new architecture, its pros and cons will be discussed.   

 

Dennis Brandl is the founder and chief consultant for BR&L Consulting, specializing in helping companies use Manufacturing IT to improve their production and logistics processes. This has included applications such as Business-to-Manufacturing Integration, MES solutions, batch control, General and Site Recipe implementations, and automation system cyber-security. He has been involved in automation, MES, and batch system design and implementation in a wide range of applications over the past 35 years.  They have included biotech, pharmaceutical, chemical plants and oil refineries, food manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, and aerospace systems.

 

Mr. Brandl has written numerous papers and articles on business to manufacturing integration and flexible manufacturing solutions, has a regular column in on Manufacturing IT issues in Control Engineering, has authored the book “Design Patterns for Flexible Manufacturing”, and has coauthored the book “Plant IT, Integrating Information Technology into Automated Manufacturing”.  Dennis is an active member of the ISA 95 Enterprise/Control System Integration committee, is co-author of the MESA B2MML standards, is a member of the ISA 99 Industrial Cyber-security standards committee, is the former chairman of the ISA 88 Batch System control committee, and has also participated in the development of OPC and other industrial standards.

 

In February 2013, Dennis was inducted into the Control Magazine’s Process Automation Hall of Fame, and in 2008 was listed as one of the leading thinkers in manufacturing technology by Managing Automation.  He has a BS in Physics and an MS in Measurement and Control from Carnegie-Mellon University, and a MS in Computer Science from California State University.