Today's engineering and management professionals face
challenges that never existed even a decade ago. Technology advances are
accelerating exponentially, creating a fast-paced, sophisticated and
increasingly complex environment. Additionally, the roles of Manufacturing
Execution System (MES), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and
Man-Machine Interface (MMI) are changing relative to each other; they are no
longer independent application decisions.
Microsoft and Internet technologies are stimulating the
hottest software sales growth opportunity for the computer based Management
Execution Systems applications. MES provides the ability to distribute
information independent of the software platform/operating system, thereby
integrating management controls with the production processes. AccessWare has
responded to this technological change by combining the MES technology with our
already existing product for an even better enterprise solution, the Process-Center.
The traditional SCADA software market has been turned upside
down with the introduction of the new MESSCADA technology. Today, SCADA
software must be computer platform independent. The installed and obsolete SCADA
products do not provide the savings achieved by using the latest MES-SCADA
applications.
Traditionally, major SCADA competitors included large process
control companies vs. small to medium sized system integration companies who
sold purchased or internally developed (often old) software with UNIX
technology. Most of these process control suppliers resold the SCADA products to
build upon and consolidate their installed base. New competitors have emerged
supplying low cost operator displays with limited functionality using
Microsoft's PC capabilities. Microsoft's quickly evolving technology has
shortened the life cycle and development opportunities of SCADA software.
We at AccessWare believe that the SCADA-MES solution is truly
the wave of the future. Based on published industry sources, the total U.S.
market for PC based operator display software exceeded $250 million in 1995. The
SCADA UNIX segment of the market adds an additional $200 million
to the PC software figure. In 1995, the MES custom solutions market exceeded $50
million with the available market estimated to exceed $1 billion.
These market segments currently represent $500 million, a
figure which will grow in excess of 35% should current trends continue.
The addition of MES capabilities creates the need to expand
upon prior software requirements. This is what the Process-Center
is designed to do. We have taken the matured SCADA capabilities and combined it
with MES for a solution applicable to all segments of the industrial world. This
technology has the potential to be used with both continuous and batch process
controls as well as in the manufacture of discrete parts.
LINUX
Rules !