HMI/SCADA software companies, systems integrators, and even industrial
companies developed thousands of NetDDE drivers for intelligent systems and devices.
Although DDE still worked in Windows environments, a newer approach developed
by Microsoft, called Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) pushed it aside. As this
took place, a standards committee started up to support an industrial version of OLE
called OLE for Process Control (OPC). With the introduction of OPC, thousands of new
intelligent device and system drivers all but replaced the older NetDDE drivers. These
device drivers, whether NetDDE or OPC, are inexpensive and easy to implement, making
the integration problem at the plant-floor level much less onerous than it had been.
As the intra-system technical integration of automation and business systems
became easier and less expensive, the focus shifted to the development of integrated
operations and business solutions using the available technologies. Systems
integrators made the switch to become value-added solution suppliers, although they still called themselves systems integrators. But those who hung onto the traditional
integration model have had difficulty surviving. Today, systems integrators are geared
to identifying and solving operations and business problems through the effective use
of both automation and business technology.
Standards have also moved more in the direction of application development
rather than mere connectivity. For example, the ISA-88 batch series of standards
focuses on the application of automation and information technologies to batch
processing operations. ISA-95 is designed to identify key application and information
constructs and issues when interoperating between plant operations and the business
systems environment. MIMOSA (Machinery Information Management Open Systems
Alliance) is a standard similar to ISA-95 but includes maintenance applications. Open
O&M is a standard sponsored by the MIMOSA and OPC Foundations for combined
operations and maintenance interoperation with business applications. This is
representative of a very positive direction for industry, one in which the technology
itself is no longer the driving force of industrial automation, rather the effective
application of the technology is becoming a much more important issue.
