End users can help end technology wars

The process industries, it seems, are about to add WirelessHART versus ISA100.11a to its list of technology battles, such as the long-running disputes between Foundation Fieldbus and Profibus, and EDDL and FDT/DTM device communication tecnologies.

Such vendor-led disharmony has served the industry poorly over the years: creating often justified concern among end users that they might not be able to fully integrate new equipment and devices at their sites or continue to get proper technical backup and support for their investments.

As NAMUR, the international association for process automation end users states: "Competition between [WirelessHART and ISA] specifications would impede the application of wireless technologies in process automation and accrue higher costs for both vendors and users. Functionality, reliability and profitability of devices should be the criteria of competition. A competition of standardisation does not make sense, neither for vendors nor users, since it obstructs value-adding competition for solutions."

Clearly, major suppliers to the process industries must become collectively more responsive to the needs of the marketplace. However, the market signals they get are often fragmented, coming as they do from vertical sectors as varied as oil & gas, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, pulp & paper and utilities.

The net result is that control & automation vendors are not as directly tuned into the needs of the market as, for example, their counterparts serving the automotive industry. End users could, therefore, set about starting a peace process by becoming much more proactive in shaping vendors' development of key, emerging technologies, such as wireless.

Please email your views to the editor: patrick.raleigh@centaur.co.uk