Control rooms - do we still need them?

Process control work is performed today in quiet and office-like rooms where information from the process is transferred to operators by the control system through its user interface.

Due to the advances in information technology and an increasing level of automation, the operation has changed from controlling the process to supervising it. Industry is already on the path towards process control systems that truly support the versatile, distant collaboration and interaction required by organisational units scattered all over the world. As a result, some production plants are now operating without a specific control room.

The current trend in the operation and management of different types of process plant is the breakdown of the whole organisation into smaller and very specialised units. These units aim to provide the best possible effectiveness, efficiency, benefit and utility according to the common goals set by the main contractor.

In these types of organisationally-networked environments success depends not only on flexible and switchable interfaces, but also the ability of different business stakeholders to collaborate and cooperate through technology. This has led to the introduction of networking-enabled collaboration technologies, such as instant messaging tools and electronic bulletin board systems that provide worldwide interaction possibilities.

The main use of these applications for exchanging expertise and knowledge has previously been in contexts outside the work environment.

However, we are now seeing more and more applications becoming integrated functions within the work environment and, thus, in process control work as well.

As an example, it is useful to adapt the instant messaging culture to process control environments, where long distances and shift work are obstacles to communication. Building an ad hoc, virtual team composed of local and remote experts to solve a problem at hand can be supported by such a system.

Another example of a simple form of electronic interaction forum is the electronic diary that is currently rather widely used in process control environments. Electronic diaries are, however, usually used just for event and incident documentation purposes between work shifts and managers, not so much for lively discussion.

Electronic discussion forums emphasise interactivity between individuals and groups also in the process control environment. In addition to just recording the incidents, as with diaries, individuals are able to reach, asynchronously, other people who may be able to help them in problematic situations.

Automation professionals themselves are becoming increasingly networked, with virtual communities of process control engineers now emerging. These are providing remote, co-operative support for process monitoring, process optimisation, problem-solving, maintenance, training and process planning.

The process industries are increasingly networking with their suppliers, industrial partners and customers. This increasingly intensive interaction between the different stakeholders points to the need for improved models of interactivity in process control, plus technologies that support coordination, co-operation, and collaboration between process control experts.

Future process control systems will not just be linking local, production site personnel together. As the expertise required to keep production sites up and running is distributed to several locations, the need to provide collaboration and interaction channels between these sites increases.

In the future, process control systems may well be called trans-organisational or distributed process control systems, since some of their functions will be utilised and activated from several different locations. Process control is, and will continue to be, a very complex and dynamically changing business environment. Therefore, it will remain virtually impossible to pre-define the collaborative functions of systems.

Rather, designers and developers of these systems should focus on making the collaborative features as flexible as possible, so that users themselves are able decide the practical arrangements for collaboration.

Jaakko Oksanen is product manager for Metso Automation