Big changes are happening in Instrumentation, Automation and Control.

The IICA share their thoughts on where the industry is headed.

New age society requires the communities living near chemical process plants to be protected. Quality of Instruments & Automation systems are paramount in meeting the twin needs of process plants – community safety and economical operation. This is required not only in the heavily automated oil and gas Industry but also across the resource extraction sector (mineral processing plants). The technology landscape is changing constantly with many improvements not only helping the bottom line but allowing for safer operations.

The large Distributed Control System (DCS) vendors compete to offer better and cheaper solutions to industry (the number of mergers and acquisitions is a clear indicator of competition heating up). The move towards software driven solutions is helping to blend in the Internet of Things (IoT) to the ‘Industry 4.0’ theme. This of course, will mean a more networking (IP) driven approach to connectivity. Many of the concepts of IoT have already been implemented over the years in modern DCS products and this will continue at an ever increasing pace. This will have a major impact on the way things are done in the Instrumentation and Control industry in the future. This will not only be a serious challenge for the vendor companies involved but also for the organizations operating these facilities. Much training of staff will be needed to handle this effectively and the idea of ‘continuous education aka Lifelong Learning’ must become the new standard.

All the major instrumentation and automation system vendors will be show casing a wide range of their products at the AOG 2015 Exhibition in Perth, with a special focus in the Instrumentation and Control zone partnered with the Institute of Instrumentation, Control & Automation (IICA).