The Upgrade Question: Part 1

It struck me this week, when I read some feedback from a survey we are currently undertaking with customers using legacy software, that despite significant developments in the IT world in the last few years, the automation manufacturing sector has been a lot slower in the uptake.  

IT departments may be making the decisions and leading the way with virtualisation and cloud based infrastructures, but our engineering community still remains highly conservative and risk adverse.  The wrong decision in a plant environment can often potentially cost millions of pounds and quite rightly manufacturers will wait for technology to be tried and tested successfully elsewhere,  before they take the plunge. 

The ARC Advisory Group carried out a survey a few years back which estimated that there were $65 billion worth of process automation systems in the world that were nearing the end of their useful life.  75% of those surveyed said that their plant systems were more than 20 years old. So clearly many facilities are making decision about whether 'to upgrade or not to upgrade'  but we can assume many manufacturers continue to soldier on with systems creaking at the seams. 

Here in the UK manufacturers are likely to keep existing systems and add newer functions and features on top in order to keep capital investment at a minimum.  There is an unwillingness to migrate until a crisis hits,  or until the business benefit is glaringly obvious.   This message came across strongly in our survey.  There seems to be a 'if it ain't broke, don’t fix it' attitude and many customers will only look to upgrade when the operating system becomes a legacy version. “We leave the software alone to do the job and never upgrade” was a common refrain.  

Also highlighted in the survey was the fact many customers currently have no provision in place to manage legacy systems or equipment and do not have a clear plan for how to deal with a potential upgrade requirement.  Add to this the complexity of a myriad of different components in different stages of their lifecycle and one might anticipate that the risk of doing nothing would outweigh the risk of change. 

Our SCADA systems are often at the heart of an operation with availability required 24/7.   Our customers repeatedly tell us, “we couldn't run the plant without Wonderware InTouch or Historian”. So imagine the potential damage to the business if an older piece of kit were to fail and it took days to get it back up and running because the legacy hardware or software was unavailable? The compatibility of all the different components can often not be guaranteed.  Surely it is better to be prepared, build some resilience into the system and consider some basic obsolescence or upgrade strategies?

Next Week -  The Upgrade Question: Part 2 - Ten Good Reasons to Consider Upgrading

Sue Roche, General Manager, Wonderware UK and Ireland