ABB expands integration push with 800xA

ABB was one of the first plant automation system vendors to introduce an integration architecture, but lately, its rivals have been making architecture announcements while ABB has been fairly quiet. The reason for the reserve, as ABB's top automation executive explained at a press conference Jan. 7, was that it was waiting to release System 800xA, a new software framework for plant automation and information management.

Built on ABB's Industrial IT architecture, 800xA also offers extended applications in plant asset optimization, batch management, and plant information management, and provides a unified engineering environment for rolling out solutions. ABB executives stress the importance of this environment as the means for a single point of entry, and configuration for establishing process visualization displays, information management, field device integration, and other functions.

Dinish Paliwal, an executive VP of ABB and head of its worldwide Automation Technologies business, told the press that a core driver behind 800xA was to support "fast and reusable engineering" by customers. Paliwal says customers in verticals such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and pulp & paper are trying to standardize their approaches to plant information management.

Reuse means the work that goes into establishing visualization for batch management, or a range of other functions, can easily be ported to other plants or lines. ABB estimates 800xA's tools can lead to engineering savings of 40 percent, and operations saving of 20 percent. The reuse desire, says Paliwal, is "forcing us as a supplier to focus on [reusable engineering] so that even [users'] custom work is portable."

800xA also serves as a distributed process control (DCS) system that offers its own hardware modules, and integrates with ABB's legacy DCSs. ABB executives say 800xA isn't yet pre-integrated with non-ABB DCSs, but that work will be forthcoming.

The demonstration also featured configurable integration with the Maximo enterprise asset management system from MRO Software. 800xA also integrates with ERP systems from multiple vendors, and some vendors, such as IFS, which support ABB's Industrial IT, can be integrated with on a tighter basis. The system uses Industrial IT Aspect Object technology for relating and integrating data between ABB and third-party systems.

800xA uses an embedded historian to store and manage information, and this database makes use of the system's common configuration and administrative capabilities. The system's extended applications also feature alerting functions and trend displays, and can leverage ABB's portal offering.

Robert Hausler, a VP for Industrial IT with ABB's U.S. operations, says that run-time integration and information access are important parts of 800xA. He points to the integration with Maximo as a powerful means of information exchange between process and batch management on the one hand, and maintenance on the other. "Not only does the system open up Maximo, but it takes you right to the exact screen, for the exact tag you were looking for," says Hausler. "It's not rocket science. We're just trying to make the user's life easier."