Comment: Strengthening the manufacturing sector through Software Defined Automation

The UK has fallen out of the top 10 global manufacturers, dropping to12th on the global leader board.  This shift comes at a time when the industry is facing a myriad of different challenges. From changing customer demands and ongoing talent shortages, to supply chain challenges that have been amplified by Britain’s departure from the EU, the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing geopolitical tensions.

These issues are heightened by the rapid technological advancements and digital transformation boom, which present unique challenges for industries, like the manufacturing sector, that are heavily reliant on systems designed and installed decades ago.

To regain its competitive edge on the global manufacturing stage, UK industrial enterprises must embrace digital transformation to accelerate their productivity and enhance flexibility. Cue Software-Defined Automation (SDA).

What is Software-Defined Automation (SDA)?

SDA transforms operational technology by decoupling hardware and software, allowing industrial companies to mix and match automation technologies into one seamless system. This approach enables devices and equipment to connect freely across architecture layers, regardless of the manufacturer, fundamentally changing the traditional approach to automation and design, impacting everything from scalability, adaptability and resiliency.

Initially, larger, more digitally advanced industrial players will adopt SDA, as the long lifecycle of traditional hardware-based solutions are still heavily relied upon by smaller manufacturers. However, SDA will become increasingly relevant in the coming years for manufacturers of all sizes seeking flexible solutions and reduced technology debt.

SDA also simplifies and centralises automation processes, reducing costs and increasing operational efficiency. It also plays a role in attracting talent, by replacing traditional skills with automated practices like low/no-code development and natural language coding. Manufacturers who fail to embrace SDA technology may struggle to hire automation engineers in the future who aren’t willing to work with programs and systems that are decades old.

Embracing industrial automation through virtualisation

During SDA, decoupling hardware from software also introduces a new function known as virtualisation. This process is often used by IT professionals to describe a scenario where several virtual machines (VMs) are set up on a single server. In industrial automation, this essentially means the same – a move from physical to virtual.

Engineers can harness virtualisation to streamline standard processes like consolidating Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), Human Machine Interfaces (HMI), Industrial PCs (IPC), and other physical compute resources currently on their factory floors onto local virtual machines that operate on a hyperconverged compute and storage infrastructure.

Virtualisation also reduces hardware costs by running multiple VMs on a single server, decreasing maintenance and operational costs. Fewer physical servers mean less hardware to maintain, operate and repair – boosting productivity and cutting operational costs. Additionally, it also enhances organisational sustainability by consolidating computing and storage resources into a set of central services, reducing energy use and Scope 2 Greenhouse Gas emissions.

Implementing SDA to leverage digital twin models

In addition to virtualisation, SDA aids in developing digital twin models, which work by creating virtual counterparts to physical objects or processes. These models increase efficiency and reduce operational costs by allowing manufacturers to design, optimise, test, and validate machine solutions in a virtual environment before real-world commissioning.

Essentially, digital twins reduce errors, save time and money, and accelerate time to market and commissioning time. It is why researchers predict that by 2025, 80 per cent of industry ecosystem participants will use digital twins to share data and insights.

What’s more, when digital twin models are implemented, manufacturers no longer need to experiment with physical hardware to achieve optimised results, they can make improvement opportunities virtually, significantly increasing efficiency and reducing manual processes.

The shift to soft programmable logic controllers

Anyone in the industrial sector knows that PLCs are the primary type of automation used for machine control. However, enabled by SDA the ‘virtualised’ PLC approach offers access to a new way of automating machines and processes, a ‘soft PLC’ or a hardware-agnostic, software-based controller which can be run on any Windows or Linux server, industrial PC (iPC) or microcomputer, no matter the supplier. Multiple instances of these virtualised controllers can be installed on the same hardware, configured, deployed, and maintained independently.

This approach also allows changes to processes without stopping production, minimising downtime, reducing costs, and providing the flexibility and agility needed in today's dynamic consumer landscape. It makes deploying new processes or modifying existing ones much easier, reducing time-to-market and increasing engineering efficiency.

Companies across the globe are already leveraging SDA to reduce costs and streamline operations. For example, Brilliant Planet, a pioneer in low-cost, algae-based carbon capture wanted to scale up their operations at speed, but their internal processes were riddled with obsolete and unsupportable control systems with predominantly manual operations.

To overcome this challenge and scale at speed, Brilliant Planet leveraged SDA to deploy cutting edge systems that control the site’s algae cultivation by utilising data from a high-frequency satellite. By implementing SDA systems, Brilliant Planet was able to significantly reduce their testing and integration time and launch highly efficient and supportable control systems that reduce engineering costs and can be easily scaled across different sites.

To get ahead of global competitors, the UK must harness digital capabilities like SDA to reduce costs, boost productivity, and retain top talent.

Fabrice Jadot, next gen automation SVP at Schneider Electric