Decentralized Automation

It's Time to Set Sail: The Future of Automation Has Begun

A well-established team of competent individuals often works more efficiently than a strictly hierarchical organization. If each person understands their job and the ultimate goal, central management does not have to decide everything on its own.

Efficiently automated machines and plants minimize costs, safeguard product quality and guarantee high availability for production. Break down rigid hierarchies and shift responsibilities to local components. Decentralized automation also reduces commissioning and time-to-market while simplifying the expansion or movement of production resources. Modularize your plants and machines — this will give you new degrees of freedom in production.

Decentralized Automation: Your Benefits

Short time-to-market

Respond dynamically to changing requirements, even during the production phase
Test machinery and machine modules offline before delivery using decentralized logic
Rapid design phase through reuse of existing modules

Fast commissioning

Easy wiring thanks to IP67 components and quick connectors
Scale down or eliminate control cabinets altogether so that significantly less wiring is required
Perform Factory Acceptance Test within production by using decentralized control

Lower machine costs

Reduced design costs through reuse of existing modules
Lower personnel costs due to reduced wiring and mechanical work
Significant reduction in the necessary control capacities

Higher availability

Fewer dependencies on central control systems reduce failure risks
On-site machine condition monitoring allows early intervention
Simple and low-configuration module replacements in the event of a failure

Decentralized – The Next Evolution in Automation

Automation has been dominated by hierarchies and long decision-making paths, but the levels are becoming increasingly permeable.

You can now utilize sensors that detect machine wear, RFID tags that tell the machine whether it is correctly configured for the next step and what it has to do, or an I/O module that decides independently to operate an actuator. It is no longer possible to place the present and future of automation at the levels of the classic automation pyramid. Decentralized preprocessing reduces machine data to valuable information and thus lays the foundation for a new era of automation.

ON COURSE FOR SUCCESS WITH DECENTRALIZED AUTOMATION

It's Time to Set Sail: The Future of Automation Has Begun