Ageing industrial infrastructure can make it difficult to meet daily challenges for industrial plants and manufacturing companies.\u202fFortunately, there are cost-effective ways to solve these challenges.\u202fHere, George Walker, Managing Director at Novotek UK & Ireland shares ten tips on how to modernize your HMI \/ SCADA system.<\/p>\n
1 Get up to date with SCADA and OS versions and patches<\/strong> This is a foundational step. Before proceeding with modernization, make sure your SCADA and operating system are up to date with versions and patches. This will enable you to start with the right platform, ready for the next steps.<\/p>\n 2 Standardize your SCADA implementation<\/strong> Consistent representation and procedures reduce errors across multiple stakeholders. Teams benefit from a shorter learning curve, faster rollouts and easier maintenance. Standardization also helps ensure compliance. Lastly, with tag name conventions, you can leverage OPC UA, browse OPC UA sources and automatically create your SCADA process database.<\/p>\n 3 Develop a disaster recovery plan<\/strong> You can build redundancy at all levels: from SCADA server failover to LAN redundancy and client redundancy. The target is having no data lost. Look at your databases, real-time data, and alarm synchronization, and make the system seamless for remote users. A disaster recovery plan is more than peace of mind \u2013 it\u2019s an essential part of improving availability and reliability.<\/p>\n 4 Get a good data management system<\/strong> Proficy Historian collects information from different data sources and provides the ability to extend and scale as your systems grow, integrating your data management layer with your CMMS or GIS systems. Modern technologies make information available to stakeholders who aren\u2019t directly connected with the SCADA-system, but need data to make decisions, such as demand and planning.<\/p>\n 5 Build effective alarm procedures 6 Digitalize work processes<\/strong> Digitalize your procedures to ensure consistency, repeatability, adherence to standards, and accountability on tasks. You can drive the right actions and help prevent mistakes from happening. Additionally, you can record and track work processes for compliance.<\/p>\n 7 Drive organization-wide connectivity<\/strong> 8 Leverage persona-based visualization<\/strong>
\nMany industrial companies are still on very old versions of their SCADA software. However, regular updates give you access to the latest features and improve system availability. In addition, you avoid the security concerns that arise when the system is not updated.<\/p>\n
\nDefine standards for the overall SCADA system, including application, configuration, security, architecture, remote access, and the devices people use. Standardization will help you reduce errors, lower costs, and increase operational efficiency.<\/p>\n
\nA disaster recovery plan can start simple, such as a version plan related to backup and restoration. The next step is to lay out a more long-term roadmap. Here you can consider moving to a redundant and failover system with configurations for minimal disruption.<\/p>\n
\nCreate a plan to collect, store and distribute your data securely. To operate a plant efficiently, you need to have all the correct data at the right time. For more reliable and consistent information, consider a plant-wide historian like Proficy Historian 2022.<\/p>\n
\nA good alarm strategy means less noise, faster reactions, increased productivity and efficiency, and safer operations. With a good alarm strategy, you can move from an alarm to a notification, and guide the right action. Many resources for effective alarm management are available, such as through the International Society of Automation (ISA).<\/p>\n
\nEvery plant has standard operating procedures in some form, mostly printed manuals. Now, you can move from manuals to integrating work processes into your SCADA system. Using SCADA data, you can start a work process, guide operators through steps, and increase operational consistency. Electronic Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) also capture best practices and accelerate new operator training.<\/p>\n
\nSCADA connectivity across an entire facility, company or organization provides a holistic view of performance, fills data gaps and increases collaboration.\u202fIn addition, centralized information management creates consistency across different factories and facilities.\u202fBy connecting secure thin clients to hardware, information can be made easily accessible to all levels of the company or organization.<\/p>\n
\nGive each person the information and capabilities they need, rather than the same SCADA screen for every person. Modern HMI\/SCADA allows you to equip your workforce with tailored information, remote monitoring, and control capabilities via various devices. This can be a smartphone, tablet, PC, or a legacy device that supports HTML5. You\u2019ll get the right operational information to the people who need it, saving tremendous staff time while speeding response and compliance.<\/p>\n