Biting the bullet

For many in the process industries, the prospect of migrating to a new distributed control system (DCS) is fraught with fear and uncertainty.

But with plant shutdown now a very real possibility for those crippled by old legacy applications, can companies really afford to ignore the call to upgrade?

Industry research firm, ARC Advisory Group, estimates that $65 billion (£39 billion) worth of process automation systems around the world are nearing the end of their useful life.

“Process automation end users are a conservative lot, and thus often reluctant to dispose of an asset that has outlived its usefulness,” says David Humphrey, ARC Advisory Group research director.

While some don’t migrate until they have run out of other options, he says others simply leave it too late.

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