Open Process Automation: how and where to start

Open Process Automation presents a transformative opportunity for enterprises seeking to modernise their industrial process automation systems.

Industrial process automation has evolved significantly over the years, playing a pivotal role in improving operational efficiency, safety, cost reductions, and ensuring product quality. Traditional automation systems, however, often relied on proprietary, closed architectures, leading to vendor lock-in, interoperability challenges, and limited adaptability to changing business needs often required for enterprises to expand or progress. Open Process Automation (OPA) seeks to address these issues by promoting open standards, modular design, and interoperability. Organisations looking to embrace OPA will need to address critical but navigable steps to ensure a smooth transition.

What can the OPA framework offer?

The first step for an enterprise is to comprehend the OPA fundamentals. The OPA standards framework consists of protocols, data models and reference architectures that enable interoperability between automation ecosystem components. This understanding is crucial for decision-makers to grasp how OPA can align with their operational goals and requirements.

It is also important to know how OPA is charting a path forward with scalability, security and portability.¹ With OPA, a company can run process control logic in all parts of the system architecture, deployed on the hardware of its choice, since OPA is a software-defined automation system (SDAS). Knowing how OPA functions allows companies to make informed decisions on architectures and deployment strategies.

Assessment of current systems

As part of the OPA journey, an enterprise should conduct a comprehensive assessment of the existing automation infrastructure. This assessment should identify legacy systems, proprietary components and integration challenges. It should also identify gaps in information integration. The gap analysis will serve as a basis for understanding the extent of transformation required and the potential benefits of adopting an OPA platform.

Defining business objectives

Clearly defined business objectives are essential to driving the OPA component selection and implementation processes. Enterprises should outline goals, such as improving agility, reducing operational costs, enhancing scalability, or simplifying current and future maintenance. These objectives will guide the decision-making process and shape the customisation of the OPA framework.

Once these guiding principles are decided, it is possible to select the pieces needed for maximum effectiveness and minimum cost. Taking advantage of the OPA platform means a customised and optimised system. The component selection is based on the required business application needs, with a focus on functional desired features and the available budget.

Vendor selection and collaboration

Choosing the right vendors and partners is a critical aspect of OPA implementation. Enterprises should collaborate with vendors that align with the open standards philosophy, preferably an Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) member who offers interoperable solutions, and provide a clear roadmap for OPA adoption. Successful collaboration guarantees the smooth integration of selected solutions into an OPA framework or the adoption of an OPA ecosystem for operating their current automation system.

Create expansion or migration plans

OPA allows a company to expand existing OT systems, incorporating new strategies, new hardware and new software tools. Expanding existing platforms with OPA technologies allows for easy incorporation of AI/ML and other industrial performance applications, providing additional avenues for plant performance enhancements and cost reductions.

An organisation could migrate an entire system; migrating from traditional automation systems to an OPA environment requires a well-defined migration plan. This plan should outline the sequence of steps, timeline and potential challenges. It should also address data migration, training requirements and contingency measures to minimise disruptions during the transition. Disruptions to daily business can be costly so these need to be — and can be — avoided.

The beauty of modular design and scalability

OPA’s modular design philosophy allows enterprises to scale their automation infrastructure more efficiently. Enterprises should embrace this aspect by designing systems as a collection of interchangeable modules. This approach ensures that future expansions, upgrades and adaptations can be accomplished without overhauling the entire system. There is virtually no limit to what can be created with OPA. OPA utilises common, commercially available hardware and software, selected and optimised to meet the business objectives at hand. Modular design means the organisation can select the components it needs to perfect its vision.

The modular design and scalability allow users to incorporate features such as AI, advanced controls, asset management and other tools together with the control system, reducing implementation costs and improving response times.

Data management and security

As data becomes increasingly central to industrial processes, effective data management and security are paramount. OPA is secure by design: from the hardware to the software, OPA incorporates the best-of-class cybersecurity technologies such as functional security (protecting both devices and resources), data encryption and certificates.

While security is baked into OPA, enterprises must still establish robust practices for management of the security features as required in IEC-62443. As part of an OPA project, a security assessment is conducted, including end user requirements to comprehensively assess risk and implement best practice security measures.

Training and workforce development

OPA introduces new concepts and technologies that may require upskilling of the workforce. Training programs should be developed to equip employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to secure, operate, maintain and troubleshoot OPA systems. Workforce development also ensures that the organisation fully realises the benefits of its investment in OPA. In addition, there are also podcasts and business guides that can be accessed on the opengroup.org site.²

Testing and validation

Rigorous testing and validation are essential before fully deploying OPA solutions in a production environment. Enterprises should conduct comprehensive testing to identify and rectify any glitches or compatibility issues. This will guarantee that the OPA ecosystem performs reliably and meets the required performance benchmarks.

There are a number of tests that can be carried out to identify possible issues and guarantee a seamless project completion. While robust testing and more traditional FATs (Factory Acceptance Tests) are suggested at this time, this effort will be reduced as more products and certifications become available.

A journey of continuous improvement

OPA implementation is not a one-time endeavour; it is an ongoing journey. Enterprises must establish mechanisms for continuous improvement and adaptation. Regular assessments of OPA’s impact on operations, along with feedback from stakeholders, enable enterprises to fine-tune their implementation strategy and optimise system performance to meet their specific outcome goals.

Conclusion

Open Process Automation presents a transformative opportunity for enterprises seeking to modernise their industrial process automation systems. By embracing open standards, interoperability, and modular design principles, organisations can achieve enhanced operational efficiency, flexibility and scalability. The journey to OPA implementation requires a thorough understanding of the framework, strategic planning, collaboration with the right partners, and a commitment to continuous improvement. As enterprises navigate the complexities of OPA adoption, they position themselves for a more agile and competitive future in the realm of industrial automation.

<sup>1. Smith J 2023, ‘Understanding Open Process Automation’, Automation.com, <<https://www.automation.com/en-us/articles/january-2023/understanding-open-process-automation>>
2. The Open Group 2024, Open Process Automation Forum, <<https://www.opengroup.org/forum/open-process-automation-forum>></sup>

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