(12c) Open Process Automation: Enabling New Technologies for Manufacturing

The move to industrial control systems based upon open standards has the potential to bring new and emerging technologies resident in the edge, the cloud, and anywhere in-between into manufacturing. The work being progressed by members of the Open Process Automation Forum is leading the transition to a standards-based, open, secure, and interoperable process control architecture. The ideals of Industry 4.0 are significantly aligned with those of Open Process Automation, which can be considered a means for deployment. Systems built from components aligned with the Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS^TM) and its principles allow for significant value capture by integrating emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, and advanced data analytics. Much of this value comes through leveraging the massive amount of complex and heterogeneous data generated by, or ultimately connected to industrial control systems and using it to solve complex business and engineering problems. This talk will describe ExxonMobil’s vision for Open Process Automation and highlight the milestones reached on this journey to date. This will include a description of ExxonMobil’s test bed facility and how it is being used to assess the completeness and practicality of elements of the standard in a real world setting and to achieve technical readiness for specific commercially available components to be used in permanent installations.