Maintenance Technology June 2017 - 21

AUTOMATION SOFTWARE

Fig. 1: Over the course
of an automation
system's lifecycle,
individual system and
infrastructure components will have their
own lifecycles that need
to be managed.

long it has been since either was last
performed. Ignoring the automation
system for 8 to 10 years will mean
that making changes will be a more
complicated and more expensive
project. Smaller steps are often more
manageable, take less time, allow
organizations to take advantage of new
features and functions more quickly,
and prove less complicated with a
smaller risk of major hardware and
software overhaul.

Where do we start?
Implementing a best-practice automation-system maintenance and upgrade
strategy begins with lifecycle planning.
Organizations that want to keep their
systems up to date need to understand
and document the lifecycles of each
control-system component. These
vendor-specific guidelines will be
available in product documentation
for all automation-system components,
as well as in vendor-support services
such as Emerson's (Round Rock, TX,
emerson.com) Guardian Support (see
sidebar).
Following is a general trend for
component lifecycles, though length
will vary among specific vendors:
■ control-system software: 5 to 7 yrs.
workstations: 4 to 6 yrs.
■ controllers: 10 to 15 yrs.
■ I/O cards: 25 to 30 yrs.
In addition to automation-systemspecific component lifecycles,
organizations must consider devices
JUNE 2017

that aren't system-specific but have an
impact on performance:
■ switches
■ firewalls
■ virtualization infrastructure
■ universal power supplies.
All of these components will have
an expected lifecycle that affects the
organization's plan. Figure 1 above
shows a typical automation-system
lifecycle.
In combination with component
lifecycle data, organizations should
take advantage of a site evaluation
available from automation-system
vendors. Effective site evaluations look
at component firmware, lifecycles,
cyber-security issues, plant performance and Key Performance Indicators, and value-add opportunities. This
information is used in conjunction
with a return on investment (ROI)
calculator to determine tangible
benefits that will come from adding
individual features during an upgrade.
Armed with lifecycle information, a
site-evaluation report, and ROI data,
organizations can find a lifecycle
plan that will keep systems up to date
without financial risk.

Maintaining momentum
Whether organizations want to implement their lifecycle-planning programs
themselves or work with vendors to do
so, many offerings and/or programs
are available to help the process. For
example, to avoid the shock of a single

capital expenditure for the
project, many vendors offer
flexible payment schedules,
allowing organizations to
spread the payments out
over several years.
Many organizations are
also looking to hardware virtualization
to simplify the update and upgrade
process. By moving from standard
computer hardware to virtualized
systems, organizations can, to some
extent, decouple some hardware and
software requirements, allowing them
to quickly move machines between
different hosts and easily create test
environments to ensure that updates
and upgrades will be successful, before
they are applied.
The process of keeping automation systems up to date is never
finished. Effective, sustainable, and
measurable programs for maintaining
and improving automation-system
reliability and performance are always
evolving. By staying on top of the
update process and developing and
sticking to thorough equipment lifecycle plans, organizations can leverage
the newest features, the best cybersecurity protection, and the most
stable equipment platforms to help
drive plant reliability and performance
every day. MT
Information for this article was provided
by Yoga Gorur, program manager in
Emerson's PSS Lifecycle Services organization, Round Rock, TX. He manages
global service offerings to DeltaV
customers, and the DeltaV Upgrade
Service, Scheduled System Maintenance,
and Site Evaluation Service. He has a
degree in Instrumentation Engineering,
an MBA, and PMP certification.
MAINTENANCETECHNOLOGY.COM | 21

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