Industrial Automation Products Comparison

<...hoping...> Hope is not a strategy.

Every vendor will sell the <...pros...>.

Every user will express a preference based upon experience.

Good luck.

Sorry if my choice of words aren't good enough but that is what I was loooking for as user experience is great to learn about a product's characteristics as all I have currently are company websites to look at and advantages from vendors are useful as I may be able to figure what the respective products are weak in as well.

Thank you for your comment either way.

The thing is, it would take a written report to explain it all, the creation of which, after all, is the reason for the assignment in the first place. Such a report is likely to be highly opinionated and therefore of questionable value beyond the short term, as equipment and systems improve over time.

No-one else in this form is likely to do that; lack of time and no prospect of reward being two significant disincentives.

<unsubscribes>

Probably could start here....

http://www.controleng.com/magazine.html

What Solar Eagle pointed out is a good starting point, then you can branch out and search the published literature for a serious engineering review article that mentions precisely what you are talking about.

Other than that, it is all based on anecdotal stories which bear about that much weight.

You could also look at sales volume statistics if you can find them, as that itself might be informative.

There are too many reasons to list here, but a few to look at:

1. Historic presence in the geographic area - go with a known supplier.

2. Software language used is known and understood by plant personnel - no need to retrain onsite personnel, less error prone.

3. Existing supply lines for major manufacturer - less down time for repair parts.

What I find is this: For the most part, none of these players can screw up SO ROYALLY that a user jettisons their entire investment and commitment to change brands. All systems have "quirks," meaning there is SOMETHING that SOMEONE will not like. There are no exceptions to that rule. So...

1. If you ask an end user operator who must deal with the quirks on a daily basis, they likely will focus on those and give a negative opinion no matter what. So their opinion is essentially worthless.
2. If you ask an end user who made the decision of one brand over another, they will most likely defend that decision to the death, despite the lamentations of the others who must live with its quirks. So their opinion is essentially worthless.
3. If you ask an end user who inherited a project wherein that decision was made by someone else in the past and they are in charge of it now, they will most likely be resigned to the reality that any change so monumentally expensive isn't worth consideration. So their opinion (if they even bother to have one) is essentially worthless.
4. If you ask an "independent" consultant who has experience and training on primarily one system, their opinion will reflect that. Very few people have the time and resources to devote toward learning more than one system thoroughly enough to make a truly unbiased assessment. So their opinion is essentially worthless.

Do you get where I'm going with this? Companies, like ABB, give projects like this to interns for the sole purpose of subtly indoctrinating them into their fold, what we say here in the US as "drinking the Kool-Aid." They KNOW that you will never be able to find enough information on anything other than their own system, so when you leave, and (for them) hopefully end up in a position to help make a decision at a user level, you will fall under category 4 above and it served their purpose. If you go to work FOR them, their indoctrination process is already under way and you get into their desired zombie state more quickly.

Welcome to the industry...

Failure to comply will result in a visit from the ... Terminator.

I have run across a few in the water purification industry that actually do have direct experience with several PLC brand names, but they always seem to have a favorite, and it is not what the local user has in their plant.

One of our plants used to have that French or French Canadian company PLC, but it was installed in the late 1980's as I recall. Most of the stuff we have now is GE origin, but that is a local advantage, because we can get the building blocks locally, most of the time. Where can you get spares and how fast can you get them is a real issue, especially after a system passes its 5-10 year anniversary.

No argument that PLCs are easier to learn and many of us have significant experience on mutiple systems. It should be noted, however, that PLC systems are significantly less complex and require less investment than the DCS systems that the OP was referencing.

That said, SOME of the aforementioned DCS systems use PLCs as the I/O controllers within the DCS, and as such often can serve to dovetail into the user's experience levels when making a consideration of which way to go. I for one have experienced this with the Rockwell PlantPAx (which is based on ControlLogix PLCs) and Siemens PCS7 (which is based on S7-400 PLCs). In my OPINION those are the latest development in DCS configuration and offer significant benefits to end users who are already using the PLCs involved for other purposes. So for example if a facility is using ControlLogix PLCs already for machine control and wants to implement a DCS, a PlantPAx DCS system will mean the technicians and operators that use and interact with the system will have a common experience.

But there I go, expounding on what I know... see #4 above...

True that. We are surviving with heritage GE stuff, admixture with Wonderware.

Not really, every end user have their own option in the advantage and dis advantage of these PLC or DCS. I may like to use Siemens but some other may say ABB is better and other people may say Yokowaga is the best. You need to look it up which brand is the best to suit your usage.

JRaef is correct, this is a learning experience for a newbie. Just pretend you're an end-user tasked with producing a spreadsheet to evaluate the various vendors' systems, then develop a set of criteria for choosing the "best" system for the application.

Hint: this a trick question since what is "best" in a particular application may perform abysmally in another, and your selection criteria will rapidly leave the realm of engineering and enter non-engineering studies such as economics, locale, technical support, corporate/governmental politics, etc.

Welcome to the real world.

Wel firstly I would like to thank everyone for their input. They are all true and seem to be the best route to get to a technical and factual conclusion.

What I intended from this thread though, is as I mentioned earlier (vaguely now when I read through), I was looking to see some user experience from you experienced individuals that have used these products. I don't mind if it is biased as I would get a user perspective. I hope you understand what I'm trying to convey. I understand that all these machines are almost equally efficient. Each in certain industries and certain locations. I also understand that people working for these respective companies would not give an accurate response. I wonder if the replies of user review mention first how they have been in contact with said product I could make use of the replies.

If I wanted a more properly objective market study I surely would've started with a market presence survey among consultants, contractors and customers in the automation industry.

I would again like to thank all the replies and let them know I am going to take their suggestions into consideration.

Thanks

http://control.com/thread/1026198601#1026198601

https://www.arcweb.com/market-studies/distributed-control-systems

http://www.controlengeurope.com/article/40827/DCS-and-PLC-SCADA-a-comparison-in-use.aspx